Hydraulic Engineering Commons^™

Hydrological Water Resources Assessment Of Cega-Eresma-Adaja Watershed System Using Swat Model, David A. Rivas, Angel De Miguel, Bárbara Willarts

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the hydrological assessment of water bodies, modeling is a key fact in water management strategies of watersheds and serves as a tool for decision making considering environmental issues as the core of sustainable development in the region. In this direction, SWAT model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to assess the water availability related with agricultural management in the watersheds of the tributary rivers Cega, Eresma and Adaja of Duero’s River in Spain both in the current and future climate change scenarios. To define the HRUs, land use maps from remote-sensing processes were used, extracting the agricultural uses …

A Conceptual Framework For An Agricultural Agent- Based Model With A Two-Level Social Component: Modeling Farmer Groups, Tatjana Kuznecova, Alexey A. Voinov

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

In the last decade, collective actions within smallholder groups and cooperatives have been promoted by various development programs and projects. However, to develop appropriate programs and policies aimed at supporting cooperation among farmers, an approach may be required able to reflect the dynamics of an agricultural system resulting from decision-making and interactions between elements at different levels and scales.

In this study, we are focusing on the groups of smallholders organizing for collective crop production and/or marketing. Our aim is to provide an approach and a tool to gain a deeper insight in how cooperative groups emerge and perform under …

Design And Implementation Of Integrated Surveillance And Modelling Systems For Climate- Sensitive Diseases, Michael C. Wimberly, Justin Davis, Geoffrey M. Henebry, Michael B. Hildreth, Yi Liu, Christopher L. Merkord

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Climatic variations can have a multitude of impacts on human health, ranging from the direct impacts of extreme heat events to indirect effects on the vectors and hosts that transmit a multitude of infectious diseases. Infectious disease surveillance has traditionally focused on monitoring human cases, and in some instances tracking population sizes and infection rates of arthropod vectors and zoonotic hosts. For climate-sensitive diseases, there is potential to strengthen surveillance and obtain early indicators of future outbreaks by monitoring environmental risk factors using broad-scale sensor networks that include earth-observing satellites as well as ground stations. We highlight the opportunities and …

Simulating Structural Change In Agriculture: Modelling Farming Households And Farm Succession, Christian Troost, Thomas Berger

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The majority of European farms are family farms. Farm succession, i.e. passing over the responsibility from farm owner and manager to their heir, is an important element of structural change in agriculture. We present a model implementation capturing farming household evolution in an agent- based model and explore the consequences of farm household composition and farm succession on agricultural production, investment and participation in agri-environmental policy schemes.

A Dynamic Water Supply Portfolio Optimisation Approach, Michael G. Porter, Oz Sahin

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper examines the future water supply situation in Adelaide, a relatively dry city in South Australia, in the driest populated continent on earth. Using the Systems Approach, we analyse a diversified strategy with a new portfolio mix of core bulk water: (i) rainfall independent desalinated water from the ocean and (ii) rainfall dependent water from catchments including the Mount Lofty Ranges (MLR) and water piped from the Murray‐Darling Basin (MDB) including via the Mannum‐Adelaide Pipeline. Our focus is on the quantity, indicative costs and risks of water supply, and associated augmentation choices and trade‐offs, over the next century to …

Modelling Urban Transition: A Case Of Rainwater Harvesting, Adam C. Castonguay, Christian Urich, Md Sayed Iftekhar, Ana Deletic

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Cities are increasingly exposed to extreme climate events such as floods and droughts. Land use change is also expected to reduce the availability of green spaces and intensify extreme heat events. Given these pressures on the quality of life of urban dwellers, there is a great need to improve the integrated management of water to enable sustainable development of rapidly growing cities and improve human well-being. A promising way to make urban communities more liveable is to invest in green water technologies, that is, decentralised and low-energy water supply, wastewater and stormwater solutions, to foster the transition to more sustainable …

