Water Resource Management Commons^™

Logging Impacts On Aquatic Ecosystem Quality In Michaux State Forest, Pennsylvania, Sara Baran, Timothy J. Bell, Erick R. Seager

Student Publications

Logging can affect freshwater streams around logging sites, even years after the logging has occurred. In this study, we looked into how sustainable logging in Michaux State Forest (in Adams County, Pennsylvania) has affected two streams within the state park: Mountain Creek and Birch Run. Six sites were selected along each stream, with three upstream and three downstream from the logging area. We hypothesized that the water quality would be lower at the stream sites downstream from the logged areas as compared to the upstream sites. At each site, water samples were collected, including pH, water temperature, and turbidity, as …

Pack It Out Utah: Usu Water Quality Extension Leads Utah’S Statewide Trails And Waterways Cleanup, Lauren Houskeeper, Hope Braithwaite

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Utah’s public lands have experienced a surge in outdoor recreation which has led to an increase in garbage on trails, parks, neighborhoods, and eventually, in our waterways. In response, Utah State University Water Quality Extension initiated an annual statewide cleanup to raise awareness and facilitate the proper disposal of litter. During the cleanup events in 2020 and 2021, over 11,000 pounds of trash were removed from our public lands and waterways.

Mass Capacity Analysis Of Stormwater Control Measures Using Synthetic Stormwater With Silica, Organic And Hydrocarbon Constituents, Craig Michael Fairbaugh

Dissertations and Theses

Stormwater control measure (SCM) performance is well studied regarding solids removal; however, analysis of mass loading capacity, long-term performance, and maintenance demands are challenging due to the variability and multiple constituents inherent in urban stormwater. This research examines the long-term water quality performance and sediment mass capacity of two common SCMs: high rate biofiltration (HRBF) and conventional bioretention (BRT). Pollutant removal trials were conducted in a laboratory setting per the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) filtration protocol in two phases: the first using inorganic sediment per the NJDEP protocol, the second phase with the addition of organic sediment …

Generating The Power Of Microbes How Microbial Metabolism May Solve Water And Energy Shortages, Anna Vietmeier

D.U.Quark

No abstract provided.

Chemical And Carbon Isotopic Characterization Of A Karst-Dominated Urbanized Watershed: Case Of The Upper San Antonio River, Abongwa T. Pride, Walter Den, Aarin Teague

Water Resources Science and Technology Faculty Publications

Urbanization and agriculture are two key factors that place demands on water resources and serve as sources of anthropogenic pollution into inland waterways. The San Antonio River, which is sourced from a karst aquifer, plays an important recreational and scenic role, yet effective management is often hampered by the lack of understanding of the chemical characterization of the water system. The karst-dominated Edwards Aquifer watershed in south-central Texas is an ideal watershed to understand water-rock interaction (carbonate dissolution) and anthropogenic impact on our water resources. In order to understand groundwater-surface water interactions, we made chemical and isotopic measurements over a …

Perceptions Of Historical Climate Change And Park Policy: The Impact On The Fremont Cottonwood In Zion National Park, Kathleen Kavarra Corr

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite its “natural” appearance and the Organic Act 1916 mandate for preservation of the natural environment in National Parks, the Virgin River as it flows through Zion National Park’s Zion Canyon was transformed through massive flood control re-engineering projects in the 1930s. The armoring of the river has had significant impacts on riparian vegetation, particularly on the stands of native Fremont Cottonwood trees that once filled the narrow valley. What was the motivation for this massive flood control project carried out in an arid region with less than 15 inches of rain per year?

This dissertation explores the motivations which …

Watershed Management For Nutrient Control In Taylor Creek And Nubbins Slough, Florida, Rachael Z. Cooper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite efforts to improve water quality within the watershed since the 1970s, harmful algal blooms (HABs) still occur within Lake Okeechobee (LO). HABs are harmful to the people, the ecosystem, and the economy dependent on the lake. Taylor Creek Nubbins Slough (TCNS) is a subwatershed of the lake, contributing to a large percentage of the nutrient loading. Due to the size and complexity of LO’s watershed, two smaller basins within the TCNS subwatershed were selected to evaluate the following research questions: (1) How do water quality trends contrast between two basins? (2) How do nutrient load and treatment within the …

