Scientific Review Report, 2016 South Africa Department of Water and Sanitation
Scientific Review Report, J D. Rossouw, M Musariri
Policy
This report provides the Scientific Review results and recommendations regarding the existing surface and groundwater monitoring sites for all nine Water Management Areas following the Regional WMA Network Design Workshops held in Nelspruit, Cape Town, Durban,King Williams Town, Bela-Bela and Bloemfontein from March to June 2016. During these workshops theoretical monitoring network considerations for each WMA were presented to various stakeholders, and the considerations were used to review the existing networks and obtain changes and improvements to the networks as recommendations. The main objectives of the workshops were to review the existing monitoring networks against the prioritized National Monitoring Objectives …
Evaluating The Two-Stage Ditch As A New Best Management Practice, 2016 Purdue University
Evaluating The Two-Stage Ditch As A New Best Management Practice, Andi Hodaj
Open Access Dissertations
A two-stage ditch involves modifications of a traditional drainage ditch to resemble more the features of a natural stream. The idea is to create or simulate extended benches on both sides of the ditch that would develop naturally over a period of time in a stream because of geomorphological processes. Previous research in Indiana and Ohio has shown that two-stage ditches offer the potential to reduce sediment load and extend the interaction time between water and vegetation on the benches allowing larger uptake of nutrients from the vegetation on the extended benches, and increasing the denitrification rates in the bench …
Reactions Of Graphene Oxide And Buckminsterfullerene In The Aquatic Environment, 2016 Purdue University
Reactions Of Graphene Oxide And Buckminsterfullerene In The Aquatic Environment, Yingcan Zhao
Open Access Dissertations
Due to unique physical and chemical properties, carbon-based nanomaterials, including C60 and graphene oxide, now being used in an increasing number of applications. Considering their widespread use, nanoparticles will inevitably find their way to the natural environment. However, their environmental fate and transport have not been intensively explored, resulting in a general lack of knowledge regarding their risk assessment and life cycle exposure concentrations. To this end, this study has investigated: (i) the photo mineralization of aqu/nC60 clusters under photo irradiation, and (ii) environmental transformation of graphene oxide in the aquatic environment. This study shows that CO2 was produced from …
Mapping And Analyzing Energy Use And Efficiency In A Modified Hydroponic Shipping Container, 2016 Purdue University
Mapping And Analyzing Energy Use And Efficiency In A Modified Hydroponic Shipping Container, Rachel E. Sparks
Open Access Theses
In urban centers today, vertical farming is becoming a popular alternative to conventional agriculture in an effort to increase local food production and improve urban food security by growing crops using hydroponic methods in controlled environment spaces. More specifically, one vertical method involves growing crops inside refurbished shipping containers, or a “farm-in-a-box” concept, which offers a flexible, mobile, and scalable means of year-round food production in a variety of climates. Despite benefits of producing food locally, some of the concerns associated with these vertical farming systems include high energy consumption from climate control and electric lighting systems as well as …
Influence Of Stormwater Control Measures On Watershed Hydrology And Biogeochemical Cycling, 2016 Purdue University
Influence Of Stormwater Control Measures On Watershed Hydrology And Biogeochemical Cycling, Colin D. Bell
Open Access Dissertations
Urban development replaces vegetation with impervious surfaces and natural drainage channels with pipe networks that quicken flow paths and alter hydrologic regimes. Additionally, the import of food, application of fertilizer to lawns and gardens, and heightened atmospheric deposition increases nutrient availability in urban landscapes. These excess nutrients are ultimately routed to streams through the pipe networks before it can be processed by the vegetation and microorganisms of the landscape. This combination of physical and chemical disturbances impacts stream ecosystems and degrades their ability to perform valuable services such as removal of nutrients, degradation of pollutants, and provision of recreational and …
Long-Term Health Risk Of Climate Change Associated Surface Pm2.5 Concentration Variation: Multiple Accmip Model Data Under Different Emission Scenarios (Rcp26, 45, 60, 85) And Population Scenarios (Ssp1, Ssp2, Ssp3), 2016 University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Long-Term Health Risk Of Climate Change Associated Surface Pm2.5 Concentration Variation: Multiple Accmip Model Data Under Different Emission Scenarios (Rcp26, 45, 60, 85) And Population Scenarios (Ssp1, Ssp2, Ssp3), Xiufen Zhu
Masters Theses
In this study, multiple models from Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP) are utilized to derive the global burden of disease of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer (LNC), and lower respiratory infection (LRI) derived from surface PM2.5 elevation. Various Representative Concentration Pathways and Shared Socio-economic Pathways scenarios are compared as well as various models to deduct the impact from various scenarios. The time series variation and seasonal variation are also illustrated in this study. Multi-model ensemble was conducted to reduce the deviation in model projection output.
