Dommel River Research Articles

Automated μFTIR Imaging Demonstrates Taxon-Specific and Selective Uptake of Microplastic by Freshwater Invertebrates.

Microplastic particles can be deposited to sediments and subsequently ingested by benthic organisms. It is unknown to what extent ingestion of microplastic is taxon-specific or whether taxa can be selective toward certain types of microplastics. Here, we used state-of-the-art automated micro-Fourier-transform infrared (μFTIR) imaging and attenuated total reflectance FTIR spectroscopy to determine small-size (20–500 μm) and large-size (500–5000 μm) microplastic particles in sediments and a range of benthic invertebrate species sampled simultaneously from the Dommel River in the Netherlands. Microplastic number concentrations differed across taxa at the same locations, demonstrating taxon-specific uptake, whereas size distributions were the same across sediments and taxa. At the site with the highest concentration, microplastic occupied up to 4.0% of the gut volume of Asellidae. Particle shape distributions were often not statistically different between sediments and taxa, except for Astacidea at one of the locations where the proportion of particles with a length to width ratio >3 (i.e., fibers) was twice as high in sediments than in Astacidea. Acrylates/polyurethane/varnish was predominately found in sediments, while soft and rubbery polymers ethylene propylene diene monomer and polyethylene-chlorinated were the dominant polymers found in invertebrates. Microplastic polymer composition and thus polymer density differed significantly between invertebrates and their host sediment. Trophic transfer at the base of the food web appears to have a filter function with respect to microplastic particle types and shapes. Together with the very high ingestion rates, this has clear implications for ecological and human health risks, where uptake concerns edible species (e.g., Astacidea).

Li and δ7Li as proxies for weathering and anthropogenic activities: Application to the Dommel River (meuse basin)

Lithium (Li) contents and isotopes were studied in the Dommel catchment, a small riverine system in northern Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands discharging into the Meuse River. The study covered surface- and groundwaters in and on sand and gravel in the catchment; it aimed at evaluating the potential of Li isotopes as effective tracers of anthropogenic activities in addition to tracing water/substratum interaction processes within a sandy environment. Dissolved lithium concentrations in the Dommel catchment span one order of magnitude, ranging from 1.55 to 39.20 μg/L with a mean concentration of 6.58 μg/L, higher than the worldwide riverine average of 1.9 μg/L. Dissolved δ7Li varies from +5.4‰ to +27.8‰. Part of the catchment is impacted by smelter effluents with Li concentrations in the range 91–526 μg/L (mean value 288.36 μg/L) and a δ7Li of around +25.6‰ before dilution along the flowpaths of the catchment basin. To interpret the dataset in terms of using Li isotopes as a proxy for anthropogenic activity, we first applied an atmospheric-input correction to waters for both Li concentration and δ7Li, as rain contributes an important fraction of the dissolved elements in Dommel waters (8–100% of Li in waters is of atmospheric origin; 100% means no interaction with rocks, no anthropogenic disturbance). Then, we determined and quantified the anthropogenic influence using δ7Li and mixing equations for the impacted parts of the catchment. Finally, we added constraints on the water/substratum interaction in this mostly sandy-feldspar soil catchment through the δ7Li and Li/Na ratios, highlighting the role of water-residence time in the system on weathering intensity.

Self‐constraining of low‐energy rivers explains low channel mobility and tortuous planforms

AbstractMeandering rivers are abundant on Earth, from the largest rivers to the smallest tributaries. The classical view of meandering rivers is a sinuous planform with rounded bends, which grow and migrate until they are cut‐off. However, many low‐energy meandering rivers have planforms that are much more complex than this classical view due to the heterogeneity of their alluvium, and show relatively limited channel migration. Based on a detailed palaeogeographic study of the Dommel River in The Netherlands, it is inferred that low‐energy meandering rivers may develop tortuous planforms with sharp bends, owing to self‐formed deposits that increasingly constrain the channel mobility. This mechanism is corroborated by data from 47 meandering river reaches of varied scale from around the world, which show that erosion‐resistant floodplain deposits are preserved in the river banks when the river energy is below a critical threshold. The term ‘self‐constraining’ is proposed for low‐energy rivers where an increase in bank stability over time results in progressive tortuous planforms and reduced mobility. A conceptual model, based on the dataset, shows that the increase in bank stability over time also increases the energy required to break out of the tendency to self‐constrain. Self‐constraining thereby enhances the resilience of the system to bank erosion, while an unexpected increase in bank erosion may occur if river energy exceeds the critical threshold. This study provides a novel explanation for the evolution of low‐energy river planforms and dynamics, and provides new insights on their responses to climate changes.