An Optimization Approach To Define Effective Air Quality Policies At Urban Scale, Helder Relvas, Ana Isabel Miranda, Joana Ferreira, Alexandra Monteiro, Enrico Turrini, Claudio Carnevale, Marialuisa Volta

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The use of modeling to support environmental authorities to plan air quality control policies is now quite widespread in Europe. At the sub-national level, the most common approach is based on a scenario analysis which uses Chemical Transport Models (CTM) to assess the impact of emission reductions on air pollution concentrations. In this work, a multi-objective approach based on RIAT+ (Regional Integrated Assessment Tool) is used to cost-efficiently define air quality improvement policies. Internal costs (due to the implementation of emission reduction measures) and external benefit gains (due to the reduction of population exposure to air pollution levels) are worked …

A Better Way To Build Plant Models, Dean Holzworth, Hamish Brown, Neil Huth

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The plant modelling framework (PMF) in the next generation of APSIM enables plant models to be constructed in a novel, more reliable and robust manner. It provides a library of small processes that can be aggregated into bigger processes which in turn can be combined into larger constructs, ultimately forming a plant model. The user interface supports a workflow that allows the model builder to collate and store experimental data, construct the model (by process aggregation), create and run simulations of the experimental data and graphically view the performance of the model. The model builder can then iteratively modify the …

Towards Standard Variable Names For Environmental Chemistry: Semantic Mediation And Extensions To The Csdms Standard Names, Scott Dale Peckham

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

When a model needs to obtain the values of its input variables from another model or from a data file, it is necessary to reliably match the internal vocabularies of the coupled resources (e.g. models or data sets). In addition, spatial regridding, time interpolation and unit conversion may be required. In order to automate this semantic matching and variable exchange process in a model coupling framework, the internal vocabularies of the resources to be coupled must be mapped to a controlled vocabulary in a hub-and-spoke manner. The CSDMS Standard Names provide a domain-independent set of conventions and rules for constructing …

How Modellers Frame Uncertainty In Scientific Publications: Review And Reflections, Joseph H.A. Guillaume, Casey Helgeson, Sondoss Elsawah, Anthony J. Jakeman, Matti Kummu

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Uncertainty is recognised as an essential issue in environmental modelling. As modellers, we notably use a variety of tools and techniques within an analysis, for example related to uncertainty quantification and model validation. We also address uncertainty by how we present results. For example, experienced modellers are careful to distinguish robust conclusions from those that need further work, and the precision of quantitative results is tailored to their accuracy. In doing so, the modeller frames how uncertainty should be interpreted by their audience. This is an area which extends beyond modelling to fields such as philosophy of science, semantics, discourse …

Modelling Combinations Of Economic Instruments To Eliminate Depletion In The Alto Guadalentín Aquifer (Se Spain), David Martínez-Granados, Javier Calatrava

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper analyses the cost-effectiveness of combining several policy instruments to address the problem of non-renewable pumping in the Alto Guadalentín aquifer in Southeast Spain, one of the most extreme cases of aquifer depletion in Europe. Their economic impact is assessed using a partial equilibrium non-linear mathematical programming model that maximises the farm net margin resulting from the use of the available water resources for irrigation in the area. Our results show that all the alternatives have significant economic impacts, although the future availability of desalinised resources would notably mitigate them, as farmers can substitute groundwater with desalinised water. …

Repair Of Failing Spirit Lake Outlet Tunnel At Mount St. Helens, J. P. Britton, S. K. Askelson, C. M. Budai, D. H. Scofield

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The 18 May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens resulted in one of the largest debris avalanches recorded in history. The debris avalanche blocked the natural outlet of Spirit Lake. To prevent an uncontrolled and catastrophic lake break-out, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) constructed the Spirit Lake Outlet Tunnel from 1984 to 1985. Because Spirit Lake is located in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, the project was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for ownership and management. During original tunnel construction, the most difficulty occurred within the 90-m-wide Julie and Kathy L. shear zone complex. …

