Hydraulic Engineering Commons^™

Limits To The World’S Green Water Resources For Food, Feed, Fiber, Timber, And Bioenergy, Joep F. Schyns, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Martijn J. Booij, Rick J. Hogeboom, Mesfin Mekonnen

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Green water––rainfall over land that eventually flows back to the atmosphere as evapotranspiration––is the main source of water to produce food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy. To understand how freshwater scarcity constrains production of these goods, we need to consider limits to the green water footprint (WFg), the green water flow allocated to human society. However, research traditionally focuses on scarcity of blue water––groundwater and surface water. Here we expand the debate on water scarcity by considering green water scarcity (WSg). At 5 × 5 arc-minute spatial resolution, we quantify WFg and the maximum sustainable level to this footprint (WFg,m), …

Modeling Of Grace-Derived Groundwater Information In The Colorado River Basin, Md Mafuzur Rahaman, Balbhadra Thakur, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Groundwater depletion has been one of the major challenges in recent years. Analysis of groundwater levels can be beneficial for groundwater management. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s twin satellite, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), serves in monitoring terrestrial water storage. Increasing freshwater demand amidst recent drought (2000–2014) posed a significant groundwater level decline within the Colorado River Basin (CRB). In the current study, a non-parametric technique was utilized to analyze historical groundwater variability. Additionally, a stochastic Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model was developed and tested to forecast the GRACE-derived groundwater anomalies within the CRB. The ARIMA model …

Observational Time Series For Lakes Azuei And Enriquillo: Surface Area, Volume, And Elevation, Mahrokh Moknatian, Michael Piasecki

Publications and Research

In this report, we present historical time series of surface area, volume, and elevation for lakes Azuei (Haiti) and Enriquillo (Dominican Republic). The intention is to present a history of the lakes’ levels for both bodies of water as derived from Landsat imagery that is augmented by reports and narratives that reach further back in time. We also summarize lake level time series data collected and developed through various other efforts and compare these data sets to our time series. The time series contains 45 years’ worth of data ranging from 1972 to 2017 which we developed from Landsat imagery …

Assessing Landscape Scale Heterogeneity In Irrigation Water Use With Remote Sensing And In Situ Monitoring, T. Foster, I. Z. Goncalves, I. Campos, C. M.U. Neale, N. Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Understanding how irrigation is used across agricultural landscapes is essential to support efforts to grow more food while reducing pressures on limited freshwater resources. However, to date, few studies have analyzed the underlying spatial and temporal variability in farmers’ individual water use decisions at a landscape scale.Wecompare estimates of irrigation water requirements derived using state-of-the-art remote sensing models with metered abstraction records for 1400 fields over a 13 year period in the US state of Nebraska, one of the world’s most intensively irrigated agricultural regions. Weshow that farmers’ observed water use decisions often diverge significantly from biophysical estimates of crop …

Cichlid Size Vs Flow Rate, Amy E. Naumovski

STAR Program Research Presentations

Cichlids are a diverse group of fish that are known for their prenatal and postnatal care of their eggs and frys (baby fish). This unique characteristic creates a limitation on the amount of eggs a cichlid can lay and protect, which is particulalry effected by the size of the eggs. Cichlids have a large variance in their egg size, which correlates to a large variance in their fry size. This project explores the trade offs cichlids make in egg size and fry size by specifically testing the ability of varying sized cichlids to swim in different flow rates. This could …

Irrigation Water Quality—A Contemporary Perspective, Arindam Malakar, Daniel D. Snow, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

In the race to enhance agricultural productivity, irrigation will become more dependent on poorly characterized and virtually unmonitored sources of water. Increased use of irrigation water has led to impaired water and soil quality in many areas. Historically, soil salinization and reduced crop productivity have been the primary focus of irrigation water quality. Recently, there is increasing evidence for the occurrence of geogenic contaminants in water. The appearance of trace elements and an increase in the use of wastewater has highlighted the vulnerability and complexities of the composition of irrigation water and its role in ensuring proper crop growth, and …

Twenty-Three Unsolved Problems In Hydrology (Uph) – A Community Perspective, Günter Blöschl, Christopher M. U. Neale, A Cast Of Thousands

