Engineering Commons^™

Ce-Qual-W2 Performance Assessment Modeling 1979 Grh Flume Study, Logan Negherbon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

In an early review of numerical reservoir hydrodynamic models, the US Army Corps of Engineers developed a physical model at the US Army Waterways Experiment Station to assess the performance of modeling cold water underflow with numerous 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic models. Within this effort, the precursor for CE-QUAL-W2, the Laterally Averaged Reservoir Model, was defined and applied with limited success in representing the vertical velocity profile and outflow temperatures series collected from the physical model in the General Reservoir Hydrodynamics flume. CE-QUAL-W2 has since been modified from this early form in numerous ways including incorporation of higher order …

Learning From Machines: Insights In Forest Transpiration Using Machine Learning Methods, Morgan Tholl

Dissertations and Theses

Machine learning has been used as a tool to model transpiration for individual sites, but few models are capable of generalizing to new locations without calibration to site data. Using the global SAPFLUXNET database, 95 tree sap flow data sites were grouped using three clustering strategies: by biome, by tree functional type, and through use of a k-means unsupervised clustering algorithm. Two supervised machine learning algorithms, a random forest algorithm and a neural network algorithm, were used to build machine learning models that predicted transpiration for each cluster. The performance and feature importance in each model were analyzed and compared …

Remote Sensing Of Water Use Efficiency And Terrestrial Drought Recovery Across The Contiguous United States, Behzad Ahmadi, Ali Ahmadalipour, Glenn Tootle

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) is defined as the ratio of carbon gain (i.e., gross primary productivity; GPP) to water consumption (i.e., evapotranspiration; ET). WUE is markedly influential on carbon and water cycles, both of which are fundamental for ecosystem state, climate and the environment. Drought can affect WUE, subsequently disturbing the composition and functionality of terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, the impacts of drought on WUE and its components (i.e., GPP and ET) are assessed across the Contiguous US (CONUS) at fine spatial and temporal resolutions. Soil moisture simulations from land surface modeling are utilized to detect and characterize agricultural …

Mechanics And Historical Evolution Of Sea Level Blowouts In New York Harbor, Praneeth Gurumurthy, Philip Orton, Stefan A. Talke, Nickitas Georgas, James F. Booth

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wind-induced sea level blowouts, measured as negative storm surge or extreme low water (ELW), produce public safety hazards and impose economic costs (e.g., to shipping). In this paper, we use a regional hydrodynamic numerical model to test the effect of historical environmental change and the time scale, direction, and magnitude of wind forcing on negative and positive surge events in the New York Harbor (NYH). Environmental sensitivity experiments show that dredging of shipping channels is an important factor affecting blowouts while changing ice cover and removal of other roughness elements are unimportant in NYH. Continuously measured water level records since …

Bigger Tides, Less Flooding: Effects Of Dredging On Barotropic Dynamics In A Highly Modified Estuary, David K. Ralston, Stefan Talke, W. Rockwell Geyer, Hussein A. M. Al-Zubaidi, Christopher K. Sommerfield

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since the late nineteenth century, channel depths have more than doubled in parts of New York Harbor and the tidal Hudson River, wetlands have been reclaimed and navigational channels widened, and river flow has been regulated. To quantify the effects of these modifications, observations and numerical simulations using historical and modern bathymetry are used to analyze changes in the barotropic dynamics. Model results and water level records for Albany (1868 to present) and New York Harbor (1844 to present) recovered from archives show that the tidal amplitude has more than doubled near the head of tides, whereas increases in the …

From Probabilistic Socio-Economic Vulnerability To An Integrated Framework For Flash Flood Prediction, Sepideh Khajehei

Dissertations and Theses

Flash flood is among the most hazardous natural disasters, and it can cause severe damages to the environment and human life. Flash floods are mainly caused by intense rainfall and due to their rapid onset (within six hours of rainfall), very limited opportunity can be left for effective response. Understanding the socio-economic characteristics involving natural hazards potential, vulnerability, and resilience is necessary to address the damages to economy and casualties from extreme natural hazards. The vulnerability to flash floods is dependent on both biophysical and socio-economic factors. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of socio-economic vulnerability to flash flood alongside …

