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3 pages, 189 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analyses for Water Resources and Extreme Water Events

by Daniel Dunea, Gheorghe Șerban and Petre Brețcan

Water 2023, 15(3), 463; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15030463 - 23 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1159

Abstract

In recent years, the frequency of flooding has increased due to population growth and climate change worldwide [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

Research

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17 pages, 4701 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of a Low-Cost Automated Hydrological Information System for Remote Areas in Morelia, Mexico

by Sonia Tatiana Sánchez-Quispe, Jaime Madrigal, Daniel Rodríguez-Licea, Francisco Javier Domínguez-Mota, Constantino Domínguez-Sánchez and Benjamín Lara-Ledesma

Water 2023, 15(22), 3888; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15223888 - 8 Nov 2023

Viewed by 968

Abstract

Measurement of meteorological variables is essential to assess and analyze extreme events, such as droughts and floods, and even more so when the purpose is to generate early warnings of such natural phenomena. Nowadays, several mechanisms can estimate climatic variables like precipitation and [...] Read more.

Measurement of meteorological variables is essential to assess and analyze extreme events, such as droughts and floods, and even more so when the purpose is to generate early warnings of such natural phenomena. Nowadays, several mechanisms can estimate climatic variables like precipitation and temperature. However, no device measures precipitation values in real-time and at a low-cost, much less are these installed in remote areas of difficult access. Therefore, an Automated Hydrological Information System was developed based on low-cost meteorological stations with two communication protocols, Wi-Fi and GSM. The devices are equipped with a self-sustainable power supply, including a solar panel and energy storage that can last for up to three cloudy days. The precipitation, temperature, and relative humidity values are sent to a database, where they are then processed and displayed on a web page, accessible for download. Users can easily access the data from an official application that redirects them to the website without the need for a computer or a mobile browser. Warning systems are feasible due to the use of IoT services such as ThingSpeak and Ubidots. Ultimately, they allow the analysis of information and immediately send alerts if it exceeds the tolerance ranges. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

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18 pages, 4503 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimating Typhoon-Induced Maximum Flood for Spillway Safety Assessment—Case Studies in Taiwan

by Kwan Tun Lee, Yu-Han Hsu and Jing Zong Yang

Water 2023, 15(17), 3040; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15173040 - 24 Aug 2023

Viewed by 784

Abstract

Dam safety assessment is usually conducted regularly to investigate the risks associated with the dam and propose remedies to ensure effective reservoir operations. One crucial aspect of the evaluation involves performing hydrological analyses to determine if the existing spillway can successfully deliver the [...] Read more.

Dam safety assessment is usually conducted regularly to investigate the risks associated with the dam and propose remedies to ensure effective reservoir operations. One crucial aspect of the evaluation involves performing hydrological analyses to determine if the existing spillway can successfully deliver the probable maximum flood (PMF) downstream. This study applied storm transposition and typhoon rainstorm methods for PMP estimations. The resulting PMP values were then used as input for runoff models to generate flood hydrographs for PMF determination. A modification for the storm transposition method was proposed to determine the barrier height considering the moisture inflow direction. In estimating the orographic rainfall in the typhoon rainstorm model, an effective terrain slope was suggested according to different windward directions based on DEM analysis. Shihmen Reservoir and Feitsui Reservoir, located in northern Taiwan, were used as examples to conduct the PMP and PMF analysis. The obtained PMPs were further compared with the results generated by Hershfield’s method to assess the reasonability of the estimation. The results show that the maximum deviation of the 24-h PMP values estimated by the three methods is within 30% in the Shihmen watershed and 16% in the Feitsui watershed. The PMF estimations in the two reservoir watersheds are larger than the design discharges of the existing spillways. Hence, extending the capacity of the existing spillways or constructing upstream bypasses to avoid catastrophic flooding downstream is required. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

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20 pages, 8048 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Meteorological Drought Trends in a Selected Coastal Basin Area in Poland—A Case Study

by Katarzyna Kubiak-Wójcicka, Małgorzata Owczarek, Izabela Chlost, Alicja Olszewska and Patrik Nagy

Water 2023, 15(15), 2836; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15152836 - 5 Aug 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1080

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the patterns and trends of drought occurrence in the northern part of Poland on the example of the Łeba river basin in the years 1956–2015. The study of meteorological drought was conducted on the basis [...] Read more.

