Hydraulic Engineering Commons^™

Aqua Band, Jessica Peterson, Sam Behrens, Michael Desimone, Aiden Nelson, Alexandra Leamy

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

People drown all of the time. Whether it's a young child playing in the river or a college student partying on a boat, there is always the danger of drowning. It is not always easy to tell if somebody is drowning. If you are a parent, you won’t always be watching your kids. When you look away and they start drowning, there is no safe way to be alerted of your child’s situation.

Channel Movement, Error Analysis, And Impacts For Neighboring Landowners: A Lower Bear River, Ut Case Study, Russell Babb, Kellie Shawn, Todd Brown, Ayman Alafifi, David Rosenberg

Spring Runoff Conference

The Bear River Fellows program is a unique learning experience for undergraduate students giving hands-on experience in collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing environmental and ecological data. The Bear River is an important resource that provides water to farms, reservoirs, wetlands, wildlife, and hydropower generation. Because of the river’s value, it is important to understand how the Bear River channel moves and how that affects the surrounding landscape, which is a topic of interest for local land owners but especially conservationists in protecting wetlands and river ecology. We collected hydrological, topologic, and vegetative data from three persisting research sites along an 8 …

Seasonal Flow Rates Along The Lower Bear River, Ut, Todd Keniry, Dahlia Curiel, Dylan Anderson, Ayman Alafifi, David E. Rosenberg

Spring Runoff Conference

The goal of this research is to identify how flow on the Bear River in Cache Valley has changed over the last three years and how flow changes seasonally. Identifying flows is important to manage water resources along the Bear River. We collected and processed water pressure data every 30 minutes using HOBO transducers at two sites in Cache Valley (Morton, just downstream of highway 142, and Confluence which is located at the confluence of the Bear and Cub Rivers) south of the Idaho‐Utah border in 2015. We also measured flow and water stage up to three times per year …

Hydrogeochemical Modeling Of Saltwater Intrusion And Water Supply Augmentation In South Florida, Yonas T. Habtemichael

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Biscayne Aquifer is a primary source of water supply in Southeast Florida. As a coastal aquifer, it is threatened by saltwater intrusion (SWI) when the natural groundwater flow is altered by over-pumping of groundwater. SWI is detrimental to the quality of fresh groundwater sources, making the water unfit for drinking due to mixing and reactions with aquifer minerals. Increasing water demand and complex environmental issues thus force water utilities in South Florida to sustainably manage saltwater intrusion and develop alternative water supplies (e.g., aquifer storage and recovery, ASR).

The objectives of this study were to develop and use calibrated …

Estimating River Discharge Using Multiple-Tide Gauges Distributed Along A Channel, Hamed R. Moftakhari, David A. Jay, Stefan Talke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reliable estimation of freshwater inflow to the ocean from large tidal rivers is vital for water resources management and climate analyses. Discharge gauging stations are typically located beyond the tidal intrusion reach, such that inputs and losses occurring closer to the ocean are not included. Here, we develop a method of estimating river discharge using multiple gauges and time-dependent tidal statistics determined via wavelet analysis. The Multiple-gauge Tidal Discharge Estimate (MTDE) method is developed using data from the Columbia River and Fraser River estuaries and calibrated against river discharge. Next, we evaluate the general applicability of MTDE by testing an …

Exploring Large-Scale Parameterization Of Irrigation In The Northern High Plains, Mitch Maguire, Daniel Rico, Katherine Smith, Francisco Munoz-Arriola

UCARE Research Products

Research Question – Objective - Hypothesis

How does irrigation respond to the demands of Crop Irrigation Requirements under extreme hydrometeorological events?

Implement a parameterization of irrigation into the land surface hydrology model VIC.

Changes in evapotranspiration (ET) will be more conspicuous during dry years, highlighting the limiting role of soil moisture in the model.