Ensemble Data Assimilation For Flood Forecasting In Operational Settings: From Noah-Mp To Wrf-Hydro And The National Water Model, Mahkameh Zarekarizi

Dissertations and Theses

The National Water Center (NWC) started using the National Water Model (NWM) in 2016. The NWM delivers state-of-the-science hydrologic forecasts in the nation. The NWM aims at operationally forecasting streamflow in more than 2,000,000 river reaches while currently river forecasts are issued for 4,000. The NWM is a specific configuration of the community WRF-Hydro Land Surface Model (LSM) which has recently been introduced to the hydrologic community. The WRF-Hydro model, itself, uses another newly-developed LSM called Noah-MP as the core hydrologic model. In WRF-Hydro, Noah-MP results (such as soil moisture and runoff) are passed to routing modules. Riverine water level …

Multi-Dimensional Drought Risk Assessment Based On Socio-Economic Vulnerabilities And Hydro-Climatological Factors, Ali Ahmadalipour

Dissertations and Theses

Drought is among the costliest natural hazards developing slowly and affecting large areas, which imposes severe consequences on society and economy. Anthropogenic climate change is expected to exacerbate drought in various regions of the globe, making its associated socioeconomic impacts more severe. Such impacts are of higher concern in Africa, which is mainly characterized by arid climate and lacking infrastructure as well as social development. Furthermore, the continent is expected to experience vast population growth, which will make it more vulnerable to the adverse effects of drought. This study provides the first comprehensive multi-dimensional assessment of drought risk across the …

Time Varying Parameter Models For Catchments With Land Use Change: The Importance Of Model Structure, Sahani Pathiraja, Daniela Anghileri, Paolo Burlando, Ashish Sharma, Lucy Marshall, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rapid population and economic growth in South-East-Asia has been accompanied by extensive land use change with consequent impacts on catchment hydrology. Modelling methodologies capable of handling changing land use conditions are therefore becoming ever more important, and are receiving increasing attention from hydrologists. A recently developed Data Assimilation based framework that allows model parameters to vary through time in response to signals of change in observations is considered for a medium sized catchment (2880 km²) in Northern Vietnam experiencing substantial but gradual land cover change. We investigate the efficacy of the method as well as the importance of the chosen …

Utilization Of Remote Sensing In Drought Monitoring Over Iraq, Yousif Almamalachy

Dissertations and Theses

Agricultural drought is a creeping disaster that overshadows the vegetative cover in general and cropland specifically in Iraq, a country that was well known for its agricultural production and fertile soil. In the recent years, the arable lands in Iraq experienced increasing land degradation that led to desertification, economic losses, food insecurity, and deteriorating environment. Remote sensing is employed in this study and four different indices are utilized, each of which is derived from MODIS satellite mission products. Agricultural drought maps are produced from 2003 to 2015 after masking the vegetation cover. Year 2008 was found the most severe drought …

Application Of Numerical Modeling To Study River Dynamics: Hydro-Geomorphological Evolution Due To Extreme Events In The Sandy River, Oregon, Sarkawt Hamarahim Muhammad

Dissertations and Theses

The Sandy River (OR) is a coastal tributary of the Columbia River and has a steep hydroshed 1316 square kilometers which is located on the western side of Mount Hood (elevation range 3 m to 1800 m). The system exhibits highly variable flow: Its average discharge is ~40 m³/s, and the highest recorded discharge was 1739 m³/s in 1964. In this study I model the geomorphic sensitivity of an 1800m reach located the downstream of the former Marmot Dam, which was removed in 2007. The hydro-geomorphic response to major flood has implications for system management and …

