Field Of Water Resources Research Articles

Application of Large-Scale, Multi-Resolution Watershed Modeling Framework Using the Hydrologic and Water Quality System (HAWQS)

In recent years, large-scale watershed modeling has been implemented broadly in the field of water resources planning and management. Complex hydrological, sediment, and nutrient processes can be simulated by sophisticated watershed simulation models for important issues such as water resources allocation, sediment transport, and pollution control. Among commonly adopted models, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) has been demonstrated to provide superior performance with a large amount of referencing databases. However, it is cumbersome to perform tedious initialization steps such as preparing inputs and developing a model with each changing targeted study area. In this study, the Hydrologic and Water Quality System (HAWQS) is introduced to serve as a national-scale Decision Support System (DSS) to conduct challenging watershed modeling tasks. HAWQS is a web-based DSS developed and maintained by Texas A & M University, and supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Three different spatial resolutions of Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC8, HUC10, and HUC12) and three temporal scales (time steps in daily/monthly/annual) are available as alternatives for general users. In addition, users can specify preferred values of model parameters instead of using the pre-defined sets. With the aid of HAWQS, users can generate a preliminarily calibrated SWAT project within a few minutes by only providing the ending HUC number of the targeted watershed and the simulation period. In the case study, HAWQS was implemented on the Illinois River Basin, USA, with graphical demonstrations and associated analytical results. Scientists and/or decision-makers can take advantage of the HAWQS framework while conducting relevant topics or policies in the future.

빅 데이터와 클라우드 컴퓨팅 기반의 수자원 정보 관리 방안에 관한 검토

In recent, the direction of water resources policy is changing from the typical plan for water use and flood control to the sustainable water resources management to improve the quality of life. This change makes the information related to water resources such as data collection, management, and supply is becoming an important concern for decision making of water resources policy. We had analyzed the structured data according to the purpose of providing information on water resources. However, the recent trend is big data and cloud computing which can create new values by linking unstructured data with structured data. Therefore, the trend for the management of water resources information is also changing. According to the paradigm change of information management, this study tried to suggest an application of big data and cloud computing in water resources field for efficient management and use of water. We examined the current state and direction of policy related to water resources information in Korea and an other country. Then we connected volume, velocity and variety which are the three basic components of big data with veracity and value which are additionally mentioned recently. And we discussed the rapid and flexible countermeasures about changes of consumer and increasing big data related to water resources via cloud computing. In the future, the management of water resources information should go to the direction which can enhance the value(Value) of water resources information by big data and cloud computing based on the amount of data(Volume), the speed of data processing(Velocity), the number of types of data(Variety). Also it should enhance the value(Value) of water resources information by the fusion of water and other areas and by the production of accurate information(Veracity) required for water management and prevention of disaster and for protection of life and property.

A simple regionalization approach as an alternative to obtain rainfall data in a tropical and ungauged catchment

The availability of rainfall information with high spatial resolution is of fundamental importance in many applications in the field of water resources. Commonly, the rainfall data in developing countries are obtained by rain gauge stations. However, many studies show that traditional measures based on rain gauge stations may not reflect the spatial variation of rainfall effectively. Although satellite data have been widely used around the world, when applied to local regions the spatial resolution of these products is too coarse. In this paper, an approach to identify a downscaling method through geostatistical regionalization to improve water resources models with short spatial and temporal scales and with limited rainfall data is presented. Three different models were applied: Cokriging, Inverse Distance Weight (IDW) and Kriging. Statistical parameters such as mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) were computed. A cross-validation process showed a better fit for most of the stations using the Cokriging method. The regionalization results were quite comparable with the rain gauge stations data. Although the model outcomes did not improve remarkably, the contribution of this approach may have the potential to provide useful rainfall data at spatial scales shorter than the present resolution.