Using Fine-Scale Aquatic Habitat Data To Construct Dreissenid Sdms In The Laurentian Great Lakes, Grace C. Henderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The invasion of the Laurentian Great Lakes by aquatic invasive species (AIS) has been the subject of investigation for decades, due to their dramatic alterations to the ecosystem and high economic costs. Two AIS with the largest impacts are dreissenid zebra and quagga mussels, and though these species have been studied extensively, questions remain about what factors control their distributions, and whether lake warming will alter these distributions. Species distribution models (SDMs) offer a powerful tool to examine the relationship between species presences and environmental variables, which are typically bioclimactic data. The creation of the Aquatic Habitat (AqHab) dataset containing …

Arsenic In Groundwater Sources From Selected Communities Surrounding Taal Volcano, Philippines: An Exploratory Study, Geminn Louis C. Apostol, Sary Valenzuela, Xerxes Seposo

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Arsenic (As) is a highly toxic, carcinogenic trace metal that can potentially contaminate groundwater sources in volcanic regions. This study provides the first comparative documentation of As concentrations in groundwater in a volcano-sedimentary region in the Philippines. Matched, repeated As measurements and physico-chemical analyses were performed in 26 individual wells from 11 municipalities and city in Batangas province from July 2020 to November 2021. Using the electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric method, analysis of the wells revealed that in 2020, 23 out of 26 (88.46%) had As levels above the WHO limit of >10 ppb while 20 out of 26 wells …

The Design Of An Agricultural Youth-Centered Rural Development Program In Rwanda, Laetitia Igiraneza Sinyigenga

Honors Theses, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Rwanda is primarily a rural, young, and agriculture-based country. The referred variables- agriculture, rural population, and youth- can be creatively merged to engage and empower youth for rural development. This paper indicates the utilization of cross-disciplinary knowledge to design an agricultural youth-centered rural development program in Rwanda. The program uses the interdependence of economic sectors (agriculture and education) with resources (environmental & natural resources and human resources) to boost rural community development. The program’s main activities- mentorship, agribusiness training, tutoring, exposure visits, and community work- highly reflect the requirement for advancing the selected main economic sectors and resources. There is …

Irrigation’S Impact On A Precipitation Event During Grainex In Nebraska, Usa, Daniel Whitesel

Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources

Numerous precipitation events were observed during the Great Plains Irrigation Experiment (GRAINEX). However, the precipitation event that was observed the morning of 23 July 2018 is the focus of this thesis. Six experiments were conducted which involved increasing or decreasing soil moisture by 5% increments over the irrigated cropland. An additional experiment, which changed the irrigated land use to grassland, showed precipitation increases. It was found that regardless of strength of irrigation, average precipitation decreased. Average precipitation decreased by up to 72% when irrigation increased compared to the control simulation and decreased by up to 85% when irrigation decreased compared …

The Impacts Of Climate Uncertainty On Streamflow In Andes, Antioquia, Colombia, Kristen R. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

Natural hazards, such as hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and droughts impact human systems that rely on predictable patterns in the natural elements with which they interact. Skillful prediction of the impacts of climate change on linked, human-natural systems, like surface water resources, can help ensure physical risks within vulnerable communities are mitigated, resource sustainability is maximized, and intersectoral markets continue to contribute to socioeconomic stability. Due to water resources being a primary conduit through which climate uncertainty impacts people, economies, and ecosystems, its study is worthy of investigation; particularly, where those resources are uncertain and demanded by a variety of competitive …

Perceptions Of Drinking Water Access And Quality In Rural Indigenous Villages In Fiji, Sarah Nelson, Jacqueline Thomas, Aaron Jenkins, Kelera Naivalu, Timoci Naivalulevu, Vilisi Naivalulevu, Kinikoto Mailautoka, Shylett Anthony, Mereia Ravoka, Stacy D. Jupiter, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Pierre Horwitz, Seye Abimbola, Joel Negin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Poor rural water quality is a health challenge in Fiji. A mixed-methods study in six iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) villages was conducted to understand local perceptions of drinking water access and quality, how this changes drinking water source choices, and impacts of age and gender. Seventy-two household surveys, 30 key informant interviews (KIIs) and 12 focus group discus-sions (FGDs) were conducted. Household surveys revealed 41.7% of community members perceived their water as dirty and 76.4% perceived their water as clean. Two-thirds of households reported that they always or usually had enough water. FGDs and KIIs revealed water access and quality was …