Assessing Urban Wastewater System Upgrades Using Integrated Modeling, Life Cycle Analysis, and Shadow Pricing.

This study assesses the environmental impacts of four measures proposed for upgrading of the urban wastewater system of Eindhoven and the Dommel River in The Netherlands, against the base case, "do-nothing" option. The measures aim to reduce the overall environmental impact of the Eindhoven urban wastewater system (UWS) by targeting river dissolved oxygen depletion and ammonia peaks, reducing combined sewer overflows, and enhancing nutrient removal. The measures are evaluated using a life cycle analysis with the boundaries including the receiving river section by means of an integrated model of the UWS. An uncertainty analysis of the estimated impacts has been performed to support the outcomes. The study also uses the economic concept of shadow prices to assign relative weights of socio-economic importance to the estimated life cycle impacts. This novel integration of tools complements the assessments of this UWS with the inclusion of long-term global environmental impacts and the investigation of trade-offs between different environmental impacts through a single monetary unit. The results support the selection of deeper clarifiers as the most environmentally beneficial measure for upgrade.

Cost-effective and integrated optimization of the Eindhoven urban wastewater system: from modelling to implementation

This project aims at finding cost-efficient adaptive measures to meet the EU Water Framework Directive goals for the Dommel River (The Netherlands). Both acute and long-term impacts of the urban wastewater system (treatment plant and sewers) on the chemical and ecological quality of the river are studied. An integrated model, which proved to be a powerful tool to analyse the interactions within the integrated urban wastewater system, was used to evaluate several different measures in the urban wastewater system both using the existing as well as new infrastructure and real-time control (RTC) strategies. In this paper, emphasis is put on the results from the latest integrated RTC design and model-based evaluation, and on the first tests on the real system of selected measures, i.e. modified primary treatment, and improved rain buffer tank control and in-stream aeration.

Impact-based integrated real-time control for improvement of the Dommel River water quality

The KALLISTO project aims at finding cost-efficient sets of measures to meet the Water Framework Directive (WFD) derived goals for the river Dommel. Within the project, both acute and long term impacts of the urban wastewater system on the chemical and ecological quality of the river are studied with an integral monitoring campaign in the urban wastewater system (WWTP and sewers) and in the river. Based on this monitoring campaign, detailed models were calibrated. These models are partly simplified and integrated in a single model, which is validated using the detailed submodels. The integrated model was used to study the potential for impact-based real-time control (RTC). Impact based RTC proved to be able to improve the quality of the receiving waters significantly, although additional measures remain necessary to be able to meet the WFD requirements.

Cost-effective solutions for water quality improvement in the Dommel River supported by sewer–WWTP–river integrated modelling

This project aims at finding cost-efficient sets of measures to meet the Water Framework Directive (WFD) derived goals for the Dommel River (The Netherlands). Within the project, both acute and long-term impacts of the urban wastewater system on the chemical and ecological quality of the river are studied with a monitoring campaign in the urban wastewater system (wastewater treatment plant and sewers) and in the receiving surface water system. An integrated model, which proved to be a powerful tool to analyse the interactions within the integrated urban wastewater system, was first used to evaluate measures in the urban wastewater system using the existing infrastructure and new real-time control strategies. As the latter resulted to be beneficial but not sufficient, this paper investigated the use of additional infrastructural measures to improve the system cost-effectively and have it meet the Directive's goals. Finally, an uncertainty analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of uncertainty in the main model assumptions and model parameters on the performance robustness of the selected set of measures. Apart from some extreme worst-case scenarios, the proposed set of measures turned out to be sufficiently robust. Due to the substantial savings obtained with the results of this project, the pay-back time of the whole monitoring and modelling work proved to be less than 5 months. This illustrates the power of mathematical modelling for decision support in the context of complex urban water systems.