和谐度方程在水文水资源领域应用展望

水文水资源系统是一个十分复杂的巨系统，不仅仅涉及水文水资源系统本身，还与其相关联的经济社会系统、生态环境系统关系十分密切，不可分割，组成一个复杂系统。因此，研究水文水资源系统需要借助非常广泛的理论、技术和方法，其中以和谐度方程为基石构建的和谐论量化研究方法在解决众多水文水资源问题中具有独特的优势。本文首先回顾了和谐论量化研究方法的提出过程，进一步分析了水文水资源研究的需求及和谐论的应用成果；基于大量的前期研究经验总结，全面阐述了和谐度方程在水文水资源领域应用展望，主要从系统分析计算、综合评价、系统决策分析三方面介绍了和谐度方程在水文水资源领域的可能应用；提出了和谐度方程(HDE)评价方法、基于统一度(a)的协调程度量化方法、基于分歧度(b)的敌对状况量化方法、基于和谐度方程的和谐平衡模型等。 As a very complex and giant system, the hydrology and water resources system has a close relationship with the economic-social system and ecological environment system, and they jointly form a complex system. Therefore, the research of the hydrology and water resources system requires very extensive theories, technology and methods. Among them, the quantitative research method of harmony theory based on the harmony degree equation plays a very important role in solving the problem of hydrology and water resources. The proposed process of the quantitative research method of harmony theory was reviewed, and the research demands in the field of hydrology and water resources and the harmony theory application were analyzed in this paper. Based on the summary of the previous researches, the application prospects of harmony degree equation in the field of hydrology and water resources were detailed mainly from three aspects, i.e. the systemic analysis computation, the comprehensive evaluation and the systemic decision analysis. The harmony degree equation (HDE) evaluation method, the quantit-ative coordination degree method based on the unity degree (a), the quantitative opposition situation method based on the difference degree (b), and the harmony equilibrium model based on the HDE have been proposed.

An Automatic Method for Complete Triangular Mesh Conversion into Quadrilateral Mesh for Multiple Domain Geometry

This research developed an automatic two-dimensional finite element meshing system to resolve practical engineering problems in the fields of geology, hydrology, and water resources. This system first used the Delaunay triangulation method to create reasonable-density triangular mesh and then converted it into quadrilateral mesh by combining proper pairs of adjacent triangles. A series of combination patterns aiming at three cases were established. The effect of the number of boundary edges on the subsequent meshing procedures were studied and summarized. For the geometry with multiple domains an adjustment method is proposed to completely eliminate the residual triangles during quadrilateral meshing through adjusting the number of boundary edges in each loop to be even. A special boundary loop identification method is proposed for priority treatment. Corresponding treatment methods aimed at three different situations are established for common boundary loops. For a certain boundary loop with an odd number of boundary edges, the appropriate edge for new point insertion is determined by the position properties and relative density errors. Practical applications confirm that the method proposed in this paper could successfully implement the full conversion from the triangular mesh to the quadrilateral mesh.

Global change impacts on the Upper Danube Catchment (Central Europe): a study of participatory modeling

Participatory modeling (PM) has become an essential concept in environmental impact assessment and planning in the field of water resources. In this paper, we focus on the use of PM to support the development of the integrated regional modeling system DANUBIA as a scientific concept to analyze the previously unknown impacts of global change, i.e., the combined effects of climate, demographic, economic, social and ecological change, on the Upper Danube Catchment (Germany). We use this case study to examine the specific conditions for PM in the field of complex integrated models on a regional scale. We describe the stepwise PM process and discuss the respective results, focusing on (1) the stakeholder dialogue’s contribution in supporting the development of new, complex modeling systems, particularly on a regional scale, (2) conditions of stakeholder involvement in issues related to the distant future, such as climate change impacts on regional water availability, and (3) limitations of PM and scientists’ motivation to carry out participatory research at all. We conclude that the PM process was not entirely successful in improving the scientific quality and practical applicability of the developed models because the process goals were manifold and overambitious, and the definition of the problem of “global change impacts on a regional scale” was too weak and uncertain to allow for a clear common objective of modelers and stakeholders. We claim that there is a lack of incentives for scientists, particularly natural scientists, to commit to PM activities.

감천유역의 취약도 분석을 위한 MCDM 기법의 비교 연구

MCDM, which has been used in many different fields including decision making problem, is being introduced in various ways according to the basic assumption and analysis procedure. Especially in the water resources field, it is used as a raking method in various ways to quantitatively evaluate flood vulnerability of a subbasin and an administrative district. This study measured flood vulnerability of the Gamcheon basin by using Weighted Average, PROMTETHEE, Compromise Programming, VIKOR, and TOPSIS technique in order to examine the capability of various MCDM techniques which can be applied for estimating flood vulnerability of regional units. Based on the Weighted Average which is generally applied for estimating flood vulnerability, this study analyzed the correlation of vulnerability raking between different techniques to examine the technique applicability. Ultimately, it was found that the MCDM technique applications for analyzing vulnerability have applicability on most techniques.

