Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Hydrologic Response Caused By Wetland Expansion At Huntley Meadows Park In Hybla Valley, Virginia, Stephen Fraser Stone

OES Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to understand the effects of wetland expansion across a watershed. The 2013 restoration and expansion of the wetlands at Huntley Meadows Park (Fairfax County, VA) performed by Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. provided the opportunity to study this process. The 630 ha park contains more than 364 ha of freshwater emergent and freshwater forested wetlands. The restoration and expansion project used a subsurface vinyl-piling dam that impedes groundwater flow leaving the wetland, thus expanding the existing pond and the surrounding wetland.

This study used a network of more than twenty monitoring instruments making observations …

Estimated Grass Grazing Removal Rate In A Semiarid Eurasian Steppe Watershed As Influenced By Climate, Xixi Wang, Shohreh Pedram, Tingxi Liu, Ruizhong Gao, Fengling Li, Yanyun Luo

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Grazing removal rate of grasses needs to be determined for various climate conditions to address eco-environmental concerns (e.g., desertification) related to steppe grassland degradation. The conventional approach, which requires survey data on animal species and heads as well as grass consumption per individual animal, is too costly and time-consuming to be applied at a watershed scale. The objective of this study was to present a new approach that can be used to estimate grazing removal rate with no requirement of animal-related data. The application of this new approach was demonstrated in a Eurasian semiarid typical-steppe watershed for an analysis period …

Vapor Flow Resistance Of Dry Soil Layer To Soil Water Evaporation In Arid Environment: An Overview, Xixi Wang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Evaporation from bare sandy soils is the core component of the hydrologic cycle in arid environments, where vertical water movement dominates. Although extensive measurement and modeling studies have been conducted and reported in existing literature, the physics of dry soil and its function in evaporation is still a challenging topic with significant remaining issues. Thus, an overview of the previous findings will be very beneficial for identifying further research needs that aim to advance our understanding of the vapor flow resistance (VFR) effect on soil water evaporation as influenced by characteristics of the dry soil layer (DSL) and evaporation zone …