Projection shows increase in the population normalized relative risk …
Modelling Of Dreissenid Mussel Impacts On Lake Michigan, 2016 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Modelling Of Dreissenid Mussel Impacts On Lake Michigan, Chunqi Shen
Theses and Dissertations
Invasive dreissenid mussel appear to have profoundly altered Great Lakes food webs and nutrient cycles during the past several decades. Recent declines of phytoplankton were supposed to be highly related with the increase of mussel population. These phytoplankton declines were further found to be coincident with declines in the abundance of planktivorous fish. In addition, the resurgence of Cladophora in Great lakes was estimated to be associated with the high density colonization of mussels. More light is available at lake bottom due to the mussels’ graze effect. The mussels further promote Cladophora growth by fertilizing it with nutrient-rich excrement. And …
The Role Of Organic Matter In The Fate And Transport Of Antibiotic Resistance, Metals, And Nutrients In The Karst Of Northwest Arkansas, 2016 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
The Role Of Organic Matter In The Fate And Transport Of Antibiotic Resistance, Metals, And Nutrients In The Karst Of Northwest Arkansas, Victor Lee Roland Ii
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Organic matter (OM) in the environment acts as a nutrient, but may also act as a transport vector for harmful chemical compounds and bacteria. Acetate is a labile form of OM produced during fermentation in anaerobic lagoons used to store animal fecal-waste from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Dry and liquid fertilizers from CAFOs pose a threat to groundwater by introducing excessive amounts of nutrients (e.g. OM, nitrate and ammonia), metals, and antibiotic compounds. In the epikarst of Northern Arkansas in the Buffalo River watershed additional input of labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from liquid CAFO waste-fertilizers was hypothesized to …
Miss Lonesome: Old Boats Past Their Prime, 2016 Andrews University
Miss Lonesome: Old Boats Past Their Prime, Garth Woodruff
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Use Of Sodium Persulfate In Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids: A Degradation Study Based On Furfural, 2016 University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The Use Of Sodium Persulfate In Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids: A Degradation Study Based On Furfural, Katherine Elizabeth Manz
Masters Theses
Hydraulic fracturing has allowed natural gas to become a viable energy source via extraction of unconventional shale reserves, but this process requires an enormous amount of water. To ensure a productive fracture, a proprietary blend of chemical additives is added to the water. In this research, a hydraulic fracturing chemical additive – an enzyme breaking agent – is analyzed for organic components using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The chemical changes that occur over the course of a fracture are also investigated using one model chemical found in the additive, furfural, in order to help assess the environmental risk that hydraulic …
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles For High-Throughput Phenotyping And Agronomic Research, 2016 Texas A&M University
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles For High-Throughput Phenotyping And Agronomic Research, Yeyin Shi, J. Alex Thomasson, Seth C. Murray, N. Ace Pugh, William L. Rooney, Sanaz Shafian, Nithya Rajan, Gregory Rouze, Cristine L. S. Morgan, Haly L. Neely, Aman Rana, Muthu V. Bagavathiannan, James Henrickson, Ezekiel Bowden, John Valasek, Jeff Olsenholler, Michael P. Bishop, Ryan Sheridan, Eric B. Putman, Sorin Popescu, Travis Burks, Dale Cope, Amir Ibrahim, Billy F. Mccutchen, David D. Baltensperger, Robert V. Avant, Jr., Misty Vidrine, Chenghai Yang
Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications
Advances in automation and data science have led agriculturists to seek real-time, high quality, high-volume crop data to accelerate crop improvement through breeding and to optimize agronomic practices. Breeders have recently gained massive data-collection capability in genome sequencing of plants. Faster phenotypic trait data collection and analysis relative to genetic data leads to faster and better selections in crop improvement. Furthermore, faster and higher-resolution crop data collection leads to greater capability for scientists and growers to improve precision-agriculture practices on increasingly larger farms; e.g., site-specific application of water and nutrients. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently gained traction as agricultural …
