Water, Volume 9, Issue 10 (October 2017) – 90 articles

Land use and climate change can accelerate the depletion of freshwater resources that support humans and ecosystem services on a global scale. Here, we briefly review studies from around the world, and highlight those in this special issue. We identify stages that characterize increasing interaction between land use and climate change. During the first stage, hydrologic modifications and the built environment amplify overland flow via processes associated with runoff-dominated ecosystems (e.g., soil compaction, impervious surface cover, drainage, and channelization). During the second stage, changes in water storage impact the capacity of ecosystems to buffer extremes in water quantity and quality (e.g., either losses in snowpack, wetlands, and groundwater recharge or gains in water and nutrient storage behind dams in reservoirs). During the third stage, extremes in water quantity and quality contribute to losses in ecosystem services and water security (e.g., clean drinking water, flood mitigation, and habitat availability). During the final stage, management and restoration strategies attempt to regain lost ecosystem structure, function, and services but need to adapt to climate change. By anticipating the increasing interaction between land use and climate change, intervention points can be identified, and management strategies can be adjusted to improve outcomes for realistic expectations. Overall, global water security cannot be adequately restored without considering an increasing interaction between land use and climate change across progressive stages and our ever-increasing human domination of the water cycle from degradation to ecosystem restoration. Full article

Uncertainties due to climate change and population growth have created a critical situation for many megacities. Investigating spatio-temporal variability of water resources is, therefore, a critical initial step for water-resource management. This paper is a first study on the evaluation of water-budget components of water resources in Istanbul using a high-resolution hydrological model. In this work, the water resources of Istanbul and surrounding watersheds were modeled using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), which is a continuous-time, semi-distributed, process-based model. The SWAT-CUP program was used for calibration/validation of the model with uncertainty analysis using the SUFI-2 algorithm over the period 1977–2013 at 25 gauge stations. The results reveal that the annual blue-water potential of Istanbul is 3.5 billion m³, whereas the green-water flow and storage are 2.9 billion m³ and 0.7 billion m³, respectively. Watersheds located on the Asian side of the Istanbul megacity yield more blue-water resources compared to the European side, and constitute 75% of the total potential water resources. The model highlights the water potential of the city under current circumstances and gives an insight into its spatial distribution over the region. This study provides a strong basis for forthcoming studies concerning better water-resources management practices, climate change and water-quality studies, as well as other socio-economic scenario analyses in the region. Full article

Despite the widespread presence of groundwater recharge check dams, there are few studies that quantify their functionality. The objectives of this study are (i) to assess groundwater recharge in an ephemeral river with and without a check dam and (ii) to assess sediment build-up in the check-dam reservoir. Field campaigns were carried out to measure water flow, water depth, and check-dam topography to establish water volume, evaporation, outflow, and recharge relations, as well as sediment build-up. To quantify the groundwater recharge, a water-balance approach was applied at two locations: at the check dam reservoir area and at an 11 km long natural stretch of the river upstream. Prediction intervals were computed to assess the uncertainties of the results. During the four years of operation, the check dam (storage capacity of 25,000 m³) recharged the aquifer with an average of 3.1 million m³ of the 10.4 million m³ year⁻¹ of streamflow (30%). The lower and upper uncertainty limits of the check dam recharge were 0.1 and 9.6 million m³ year⁻¹, respectively. Recharge from the upstream stretch was 1.5 million m³ year⁻¹. These results indicate that check dams are valuable structures for increasing groundwater resources in semi-arid regions. Full article

A new transient-based hybrid heuristic approach is developed to optimize a transient generation process and to detect leaks in pipe networks. The approach couples the ordinal optimization approach (OOA) and the symbiotic organism search (SOS) to solve the optimization problem by means of iterations. A pipe network analysis model (PNSOS) is first used to determine steady-state head distribution and pipe flow rates. The best transient generation point and its relevant valve operation parameters are optimized by maximizing the objective function of transient energy. The transient event is created at the chosen point, and the method of characteristics (MOC) is used to analyze the transient flow. The OOA is applied to sift through the candidate pipes and the initial organisms with leak information. The SOS is employed to determine the leaks by minimizing the sum of differences between simulated and computed head at the observation points. Two synthetic leaking scenarios, a simple pipe network and a water distribution network (WDN), are chosen to test the performance of leak detection ordinal symbiotic organism search (LDOSOS). Leak information can be accurately identified by the proposed approach for both of the scenarios. The presented technique makes a remarkable contribution to the success of leak detection in the pipe networks. Full article