Tidal-Fluvial And Estuarine Processes In The Lower Columbia River: Ii. Water Level Models, Floodplain Wetland Inundation, And System Zones, David A. Jay, Amy B. Borde, Heida Diefenderfer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Spatially varying water-level regimes are a factor controlling estuarine and tidal-fluvial wetland vegetation patterns. As described in Part I, water levels in the Lower Columbia River and estuary (LCRE) are influenced by tides, river flow, hydropower operations, and coastal processes. In Part II, regression models based on tidal theory are used to quantify the role of these processes in determining water levels in the mainstem river and floodplain wetlands, and to provide 21-year inundation hindcasts. Analyses are conducted at 19 LCRE mainstem channel stations and 23 tidally exposed floodplain wetland stations. Sum exceedance values (SEVs) are used to compare wetland …

A Multivariate Modeling Approach For Generating Ensemble Climatology Forcing For Hydrologic Applications, Sepideh Khajehei

Dissertations and Theses

Reliability and accuracy of the forcing data plays a vital role in the Hydrological Streamflow Prediction. Reliability of the forcing data leads to accurate predictions and ultimately reduction of uncertainty. Currently, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models are developing ensemble forecasts for various temporal and spatial scales. However, it is proven that the raw products of the NWP models may be biased at the basin scale; unlike model grid scale, depending on the size of the catchment. Due to the large space-time variability of precipitation, bias-correcting the ensemble forecasts has proven to be a challenging task. In recent years, Ensemble Pre-Processing …

Evaluating Global Sensitivity Analysis Methods For Hydrologic Modeling Over The Columbia River Basin, Maysoun Ayad Hameed

Dissertations and Theses

Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) approach helps to identify the effectiveness of model parameters or inputs and thus provides essential information about the model performance. The effects of 14 parameters and one input (forcing data) of the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC-SMA) model are analyzed by using two GSA methods: Sobol' and Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test (FAST). The simulations are carried out over five sub-basins within the Columbia River Basin (CRB) for three different periods: one-year, four-year, and seven-year. The main parameter sensitivities (first-order) and the interactions sensitivities (second-order) are evaluated in this study. Our results show that some hydrological processes …

Toward A Reliable Prediction Of Seasonal Forecast Uncertainty: Addressing Model And Initial Condition Uncertainty With Ensemble Data Assimilation And Sequential Bayesian Combination, Caleb Matthew Dechant, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Uncertainties are an unfortunate yet inevitable part of any forecasting system. Within the context of seasonal hydrologic predictions, these uncertainties can be attributed to three causes: imperfect characterization of initial conditions, an incomplete knowledge of future climate and errors within computational models. This study proposes a method to account for all threes sources of uncertainty, providing a framework to reduce uncertainty and accurately convey persistent predictive uncertainty. In currently available forecast products, only a partial accounting of uncertainty is performed, with the focus primarily on meteorological forcing. For example, the Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) technique uses meteorological climatology to estimate …

A Novel Approach To Flow Estimation In Tidal Rivers, Hamed Moftakhari Rostamkhani, David A. Jay, Stefan A. Talke, Tobias Kukulka, Peter D. Bromirski

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reliable estimation of river discharge to the ocean from large tidal rivers is vital for water resources management and climate analyses. Due to the difficulties inherent in measuring tidal-river discharge, flow records are often limited in length and/or quality and tidal records often predate discharge records. Tidal theory indicates that tides and river discharge interact through quadratic bed friction, which diminishes and distorts the tidal wave as discharge increases. We use this phenomenon to develop a method of estimating river discharge for time periods with tidal data but no flow record. Employing sequential 32 day harmonic analyses of tidal properties, …

Pend Oreille River, Box Canyon Model: Model Scenario Simulations, Chris Berger, Robert Leslie Annear, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Washington Department of Ecology is interested in developing a temperature Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) allocation for the Pend Oreille River between the Albeni Falls Dam (U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s reservoir) and Box Canyon Dam as shown in Figure 1. The Pend Oreille drainage basin is shown in Figure 2. An existing model of the Box Canyon reach was updated from CE-QUALW2 Version 3.0 to Version 3.5. This current research involves improving the calibration of the original model (1997 and 1998) and expanding the model using 2004 as an additional data set for calibration.