Estimating Evapotranspiration Of An Apple Orchard Using A Remote Sensing-Based Soil Water Balance, Magali Odi-Lara, Isidro Campos, C.M.U. Neale, Samuel Ortega-Farías, Carlos Poblete-Echeverria, Claudio Balbontín, Alfonso Calera

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The main goal of this research was to estimate the actual evapotranspiration (ETc) of a drip-irrigated apple orchard located in the semi-arid region of Talca Valley (Chile) using a remote sensing-based soil water balance model. The methodology to estimate ETc is a modified version of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) dual crop coefficient approach, in which the basal crop coefficient (Kcb) was derived from the soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) calculated from satellite images and incorporated into a daily soil water balance in the root zone. A linear relationship between the Kcb and SAVI was …

Storm Damage - Murphy's Law, Dale Sedler, Mark Bailey

Purdue Road School

Examination of a disastrous event that required 4 coinciding occurrences happening that individually would likely have resulted in minor or no damage.

Storm Damage - Sr-57 June 2008, Dale Sedler, Mark Bailey

Purdue Road School

A review of the impact of the White River leaving its watershed and destroying a box culvert under SR-57 in Greene County, IN. Includes discussion about impact of illegal levee, and photos and discussion on contraction scour.

Storm Damage - Floating Culverts, Dale Sedler, Mark Bailey

Purdue Road School

A review of buoyancy issues culverts experience due to blockage. Includes discussion of blockage due to floating debris and issues with multiple culverts. Provides information on characteristics that help to determine if a culvert has "floated."

Four Billion People Facing Severe Water Scarcity, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Freshwater scarcity is increasingly perceived as a global systemic risk. Previous global water scarcity assessments, measuring water scarcity annually, have underestimated experienced water scarcity by failing to capture the sea- sonal fluctuations in water consumption and availability. We assess blue water scarcity globally at a high spatial resolution on a monthly basis. We find that two-thirds of the global population (4.0 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year. Nearly half of those people live in India and China. Half a billion people in the world face severe water scarcity all year …

A Five-Year Performance Review Of Field-Scale, Slow-Release Permanganate Candles With Recommendations For Second-Generation Improvements, Mark Christenson, Ann Kambhu, James Reece, Steve D. Comfort, Laurie Brunner

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

In 2009, we identified a TCE plume at an abandoned landfill that was located in a low permeable siltyclay aquifer. To treat the TCE, we manufactured slow-release potassium permanganate cylinders (oxidant candles) that had diameters of either 5.1 or 7.6 cm and were 91.4 cm long. In 2010, we compared two methods of candle installation by inserting equal masses of the oxidant candles (7.6-cm vs 5.1-cm dia). The 5.1-cm dia candles were inserted with direct-push rods while the 7.6-cm candles were housed in screens and lowered into 10 permanent wells. Since installation, the 7.6-cm oxidant candles have been refurbished approximately …

A Literature Review Of The Beneficial Use Of Dredged Material And Sediment Management Plans And Strategies, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Michelle Welch, Eric Thomas Mogren, Lauren Beeney

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

This report identifies lessons learned from the body of existing literature on dredge sediment beneficial uses. It also examines the constructive role collaborative processes can play in development of sediment management plans. The authors reviewed approximately 100 documents and reports for this project. Seventeen of those were reviewed in detail based on their relevance in identifying sediment beneficial uses and/or the use of collaborative processes in the development of sediment management plans. A number of these documents were sediment management plans and strategies for specific projects and programs in other locations. The report presents findings and lessons for the consideration …

Effects Of Climate Change And Anthropogenic Activities On The Everglades Landscape., Daljit Sandhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Everglades has been experiencing major changes, both climatic and anthropogenic, such that the landscape is experiencing additional stresses and forcings leading it away from its natural equilibrium. The land within and surrounding the Everglades has undergone severe modifications that may have detrimental effects on wildlife and natural features, such as rivers and landscape connectivity. Here in this study, the main focus is on understanding and quantifying hydrologic and geomorphic signatures of climatic and anthropogenic changes on the Everglades landscape. For this, in particular, available data on natural hydrological processes was used, such as rainfall, groundwater elevation, streamflow as well …

Remote Sensing Of Coastal Wetlands: Long Term Vegetation Stress Assessment And Data Enhancement Technique, Subrina Tahsin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Apalachicola Bay in the Florida panhandle is home to a rich variety of salt water and freshwater wetlands but unfortunately is also subject to a wide range of hydrologic extreme events. Extreme hydrologic events such as hurricanes and droughts continuously threaten the area. The impact of hurricane and drought on both fresh and salt water wetlands was investigated over the time period from 2000 to 2015 in Apalachicola Bay using spatio-temporal changes in the Landsat based NDVI. Results indicate that salt water wetlands were more resilient than fresh water wetlands. Results also suggest that in response to hurricanes, the coastal …