It has been shown that sufficiently high velocities can cause the mobilisation of discolouration material in water distribution systems. However, how much typical hydraulic conditions affect the mobilisation of discolouration material has yet to be thoroughly investigated. In this paper, results are presented from real turbidity and flow observations collected from three U.K. trunk main networks over a period of two years and 11 months. A methodology is presented that determines whether discolouration material has been mobilised by hydraulic forces and the origin of that material. The methodology found that the majority of turbidity observations over 1 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU) could be linked to a preceding hydraulic force that exceeded an upstream pipe’s hydraulically preconditioned state. The findings presented in this paper show the potential in proactively managing the hydraulic profile to reduce discolouration risk and improve customer service. Full article

The spatial and temporal structures of extreme rainfall trends in South Korea are investigated in the current study. The trends in the annual maximum rainfall series are detected and their spatial distribution is analyzed. The scaling exponent is employed as an index representing the temporal structure. The temporal structure of the annual maximum series is calculated and spatially analyzed. Subsequently, the block bootstrap based Mann-Kendall test is employed detect the trend in the scaling exponent series subsampled by the annual maximum rainfalls using a moving window. Significant trends are detected in a small number of stations and there are no significant trends in many stations for the annual maximum rainfall series. There is a large variability in the temporal structures of the extreme rainfall events. Additionally, the variations of the scaling exponent estimates for each month within a rainy season are larger than the variation of the scaling exponent estimates on an annual basis. Significant trends in the temporal structures are observed at many stations unlike the trend test results of annual maximum rainfall series. Decreasing trends are observed at many stations located in the coastal area, while increasing trends are observed in the inland area. Full article

Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is a promising method of increasing water availability in water stressed areas by subsurface infiltration and storage, to overcome periods of drought, and to stabilize or even reverse salinization of coastal aquifers. Moreover, MAR could be a key technique in making alternative water resources available, such as reuse of communal effluents for agriculture, industry and even indirect potable reuse. As exemplified by the papers in this Special Issue, consideration of water quality plays a major role in developing the full potential for MAR application, ranging from the improvement of water quality to operational issues (e.g., well clogging) or sustainability concerns (e.g., infiltration of treated waste water). With the application of MAR expanding into a wider range of conditions, from deserts to urban and coastal areas, and purposes, from large scale strategic storage of desalinated water and the reuse of waste water, the importance of these considerations are on the rise. Addressing these appropriately will contribute to a greater understanding, operational reliability and acceptance of MAR applications, and lead to a range of engineered MAR systems that help increase their effectiveness to help secure the availability of water at the desired quality for the future. Full article

Endorheic basins (i.e., land-locked drainage networks) and their lakes can be highly sensitive to variations in climate and adverse anthropogenic activities, such as overexploitation of water resources. In this review paper, we provide a brief overview of one major endorheic basin on each continent, plus a number of endorheic basins in Central Asia (CA), a region where a large proportion of the land area is within this type of basin. We summarize the effects of (changing) climate drivers and land surface–atmosphere feedbacks on the water balance. For the CA region, we also discuss key anthropogenic activities, related water management approaches and their complex relationship with political and policy issues. In CA a substantial increase in irrigated agriculture coupled with negative climate change impacts have disrupted the fragile water balance for many endorheic basins and their lakes. Transboundary integrated land and water management approaches must be developed to facilitate adequate climate change adaptation and possible mitigation of the adverse anthropogenic influence on endorheic basins in CA. Suitable climate adaptation, mitigation and efficient natural resource management technologies and methods are available, and are developing fast. A number of these are discussed in the paper, but these technologies alone are not sufficient to address pressing water resource issues in CA. Food–water–energy nexus analyses demonstrate that transboundary endorheic basin management requires transformational changes with involvement of all key stakeholders. Regional programs, supported by local governments and international donors, which incorporate advanced adaptation technologies, water resource research and management capacity development, are essential for successful climate change adaptation efforts in CA. However, there is a need for an accelerated uptake of such programs, with an emphasis on unification of approaches, as the pressures resulting from climate change and aggravated by human mismanagement of natural water resources leave very little time for hesitation. Full article

