Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Response Of Fishes To Restoration Projects In Bayou St. John Located Within The City Of New Orleans, Louisiana, Including Hydrological Characterization And Hydrodynamic Modelling, Patrick W. Smith

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Quantifying the impacts of restoration on coastal waterways is crucial to understanding their effectiveness. Here, I look at the impacts of multiple restoration projects on urban waterways within the city limits of New Orleans, LA, with an emphasis on the response of fishes. First I report the effects of two projects designed to improve exchange down estuary on the hydrologic characteristics of Bayou St. John (BSJ). Within BSJ, flow is dominated by subtidal wind driven processes. Removal of an outdated flood control structure did not appear to alter exchange in BSJ, but removal combined with sector gate openings did. I …

The Force Of Water: Columbia After The Flood, Rebecca Johnson

Senior Theses

Nearly two months have passed, and South Carolina is still recovering from the unprecedented inundation of rain that pelted down in early October. Record amounts of precipitation pounded the state over just a few days, resulting in the flooding and erosion of land, the deterioration of public infrastructure and the loss of human life and capital.

The worst of it was in the capital city. Columbia recorded the highest water levels and the highest number of fatalities of all the affected areas. The city’s utilities could not handle the torrent of water: dams were destroyed, canals were compromised, roads were …

Silver Nanoparticle Transport Through Soil: Illuminating The Governing Pore-Scale Processes, Ian L. Molnar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Engineered nanoparticles are widely used and will eventually be released to the subsurface environment and contaminate groundwater resources. However, the transport of engineered nanoparticles through soil is currently not well understood and cannot be modelled in any fundamental manner, placing groundwater resources at risk from nanoparticle contamination. This inability to accurately simulate transport is due to a lack of experimental information on nanoparticle interactions in the pore spaces of real soils.

This thesis illuminates the pore-scale processes governing silver nanoparticle transport through soil. In addition, it examines the influence of surface chemistry and grain/pore distributions on those processes. For the …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Chemical And Physical Weathering On Submerged Karst Surfaces, Bryan Charles Booth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reports an investigation of the effects of chemical and physical weathering on submerged karst surfaces that pairs laboratory studies with computer modeling studies. The first study attempts to quantify the production of carbonate fines; soluble sediments produced by the incomplete dissolution of karst minerals during chemical weathering. Results show carbonate fine production in relation to dissolutional action; Chalk: 42.8%; Coquina: 2.6%; Dolomite: 3.1%; Gray Limestone: 4.8%; Ocala Limestone: 3.1%; Shell Limestone: 6.1%; Travertine: 8.6%. Due to the use of hydrochloric acid as opposed to carbonic acid these results may not be fully valid for application to natural speleogenic processes. The …

Assessing The Effects Of Riverbank Inducement On A Shallow Aquifer In Southeastern Wisconsin, Laura Rachel Fields-Sommers

Theses and Dissertations

The state of Wisconsin is heavily reliant upon groundwater resources. In order to induce river water, implementation of shallow wells with close proximity to river systems is being used as a method to augment groundwater supplies in portions of southeastern Wisconsin. However, river bank wells (RBI) are vulnerable to contamination due to their close interaction with the surface water. The vulnerability increases when induced surface waters contain municipally treated waste water. The objective of this study was to determine the current and potential influences of riverbank inducement, recharge mechanisms of the well field, and to discriminate the sources of sodium …

The Mixing Of A River Into Coastal Waters At Two Beaches: Environmental Factors, E. Coli Contributions And Applications For Predictive Models, Adrian Jordan Koski

Theses and Dissertations

Beach closures and public health protection are confounded by analytical procedures that result in delays in notification of adverse water quality conditions and the lack of affordable analytical methods to identify pollutant sources. Attempts have been made to develop predictive frameworks using ancillary hydrometeorological data to statistically anticipate deteriorated water quality. Many urban coastal beaches are impacted by river runoff. In Kenosha Wisconsin, beach sanitary survey data from two beaches adjacent to the mouth of the Pike River were examined to ascertain whether simple river-lake mixing models identified river influence on coastal water quality and improved predictions of beach advisories. …

Soft-Sediment Deformation And Dune Collapse In The Navajo Sandstone, Colby Ford

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The Canyon Overlook Trail of Zion National Park follows an outcrop of Navajo Sandstone, which displays a uniquely well-exposed assemblage of features associated with failure of the lee face of a large eolian dune, and run-out over an expanse of interdune sediments downwind of that bedform. Exposed features include dramatic folds in the interdune succession and a stacked series of thrust sheets incorporating both interdune and overlying dune deposits. Thrust surfaces display consistent strikes, parallel to those of undeformed foresets, and incorporate zones of brittle failure and fluid deformation, including folds overturned in the direction of foreset dip. These features …