Impact-based integrated real-time control for improvement of the Dommel River water quality

Impact-based integrated real-time control for improvement of the Dommel River water quality

Natural versus anthropogenic sources in the surface- and groundwater dissolved load of the Dommel river (Meuse basin): Constraints by boron and strontium isotopes and gadolinium anomaly

The river Dommel, a tributary of the Meuse River, drains an area of intensive agriculture (livestock farming, maize and grassland over 50% of the basin), and a dense population of about 600,000 people representing 20% of the total area. The combined human activities in the Dommel catchment lead to a large amount of dissolved elements and compounds released in surface- and groundwaters. The aim of this study was to discriminate the natural (including infiltration of Meuse water) versus anthropogenic sources of the dissolved load, and to identify the various pollution sources such as agriculture, industrial activity, and wastewater treatment plants, using geochemical tools including major- and trace elements, Sr and B isotopes, and rare earth elements (REE). For that purpose, a same-day geochemical “Snapshot” picture of the entire basin was combined with monthly monitoring in strategic points. The major- and trace elements analyses allowed discriminating the main pollution sources affecting the basin, i.e. point versus diffuse sources. Strontium isotopes helped to identify each tributary and to calculate mixing proportions. Combining these calculations with the Sr-isotopic data obtained from the “Snapshot” sampling campaign during a low-flow period, shows that Meuse water infiltration represents 25% of the total Dommel discharge. Boron isotopes used for assessing the amount of water affected by anthropogenic input cannot discriminate between the two main anthropogenic inputs, i.e. urban wastewater and the zinc-smelter effluent, as they have similar δ11B values. Finally, the REE, and especially the use of Gd anomalies (Gd∗), demonstrated the generalized impact of urban wastewater on the streams of the Dommel Basin. The coupled use of different geochemical tracers (Sr and B isotopes together with Gd∗) in addition to the standard major-element analyses, led to discriminating the various anthropogenic components influencing the Dommel Basin water quality. With these tools it also became possible to assess the complex water circulation and exchanges between water compartments, including the major role of Meuse water through the Bocholt–Herenthals canal.

Effects of a drought period on physico-chemical surface water quality in a regional catchment area

Hydrological drought periods are expected to become more severe in North-Western Europe as a result of climate change. This may have implications for water quality, as demonstrated by declining water quality of large rivers (e.g. Rhine, Meuse) during droughts. However, similar investigations in regional catchment areas are lacking to date. In the present study, we investigated the effects of a drought period on the water quality of the Dommel River, a tributary of the Meuse river in the Netherlands. Water quality during the drought of 2003 was compared to that in reference years (2004-2006) for 18 physical/chemical parameters using ANOVA analysis. It was demonstrated that the drought period of 2003 did not significantly affect water quality, although the origin of river flow during the drought shifted from mainly overland flow to deep groundwater flow and (treated) communal effluents. Significant differences in water quality were noted for some monitoring stations during the study period, which could be related to operational water management such as cleaning of sediment traps in the river and improvements in communal effluent treatment. The results of this study are interesting to water managers in Western Europe as they contribute to understanding the potential impact of climate change on water quality/quantity patterns in regional water systems.