Development And Assessment Of A Groundwater Sustainability Index In Climatically Diverse Groundwater Irrigated Regions In Nebraska, 2016 University of Nebraska Lincoln
Development And Assessment Of A Groundwater Sustainability Index In Climatically Diverse Groundwater Irrigated Regions In Nebraska, Maria A. Mulet Jalil
Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of regional change in ET on groundwater level changes and the assessment and development of a groundwater sustainability index for climatically diverse regions across Nebraska during 2000-2014. Irrigation in the selected regions is predominantly supplied by groundwater. The hypothesis is that groundwater use can become sustainable if the regional evapotranspiration (ET) is managed so that it equals the ET of vegetation that is native to the region. Site locations were Box Butte, Chase, Dundy, Holt LNNRD and York Counties and 3 ecosystems were evaluated: native vegetation, dryland and irrigated cropping …
Fire-Spotting Modelling And Parametrisation For Wild-Land Fires, 2016 BCAM–Basque Center for Applied Mathematics
Fire-Spotting Modelling And Parametrisation For Wild-Land Fires, Inderpreet Kaur, Gianni Pagnini
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
This article describes a mathematical formulation for simulating the effects of firebrands on the propagation of the wild-land fires. Among the different approaches available in literature, this formulation is defined in a way to provide a versatile approach for application to operational wildfire models. Most of the operational wildfire models like WRF-SFIRE and ForeFire model only the evolution of the fire-line according to the definition of the rate of spread, fuel characterisation and the average fire properties and concurrent atmospheric conditions. But this information is not enough to simulate the effects of turbulence and fire-spotting. The formulation presented here can …
A Generator Of Landuse Application For Complex And Heterogeneous Agricultural Practices, 2016 Irstea, ETBX
A Generator Of Landuse Application For Complex And Heterogeneous Agricultural Practices, Odile Leccia-Phelpin, Jean-Marie Lescot, Françoise Vernier
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Non-point source pollution from agriculture has become a major concern for water managers and institutional stakeholders. To reduce diffuse pollution, agricultural conservation measures are widely used with efficiency. On non-monitored territories environmental modelling enables the assessment of their long term impacts on water and soils and to evaluate land-use change scenarios. We developed an innovative Generator of Landuse (GenLU) application in order to build up multi-year spatial crop successions from identified crop rotations with their related management schedule s. GenLU can be used solely for generating landuse or coupled with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model so as …
Water Supply System Classification For Water Quality Improvement, 2016 LHC - FEC, University of Campinas
Water Supply System Classification For Water Quality Improvement, Bruno Melo Brentan, Gustavo Meirelles Lima, Edevar Luvizotto Junior, Joaquín Izquierdo, Rafael Pérez-García
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Universal access to drinkable water is a constitutional right guaranteed in Brazil. However, not all cities in this country are able to supply the population with the expected quality. Important actions should be taken to improve the supply of drinkable water. To define a strategic plan for this purpose, classification tools can facilitate the design of plans, by grouping cities with similar quality conditions. During the last decades, neural network approaches have been used in environmental models, allowing more accurate representation of some complex systems. This work proposes the use of self-organizing maps (SOM’s) coupled with the k-means algorithm …
Optimal Land Use?! – A Review On Optimization Techniques Used In Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, 2016 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Optimal Land Use?! – A Review On Optimization Techniques Used In Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Andrea Kaim, Anna Cord, Martin Volk