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused …

Impact Of The Application Of Domestic Wastewater By Subsurface Drip Irrigation On The Soil Solution In Sugarcane Cultivation, Aline Azevedo Nazário, Ivo Zution Gonçalves, Eduardo Augusto Agnellos Barbosa, Leonardo Nazário Silva Dos Santos, Daniel Rodrigues Cavalcante Feitosa, Edson Eiji Matsura

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The agricultural use of domestic sewage is a viable alternative for recycling nutrients; however, there is concern regarding the impact of its use due to the concentration of chemical elements present in this type of effluent. The use of principal component analysis determines the existence or lack of anomalous samples and the relations between measured variables and their relative contribution among samples that help in monitoring the impact of the use of effluents on soil chemical components. Thus, the objective of this work was to identify nutrient ions present in the soil solution during the first ratoon sugarcane irrigated with …

Public Attitudes About Private Forest Management And Government Involvement In The Southeastern United States, Melissa M. Kreye, Renata Rimsaite, Damian C. Adams

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

In the southern United States the country’s top wood-producing region, factors such as intergenerational land transfer and population spillover from urban areas have resulted in forestland conversion and reduced production of critical ecosystem services associated with forest systems (e.g., timber, clean water supply, wildlife habitat). Public attitudes, which drive forestland policy prescriptions, may also be evolving due to the way people experience and perceive forests (e.g., recreation), and think about the role of government in private forest decisions. These changes have significant implications for forestland management and the forest-based economy, both locally and globally. We present the results of a …

Mapping Regional Turbulent Heat Fluxes Via Assimilation Of Modis Land Surface Temperature Data Into An Ensemble Kalman Smoother Framework, Xinlei He, Tongren Xu, Sayed M. Bateni, Christopher M. U. Neale, Shaomin Liu, Thomas Auligne, Kaicun Wang, Shoudong Zhu

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Estimation of turbulent heat fluxes via variational data assimilation (VDA) approaches has been the subject of several studies. The VDA approaches need an adjoint model that is difficult to derive. In this study, remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are assimilated into the heat diffusion equation within an ensemble Kalman smoother (EnKS) approach to estimate turbulent heat fluxes. The EnKS approach is tested in the Heihe River Basin (HRB) in northwest China. The results show that the EnKS approach can estimate turbulent heat fluxes by assimilating low temporal resolution LST data from …

Agricultural Water Transfers In The Western United States, Richael Young, Nicholas Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Irrigation for agricultural production represents the largest consumptive use of water in the western United States. Understanding the ways in which agricultural producers respond to physical and institutional water scarcity is therefore key to managing water risk. One of the important risk management tools available to agricultural producers is the ability to transfer water across space and time. Water transfers range from very informal handshake agreements between neighbors to very formal transfers of real property across large distances with mandatory state and federal reporting. Given the range of potential water transfer mechanisms, there are significant knowledge gaps on the variety, …

2019 Nebraska Water Productivity Report, Mesfin Mekonnen, Christopher Michael Usher Neale, Chittaranjan Ray, Galen E. Erickson, Adam Liska, Haishun Yang, Thiago L. Romanelli, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Nebraska’s agricultural production is diverse and vast, ranking the state fourth in total value of agricultural products in the U.S. The state is a national leader in terms of agricultural production: it is the third largest producer of corn and second largest in cattle production. Nebraska is also the second largest producer of ethanol and distillers’ grains. The production and use of these three commodities are highly interlinked. Corn is a major input in livestock feed and the ethanol industry. Ethanol plants then produce distillers’ grains as a co-product that is also used as livestock feed, thus forming what the …

Nebraska Water Center Annual Report 2017-2018, The Nebraska Water Center

Nebraska Water Center: Administrative Materials

Contents

Introduction: Foreword • Director’s Letter by Chittaranjan Ray • Nebraska Water Center Overview and Timeline • Nebraska’s Top 10 Water Challenges

Research: Water Sciences Laboratory Overview • Nebraska Vadose Zone Program • Novel Nitrate Leaching Reduction • Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project (OWCAP) • Nebraska Water Productivity Report • USDA-NIFA Water End-User Grant • U.S. Geological Survey 104b Projects

Extension & Outreach: Bazile Groundwater Management Area • Platte River Basin Ecosystem Symposium • Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) • 2018 National Institutes for Water Resources Regional Symposium • Water Quality + Citizen Science • Nebraska Water and Natural Resources …