Corn residue stocking rate affects cattle performance but not subsequent grain yield1

This study investigated effects of stocking rate on cattle performance, quality and quantity of corn residue, and impact of residue removal on grain yield for 5 yr at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln West Central Water Resources Field Laboratory near Brule, NE. Four removal treatments-1) no removal (control), 2) grazing at 2.5 animal unit month (AUM)/ha, 3) grazing at 5.0 AUM/ha, and 4) baling-were applied to a center pivot-irrigated corn field (53 ha). The field was divided into eight 6.6-ha paddocks to which replicated treatments were assigned. Samples of residue were collected in October and March (before and after residue removal) using ten 0.5-m quadrats per treatment replication. Residue was separated into 5 plant parts-stem, cob, leaf, husk, and grain-and analyzed for nutrient content. Esophageally fistulated cattle were used to measure diet quality. Cattle assigned to the 2.5 AUM/ha stocking rate treatment gained more BW ( < 0.01) and BCS ( < 0.01) than cattle assigned to the 5.0 AUM/ha treatment. Leaf contained the most ( < 0.01) CP and husk had the greatest ( < 0.01) in vitro OM disappearance (IVOMD) but the CP and IVOMD of individual plant parts did not differ ( > 0.69) between sampling dates. Amount of total residue was reduced ( < 0.05) by baling and both grazing treatments between October and March but was not different ( > 0.05) in control paddocks between sampling dates. As a proportion of the total residue, stem increased ( < 0.01) and husk decreased ( < 0.01) between October and March. Diet CP content was similar ( = 0.10) between sampling dates for the 2 grazing treatments but IVOMD was greater after grazing in the 2.5 AUM/ha grazing treatment ( = 0.04). Subsequent grain yields were not different ( = 0.16) across all 4 residue removal treatments. At the proper stocking rate, corn residue grazing results in acceptable animal performance without negatively impacting subsequent corn grain production.

Review of simulation research in hydrology and water quality based on HSPF model

Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran(HSPF)is a comprehensively semi-distributed hydrological model and can simulate hydrological conditions and water quality accurately in watersheds.It has been extensively applied in the fields of water resources and environment.The article reviewed the model mechanism of hydrology,sediment erosion and migration of pollutants,and summarized the latest devolepments in the modeling of the runoff,the migration of pollutants,the influence of land use or land cover change and climate change on watersheds.Besides,the research directions of complete the model were discussed,including the migration mechanism of pollutant,the uncertainty of model parameters and the combination with other models.

Automatic quadrilateral mesh generation and quality improvement techniques for an improved combination method

This paper developed an automatic quadrilateral meshing system to resolve the numerical simulation problems in the fields of geological mechanics, hydraulics, hydrology, and water resources. An improved combination method was proposed to automatically convert Delaunay triangular meshes into quadrilateral meshes by combining adjacent pairs of triangles through searching advancing-front edges. In order to implement the full conversion, seven combination patterns were established to select appropriate pairs of adjacent triangles. To handle the residual triangles, each nearest pair of residual triangles were moved to each other along a proper path and recombined into a quadrilateral. The movement of residual triangles was implemented through the destruction and reconstruction of neighboring quadrilaterals. A transformation template was established to convert the only residual triangle in each domain into quadrilaterals. To ensure the geometric topology of the resulting mesh, nine topological optimization modes were proposed to improve the topological connections of the degenerated quadrilaterals especially those on the boundaries of the mesh. An area-weighted Laplacian method was used to smooth the interior nodes, and an objective function method was employed to adjust the positions of special nodes. Finally, practical examples of two treatment strategies for river and overland flows were provided to demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the meshing and optimization algorithms proposed in this paper.

Water Best Paper Award 2015

To better recognize the outstanding papers in the area of water sciences and technology published in Water, we announce the institution of an annual award.[...]

Stream Flow Prediction in a Typical Ungauged Catchment Using GIUH Approach

Stream flow measurement in Rivers have significant effect on various applications in the field of water resources. Yet, in many parts of the world, Rivers are either poorly gauged or completely ungauged and in some cases the existing system is continuously declining. Stream flow prediction at such “ungauged” drainage basins require information transfer from donor catchments (gauged) to receiver catchments (ungauged) that are apparent to be hydrologically homogeneous to them. Geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GIUH) approach can be used as a transfer function for modelling the rainfall – runoff process. The present study provides an effective approach which deals with the geomorphologic features of the ungauged drainage basin and derives the GIUH based transfer function and consequently geomorphologic unit hydrograph (GUH) for the study area. Koel River basin of India has been chosen as the study area. Before applying the approach on the Koel River basin it is applied on another basin where unit hydrograph data was available. To validate the derived GUH of the Koel River basin, a comparison was executed with the synthetic unit hydrograph (SUH) attained using the Central Water Commission (CWC) procedure. The closest GUH to the SUH was determined based on the comparison.