This work presents a selective overview of natural fogs in terms of fog types, forms and states of occurrence, physical, micro-physical, chemical and dynamic properties, basic characterizing parameters, etc. In focus are related achievements and contributions reported mainly during the last decade and a half, as a result of both laboratory studies and field observations. Processes of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation are analyzed in the aspects of condensation, nuclei diversity and specifics, as related to the activation, growth and deposition of fog droplets. The effect is highlighted of the water vapor’s partial pressure on the surface tension of the liquid water–air interface and the freezing point of the water droplets. Some problems and aspects of fog modeling, parameterization, and forecasting are outlined and discussed on the examples of newly developed relevant 1D/3D theoretical models. Important issues of fog impacts on the air quality, ecosystems, water basins, societal life, and human health are also addressed and discussed, particularly in cases of anthropogenically modified (chemical, radioactive, etc.) fogs. In view of reducing the possible negative effects of fogs, conclusions are drawn concerning the new demands and challenges to fog characterization imposed by the changing natural and social environment and the needs for new data on and approaches to more adequate observations of fog-related events. Full article

The eddy covariance method was used to study the CO₂ budget of the Liaohe Delta reed wetland in northern China during 2012–2015. The changes in environmental factors (including meteorology, vegetation, hydrology, and soil) were analyzed simultaneously. The change in the trend of the CO₂ concentration in the reed wetland was similar to global changes over the four years. The average annual CO₂ accumulation was 2.037 kg·CO₂·m⁻², ranging from 1.472 to 2.297 kg·CO₂·m⁻². The seasonal characteristics of the CO₂ exchange included high CO₂ absorption in June and July, and high emissions in April and from September to October, with the highest emissions in July 2015. The average temperatures from 2013 to 2015 were higher than the 50-year average, largely due to increased temperatures in winter. Precipitation was below the 50-year average, mainly because of low precipitation in summer. The average wind speed was less than the 50-year average, and sunshine duration decreased each year. The CO₂ exchange and environmental factors had a degree of correlation or consistency. The contribution of meteorology, vegetation, hydrology, and soil to the CO₂ budget was analyzed using the partial least squares method. Water and soil temperature had a greater effect on the CO₂ exchange variability. The regression equation of the CO₂ budget was calculated using the significant contributing factors, including temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, water-table level, salinity, and biomass. The model fit explained more than 70% of the CO₂ exchange, and the simulation results were robust. Full article

The Paris Agreement presents new fields of research related to the adaptation strategies to climate change. A challenge for future research consists in developing context-specific guidelines to support adaptation. This Special Issue on “Adaptation strategy to climate change for water resources” is born in this context. It contains 15 scientific studies facing a diversity of issues inherent to the adaptation strategies for water resources. This editorial analyses how the authors of this collection of papers decided to develop and present their research in order to identify criteria to contribute defining, in a near future, standardized approaches and practices for adaptation studies. Papers have been categorized in two major fields: “Studies for the development of adaptation scenarios” and “Studies for the development of adaptation solutions”. Papers belonging to both categories are generally found missing to treat the ‘uncertainty’ issues arising and the implementation of the proposed adaptation strategies. Studies investigating future adaptation scenarios are generally found to be unbalanced in favor of the assessment of future impacts on water resources and less towards the provision of adaptation scenarios. When these studies do not provide elements to manage the specific uncertainty related to the proposed adaptation solutions, at least exploring the uncertainty related to the climatic and impact scenarios is strongly recommended. Studies providing methodological and/or procedural examinations on adaptation solutions are recommended to suitably report the climatic, environmental, and social context for which the action has been developed. A reduction of uncertainty and an easier implementation of proposed measures could be induced from this. Full article