Does Restoration Of Urban Riparian Zones Impact Stream Water Quality In Portland, Oregon, Ash Ivanov

University Honors Theses

Riparian zones influence urban stream quality through factors such as shading the stream, adding nutrients through leaf litter, stabilizing the stream banks to reduce turbidity, and filtering toxins out of the water. Riparian restoration often involves changing plant assemblage to be more diverse and include primarily native species instead of non-native, improving connection to the stream through changing stream morphology, improving species habitat, and reducing pollution. The goal of this study was to determine if urban riparian restoration projects in the region were successful, and if not, why that may be the case. The study was performed in the Portland, …

Efficiency Mapping And Determination Of Reliability, Resiliency And Vulnerability Of Atmospheric Water Generators In The United States, Erica F. Sadowski

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) extract water from the air using one of three available technologies: refrigeration, sorption, and fog harvesting. A refrigeration device works like a dehumidifier and works best in conditions above 60% relative humidity. A sorption device utilizes a desiccant to extract the water vapor from the air and works in very low humidity levels. A fog harvesting device utilizes a mesh to capture the water vapor from the air and requires 100% relative humidity. In this research, I analyze two refrigeration-based devices and one sorption-based device and their efficacy in providing supplemental water supply. Due to climatological …

Fire Effects In Montane Meadows, Rosie Deak

Master's Theses

The impact of forest fires on downstream meadow communities across California is of great ecological interest, as meadows are an important source of biodiversity in this region. Over a century of fire suppression has led to increased forest stand densities, which in turn has resulted in less water availability due to increased transpiration of densely growing trees. This potentially has left less available water for downstream plant communities in meadows. If true, then high mortality wildfires in surrounding forest are predicted to lead to an increase in available downstream moisture where obligate and facultative-wetland taxa increase and dry-adapted upland taxa …

Tile Drainage Flow Partitioning And Phosphorus Export In Vermont Usa, Ryan Ruggiero, Donald Ross, Joshua W. Faulkner

Lake Champlain Sea Grant Institute

Tile drainage (TD) has been identified as a potential non-point source of phosphorus (P) pollution and subsequent water quality issues. Three fields with TD in Vermont USA were monitored to characterize hydrology and P export. Fields were in corn silage and used minimal tillage and cover cropping practices. Preferential flow path (PFP) activity was explored by separating TD flow into flow pathway and source connectivity components using two hydrograph separation techniques, electrical conductivity end member unmixing, and hydrograph recession analysis. TD was the dominant P export pathway because of higher total discharge. Drought conditions during this study limited surface runoff, …

Modeling Vapor Transfer In Soil Water And Heat Simulations: A Modularized, Partially-Coupled Approach, Zhuangji Wang, Dennis Timlin, David Fleisher, Wenguang Sun, Sahila Beegum, Sanai Li, Ya Chen, Vandimalla R. Reddy, Katherine Tully, Robert Horton

Faculty Publications from The Water Center

Coupled water and heat transfer models are widely used to analyze soil water content and temperature dynamics, evaluate agricultural management systems, and support crop growth modelling. In relatively dry soils, vapor transfer, rather than liquid water flux, becomes the main pathway for water redistribution. However, in some modularized soil simulators, e.g., 2DSOIL (Timlin et al., 1996), vapor transfer is not included, which may induce errors in soil water and heat modelling. Directly embedding vapor transfer into existing water and heat transfer modules may violate the modularized architecture of those simulators. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to design a …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

Stormwater Subsurface Gravel Wetlands In Vermont: Permitting, Performance, And Chloride Concerns, Watershed Consulting Associates, Llc, University Of Vermont

Lake Champlain Sea Grant Institute

Subsurface gravel wetlands (SGW) are water treatment practices that utilize a saturated bed of gravel and (sometimes) wetland vegetation to filter incoming water and remove pollutants through a combination of physical filtration, adsorption, biological uptake, and microbial transformation. Water level is controlled by an outlet structure to retain a permanent subsurface pool, providing retention of stormwater volume in addition to pollutant removal. SGW are becoming increasingly popular tools for stormwater treatment in Vermont.

A varied group of partners including academic researchers, municipal stormwater managers, and consulting designers and engineers, have identified questions around stormwater gravel wetland performance as significant in …