Digital Commons Network^™

Chopping Up The Riverscape: Consistent Sample Frames For Assessment And Monitoring, Jordan Gilbert

Spring Runoff Conference

Background

• Riverscapes Assessment and Monitoring Lab (RAM)
• Joe Wheaton, Wally Macfarlane, Jordan Gilbert
• Founding member of Riverscapes Consortium
• Provide tools for people working in riverscapes
• Primarily planning, implementing, and monitoring restoration projects

Growing Roots: Water Conservation, Innovative Research And Public Education, Aurora Wallis Durfee

Spring Runoff Conference

Hydroponics allows for efficient, sustainable food production, using less water and space than traditional farming methods.

Water Markets In Utah? Water Manager Perspectives On Potential Uptake, Britta L. Schumacher

Spring Runoff Conference

Irrigation organizations: intermediaries that deliver water to farms, ranches, and other users, coordinate investments in conveyance infrastructure, and manage limited water supplies.

Advancing 3d Channel Representation To Support National Scale Flood Forecasting Operations, Jose Castejon Villalobos, Anzy Lee, Noelle Patterson, Belize Lane, Colin Phillips

Spring Runoff Conference

Storms and Flooding are major annual disasters.

Paired Storms Reveal Post-Fire Flood Characteristics And Drivers, Haley Canham, Belize Lane

Spring Runoff Conference

The wildfire regime is changing in the western US.

Davis Aqueduct Reach 1 - The Design And Construction Of Large Diameter Pipelines, Shane Mcfarland

Spring Runoff Conference

Designing and building a seismically resilient 72-inch pipeline.

District Overview: Weber Basin Water Conservancy District

From Vulnerabilities And Concern To Action: How Perceived Climate Vulnerabilities And Concern For The Great Salt Lake Desiccation Shape Utahns’ Migration Decision, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, Jennifer E. Givens

Spring Runoff Conference

In light of the current climate crisis, how do Utahns perceive their climate or disaster vulnerabilities and concern for the Great Salt Lake desiccation? Does the perception of vulnerabilities and concern for the Great Salt Lake desiccation influence their intention to migrate from Utah?

Water And Journalism Panel, Heather May, Anastasia Hufham, Ben Winslow, Sheri Quinn

Spring Runoff Conference

Respondents’ sources of information on Great Salt Lake issues

The Practical And The Possible: How Research Informs Policy And Management For Land, Forest, And Water Management, Charlie Luce

Spring Runoff Conference

The practical and the possible: How research informs policy and management for land, forest, and water resources.

What Does Our Water Year Look Like?, Candice Hasenyager

Spring Runoff Conference

Drip Drip Drop: Water in Utah

In Utah, we are either in drought or preparing for the next one

We Shall Have A Seat At The Table, Yanna Liang

Spring Runoff Conference

Uniqueness of ESE 

• The only environmental BS program in the nation that has “Sustainable” in its title.
• Sustainability in water treatment, air pollution control, energy production, resource re-utilization 

The Once And Future Variability Of Colorado River Water Resources, Balaji Rajagopalan

Spring Runoff Conference

The Plot – “Millennium Drought” Since 2000 

• Current Water Crisis 

Harvest Management And Regrowth Of Trifolium Alexandrinum, R E. Joost, J D. Mooso

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Adaptation of berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum) beyond the coastal regions of the southeastern United States was limited by a lack of cold tolerance prior to the release of 'Bigbee', a selection from a stand of 'Sacromonte' subjected to temperature of -15 and -18 Con successive nights in 1972. The release of Bigbee in 1985 expanded the range of berseem clover adaptation to include the entire Southeast, as far north as Oklahoma (Knight, 1985). It is known that annual clovers do not rely on root reserve carbohydrates, but rather on residual leaf area and rapid leaf regeneration from active …

Impacts Of Changing Temperatures On The Water Budget In The Great Salt Lake Basin, Grace Affram, Jihad Othman, Reza Morovati, Saddy Pineda Castellanos, Sajad Khoshnoodmotlagh, Diana Dunn, Braedon Dority, Katherine Osorio Diaz, Cody Ratterman, Wei Zhang

Spring Runoff Conference

Temperature affects precipitation phases and the evolution of snowpack.

Inferences Of Source Lithologies For Chicxulub Microtektites Using A Bayesian Approach, Jack Carter, Paolo Sanchez, Anthony J. Fuentes, Paul R. Renne, Dale H. Burns, Hermann D. Bermúdez

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The Chicxulub impact on the Yucatán Peninsula at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) was a likely contributor to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Glassy objects produced by quenched melt from the impact were distributed over a large region centered on the Caribbean basin and have long been known to preserve compositional information that could allow for more robust constraints on the pre-impact target lithologies. The Chicxulub-derived glasses are generally altered in most localities, but a recently discovered deposit at Gorgonilla Island, Colombia, yields a large percentage of unaltered glassy microtektites up to ∼2 mm (There is inconsistent usage of these terms in …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (Pfas) Degradation In Water And Soil Using Cold Atmospheric Plasma (Cap): A Review, Victor Somtochukwu Mbanugo, Boluwatife Stephen Ojo, Ta Chun Lin, Yue-Wern Huang, Marek Locmelis, Daoru Han

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are persistent organic chemicals found in numerous industrial applications and everyday products. The excessive amounts of PFASs in water and soil, together with their link to severe health issues, have prompted substantial public concerns, making their removal from the environment a necessity. Existing degradation techniques are frequently lacking due to their low efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and potential for secondary contamination. Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) technology has emerged as a promising alternative, utilizing energized reactive species to break down PFASs under ambient conditions. Therefore, this review examines the efficacy and effectiveness of CAP in degrading PFASs by …

Evaluating Biotic Effecrs Associated With The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum In Mississippi And Alabama: A Palynological And Biostratigraphic Study Of Amoco's Legacy Samples, Sarah Fortin Bancroft

LSU Master's Theses

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a ~200 ka period of rapid global warming in the earliest Eocene (~56 Ma) involving a roughly 7 °C rise in atmospheric and sea-surface temperatures. The Gulf of Mexico Wilcox Group contains very well-preserved terrestrial and deltaic sediments that contain exploitable hydrocarbons . The Wilcox Group’s Paleocene Tuscahoma and Eocene Hatchetigbee Formations have been roughly dated with calcareous and planktonic foraminiferal assemblages by AMOCO; however, the precise ages of these formations, their palynological assemblages, and their paleo-depositional geosystems are an area of active research.