The use of field …

Modeling Effects Of Channel Complexity And Hyporheic Flow On Stream Temperatures, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Stream temperatures are affected by multiple forcing functions, including surface heat exchange (including solar radiation, evaporation, conduction, and net long wave radiation) and hyporheic flows. Each of these forcing functions is directly influenced by the level of channel complexity in the stream channel and riparian shading. The interrelationship between channel complexity, hyporheic flow and stream temperature is highly complex, and efforts to manage for habitat diversity by managing channel complexity could result in unintended consequences on stream temperature. When planning modifications to stream channel complexity, consideration should be given to the effects such moderations could have on stream temperatures.

Urbanization …

Idaho Pend Oreille River Model: Model Development And Calibration, Robert Leslie Annear, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The objectives of this project were to:

• Develop a hydrodynamic and temperature model of Pend Oreille River using CE-QUAL-W2 Version 3.2

• Calibrate the CE-QUAL-W2 model to field data collected during 2004 and 2005 using the following water quality variables:

• flow, water surface elevation, and velocity
• temperature o dissolved oxygen
• nutrients (NO3-N+NO2-N, NH4-N, PO4-P)
• algae – chlorophyll a
• BOD5 and dissolved organic matter and particulate organic matter compartments (both labile and refractory) for the organic matter cycling with algae
• periphyton

The model chosen for development was CE-QUAL-W2 Version 3.2 (Cole and Wells, 2004). This is a two-dimensional unsteady hydrodynamic …

Pend Oreille River, Box Canyon Model: Model Development And Calibration, Robert Leslie Annear, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to improve the existing Version 3.0 application of CE-QUAL-W2 of the Pend Oreille River between Box Canyon Dam and Albeni Falls Dam by performing the tasks outlined above. In addition, the use of field data from 2004 as an additional calibration year would improve the confidence in the model’s predictive ability for temperature. The model simulations were run from January 1st to December 31st in each of the 3 years of model simulation: 1997, 1998 and 2004.

The model chosen for development is CE-QUAL-W2 Version 3.5 (Cole and Wells, 2006). This is a twodimensional …

Upper Spokane River Model In Idaho: Boundary Conditions And Model Setup And Calibration For 2001 And 2004, Robert Leslie Annear, Scott A. Wells, Chris Berger

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As a result of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study of the Spokane River in Washington, a hydrodynamic and water quality model for the Spokane River was developed by Portland State University (PSU) for the Corps of Engineers and the Washington Department of Ecology from the Washington-Idaho state line to the outlet of Long Lake.

An earlier study of the Spokane River was undertaken by Limno-Tech (2001a, 2001b) for the domain shown in Figure 3. Limno-Tech used an earlier version of CE-QUAL-W2, Version 2, for the Reservoir portion of the Spokane River from Post Falls Dam to Coeur d’Alene …

Lake Whatcom Water Quality Model, Chris Berger

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A water quality model of Lake Whatcom, Washington was developed as part of a Total Maximum Daily Load Study for the Washington Department of Ecology. Lake Whatcom is a large natural lake which is listed on the 1998 Washington State 303(d) list of waterbodies which do not meet the criterion for dissolved oxygen. Located next to the city of Bellingham, it is approximately 10 miles long and has a surface area of approximately 5000 acres and a maximum depth of over 100 meters. Eutrophication processes in the lake have been accelerated in recent years perhaps by the availability of nutrients …

Laurance Lake Temperature Model, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells, Robert Leslie Annear

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Laurance Lake is a reservoir located in Hood River County, Oregon (Figure 1). It is located at the base on Mt. Hood in Oregon (see Figure 2 and Figure 3), discharges into the Middle Fork of the Hood River. The reservoir was constructed in 1968 for irrigation storage and has a capacity 3564 acre- feet at full pool. Since the river vio lates temperature standards, this study has been designed to construct a hydrodynamic and temperature model of Laurance reservoir in order to assess strategies for improving temperatures in the Middle Fork River.

