Engineering Commons^™

Remote Sensing Of High Latitude Rivers: Approaches, Insights, And Future Ramifications, Merritt E. Harlan

Doctoral Dissertations

High latitude rivers across the pan-Arctic domain are changing due to changes in climate and positive Arctic feedback loops. Understanding and contextualizing these changes is challenging due to a lack of data and methods for estimating and modeling river discharge, and mapping rivers. Remote sensing, and the availability of satellite imagery can provide ways to overcome these challenges. Through combining various forms of fieldwork, modeling, deep learning, and remote sensing, we contribute methodologies and knowledge to three key challenges associated with better understanding high latitude rivers. In the first chapter, we combine field data that can be rapidly deployed with …

Assessment Of Streamflow Predictions Generated Using Multimodel And Multiprecipitation Product Forcing, Bong Chul Seo, Witold F. Krajewski, Felipe Quintero, Steve Buan, Brian Connelly

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study assesses streamflow predictions generated by two distributed hydrologic models, the Hillslope Link Model (HLM) and the National Water Model (NWM), driven by three radar-based precipitation forcing datasets. These forcing data include the Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS), and the Iowa Flood Center's single-polarization-based (IFC-SP) and dual-polarization-based (IFC-DP) products. To examine forcing-and model-dependent aspects of the representation of hydrologic processes, we mixed and matched all forcing data and models, and simulated streamflow for 2016–18 based on six forcing–model combinations. The forcing product evaluation using independent ground reference data showed that the IFC-DP radar-only product's accuracy is comparable to MRMS, which is …

Exploring How Antecedent Precipitation Amount And The Effects Of Covid-19 Affect Stormwater Runoff Quality Along Urban Gradients, Daniel Ramirez, Katherine Gelsey

REU Final Reports

Stormwater runoff quality is affected by a multitude of factors including surrounding land characteristics, human activities, and antecedent precipitation amounts. We explore how seasonal and variable precipitation affect E. Coli, total suspended solids, nitrogen-nitrate, orthophosphate, lead, and zinc concentrations in Portland, OR, USA. Correlation analysis was conducted between the pollutant concentrations and antecedent rainfall each sample site received for the previous 1, 3, 5, 7, and 30 days from when the sample was taken. We ran Mann-Whitney tests to determine if the levels of the pollutants were statistically different between the wet season and the dry season. We found that …

Hydrodynamic And Total Dissolved Solids Model Of The Tigris River Using Ce-Qual-W2, Muhanned D. Al-Murib, Scott Wells

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The headwaters of the Tigris River basin in Iraq is controlled by Turkey due to a series of dams constructed over the last few decades. Since Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the Tigris River within Baghdad and downstream cities can reach 1000 mg/L exceeding both drinking water and irrigation guidelines, a hydrodynamic and water quality model, CE-QUAL-W2, of the river was developed to understand how changes in flow affect TDS downstream. A model of 880 km of the Tigris River from Mosul Dam to Kut Barrage including Tharthar Lake was constructed for 2009. Model development was challenging due to a …

Integrating Landsat Tm/Etm+ And Numerical Modeling To Estimatewater Temperature In The Tigris River Under Future Climate And Management Scenarios, Muhanned Al-Murib, Scott Wells, Stefan Talke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Modeling the water quality of rivers and assessing the effects of changing conditions is often hindered by a lack of in situ measurements for calibration. Here, we use a combination of satellite measurements, statistical models, and numerical modeling with CE-QUAL-W2 to overcome in situ data limitations and evaluate the effect of changing hydrologic and climate conditions on water temperature (T_w) in the Tigris River, one of the largest rivers in the Middle East. Because few in situ estimates of Tw were available, remotely-sensed estimates of Tw were obtained from Landsat satellite images at roughly 2 week intervals for …

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 …

High-Resolution Qpf Uncertainty And Its Implications For Flood Prediction: A Case Study For The Eastern Iowa Flood Of 2016, Bong Chul Seo, Felipe Quintero, Witold F. Krajewski

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study addresses the uncertainty of High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs), which were recently appended to the operational hydrologic forecasting framework. In this study, we examine the uncertainty features of HRRR QPFs for an Iowa flooding event that occurred in September 2016. Our evaluation of HRRR QPFs is based on the conventional approach of QPF verification and the analysis of mean areal precipitation (MAP) with respect to forecast lead time. The QPF verification results show that the precipitation forecast skill of HRRR significantly drops during short lead times and then gradually decreases for further lead times. The …