How to reach a compromise solution on technical and non-structural flood control measures

Harmful impacts of floods are the result of an interaction between extreme hydrological events and environmental, social, and economic processes. Flood management should consider many diverse aspects and influences and an integrated approach to flood management therefore plays an important role. In order to make an analysis and provide an adequate flood management, it is necessary to bring together a team comprising experts e.g. from the fields of hydrology and water resources, nature protection, risk management, human security, municipal administration, economics, and land use. Estimates by experts can serve finding solutions to given YES/NO problems, and estimating the value of specific attributes or parameters. It is not easy to adopt the solution which represents the best possible agreement among the participating experts, since experts and other participants can represent diverse standpoints. In particular, landowners and leaseholders upstream a catchment are often in a different position than the members of the municipal flood control committee downstream in a city with a high inhabitancy. In order to measure and evaluate the level of agreement between experts and landowners, a newly developed method for assessing the level of agreement and the &amp;tau;-agreement value was applied. The aim of the present paper is to illustrate the use of a fuzzy-group-agreement decision-making procedure of this kind, involving a broad range of standpoints in a case study of the Zdrav&amp;aacute; Voda catchment, Žaro&amp;scaron;ice, Czech Republic. This illustration has been made by comparison of hydrological model scenarios with the experts&amp;rsquo; decision. The method used in the paper applied towards aggregating expert proposals expressed as fuzzy quantities to propose a binary solution to estimate a decisive parameter numerical value. The decision achieved for the Zdrav&amp;aacute; Voda catchment was that the efficiency of structural measures (polder) was superior over the non-structural measures (replacement of the arable land by grassland).

메타 휴리스틱 최우도법을 이용한 수문기상학적 변량의 혼합 정규분포 매개변수 추정

Mixture distribution has been widely used in the water resources field since it can fit the statistical characteristics that a conventionalunimodal distribution cannot. Furthermore, climate change often brings different behaviors that has never been happened before.Therefore, mixture distribution must be a good alternative in order to circumvent this change in frequency analysis. However, esti-mating the parameters of mixture distribution models is not an easy task and the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm has beenwidely used to estimate parameters of the mixture distribution. EM algorithm contains a number of drawbacks. In the current study,the drawbacks of EM algorithm are clearly illustrated and in addition, we proposed a new parameter estimation approach for the mix-ture normal distribution. To verify the performance of the developed model, simulation experiments were carried out. From the resultsof experiments, we concluded that the proposed model estimates the parameters more reliably than the EM algorithm. EM algorithmwas not able to estimate the parameters in case of small number of data while the proposed method can.Key words : Meta-heuristic algorithm, Expectation maximization algorithm, Maximum likelihood estimation, Mixture distribution, Gaussian mixture distribution

Reservoir Optimization in Water Resources: a Review

This paper reviews current optimization technique developed to solve reservoir operation problems in water resources. The application of conventional, especially evolutionary computation, combination of simulation-optimization and multi objectives optimization in reservoir operation will be discussed and investigated. Furthermore, new optimization algorithm from other applications will be presented by focusing on Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) and Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) as alternative methods that can be explored by researchers in water resources field. Finally this paper looks into the challenges and issues of climate change in reservoir optimization.

Increasing life expectancy of water resources literature

AbstractIn a study from 2008, Larivière and colleagues showed, for the field of natural sciences and engineering, that the median age of cited references is increasing over time. This result was considered counterintuitive: with the advent of electronic search engines, online journal issues and open access publications, one could have expected that cited literature is becoming younger. That study has motivated us to take a closer look at the changes in the age distribution of references that have been cited in water resources journals since 1965. Not only could we confirm the findings of Larivière and colleagues. We were also able to show that the aging is mainly happening in the oldest 10–25% of an average reference list. This is consistent with our analysis of top‐cited papers in the field of water resources. Rankings based on total citations since 1965 consistently show the dominance of old literature, including text books and research papers in equal shares. For most top‐cited old‐timers, citations are still growing exponentially. There is strong evidence that most citations are attracted by publications that introduced methods which meanwhile belong to the standard toolset of researchers and practitioners in the field of water resources. Although we think that this trend should not be overinterpreted as a sign of stagnancy, there might be cause for concern regarding how authors select their references. We question the increasing citation of textbook knowledge as it holds the risk that reference lists become overcrowded, and that the readability of papers deteriorates.