Biomass Density Based Adjustment Of Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Models: A Machine Learning Approach, Khalid Abdelwahab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Salt marshes are valued for providing protective and non-protective ecosystem services. Accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) in salt marshes are crucial for modeling storm surges and determining the initial DEM elevations for modelling marsh evolution. Due to high biomass density, lidar DEMs in coastal wetlands are seldom reliable. In an aim to reduce lidar-derived DEM error, several multilinear regression and random forest models were developed and tested to estimate biomass density in the salt marshes near Saint Marks Lighthouse in Crawfordville, Florida. Between summer of 2017 and spring of 2018, two field trips were conducted to acquire true elevation and …

Urban Runoff And Energy Recovery, Dimitri Porter

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2018-19

This project seeks to determine whether microturbines can operate with low flow and low head conditions typically found in urban runoff, and how much power microturbines can generate under these conditions.

Surface Water-Groundwater Interaction Processes For Groundwater Pumping Management In Saigon River Basin, Long Thanh Tran

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Since the 1990s, the excessive extraction of groundwater of Saigon River basin is dramatically increased and groundwater resources of Saigon River basin have been facing dramatically drawdown groundwater level in the downstream area. The study attempted to develop groundwater modeling through employing SW-GW interaction parameters and incorporate the concept of sustainable pumping yield to detect optimal pumping management under growing water demand in Saigon River Basin. According to field observed soil moisture, the study recognized the average monthly percolation rate of sand clay loam, sand clay, and clay varies 2-4.5 mm/day, 1.5-3.5 mm/day, and 0.5-2 mm/day, respectively to rainfall intensity …

Evaluating The Effects Of Water Influx On The Mississippi Sound: Current Vs. Historical Relationships, Jarett Lee Bell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the influence of the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway and other fresh water inputs on the Mississippi Sound. The Bonnet Carre Spillway was completed in 1931 and was constructed to protect New Orleans whenever the Mississippi River is at flood stage. The spillway drains into Lake Pontchartrain a brackish-water lagoon north of New Orleans which then drains into Lake Borgne and subsequently into the Mississippi Sound. The inflow of water from the spillway changes the water chemistry of all receiving water bodies and impacts the waters of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We collected in-situ temperature specific …

Pathway Connectivity In An Epigenetic Fluviokarst System: Insight From A Numerical Modelling Study In Kentucky Usa, Ethan Adams

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Fluviokarst landscapes are dominated by both fluvial and karst features. Interpreting hydrologic pathways of fluviokarst can be confounded by the unknown connectivity of the various flow regimes. A combined discrete-continuum (CDC) hybrid numeric model for simulating the surface and subsurface hydrology and hydraulics in fluviokarst basins was formulated to investigate fluviokarst pathways. This model was applied to the Cane Run Royal Springs basin in Kentucky USA. A priori constraints on parameterization were avoided via multi-stage optimization utilizing Sobol sequencing and high performance computing. Modelling results provide evidence of hydrologic pathways dominated by fracture flow, epikarst transfer and runoff. Fractures in …

Implications Of Groundwater Plume Transport And Analysis Of Karst Aquifer Characteristics In Central Florida, Daljit Sandhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater aquifers make up the primary source of drinking water in Florida. It is imperative to protect and maintain water quality to ensure optimal drinking water conditions. Florida is known for being prone to sinkholes due to karst features. One sinkhole event occurred beneath a phosphogypsum stack, and leaked a large amount of radioactive waste in the Floridan aquifer, raising water quality concerns. To study the behavior of contaminant transport, the radioactive waste plume was modeled by coupling hydraulic and chemistry concepts. Adsorption was studied to see if it can serve as a potential remediation solution to the contaminant waste, …

Field Testing And Simulation Of Vadose-Zone Recharge Wells In The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer As An Artificial Recharge Method, Kyungwon Kwak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing concerns regarding depletion of groundwater in the Delta region of Mississippi have led to a need to augment natural recharge. Infiltration basins are often one of the simplest means of artificially recharging aquifers. However the Delta has a layer of clay and silt at the surface so it is a better idea to use vadose-zone recharge wells that are not limited by the surficial layer of fine soils. The purpose of this study is to use full-scale field testing to assess the feasibility of using vadose-zone wells for artificial recharge of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer by using …