Through a high-resolution palynological analysis, this study assesses the depositional …

Canal Improvements: Balancing Piping And Automation, Trevor Nielson

Spring Runoff Conference

Factors to Consider 

- Piping 

• Size/Cost 
• Loss saved per mile 
• Longer Lifespan 
• Safety Benefits 

- Automation 

• On-going Cost 
• Cover Existing O&M Costs 
• More Skilled Staff 
• Higher Quality of Life for Field Employees 
• Safety Benefits 

Box Elder County - Countywide Water Master Plan, Quinn Dance

Spring Runoff Conference

Box Elder County Water Master Plan.

Project Background: 

Pre-Project Planning 

• Box Elder County General Plan Update 
• Steering Committee Organization 

Soil Health And Water Conservation, Tony Richards

Spring Runoff Conference

What are Healthy Soils? 

• Stable 
• Functional 
• Productive 
• Resilient 

Great Salt Lake Model Depletion, Katherine Wright

Spring Runoff Conference

When does water leasing make sense? Using New Information to Make Better Leases.

Lease, but only if it makes sense.

• Farmers have a legal right to use water on their farms for agriculture.
• Leasing might be a good economic decision for you, but not your neighbor.
• Leasing is voluntary, the purpose of this presentation is to explain the benefits of leasing and give you the information you need to decide if it is right for you. 

Utah Water Research Lab, David Tarboton

Spring Runoff Conference

The concept of a dedicated water research laboratory evolved over years, with significant contributions from Vaughn E. Hansen, Dean F. Peterson, and George D. Clyde. The UWRL represents the culmination of a long-held vision at USU to advance water research.

Legislative Updates Panel, Casey Snider, Brian Steed, Kelly Pehrson, Joel Ferry

Spring Runoff Conference

Legislative Updates Panel

Water Rights Update, Teresa Wilhelmsen

Spring Runoff Conference

State Engineer's Update:

2024-2025 Strategic Action Plan

2024 Updates by functional section:

• Adjudication
• Applications & Records
• Dam Safety & Stream Alterations
• Data Services
• Field Services
• Technical Services

Northern Utah Gaging And Measurement Infrastructure Needs And Updates, Beth Neilson

Spring Runoff Conference

We can’t manage what we don’t MEASURE. We can’t manage what we don’t UNDERSTAND.

Great Salt Lake: What’S Next?, Brian Steed

Spring Runoff Conference

Water security is key to living in the West.

Snowpack And Water Supply Outlook, Jordan Clayton

Spring Runoff Conference

>95% of the water we use in Northern Utah comes from snow. Therefore, it’s critically important to quantify how much water is stored in our snowpack.

Seepage Evolution Patterns And Self-Sealing Characterization Of Mining-Induced Overburden Fractures In Ecologically Vulnerable Mining Areas, Li Jianwei, Sun Yanchao, Zhang Chuanjiu, Ta Xupeng, Cao Jian, Zhang Jian

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective The ecologically vulnerable areas (EVAs) in West China have been significantly affected by coal mining. In these areas, aquifers overlying goaves have been damaged under mining disturbance, being prone to cause water resource loss and desertification. Hence, it is crucial to guide the self-sealing of fractures artificially to preserve and further restore the groundwater level.Methods This study investigated mining face 22108 in the Buertai coal mine in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Based on the physical simulation experiments using similar materials, numerical calculations, and theoretical analysis, this study delved into the seepage evolution patterns of fractures in the …

Application Of A Generative Adversarial Network Algorithm To Filling Blank Strips Of Fractures In Formation Microresistivity Imaging Images, Kang Zhengming, Wu Chensheng, Yang Guodong, Wu Disheng, Wang Ruifei, Yang Xiangyu, Gan Wei

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective Gaps between the electrodes of formation microresistivity imaging (FMI) imagers lead to blank strips in the resistivity images of borehole walls, significantly influencing the parameter assessment for fractures near borehole walls. The absence of full-borehole images renders it challenging to assess the blank strip filling quality for fractures in FMI images. Using a dataset constructed utilizing both simulated and actual data, this study proposed a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based method for filling the blank strips of fractures in FMI images. Methods First, the resistivity logging responses of a fractured formation were simulated using the 3D finite element method. Actual …

An Edge Awareness-Enhanced Visual Slam Method For Underground Coal Mines, Mu Qi, Liang Xin, Guo Yuanjie, Wang Yuhao, Li Zhanli

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective Underground coal mines commonly exhibit low illuminance, weak textures, and structuralization-induced feature degradation. These scenes lead to challenges of insufficient effective features and high mismatch rates to the visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system, severely compromising its localization accuracy and robustness. Methods This study proposed an edge awareness-enhanced visual SLAM method. First, an edge-awareness constrained low-illuminance image enhancement module was developed. Specifically, images with clear textures and uniform illumination were obtained using the Retinex algorithm optimized using an adaptive gradient-domain guided filter. This significantly improved feature extraction performance under low and uneven lighting conditions. Second, an edge awareness-enhanced …