1978 - Water Resources Investigations - Two-Dimensional And Three-Dimensional Digital Flow Models Of The Salinas Valley Ground-Water Basin, Report 78-113

Miscellaneous Federal Documents & Reports

This 1978 report discussed a group of hydrologic models that were developed for the Salinas Valley that included the small-stream model, river model, two -dimensional ground-water model, and three dimensional ground-water model. The small-stream model simulated ground-water recharge from small streams that were tributary to the Salinas River. The river model simulated ground-water recharge from and surface-water discharge in the Salinas River. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional ground-water models simulated hydraulic head in the ground-water basin. The report noted that in addition to being an important agricultural area, Salinas Valley contained several growing urban areas that obtained water from the ground …

1978 - Water Resources Investigations - Two-Dimensional And Three-Dimensional Digital Flow Models Of The Salinas Valley Ground-Water Basin, Report 78-113

State and Federal Documents Relating to Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties

This 1978 report discussed a group of hydrologic models that were developed for the Salinas Valley that included the small-stream model, river model, two -dimensional ground-water model, and three dimensional ground-water model. The small-stream model simulated ground-water recharge from small streams that were tributary to the Salinas River. The river model simulated ground-water recharge from and surface-water discharge in the Salinas River. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional ground-water models simulated hydraulic head in the ground-water basin. The report noted that in addition to being an important agricultural area, Salinas Valley contained several growing urban areas that obtained water from the ground …

Decision Support System For The Design And Planning Of Low-Impact Development Practices: The Case Of Seoul, Jae-Yeol Song, Eun-Sung Chung, Soo Hyun Kim

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study presented the conceptual framework of the water-management analysis module (WMAM) to derive effective physical specifications for the design and planning of low-impact development (LID) practices using the storm-water management model (SWMM). This decision-support system can be used for six LID types and has the following key capabilities: determining relevant LID design parameters within the SWMM that critically influence the hydrological cycle components using a simple sensitivity analysis and determining the best hydrological values for LID planning specification. This study analyzed a highly urbanized university campus as a case study to determine the design and planning specifications for an …

Hydrologic Modeling In Dynamic Catchments: A Data Assimilation Approach, Sahani Darshika Pathiraja, Ashish Sharma, Lucy Marshall, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The transferability of conceptual hydrologic models in time is often limited by both their structural deficiencies and adopted parameterizations. Adopting a stationary set of model parameters ignores biases introduced by the data used to derive them, as well as any future changes to catchment conditions. Although time invariance of model parameters is one of the hallmarks of a high quality hydrologic model, very few (if any) models can achieve this due to their inherent limitations. It is therefore proposed to consider parameters as potentially time varying quantities, which can evolve according to signals in hydrologic observations. In this paper, we …

A Spatial-Dynamical Framework For Evaluation Of Satellite Rainfall Products For Flood Prediction, Felipe Quintero, Witold F. Krajewski, Ricardo Mantilla, Scott Small, Bong Chul Seo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Rainfall maps that are derived from satellite observations provide hydrologists with an unprecedented opportunity to forecast floods globally. However, the limitation of using these precipitation estimates with respect to producing reliable flood forecasts at multiple scales are not well understood. To address the scientific and practical question of applicability of space-based rainfall products for global flood forecasting, a data evaluation framework is developed that allows tracking the rainfall effects in space and time across scales in the river network. This provides insights on the effects of rainfall product resolution and uncertainty. Obtaining such insights is not possible when the hydrologic …

A Method For Using Pre-Computed Scenarios Of Physically-Based Spatially-Distributed Hydrologic Models In Flood Forecasting Systems, Herman Guillermo Dolder

Theses and Dissertations

Every year floods are responsible of a significant number of human losses, many of which could be avoided with a broader implementation of flood forecasting systems. Nevertheless, there are still some technological and economic limitations that impede the creation of these systems in many parts of the world. At the core of many flood forecasting systems is a hydrologic model that transforms the weather forecast into a flow forecast. Using real-time modeling for potential floods poses a series of problems: if the model is complex, the computational power required can be significant, and consequently expensive, and if the model is …