In recent years, the Svalbard area, especially its southern section, has been characterised by an exceptionally thin snow cover, which has a significant impact of the annual mass balance of glaciers. The objective of this study was to determine melting processes of the snow cover deposited on 11 glaciers that terminate into Hornsund Fjord during the melting period of 2014. The study included analyses of snow pits and snow cores, meteorological data collected from automatic weather stations and Polish Polar Station Hornsund, and supervised classification of six Landsat 8 images for assessing the progress of snow cover melting. The calculated Snow-Covered Area (SCA) varied from 98% at the beginning of the melting season to 43% at the end of August. The melting vertical gradient on Hansbreen was −0.34 m 100 m⁻¹, leading to surface melting of −1.4 cm water equivalent (w.e.) day⁻¹ in the ablation zone (c. 200 m a.s.l. (above sea level)) and −0.7 cm w.e. day⁻¹ in the accumulation zone (c. 400 m a.s.l.). Furthermore, the study identified several observed features such as low snow depth in the accumulation zone of the Hornsund glaciers, a large proportion of the snow layers (12–27%) produced by rain-on-snow events, and a frequent occurrence of summer thermal inversions (80% annually), indicating that the area is experiencing intensive climate changes. Full article

Proper water resources management involves the analysis and resolution of various optimization problems according to climate change effects on the availability and distribution of the resources themselves. Specifically, these conditions require the identification of new resource allocation optimization solutions capable of taking into account the water resource losses due to climate change scenarios. As is well known, Southern Italy is a region that is potentially very sensitive to climate change. In this paper, a 1717 km² area, corresponding to the province of Crotone, was analyzed as a study case. This area is characterized by a sufficient availability of resources as a whole as compared to the needs of the users, but has an unbalanced distribution of water through its various systems. After identifying water resource allocations in detail for this area, an optimization solution accounting for the expected reduced availability of water resources in the context of climate change was created and was compared with the optimization solution for current water availability. Full article

In deciding what crops to grow, farmers will look at, among other things, the economically most productive use of the water and land resources that they have access to. However, optimizing water and land use at the farm level may result in total water and land footprints at the catchment level that are in conflict with sustainable resource use. This study explores how data on water and land footprints, and on economic water and land productivity can inform micro-level decision making of crop choice, in the macro-level context of sustainable resource use. For a proposed sericulture project in Malawi, we calculated water and land footprints of silk along its production chain, and economic water and land productivities. We compared these to current cropping practices, and addressed the implications of water consumption at the catchment scale. We found that farmers may prefer irrigated silk production over currently grown rain-fed staple crops, because its economic water and land productivity is higher than that for currently grown crops. However, because the water footprint of irrigated silk is higher, sericulture will increase the pressure on local water resources. Since water consumption in the catchment generally does not exceed the maximum sustainable footprint, sericulture is a viable alternative crop for farmers in the case study area, as long as silk production remains small-scale (~3% of the area at most) and does not depress local food markets. Full article

Economics plays a double role in the field of water management, firstly as a powerful analytical tool supporting water allocation and policy decisions, and secondly in the form of policy instruments (water pricing, markets, etc.). This Special Issue presents a platform for sharing results connecting excellent interdisciplinary research applied to different regional and sectoral problems around the world. The 22 peer-reviewed papers collected in this Special Issue have been grouped into five broad categories: Water valuation and accounting; Economic instruments; Cost effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis; and Water productivity and Governance. They are briefly presented. Full article

The usage of reclaimed water can efficiently mitigate water crises, but it may cause groundwater pollution. To clearly understand the potential influences of long-term reclaimed water usage, a total of 91 samples of shallow and deep groundwater were collected from a typical reclaimed water use area during the dry and rainy seasons. The results suggest both shallow and deep groundwater are mainly naturally alkaline freshwater, which are composed mainly of Ca-HCO₃, followed by mixed types such as Ca-Na-HCO₃ and Ca-Mg-HCO₃. A seasonal desalination trend was observed in both shallow and deep aquifers due to dilution effects in the rainy season. Groundwater chemical compositions in both shallow and deep aquifers are still dominantly controlled by natural processes such as silicate weathering, minerals dissolution and cation exchange. Human activities are also the factors influencing groundwater chemistry. Urbanization has been found responsible for the deterioration of groundwater quality, especially in shallow aquifers, because of the relative thin aquitard. Reclaimed water usage for agricultural irrigation and landscape purposes has nearly no influences on groundwater quality in rural areas due to thick aquitards. Therefore, reclaimed water usage should be encouraged in arid and semiarid areas with proper hydrogeological condition. Full article