The Index System Construction of Basin Initial Water Rights Allocation by Integrating Water Quantity and Water Quality

As reflection of property rights in the field of water resources, water rights is the right to use water resources in a certain period of time based on water quantity and water quality. Aimed at solving the issue of basin initial water right allocation in China, on the basis of the pre-research of index system of basin initial water rights allocation system, as well as the complexity and differences of the allocation system, the index system of basin initial water rights allocation system in this paper is comprehensively designed, and the index framework divided into three layers of target, criteria and index angles is established.

Hydrological Drought Analysis of Karkheh River Basin in Iran Using Variable Threshold Level Method

Drought is an important phenomenon in recent years which caused a lot of problems for most of areas in Iran. Drought lead to water scarcity for people and this problem becomes one of the important challenges for the country. Karkheh River basin is one of the considerable water resources field in Iran and it is located in west parts of Iran. Current paper tries to take one step ahead toward scientific and practical drought management in Karkheh basin by analyzing hydrological drought. In this paper using daily discharge time series of 13 hydrometric stations which are located in the basin and also applying threshold level method, dry periods were extracted and results were analyzed. Results showed that the most volume and the most duration of drought in threshold level of 70% mostly happened within 1998-2000 and 2006-2008. Also the results of the frequency analysis of drought parameters indicted that for maximum deficit volume series Weibull distribution and Generalized Pareto Distribution (GP) in accordance with 77% of stations and for maximum duration series, GP distribution in accordance with 54% of stations had the most consistency. Based on this consistency, return period of droughts were also computed and the possibility of drought predictions in future was determined.

Vadose Zone Journal: The First Ten Years

We proudly present a special section inspired by the 10-year anniversary of Vadose Zone Journal. From the outset, the journal was intended to be different than traditional “soils” journals, with the goal of publishing contributions, reviews, and opinion papers across a broader range of disciplines concerned with the vadose zone, including scientific and societal issues related to the role of vadose zone processes in climate change, biofuels, sustainability, and nanotechnology. Since its inception, Vadose Zone Journal has grown tremendously as a scholarly publication with a strong reputation for high quality and diverse science. Accessible and timely reviews, in addition to technical notes and articles, have secured the journal’s reputation as a definitive and valuable resource for soil scientists, hydrologists, ecologists, hydrogeophysicists, and other earth scientists. The growth of the journal is impressive and is partly reflected by the 2012 impact factor (IF) of 2.20 (5-yr IF of 2.67), ranking eighth in the soil science category, and 16th in the field of water resources. When the article influence score is used as the primary metric, then Vadose Zone Journal ranks fourth in soil science. The success of the journal is also reflected in the editorial board, which is composed of many leading vadose zone scientists from the United States and internationally. The high proportion of scholarly submissions from international scien tists outside of the United States (approximately two-thirds of the manuscripts published) reflects on the status of the Vadose Zone Journal as a multi-disciplinary and multi-national scholarly outlet—an important goal from the outset.

Transcriptomic profiling permits the identification of pollutant sources and effects in ambient water samples

Contaminant exposure is one possible contributor to population declines of endangered fish species in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Estuary, California, including the endangered delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus). Herein we investigated transcriptional responses in larval delta smelt resulting from exposure to water samples collected at the Department of Water Resources Field Station at Hood, a site of concern, situated upstream of known delta smelt habitat and spawning sites and downstream of the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant (SRWTP). Microarray assessments indicate impacts on energy metabolism, DNA repair mechanisms and RNA processing, the immune system, development and muscle function. Transcription responses of fish exposed to water samples from Hood were compared with exposures to 9% effluent samples from SRWTP, water from the Sacramento River at Garcia Bend (SRGB), upstream of the effluent discharge, and SRGB water spiked with 2mg/L total ammonium (9% effluent equivalent). Results indicate that transcriptomic profiles from Hood are similar to 9% SRWTP effluent and ammonium spiked SRGB water, but significantly different from SRGB. SRGB samples however were also significantly different from laboratory controls, suggesting that SRWTP effluent is not solely responsible for the responses determined at Hood, that ammonium exposure likely enhances the effect of multiple-contaminant exposures, and that the observed mortality at Hood is due to the combination of both effluent discharge and contaminants arising from upstream of the tested sites.