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 …

On The Assessment Of Reliability In Probabilistic Hydrometeorological Event Forecasting, Caleb Matthew Dechant, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Probabilistic forecasts are commonly used to communicate uncertainty in the occurrence of hydrometeorological events. Although probabilistic forecasting is common, conventional methods for assessing the reliability of these forecasts are approximate. Among the most common methods for assessing reliability, the decomposed Brier Score and Reliability Diagram treat an observed string of events as samples from multiple Binomial distributions, but this is an approximation of the forecast reliability, leading to unnecessary loss of information. This article suggests testing the hypothesis of reliability via the Poisson-Binomial distribution, which is a generalized solution to the Binomial distribution, providing a more accurate model of the …

Nexrad Nws Polarimetric Precipitation Product Evaluation For Ifloods, Luciana K. Cunha, James A. Smith, Witold F. Krajewski, Mary Lynn Baeck, Bong Chul Seo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The NEXRAD program has recently upgraded the WSR-88D network observational capability with dual polarization (DP). In this study, DP quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs) provided by the current version of the NWS system are evaluated using a dense rain gauge network and two other single-polarization (SP) rainfall products. The analyses are performed for the period and spatial domain of the Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) campaign. It is demonstrated that the current version (2014) of QPE from DP is not superior to that from SP mainly because DP QPE equations introduce larger bias than the conventional rainfall- reflectivity [i.e., R(Z)] relationship for …

Sensitivity Of Columbia Basin Runoff To Long-Term Changes In Multi-Model Cmip5 Precipitation Simulations, Mehmet Demirel, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we used precipitation elasticity index of streamflow, to reflect on the sensitivity of streamflow to changes in future precipitation. We estimated precipitation elasticity of streamflow from: (1) simulated streamflow by the VIC model using observed precipitation for the current climate (1963–2003); (2) simulated streamflow by the VIC model using simulated precipitation from 10 GCM - CMIP5 dataset for the future climate (2010–2099) including two different pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) and two different downscaled products (BCSD and MACA). The hydrological model was calibrated at 1/16 latitude-longitude resolution and the simulated streamflow was routed to the subbasin outlets of …

Implementation Of A Sediment Transport Model For Ce-Qual-W2, Rachel Hanna

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

The CE-QUAL-W2 model, developed by Portland State University, simulates water quality and flow. Recommendations to expand on this model and have it include sediment transport are implemented in this report. Existing one-, two-, and three-dimensional models are reviewed and assessed for their sediment transport methodology. A laterally (width) averaged sediment concentration model is developed as an Upwind Center Space Scheme using CE-QUAL-W2 data. The scheme includes a method to calculate scour for sediment concentration and results of the model are shown for a simulated branch of the Spokane River.

Impacts Of Climate Change On The Seasonality Of Extremes In The Columbia River Basin, Mehmet Demirel, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The impacts of climate change on the seasonality of extremes i.e. both high and low flows in the Columbia River basin were analyzed using three seasonality indices, namely the seasonality ratio (SR), weighted mean occurrence day (WMOD) and weighted persistence (WP). These indices reflect the streamflow regime, timing and variability in timing of extreme events respectively. The three indices were estimated from: (1) observed streamflow; (2) simulated streamflow by the VIC model using simulated inputs from ten combinations of bias corrected and downscaled CMIP5 inputs for the current climate (1979–2005); (3) simulated streamflow using simulated inputs from ten combinations of …

The Effect Of Multi-Model Averaging Of Climate Model Outputs On The Seasonality Of Rainfall Over The Columbia River Basin, Mehmet Demirel, Arun Rana, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rainfall seasonality index is the measure of precipitation distribution throughout the seasonal cycle. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of different multi-model averaging methods on the rainfall seasonality index at each 1/16 latitude-longitude cells covering the Columbia River Basin. In accordance with the same, ten different climate model outputs are selected from 45 available climate models from CMIP5 dataset. The reanalysis precipitation data is used to estimate the errors in rainfall seasonality for the climate model outputs. The inverse variance method and statistical multi criteria analysis (SMCA) method were used to estimate the weights for …

Using A Gridded Global Dataset To Characterize Regional Hydroclimate In Central Chile, E.M.C. Demaria, Edwin P. Maurer, J. Sheffield, E. Bustos, D. Poblete, S. Vicuña, F. Meza