Optimization Of Air Entrained Grout Enriched Roller Compacted Concrete For Improving Freeze-Thaw Resistance Of Hydraulic Structures, E. S. Musselman, R. J. Flynn, G. J. Zimmer, J. R. Young Pe

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Roller compacted concrete (RCC) is frequently used to construct gravity dams, stepped spillways, and to armor earthen embankments for passing extreme floods. Early experience on RCC dam applications in the 1980s showed a tendency for seepage to develop along the lift lines. Therefore, RCC dam designers started including an upstream facing system as a watertight barrier. An alternative facing material that has been used extensively overseas and is starting to gain more widespread acceptance in the United States is Grout Enriched RCC (GERCC). The grout enriched method of face construction has been shown to be less expensive than other facing …

South Channel Dam Rehabilitation Project - Successfully Addressing Dam Rehabilitation Challenges, M. D. Graeser, M. C. Jensen

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Post Falls South Channel Dam is located on the Spokane River in Post Falls, Idaho. The concrete gravity dam was constructed in 1906 and was recently rehabilitated. The rehabilitation project included several design elements; the primary objectives were the replacement of the six spillway gates and hoists and significant rehabilitation of the concrete. The South Channel Dam rehabilitation encountered several challenges due to the age and condition of the existing structure, the large scale of the rehabilitation, and the location of the project. The concrete rehabilitation addressed several challenges which are presented in detail. The existing concrete consisted of …

Optimizing A New Flow Diversion Structure For The Planned Expanding Of The Spillway For The Malter Dam In Germany Using A Physical Hydraulic Model, J. Schmidt, J. Wieland, J. Jensen

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The State Reservoir Administration of Saxony is planning to expand the spillway discharge capacity of the 102-year-old Malter Dam. After a catastrophic flood in 2002, updated hydrologic modeling indicated that the design discharges for the dam had increased significantly. As a result, the original spillway discharge capacity was insufficient to pass the revised design flows. A design concept was developed to add a second spillway and stilling basin to the dam, and to pass flow into this spillway using a novel vertical flow separator. The design and performance of this system was evaluated using a 1:25-scale physical model. The modeling …

St. Mary Diversion Dam – Case Study Of A 100 Year Old Diversion, B. J. Heiner, J. Wagner

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

After 100 years of service, the St. Mary Diversion Dam is being replaced with a new design that will provide more effective fish passage and protection. The diversion is located in northern Montana, adjacent to the east side of Glacier National Park. It diverts water from the St. Mary River 1.21 km (0.75 mile) downstream of Lower St. Mary Lake. The existing 60.35-meter-long and 1.83-meter-high (198-foot-long and 6-foot-high) concrete weir diverts up to 24 cubic meters per second (850 cubic feet per second) design flow from the St. Mary River into the North Fork of the Milk River through a …

Evaluation Of Flexible Barrier And Sabo Dam To Control Effects Of Debris Flow In Santo Domingo Ravine, J. W. Cabrera Cabrera, L. F. Castillo Navarro

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Coast of Peru is characterized for the presence of ephemeral creeks which drain water only on wet season. The extremely dry soil and pebble combined with precipitation produce debris flow in a seasonal geodynamic. This is the case of Santo Domingo ravine which is located at eastern Lima, and drains their water to Rimac River. In this article the vulnerability of villages near to Santo Domingo ravine by debris flow and use of flexible barrier and sabo dams are analyzed. In a first stage, the liquid hydrograph to a 100 years return period was built and a solid hydrograph, a …

Fish Passage Behavior Behavior Through Baffled And Nonbaffled Culvert, M. A. Khodier, Blake P. Tullis

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Culverts can have a negative impact on fish passage. Installing baffles inside culverts can potentially improve culvert fish passage by decreasing the flow velocity and increasing the flow depth. Fish passage behaviors of wild brown trout through a small prototype-scale (0.6 m diameter), 18.3 m in length, baffled, and non-baffled culverts were observed in the laboratory for a variety of discharges and pipe slopes (up to 6%). The baffle height and spacing was 0.15 and 0.9 times the culvert diameter, respectively. The correlation between successful fish passage, sample fish population, and the fish length was evaluated. The influence of baffles …