Analyses of possible synergies between energy recovery and water management are essential for achieving sustainable advances in the performance of pressurized irrigation networks. Nowadays, the use of micro hydropower in water systems is being analysed to improve the overall energy efficiency. In this line, the present research is focused on the proposal and development of a novel optimization strategy for increasing the energy efficiency in pressurized irrigation networks by energy recovering. The recovered energy is maximized considering different objective functions, including feasibility index: the best energy converter must be selected, operating in its best efficiency conditions by variation of its rotational speed, providing the required flow in each moment. These flows (previously estimated through farmers’ habits) are compared with registered values of flow in the main line with very suitable calibration results, getting a Nash–Sutcliffe value above 0.6 for different time intervals, and a PBIAS index below 10% in all time interval range. The methodology was applied to a Vallada network obtaining a maximum recovered energy of 58.18 MWh/year (41.66% of the available energy), improving the recovered energy values between 141 and 184% when comparing to energy recovery considering a constant rotational speed. The proposal of this strategy shows the real possibility of installing micro hydropower machines to improve the water–energy nexus management in pressurized systems. Full article

A thorough review has been performed on interpolation methods to fill gaps in time-series, efficiency criteria, and uncertainty quantifications. On one hand, there are numerous available methods: interpolation, regression, autoregressive, machine learning methods, etc. On the other hand, there are many methods and criteria to estimate efficiencies of these methods, but uncertainties on the interpolated values are rarely calculated. Furthermore, while they are estimated according to standard methods, the prediction uncertainty is not taken into account: a discussion is thus presented on the uncertainty estimation of interpolated/extrapolated data. Finally, some suggestions for further research and a new method are proposed. Full article

We present and validate a global parametric model of potential evapotranspiration (PET) with two parameters that are estimated through calibration, using as explanatory variables temperature and extraterrestrial radiation. The model is tested over the globe, taking advantage of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO CLIMWAT) database that provides monthly averaged values of meteorological inputs at 4300 locations worldwide. A preliminary analysis of these data allows for explaining the major drivers of PET over the globe and across seasons. The model calibration against the given Penman-Monteith values was carried out through an automatic optimization procedure. For the evaluation of the model, we present global maps of optimized model parameters and associated performance metrics, and also contrast its performance against the well-known Hargreaves-Samani method. Also, we use interpolated values of the optimized parameters to validate the predictive capacity of our model against monthly meteorological time series, at several stations worldwide. The results are very encouraging, since even with the use of abstract climatic information for model calibration and the use of interpolated parameters as local predictors, the model generally ensures reliable PET estimations. Exceptions are mainly attributed to irregular interactions between temperature and extraterrestrial radiation, as well as because the associated processes are influenced by additional drivers, e.g., relative humidity and wind speed. However, the analysis of the residuals shows that the model is consistent in terms of parameters estimation and model validation. The parameter maps allow for the direct use of the model wherever in the world, providing PET estimates in case of missing data, that can be further improved even with a short term acquisition of meteorological data. Full article

Antimony (Sb) and its compounds are considered as global priority pollutants. Elevated concentrations of antimony in natural and industrial process wastewater are of global concern, particularly given interest in the potential toxicity and harm to the environment from aquatic exposure. Iron-based materials for treatment by adsorption are widely regarded to have potential merit for the removal of trace contaminants from water and especially in the search for efficient and low-cost techniques. In this paper, we review the application of iron-based materials in the sorption treatment of antimony contaminated water. The interaction of Sb is discussed in relation to adsorption performance, influencing factors, mechanism, modelling of adsorption (isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic models), advantages, drawbacks and the recent achievements in the field. Although iron-based adsorbents show promise, the following three aspects are in need of further study. Firstly, a select number of iron based binary metal oxide adsorbents should be further explored as they show superior performance compared to other systems. Secondly, the possibility of redox reactions and conversion between Sb(III) and Sb(V) during the adsorption process is unclear and requires further investigation. Thirdly, in order to achieve optimized control of preferential adsorption sites and functional groups, the mechanism of antimony removal has to be qualitatively and quantitatively resolved by combining the advantages of advanced characterization techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Atomic force microscope(AFM), X-ray absorption near edge structure(XANES), and other spectroscopic methods. We provide details on the achievements and limitations of each of these stages and point to the need for further research. Full article