The objectives of the study are then …

Willamette River Basin Temperature Tmdl Model: Model Calibration, Chris Berger, Michael Lee Mckillip, Robert Leslie Annear, Sher Jamal Khan, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is developing a TMDL for temperature in the Willamette River basin shown in Figure 1. The study area included the Willamette River and all major tributaries (except the Tualatin River where a TMDL process was already concluded). A large section of the Columbia River was also modeled to provide adequate boundary representation of tidal flows in the lower Willamette River. The Willamette River below the Oregon City Falls in the Portland metropolitan area has a typical diurnal tidal range of 1 m. The development of a dynamic model of temperature and …

Green River Ce-Qual-W2 Project: A Hydrodynamic And Water Quality Study Of The Green River King County, Washington, Tim Kraft, Robert Leslie Annear, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report describes the data processing and model calibration performed for a hydrodynamic and water quality model of the Green River, located in King County, Washington. Figure 1 shows the location of the river, and the limits of the section of river that was modeled.

The Green River flows from its headwaters in the Cascade Mountain foothills through the King County, Washington communities of Auburn, Kent, and Tukwila before discharging into the Duwamish River. Two sections of the river were modeled in this project. The Middle Green River begins in the Cascade Mountain foothills east of Tacoma, and continues downstream …

Willamette River Basin Temperature Tmdl Model: Model Scenarios, Robert Leslie Annear, Michael Lee Mckillip, Sher Jamal Khan, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is developing a TMDL for temperature in the Willamette River basin shown in Figure 1. The study area included the Willamette River and all major tributaries (except the Tualatin River where a TMDL process was already concluded). A large section of the Columbia River was also modeled to provide adequate boundary representation of tidal flows in the lower Willamette River. The Willamette River below the Oregon City Falls in the Portland metropolitan area has a typical diurnal tidal range of 1 m. The development of a dynamic model of temperature and …

Willamette River Basin Temperature Tmdl Model: Boundary Conditions And Model Setup, Robert Leslie Annear, Michael Lee Mckillip, Sher Jamal Khan, Chris Berger, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is developing a TMDL for temperature in the Willamette River basin shown in Figure 1. The study area included the Willamette River and all major tributaries (except the Tualatin River where a TMDL process was already concluded). A large section of the Columbia River was also modeled to provide adequate boundary representation of tidal flows in the lower Willamette River. The Willamette River below the Oregon City Falls in the Portland metropolitan area has a typical diurnal tidal range of 1 m. The development of a dynamic model of temperature and …

Review Of Spokane River Model For Washington Department Of Ecology, Chris Berger, Robert Leslie Annear, Scott A. Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This memorandum discusses changes made to the Spokane River model calibration since the original calibration of the model discussed in the following reports: Annear et al. (2001), Berger at al. (2002), Slominski et al. (2002), and Berger et al. (2003). The first group of refinements was made by the Washington Department of Ecology. Additional changes were made by Portland State University (PSU) and were discussed in this report along with the results of two alternative calibrations. The last section displays the original calibration results from Berger et al. (2003) as a basis for comparison to the changes made by Ecology …

Upper Spokane River Model In Idaho: Boundary Conditions And Model Setup For 2001, Scott A. Wells, Robert Leslie Annear, Chris Berger

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Spokane River in Idaho originates in Coeur d’Alene Lake (Figure 1 and Figure 2). The section of the Spokane River from Coeur d’Alene Lake to the Washington state line is the subject of a water quality study for the US Environmental Protection Agency. The objective of this study is to create a water quality and hydrodynamic model of the Spokane River in Idaho using CE-QUAL-W2 Version 3.1 (Cole and Wells, 2002).

Since the Spokane River is water quality limited, a hydrodynamic and water quality model for the Spokane River in Washington was developed by Portland State University for the …

Upper Spokane River Model: Model Calibration, 2001, Chris Berger, Robert Leslie Annear, Benjamin Welle

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Upper Spokane River system under consideration is located in the Northeastern part of Washington State and runs from the Stateline with Idaho, River mile (RM) 96.0, downstream to Long Lake dam at RM 32.5. Figure 1 shows the river system and an outline the boundaries of the City of Spokane.

The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is interested in a water quality model for the Upper Spokane River system for use in developing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). As a result, Ecology and the Corps of Engineers funded a study to develop a water quality and hydrodynamic model of …