Study Of Macroturbulence And Bursting Via The -1 Spectral Power Law Region Of Turbulent Open Channel Flows Over Gravel Beds, Amirreza Ghasemi

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The large scale and smaller production scale motions contain over the half of turbulent kinetic energy in the flow. These motions are responsible for sediment transport and deposition processes, contaminant mixing and stream bio-diversity. These motions are corresponded to the left and right bounds of -1 power region of the spectral energy. The most well recognized and highly studied power law has been upon Kolmogorov’s -5/3 power law region of the streamwise spectral energy density and this research focused on investigating the -1 power region bounds and energy. Energy budget and time-average turbulence calculations along with spectral analysis …

Detection, Occurrence And Fate Of Emerging Contaminants In Agricultural Environments, Daniel D. Snow, David A. Cassada, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Xu Li, Matteo D'Alessio, Yun Zhang, Yuping Zhang, J. Brett Sallach

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

A total of 59 papers published in 2015 were reviewed ranging from detailed descriptions of analytical methods, to fate and occurrence studies, to ecological effects and sampling techniques for a wide variety of emerging contaminants likely to occur in agricultural environments. New methods and studies on veterinary pharmaceuticals, steroids, antibiotic resistance genes in agricultural environments continue to expand our knowledge base on the occurrence and potential impacts of these compounds. This review is divided into the following sections: Introduction, Analytical Methods, Steroid Hormones, Pharmaceutical Contaminants, Transformation Products, and “Antibiotic Resistance, Drugs, Bugs and Genes”.

Mean Characteristics Of Fluid Structures In Shallow-Wake Flows, Ram Balachandar

Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications

An enhanced picture of the formation of fluid structures including the effect of the free surface and the bed is captured via a numerical solution of flow past a bed mounted bluffbody. A numerical comparison for the fluid structures observed in a time-averaged field of the shallow-wake flow behind a bluffbody utilizing the rigid-lid assumption and volume of fluid method is carried out in this study to bring forth the shortcomings in previous studies. The transient three-dimensional governing Navier–Stokes equations are computationally solved using a finite volume technique with Detached Eddy Simulation as a turbu- lence model. A flat wave …

Recent Morphodynamic Evolution Of The Largest Uninhibited Island In The Yangtze (Changjiang) Estuary During 1998-2014: Influence Of The Anthropogenic Interference, Wen Wei, Xuefei Mei, Zhijun Dai, Zhenghong Tang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Estuarine geomorphology worldwide has greatly changed in the Anthropocene due to intensive human inferences in river basin and within estuary, which has received increasing global concerns. Here, recent morphodynamic evolution of Jiuduan Shoal (JDS), the largest uninhabited island in the Yangtze (Changjiang) Estuary, and associated controlling factors were analyzed based on unique high-resolution seasonal-surveyed bathymetric data during 1998–2014. It can be indicated that JDS presents novel 12 and 48 months fluctuations though significant accretion was detected on high flats above −2 m. Meanwhile, morphodynamic evolution of JDS during 1998–2014 was divided into three stages: significant siltation on land-ward half of …

A Compact To Revitalise Large-Scale Irrigation Systems Using A Leadership-Partnership-Ownership 'Theory Of Change', Bruce Lankford, Ian Makin, Nathanial Matthews, Peter G. Mccornick, Andrew Noble, Tushaar Shah

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

In countries with transitional economies such as those found in South Asia, large-scale irrigation systems (LSIS) with a history of public ownership account for about 115 million ha (Mha) or approximately 45% of their total area under irrigation. In terms of the global area of irrigation (320 Mha) for all countries, LSIS are estimated at 130 Mha or 40% of irrigated land. These systems can potentially deliver significant local, regional, and global benefits in terms of food, water and energy security, employment, economic growth, and ecosystem services. For example, primary crop production is conservatively valued at about US$355 billion. However, …