Assessing the impact of climate change on streamflow is critical to understanding the changes to water resources and to improve water resource management. The use of hydrological models is a common practice to quantify and assess water resources in such situations. In this study, two hydrological models with different structures, e.g., a physically-based distributed model Liuxihe (LXH) and a lumped conceptual model Xinanjiang (XAJ) are employed to simulate the daily runoff in the Xijiang basin in South China, under historical (1964–2013) and future (2014–2099) climate conditions. The future climate series are downscaled from a global climate model (Beijing Climate Centre-Climate System Model, BCC-CSM version 1.1) by a high-resolution regional climate model under two representative concentration pathways—RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The hydrological responses to climate change via the two rainfall–runoff models with different mathematical structures are compared, in relation to the uncertainties in hydrology and meteorology. It is found that the two rainfall–runoff models successfully simulate the historical runoff for the Xijiang basin, with a daily runoff Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.80 for the LXH model and 0.89 for the XAJ model. The characteristics of high flow in the future are also analysed including their frequency (magnitude–return-period relationship). It shows that the distributed model could produce more streamflow and peak flow than the lumped model under the climate change scenarios. However the difference of the impact from the two climate scenarios is marginal on median monthly streamflow. The flood frequency analysis under climate change suggests that flood magnitudes in the future will be more severe than the historical floods with the same return period. Overall, the study reveals how uncertain it can be to quantify water resources with two different but well calibrated hydrological models. Full article

Reclaimed water is an important supplementary source for fresh water. Purification is necessary prior to utilization in order to minimize the pollution and human-health risk. A three-year experiment was carried out to study the removal of nitrogen and organics through a simulated soil aquifer treatment (SAT) system under continuous wetting and wetting/drying conditions. The removal performance of nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) was improved in the wetting/drying column. The average removal efficiencies of the three years were 51% and 78% for the NO₃–N, 41% and 51% for the NH₄–N, and 40% and 50% for the COD in the continuous wetting and wetting/drying columns. Nitrogen and COD removal mainly took place within the top 20 cm of the columns, which was highly correlated with the distribution of microorganisms. The amount of microorganisms was also positively correlated with the content of organic matter and dissolved oxygen (DO) in both soil columns. NO₃–N can be removed effectively via aerobic denitrifying bacteria as the DO concentration was 3–6 mg/L. DO and NO₃–N were simultaneously reduced as the electron acceptors for COD degradation, and DO only accounted for 40% of total electron acceptor in COD degradation for the continuous wetting column. Nitrogen and COD can be effectively and steadily removed from reclaimed water during the long-term operation of a SAT system. Full article

Groundwater management and protection has been facilitated by computational modeling of aquifer vulnerability and monitoring aquifers using groundwater sampling. The DRASTIC (Depth to water, Recharge, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of vadose zone media, and hydraulic Conductivity) model, an overlay and index GIS model, has been used for groundwater quality assessment because it relies on simple, straightforward methods. Aquifer vulnerability mapping identifies areas with high pollution potential that can be areas for priority management and monitoring. The objectives of this study are to demonstrate how aquifer vulnerability assessment can be achieved using DRASTIC with high resolution data. This includes calibrating DRASTIC weights using a binary classifier calibration method with a genetic algorithm (Bi-GA), identifying areas of high potential aquifer vulnerability, and selecting potential aquifer monitoring sites using spatial statistics. The aquifer vulnerability results from DRASTIC using Bi-GA were validated with a well database of observed nitrate concentrations for a study area in Indiana. The DRASTIC results using Bi-GA showed that approximately 42.2% of nitrate detections >2 ppm are within “High” and “Very high” vulnerability areas (representing 3.4% of study area) as simulated by DRASTIC. Moreover, 53.4% of the nitrate detections were within the “Moderate” vulnerability class (26.9% of study area), and only 4.3% of the nitrate detections were within the “Low” vulnerability class (60.1% of study area). Nitrates >2 ppm were not detected at all within the “Very low” vulnerability class (9.6% of area). “High” and “Very high” vulnerability areas should be regarded as priority areas for groundwater monitoring and efforts to prevent groundwater contamination. This case study suggests that the approach may be applicable to other areas as part of efforts to target groundwater management efforts. Full article