The Role Of Physical And Numerical Modeling In Design Development Of The Priest Rapids Fish Bypass, T. C. Lyons, M. Politano, C. Dotson, L. J. Weber, D. Hay

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

This paper describes a number of years of physical and numerical modelling that were instrumental in the development of the final fish bypass design at Priest Rapids Dam. Three physical models and multiple numerical models were used to guide the design of the fish bypass including its location on the dam, impact on forebay and tailrace flow patterns, intake configuration, design flow rates, flow control scheme, tailrace egress, potential for scour near the dam, potential impacts on total dissolved gas (TDG), impacts on spillway and powerhouse operation, and overall fish friendliness of the bypass.

Throughout those years of design work, …

Study On The Proceeding Of Hydraulic Problem Of Simulating Natural Fish Passage, Zhijuan Wang, Qingyuan Yang, Minghai Huang, Yong He

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Fish passage in water conservancy projects is an important means of improving river connectivity, and reducing the impact on the ecological environment. Simulating natural fish passage, which aims at the purpose of the river ecological corridor by the means of ecological optimization on the structure and section type based on the traditional fish passage, is promoted and applied in recent years gradually. At the same time, the hydraulic research related to the simulating natural fish passage has made great progress. In this paper, we firstly collected and summarized the research experience of the domestic and foreign typical fish passage, analyzed …

Application Of The Optical Flow Method To Velocity Determination In Hydraulic Structure Models, D. B. Bung, Daniel Valero

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Optical flow estimation is used in Computer Vision for detection of moving obstacles in a sequence of images. The optical flow (OF) is defined as the displacement of brightness patterns between two sequent images. In this paper,this method is applied to high-speed images taken in hydraulic structure models for determination of velocity fields.Water is seeded with tracer particles in two cases and is self-aerated in a third case. It will be shown that the OF method gives valuable results which compare well to other velocity measurements, e.g. by Particle ImageVelocimetry. The OF method is generally more time-consuming compared to PIV, …

Technical Developments In Fish Exclusion, Guidance, And Collection Materials, A. L. Peters

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Construction of mills, dams and other structures in rivers and streams, and the withdrawal of water for irrigation or cooling industrial facilities vital to social and economic progress, have impacted the survival of marine life. Barriers and guidance or collection nets can protect fish and aquatic species while allowing water to flow unimpeded for commercial and industrial use. However, nets can attract aquatic growth, fill with debris, degrade with environmental stress, and be expensive to operate and maintain.

A closer look at the technical developments of materials and net designs in diverse settings can offer guidance that will be of …

Evaluation Of Spillway Stilling Basin Performance And Reservoir Sediment Flushing In A Physical Model Case Study: Due Hydroelectric Project In Ecuador, Ali Habibzadeh, Brian Hughes, Hernan Barahona

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Due Hydroelectric Project is a proposed 50 MW run-of-river hydroelectric project being developed by Hidroalto SA. The project will be located on the Rio Due in Ecuador. The civil works of the intake facility will be comprised of a 133.45 m wide diversion weir, with two overflow spillways and six gated sluice channels; a four bay intake structure with sediment excluder; and, a fish bypass facility. Northwest Hydraulic Consultants (NHC) evaluated the initial design of the Due intake and spillway facilities using a 1:35 Froude-scaled physical model for river discharges ranging from the intake design discharge of 57.2 m3 …

Impacts Of Tailwater On The Design Of Several Stilling Basins In The Usa, L. E. Shearin-Feimster