TWO-DIMENSIONAL DEPTH-AVERAGED MODELS FOR FLOW SIMULATION IN RIVER BENDS

International Journal of Computational Engineering ScienceVol. 02, No. 03, pp. 453-467 (2001) No AccessTWO-DIMENSIONAL DEPTH-AVERAGED MODELS FOR FLOW SIMULATION IN RIVER BENDSABDUL AZIZ KHAN and BRIAN BARKDOLLABDUL AZIZ KHANNational Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, 102 Carrier Hall, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, U.S.A. Search for more papers by this author and BRIAN BARKDOLLCivil Engineering Department, 203 Carrier Hall, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, U.S.A. Search for more papers by this author https://doi.org/10.1142/S1465876301000398Cited by:13 PreviousNext AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail AbstractIn this study applicability of the two-dimensional depth-averaged models to river bend reaches is investigated. Three models: CCHE2D model developed at the National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, University of Mississippi; RMA-2 from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers; and FESWMS-2DH from the U. S. Federal Highway Administration are selected for this study. The first reach is located in the Dommel River in Netherlands and the second reach is a part of the Fall River in Colorado. The study areas consist of two consecutive and opposite bends. The mesh consists of quadrilateral elements and the number of elements for all three models is the same. Identical boundary conditions for flow at the upstream end and water surface elevation at the downstream end are specified in each case for all three models. The Manning's coefficient in each case is also the same for all three models. The computed water surface elevations and velocity profiles across various sections specifically in the bends are compared with the measurements in the field. FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited By 13Hydrologic-hydraulic modeling of sediment transport along the main stem of a watershed: role of tributaries and channel geometryF. Bressan, R. Mantilla, K. E. Schilling, J. A. Palmer and L. Weber28 November 2019 | Hydrological Sciences Journal, Vol. 65, No. 2Implementing streambank erosion control measures in meandering streams: design procedure enhanced with numerical modellingMohamed Elhakeem, A.N. (Thanos) Papanicolaou and Christopher G. Wilson20 April 2017 | International Journal of River Basin Management, Vol. 15, No. 31-D coupled non-equilibrium sediment transport modeling for unsteady flows in the discontinuous Galerkin frameworkFarzam Safarzadeh Maleki and Abdul A. Khan1 August 2016 | Journal of Hydrodynamics, Vol. 28, No. 4Design Procedure Enhanced with Numerical Modeling to Mitigate River-Bank ErosionMohamed Elhakeem, Thanos Papanicolaou, A.J. Arumugham, M.M. Ulkhaq and M. Kocisko et al.1 August 2016 | MATEC Web of Conferences, Vol. 68Modeling Dubai City Artificial ChannelMohamed Elhakeem, Mohamed El Amrousi, A.J. Arumugham, M.M. Ulkhaq and M. Kocisko et al.1 August 2016 | MATEC Web of Conferences, Vol. 68Floodplain Zoning Simulation by Using HEC-RAS and CCHE2D Models in the Sungai Maka RiverAhmad ShahiriParsa, Mohammad Noori, Mohammad Heydari and Mahmood Rashidi19 April 2016 | Air, Soil and Water Research, Vol. 9Improved streambank countermeasures: the Des Moines River (USA) case studyFilippo Bressan, Christopher George Wilson and A.N. Thanos Papanicolaou17 March 2014 | International Journal of River Basin Management, Vol. 12, No. 1Research Progress of River Water Quality SimulationPing Li, Li Wang, Xiao Xin Zhang and Fang Ma1 December 2012 | Advanced Materials Research, Vol. 610-613Calibration and Verification of a 2D Hydrodynamic Model for Simulating Flow around Emergent Bendway Weir StructuresA. N. (Thanos) Papanicolaou, Mohamed Elhakeem and Brian Wardman1 Jan 2011 | Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 137, No. 1Electronic Customer Relationship Management Performance: Its Impact on Loyalty From Customers’ Perspe- ctivesNor Azila and Mohd NoorNeeraj1 Jan 2011 | International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-LearningOptimisation of LiDAR derived terrain models for river flow modellingG. Mandlburger, C. Hauer, B. Höfle, H. Habersack and N. Pfeifer14 August 2009 | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 13, No. 8Calibration of a Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Model for Simulating Flow around Partially Submerged StructuresB. G. Wardman and A. N. Papanicolaou26 April 2012Two-Dimensional Flood Modeling of the Santa Cruz River in Tucson, Arizona Using RMA2G. Chung, K. E. Lansey, T. W. Kim and J. H. Kim26 April 2012 Recommended Vol. 02, No. 03 Metrics History PDF download