Seepage failure in the form of piping can strongly influence the stability of block-in-matrix-soils (bimsoils), as well as weaken and affect the performance of bimsoil structures. The multiple-factor evaluation and optimization play a crucial role in controlling the seepage failure in bimsoil. The aim of this study is to improve the ability to control the piping seepage failure in bimsoil. In this work, the response surface method (RSM) was employed to evaluate and optimize the multiple piping parameters to maximize the critical hydraulic gradient (CHG), in combination with experimental modeling based on a self-developed servo-controlled flow-erosion-stress coupled testing system. All of the studied specimens with rock block percentage (RBP) of 30%, 50%, and 70% were produced as a cylindrical shape (50 mm diameter and 100 mm height) by compaction tests. Four uncertain parameters, such as RBP, soil matrix density, confining pressure, and block morphology were used to fit an optimal response of the CHG. The sensitivity analysis reveals the influential order of the studied factors to CHG. It is found that RBP is the most sensitive factor, the CHG decreases with the increase of RBP, and CHG increases with the increase of confining pressure, soil matrix density, and block angularity. Full article

Filter treatment may be a viable means for removing the nitrate (NO₃⁻), phosphate (PO₄³⁻), and pesticides discharged with agricultural drainage waters that cause adverse environmental impacts within the U.S. on local, regional, and national scales. Laboratory batch test screening for agricultural drainage water treatment potential was conducted on 58 industrial product/byproduct filter materials grouped into six categories: (1) high carbon content media; (2) high iron content media; (3) high aluminum content media; (4) surfactant modified clay/zeolite; (5) coal combustion residuals; and (6) spent foundry sands. Based on a percent contaminant removal criteria of 75% or greater, seven industrial products/byproducts were found to meet this standard for NO₃⁻ alone, 44 met this standard for PO₄³⁻, and 25 met this standard for the chlorinated triazine herbicide, atrazine. Using a 50% or greater contaminant removal criteria, five of the industrial product/byproduct filter materials exhibited potential for removing NO₃⁻, PO₄³⁻, and atrazine together; eight showed capability for combined NO₃⁻ and PO₄³⁻ removal; 21 showed capability for combined PO₄³⁻ and atrazine removal; and nine showed capability for combined NO₃⁻ and atrazine removal. The results of this study delineated some potential industrial product/byproduct filter materials for drainage water treatment; however, a complete feasibility evaluation for drainage water treatment of any of these filter materials will require much more extensive testing. Full article

This paper shows the results of the numerical modelling of the transition from supercritical to subcritical flow at an abrupt drop, which can be characterised by the occurrence of oscillatory flow conditions between two different jump types. Weakly-Compressible Smoothed Particle (WCSPH) model was employed and both an algebraic mixing-length model and a two-equation model were used to represent turbulent stresses. The purpose of this paper is to obtain through the SPH model a deeper understanding of the physical features of a flow, which is, in general, difficult to be reproduced numerically, owing to its unstable character. In particular, the experience already gained in SPH simulations of vorticity-dominated flows allows one to assess the fluctuations of hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow field, (e.g., free surface profile downstream of the jump, velocity, pressure and vorticity). Numerical results showed satisfactory agreement with measurements and most of the peculiar features of the flow were qualitatively and quantitatively reproduced. Full article