The aim of this study is to investigate the patterns and trends of drought occurrence in the northern part of Poland on the example of the Łeba river basin in the years 1956–2015. The study of meteorological drought was conducted on the basis of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) on the scale of 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Annual precipitation totals did not show significant changes in the analyzed period, except for the station in Wejherowo, which is characterized by a significant increasing trend. The analysis of the long term of the variability average annual air temperature showed its statistically significant increase in the analyzed area at the rate of about 0.2 °C per decade. During the analyzed period, 14 to 84 meteorological droughts were identified, with durations ranging from 200 to 300 months. As the period of accumulating values of SPI, the number of droughts decreased, while their total duration increased. Most droughts were mild in nature, while extreme droughts accounted for between 5.2% and 10.7% of the duration. Drought intensification was shown only for SPI-1 in February and March in Wierzchucino station. On the other hand, a decreasing trend in SPI values was noted during longer periods of accumulation (SPI-6, 9, and 12). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

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24 pages, 3627 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Determination of Runoff Curve Numbers for the Growing Season Based on the Rainfall–Runoff Relationship from Small Watersheds in the Middle Mountainous Area of Romania

by Carina Strapazan, Ioan-Aurel Irimuș, Gheorghe Șerban, Titus Cristian Man and Laura Sassebes

Water 2023, 15(8), 1452; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15081452 - 7 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1852

Abstract

The NRCS-CN (Natural Resources Conservation Service curve number) method, developed by the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) is among the most widely used for the estimation of surface runoff from watersheds. Ever since its introduction in the 1950s, although it has been used [...] Read more.

The NRCS-CN (Natural Resources Conservation Service curve number) method, developed by the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) is among the most widely used for the estimation of surface runoff from watersheds. Ever since its introduction in the 1950s, although it has been used to a great extent by engineers and hydrologists, the applicability of the original procedure used to determine its main parameter, the curve number (CN), to various regions with diverse environmental conditions, is still subject to many uncertainties and debates. This study presents a comparative analysis of different methods applied to determine curve numbers from local data in four watersheds located in the central part of Romania, within the mountain region surrounding the Brașov Depression. The CN values were not only computed using rainfall–runoff records from 1991 to 2020, but also determined from the standard NRCS tables documented in the National Engineering Handbook part 630 (NEH-630), for comparison purposes. Thus, a total of 187 rainfall–runoff data records from the study watersheds and five different methods were used to assess the accuracy of various procedures for determining the CN values, namely: tabulated CN (CN values selected from NRCS tables, TAB), asymptotic fitting (AF) of both natural and ordered data, median CN (MD), geometric mean CN (GM) and the arithmetic mean CN (AM) methods. The applicability of the aforementioned methods was investigated both for the original fixed initial abstraction ratio λ = 0.2 and its adjustment to λ = 0.05. Relatively similar results were found for the curve number-based runoff estimates related to the field data analysis methods, yet slightly better when the λ was reduced to 0.05. A high overall performance in estimating surface runoff was achieved by most CN-based methods, with the exception of the asymptotic fitting of natural data and the tabulated CN method, with the latter yielding the lowest results in the study area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

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14 pages, 2811 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Surface Water Quality and Sediments Content on Danube Basin in Djerdap-Iron Gate Protected Areas

by Francisc Popescu, Milan Trumić, Adrian Eugen Cioabla, Bogdana Vujić, Virgil Stoica, Maja Trumić, Carmen Opris, Grozdanka Bogdanović and Gavrila Trif-Tordai

Water 2022, 14(19), 2991; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14192991 - 23 Sep 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1952

Abstract

As water is essential to life and is an indispensable resource for ecosystems and their services and for nearly all human activities, the goal of this research was to evaluate the surface water quality of the Danube as it passes through the Romania–Serbia [...] Read more.