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Agriculture, forest management, conservation planning and other related disciplines have specific land use demands, and thus different perspectives on how land should be used in an “optimal way”. One way to solve arising land use conflicts is employing the ecosystem services concept together with methods from the field of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Especially optimization techniques provide the possibility to include socio-economic and ecological aspects as well as the protection of biodiversity. In this study, we give an overview of these methods, focusing especially on their application in agricultural areas. We explore their abilities for the identification of ecosystem service …
Data-Driven Wildfire Behaviour Modelling: Application Of Firefly To Field-Scale Grassland Controlled Burns, 2016 CECI, CNRS-CERFACS
Data-Driven Wildfire Behaviour Modelling: Application Of Firefly To Field-Scale Grassland Controlled Burns, M. C. Rochoux, C. Zhang, D. Lucor, S. Ricci, A. Trouve
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Assessing epistemic uncertainties is now considered as a milestone for improving numerical predictions of a dynamically evolving system. The objective of this project is to demonstrate the benefits of data assimilation combined with sensor observations of the fire front position to both quantify and reduce the uncertainties in wildfire behaviour forecasting capability. The challenges found on the route to modelling wildfire behaviour are two-fold. There is the modelling challenge associated with providing accurate representations of the multi-scale multi-physics processes governing wildfire dynamics. There is also the data challenge associated with providing accurate estimates of the environmental conditions (biomass moisture, near-surface …
Atlas: A Tool To Model Spatial-Temporal Dynamics Of Processes Influencing Ecosystem Services, 2016 Dynafor, Université de Toulouse, INRA, INPT, INP-EI Purpan
Atlas: A Tool To Model Spatial-Temporal Dynamics Of Processes Influencing Ecosystem Services, Hugo Thierry, Aude Vialatte, Claude Monteil, Annie Ouin
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Biodiversity provides various benefits to humankind throughout what is defined as ecosystem services. Within a specific ecosystem, a wide range of ecosystem services can be identified. During the past decades, human intervention has aimed to increase some services such as food production through agricultural intensification, at the expense of other services such as water regulation. Mapping, evaluating and quantifying each of these ecosystem services provided by biodiversity to crop production could help to increase the multi-functionality of agricultural landscapes. In this context, we developed a spatially-explicit model called ATLAS (AgriculTural LandscApe Simulator). ATLA …
Understanding The Relationships Between Sanitation And Health In Nicaragua And Honduras, Through Data Mining Tools, 2016 University Research Institute for Sustainability Science And Technology, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech
Understanding The Relationships Between Sanitation And Health In Nicaragua And Honduras, Through Data Mining Tools, Ginevra Marina Lazerini, Josep Nualart, Sergio Ruiz-Cayuela, Maialen Urbina, Miquel Sànchez Marrè, Karina Gibert
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
The aim of this work is to analyze water and sanitation supply data from Nicaragua and Honduras by using different data mining tools. The data has been provided by SIASAR (Rural Water and Sanitation Information System), which is a water and sanitation management and information platform created through the joint effort of different Central American Governments and the World Bank. In the study data from a survey performed in all the rural communities in Nicaragua and in a sample of the rural communities in Honduras from 2012 to 2015 is analyzed. Database contains 10206 communities described by 23 numerical variables …
Resilience Of Punta S’Aliga Barrier Beach To Storm Impacts, 2016 University of Cagliari
Resilience Of Punta S’Aliga Barrier Beach To Storm Impacts, Andrea Sulis
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Beach and dune provide natural defense against erosion and flooding, and associated mitigation measures are classical coastal engineering problems studied by many researchers. Winter storms cause severe erosion leading to dune breaching and then flooding of the hinterland areas. Resiliency of a barrier beach depends on the ability of the dune (resistor) to recover in height and extent following storms. Whereas erosion of the beach and dune occurs over hours and days, it can be years to decades before the beach and dune are able to recover to their pre-storm state. In the last two decades, numerical modelling methods have …