This paper investigates the impacts of non-uniformities of pipe diameter (i.e., an inhomogeneous cross-sectional area along pipelines) on transient wave behavior and propagation in water supply pipelines. The multi-scale wave perturbation method is firstly used to derive analytical solutions for the amplitude evolution of transient pressure wave propagation in pipelines, considering regular and random variations of cross-sectional area, respectively. The analytical analysis is based on the one-dimensional (1D) transient wave equation for pipe flow. Both derived results show that transient waves can be attenuated and scattered significantly along the longitudinal direction of the pipeline due to the regular and random non-uniformities of pipe diameter. The obtained analytical results are then validated by extensive 1D numerical simulations under different incident wave and non-uniform pipe conditions. The comparative results indicate that the derived analytical solutions are applicable and useful to describe the wave scattering effect in complex pipeline systems. Finally, the practical implications and influence of wave scattering effects on transient flow analysis and transient-based leak detection in urban water supply systems are discussed in the paper. Full article

Water resources sustainable management is a vital issue for small islands where groundwater is often the only available water resource. Nauru is an isolated and uplifted limestone atoll island located in the Pacific Ocean. Politecnico di Milano performed a feasibility study for the development of sustainable use of groundwater on the island. This paper focuses on the first phase of the study that concerns the conceptual site model development, the hydrogeological characterization and the 2D model implementation. During the project, different activities were performed such as GNSS topographic survey of monitoring wells and groundwater level surveys taking into account tidal fluctuation. This data collection and the analysis of previous studies made it possible to identify the most suitable areas for groundwater sustainable extraction. The characterization findings suggested, unlike previous studies and surveys, the presence of only few drought resilient thin freshwater lenses, taking place in low conductivity sandy deposits, unexpectedly next to the seashore. Thanks to the 2D modeling results, it has been possible to clarify the mechanism that allows the storage of freshwater so close to the sea. Full article

Water scarcity in Spain is partly due to poor management of this resource in the agricultural sector. The main aim of this study is to present the major factors related to water usage efficiency in farming. It focuses on the Almería coast, southeast Spain, which is one of the most arid areas of the country, and in particular, on family farms as the main direct managers of water use in this zone. Many of these farms are among the most water efficient in Spanish agriculture but this efficiency is not generalized throughout the sector. This work conducts a comprehensive assessment of water performance in this area, using on-farm water-use, structural, socio-economic, and environmental information. Two statistical techniques are used: descriptive analysis and cluster analysis. Thus, two groups are identified: farms that are less and farms that are more efficient regarding water usage. By analyzing both the common characteristics within each group and the differences between the groups with a one-way ANOVA analysis, several conclusions can be reached. The main differences between the two clusters center on the extent to which innovation and new technologies are used in irrigation. The most water efficient farms are characterized by more educated farmers, a greater degree of innovation, new irrigation technology, and an awareness of water issues and environmental sustainability. The findings of this study can be extended to farms in similar arid and semi-arid areas and contribute to fostering appropriate policies to improve the efficiency of water usage in the agricultural sector. Full article

The dense highland field area in the upstream region of the Lake Soyang watershed is subject to excessive soil erosion during the wet season. In this study, stormwater runoff from the Lake Soyang watershed was monitored during four rainfall events at 10 locations throughout 2016. The maximum SS concentration at Naedongcheon, which is located in the upper part of the Soyang River, reached 4598 mg/L. The event mean concentration (EMC) of SS loads in Naedongcheon ranged from 82.2 mg/L to 926.3 mg/L. We found that, although the first flush events were usually concentrated in highly paved urban areas, a first flush occurred in the agricultural area of the dense highland field region. The first flush phenomenon was identified by a dimensionless cumulative runoff mass and volume curve (M(V) curve), and the intensity of the first flush was analyzed by the coefficient of the nonlinear regression model and the FF₃₀ and FF₂₅ values (the fraction of pollution load transported by the first 30% and 25% of runoff, respectively). Nonlinear regression models using the power function were applied to fit the M(V) curve, the FF₃₀ values were inversely proportional to the coefficient a of the regression model. A long-term seasonal trend decomposition for monthly turbidity and precipitation was performed for the Lake Soyang. Long-term turbidity trend was approximately coincident with the trend in long-term precipitation. In addition, the present status of the best management practices (BMPs) in the upper part of the Soyang River basin was investigated, and a survey of the management and operation of the BMPs was conducted for selected farmers. Full article