As water is essential to life and is an indispensable resource for ecosystems and their services and for nearly all human activities, the goal of this research was to evaluate the surface water quality of the Danube as it passes through the Romania–Serbia border in the nature reservations Djerdap and Iron Gate. The study aimed to assess the oxygen regime, nutrients and heavy metals contamination of the surface waters of the Danube on a length of about 240 km, between Bazias and Iron Gate II. Reference sampling and analytical methods (UV-VIS and AAS) were deployed to reach this goal. In addition, sediments were analyzed through back scattered SEM-EDAX for the elemental analysis of the sediment surface. Results obtained show a low environmental impact of heavy metals, while the Danube’s oxygen regime is under stress due to nutrients’ (nitrites and orthophosphates) significant concentration in the Danube surface water in the analyzed sector. Our approach can be applied to other water bodies in the area, to increase available scientific data together with societal awareness of the Danube’s environmental risks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

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27 pages, 9188 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial Frequency Analysis by Adopting Regional Analysis with Radar Rainfall in Taiwan

by Che-Hao Chang, Riki Rahmad, Shiang-Jen Wu and Chih-Tsung Hsu

Water 2022, 14(17), 2710; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14172710 - 31 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2136

Abstract

This study proposed a spatially and temporally improving methodology adopting the Regional Frequency Analysis with an L-moments approach to estimate rainfall quantiles from 22,787 grids of radar rainfall in Taiwan for a 24-h duration. Due to limited radar coverage in the eastern region, [...] Read more.

This study proposed a spatially and temporally improving methodology adopting the Regional Frequency Analysis with an L-moments approach to estimate rainfall quantiles from 22,787 grids of radar rainfall in Taiwan for a 24-h duration. Due to limited radar coverage in the eastern region, significant discordant grids were found in the coastal area of the eastern region. A total of 171 grids with D_i > 6 were set as discordant grids and removed for further analysis. A K-means cluster analysis using scaled at-site characteristics was used to group the QPESUMS grids in Taiwan into 22 clusters/sub-regions based on their characteristics. Spatially, homogeneous subregions with QPESUMS data produce more detailed homogeneous subregions with clear and continuous boundaries, especially in the mountain range area where the number of rain stations is still very limited. According to the results of z-values and L-moment ratio diagrams, the Wakeby (WAK), Generalized Extreme Value (GEV), and Generalized Pareto (GPA) distributions of rainfall extremes fitted well for the majority of subregions. The Wakeby distribution was the dominant best-fitted distribution, especially in the central and eastern regions. The east of the northern part and southern part of Taiwan had the highest extreme rainfall especially for a 100-year return period with an extreme value of more than 1200 mm/day. Both areas were frequently struck by typhoons. By using grid-based (at-site) as the basis for assessing regional frequency analysis, the results show that the regional approach in determining extreme rainfall is very suitable for large-scale applications and even better for smaller scales such as watershed areas. The spatial investigation was performed by establishing regions of interest in small subregions across the northern part. It showed that regionalization was correct and consistent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

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12 pages, 1911 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

CN-N: A Python-based ArcGIS Tool for Generating SCS Curve Number and Manning’s Roughness

by Babak Alizadeh and Rouzbeh Berton

Water 2023, 15(20), 3581; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15203581 - 13 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1225

Abstract

Water resources engineers and geospatial analysts often face the challenge of spatially estimating parameters such as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Curve Number (CN) and Manning’s roughness number (n), which are critical for predicting runoff and streamflow in hydrologic studies. Addressing the above [...] Read more.

Water resources engineers and geospatial analysts often face the challenge of spatially estimating parameters such as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Curve Number (CN) and Manning’s roughness number (n), which are critical for predicting runoff and streamflow in hydrologic studies. Addressing the above challenge, this paper presents an innovative ArcMap tool developed using Python. This tool streamlines the SCS-CN and Manning’s n spatial calculations and is designed to handle large datasets, even at the scale of the entire US. Additionally, it offers the unique capability of geoprocessing mixed soil types and seamlessly integrating data if the watershed spans over different states. Our tool automates the integration of land cover data, hydrologic soil group data, and hydrologic boundaries. The tool reads watershed boundaries and uses the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the Gridded Soil Survey Geographic Database (gSSURGO) to develop SCS-CN and Manning’s n spatial layers. The tool also offers users the unique flexibility to add any desired values for CN or Manning’s n in the form of a so-called lookup table, which is a great help with the iterative process of calibrating hydrologic or hydraulic models. Our tool addressed one of the major limitations of its predecessors, acknowledging the existence of mixed hydrologic soil groups, e.g., B/C or C/D, and allowing for user adjustments to address hydrologic or hydraulic models’ calibration needs. The tool was developed with a flexible framework to incorporate additional spatial parameters soon, such as the spatial green-ampt parameters. With a user-friendly interface and integration capabilities, the tool is invaluable for hydrologic and hydraulic studies at local, regional, and global scales. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydroinformatic Tools and Spatial Analysis in Water Resources and Water Extreme Events Study)

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