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The dissipation of excess energy from flows exiting a spillway is often needed to prevent or reduce to acceptable levels conceivable negative impacts to the downstream channel, spillway, and dam (e.g., erosion, undermining). The optimization of a hydraulic jump type stilling basin using general purpose published design methodologies (i.e., USBR, SAF, etc.) for a project can be challenging, as these methodologies may not account for all site specific conditions and structure formulations by designers. Also, it is not often clear to a designer as to which flow rates (and corresponding flood events) will have the greatest influence on the basin …

A Risk Based Framework For Evaluating Gated Spillway Operations, Greg Paxson, Marty Mccann Jr, Mark Landis

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Gated spillways are often necessary to provide both operational flexibility and discharge capacity to pass large flood events. However, gated spillways present operational challenges to dam owners and operators, often necessitating development of a flood operations plan (FOP) that is used in tandem with the dam’s emergency action plan (EAP). Even a well-intentioned and robust FOP/EAP can require personnel to predict flooding, use judgment particular to the requirements of the plan, and react quickly. In addition, all of the equipment required to operate the gates need to function as designed and be operated in accordance with the FOP.

This paper …

A Remotely Controlled Siphon System For Dynamic Water Storage Management, Arturo Leon, Ali Alnahit

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

Previous research has concluded that upland wetlands could be effective to control small floods, yet for large floods their value may be greatly reduced as their storage capacity may be exceeded. A potential solution could be to release water from wetlands ahead of (e.g., few days before) a heavy rainfall event that is forecasted to produce flooding. In this case, the wetlands would be partially empty when this rainfall occurs. This work is part of a long term project which aims at developing a decision support system (DSS) that will determine optimal flooding scenarios with dynamic management of wetlands using …

Unsteady-Flow Modeling For Emergency Shutdown Of The Cap Canal, Bert Clemmens, Brian Wahlin, Marcus Shapiro, Patrick Dent

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is designed to bring about 1.9 ML of Colorado River water per year to Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties in Arizona. CAP carries water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu toTucson. The CAP canal system is a 540 km long system of conveyance system aqueducts, tunnels, pumping plants,pipelines and a large reservoir (just north of Phoenix, AZ). Water is pumped uphill from the Colorado River. This study was conducted for the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct of the Central Arizona Project (CAP), which starts at the after bay of the Bouse Hill Pumping Plant and extends to …

Managing Dam Safety Risks Related To Hydraulic Structures, W. R. Fiedler

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Bureau of Reclamation’s Dam Safety Program manages risk for over 300 high and significant hazard dams.When risk estimates for potential failure modes indicate increasing justification to take action to reduce risk, dam safety recommendations are typically made. The dam safety recommendations can focus on collecting additional data/performing studies to better quantify risk or on initiating corrective actions to address well defined risks. Dam safety recommendations within Reclamation’s inventory address a number of different issues, such as those related to internal erosion, flood overtopping of dams and seismic stability of dams. Dam safety recommendations related to hydraulic structure potential failure …

Decision-Making Through Sustainability, F. Pardo-Bosch, A. Aguado

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

From immemorial time, dams have contributed significantly for the progress of civilizations. For this reason, nowadays, there is a vast engineering heritage. Over the years, these infrastructures can present some ordinary maintenance issues associated with their normal operation or with ageing processes.

Normally, these problems do not represent an important risk for the structure, but they have to be attended. To do it, owners of dams have to finance many ordinary interventions. As it is impossible to carry out all of them at the same time, managers have to make a decision and select the most “important” ones. However, it …

Water System Operator Training For The Central Arizona Project, Brian Wahlin, Bert Clemmens

International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is designed to bring about 1.85 billion cubic meters (1.5 million acre-feet) of Colorado River water per year to Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties in Arizona. The CAP canal system is a 540-km (336-mile) long system of conveyance aqueducts, tunnels, pumping plants, and pipelines that is monitored and remotely controlled using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software from CAP headquarters in Phoenix, AZ. Because the CAP is crucial to the renewable water supply in Arizona, operating the canal effectively is of utmost importance. Typical day-to-day operations for Water System Operators on the CAP involve …