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering

Central Chile is facing dramatic projections of climate change, with a consensus for declining precipitation, negatively affecting hydropower generation and irrigated agriculture. Rising from sea level to 6000 m within a distance of 200 km, precipitation characterization is difficult because of a lack of long-term observations, especially at higher elevations. For understanding current mean and extreme conditions and recent hydroclimatological change, as well as to provide a baseline for downscaling climate model projections, a temporally and spatially complete dataset of daily meteorology is essential. The authors use a gridded global daily meteorological dataset at 0.25° resolution for the period 1948–2008, …

Effluent Water Quality Improvement Using Silt Fences And Stormwater Harvesting, Ikiensinma Gogo-Abite

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Construction sites are among the most common areas to experience soil erosion and sediment transport due to the mandatory foundation tasks such as excavation and land grubbing. Thus, temporary sediment barriers are installed along the perimeter to prevent sediment transport from the site. Erosion and sediment transport control measures may include, but not limited to, physical and chemical processes such as the use of a silt fence and polyacrylamide product. Runoff from construction sites and other impervious surfaces are routinely discharged into ponds for treatment before being released into a receiving water body. Stormwater harvesting from a pond for irrigation …

Hydroclimatic Forecasting In The Western United States Using Paleoclimate Reconstructions And Data-Driven Models, Christopher Allen Carrier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis investigated climate variability and their associated hydrologic responses in the western United States. The western United States faces the problem of water scarcity, where the management and mitigation of available water supplies are further complicated by climate variability. Climate variability associated with the phases of oceanic-atmospheric oscillations has been shown to influence streamflow and precipitation, where predictive relationships have led to the possibility of producing long-range forecasts. Based on literature review, four oceanic-atmospheric oscillation indices were identified in having the most prominent influence over the western United States including the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal …

Association Of Oceanic-Atmospheric Oscillations And Hydroclimatic Variables In The Colorado River Basin, Ajay Kalra

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With increasing evidence of climatic variability, there is a need to improve forecast for hydroclimatic variables i.e., precipitation and streamflow preserving their spatial and temporal variability. Climatologists have identified different oceanic-atmospheric oscillations that seem to influence the behavior of these variables and in turn can be used to extend the forecast lead time. In the absence of a good physical understanding of the linkages between oceanic-atmospheric oscillations and hydrological processes, it is difficult to construct a physical model. An attractive alternative to physically based models are the Artificial Intelligence (AI) type models, also referred to as machine learning or data-driven …

Improving The Characterization Of Initial Condition For Ensemble Streamflow Prediction Using Data Assimilation, Caleb Matthew Dechant, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Within the National Weather Service River Forecast System, water supply forecasting is performed through Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP). ESP relies both on the estimation of initial conditions and historically resampled forcing data to produce seasonal volumetric forecasts. In the western US, the accuracy of initial condition estimation is particularly important due to the large quantities of water stored in mountain snowpack. In order to improve the estimation of snow quantities, this study explores the use of ensemble data assimilation. Rather than relying entirely on the model to create single deterministic initial snow water storage, as currently implemented in operational forecasting, …

A Sequential Bayesian Approach For Hydrologic Model Selection And Prediction, Kuo-Lin Hsu, Hamid Moradkhani, Soroosh Sorooshian

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

When a single model is used for hydrologic prediction, it must be capable of estimating system behavior accurately at all times. Multiple-model approaches integrate several model behaviors and, when effective, they can provide better estimates than that of any single model alone. This paper discusses a sequential model fusion strategy that uses the Bayes rule. This approach calculates each model's transient posterior distribution at each time when a new observation is available and merges all model estimates on the basis of each model's posterior probability. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of this approach through case studies that fuse three hydrologic …

Hydrologic Remote Sensing And Land Surface Data Assimilation, Hamid Moradkhani

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Accurate, reliable and skillful forecasting of key environmental variables such as soil moisture and snow are of paramount importance due to their strong influence on many water resources applications including flood control, agricultural production and effective water resources management which collectively control the behavior of the climate system. Soil moisture is a key state variable in land surface?atmosphere interactions affecting surface energy fluxes, runoff and the radiation balance. Snow processes also have a large influence on land-atmosphere energy exchanges due to snow high albedo, low thermal conductivity and considerable spatial and temporal variability resulting in the dramatic change on surface …

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 …

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 …