Monitoring And Modeling The Hydrological Performance Of Extensive Green Roof Systems, Joseph Seidl

Theses and Dissertations

Urban stormwater runoff causes many problems for watersheds located within large metropolitan areas, including such detrimental effects as flooding, erosion, pollution, and the increased risk of combined sewerage overflows. Increased amounts of impervious areas resulting from urban sprawl have also been shown to escalate stormwater flows, which exacerbates water management issues in these metropolitan areas. Water resource engineers have progressively turned toward green infrastructure to solve stormwater problems, and green roof systems represent one type of this green infrastructure. As of current, however, green roof systems are largely underused in as an effective stormwater management tool.

The major factor limiting …

Hydrology-Biology Response Relationships In The Ozark Highlands, Dustin Thomas Lynch

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I examined flow-ecology relationships among stream communities in the Ozark Highlands, USA. I sampled fish, crayfish, and benthic macroinvertebrates during two consecutive summers, including a drought year (2012) and a flood year (2013). Biological response variables related to community structure were assessed via two different statistical methods: an Information Theoretic approach relating response variables to a priori selected predictor variables incorporating hydrology, habitat, geomorphology, and water quality, and canonical ordination using forward selection to relate these same response variables to a large assortment of hydrologic metrics. In addition to assessing metrics related to predicted natural flow, flow alteration at gaged …

Addressing Potential Risks And Challenges Of Co2 Geologic Sequestration, Ethan Guyant

Theses and Dissertations

Carbon Capture and Geologic Storage is a viable technology to reduce the concentration of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere, however there remains challenges and risks associated with implementing this technology. One of the challenges, and the focus of Chapter 2, is maintaining the injectivity of the reservoir throughout the entire injection period of a project. While potential risks include the pressurization of the reservoir and the leakage of CO2 and/or brine out of the storage reservoir which is the focus of Chapter 3. A consequence of injecting dry-supercritical CO2 is that it results in salt precipitation in the near well …

Experimental Limestone Dissolution And Changes In Multiscale Structure Using Small- And Ultra Small- Angle Neutron Scattering, Chad Alan Novack

Masters Theses

Small angle neutron scattering (SANS), ultra-small angle neutron scattering (USANS), and backscatter electron (BSE) imaging, along with neutron computed tomography (NCT) were used in this study to experimentally quantify pore size, distribution, and connectivity of dissolved limestone geometries. Eight samples of Indiana limestone of two different initial permeabilities (2-4 mD and 70 mD ) [millidarcy] were reacted with HCl [hydrochloric acid] solutions at differing pH (2 and 4), and flow rates (0.1 and 10 cm³/min) [cubic centimeters per minute] to describe a broad range of parameters that affect limestone dissolution. NCT was first used to image the dissolution …

Modified Polysulfone Nanofiltration Membrane Synthesis For Hydraulic Fracturing Water Recycle, Blake Alexander Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of hydraulic fracturing has resulted in significant increases in the yield of oil and natural gas, as water pumped into wells at high pressure cracks the formations and releases the hydrocarbons that are locked in the rocks. This process has created large volumes of brackish water that is very difficult to process and is often disposed of into injection wells. Suspended solids and some dissolved solids are more readily removed, but the multivalent ions found in certain salts can precipitate in a well and complicate the reuse of flowback in future hydraulic fracturing operations.

Nanofiltration, a membrane separation …

Rewetting Of Artificially Desiccated Soils: Effect Of Gravity On Vapor-Phase Diffusion, Taylor Arland Ball

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Soil desiccation has been suggested as an economically viable alternative for stabilizing water soluble contaminants in deep vadose zones such as at the Hanford Site. This approach would result in a large volume of the vadose zone being dried out in an effort to eliminate the transport mechanism for aqueous phase contaminants. Protecting the top and sides of the desiccated vadose zone from rewetting is a realistic possibility; however, it would be extremely difficult to restrict the upward migration of water from beneath the desiccated zone. One scenario related to the rewetting of the desiccated soil involves the upward migration …

Using Digital Elevation Models Derived From Airborne Lidar And Other Remote Sensing Data To Model Channel Networks And Estimate Fluvial Geomorphological Metrics, Noah Slovin

Masters Theses

Recent advances in remote-sensing technologies and analysis methods, specifically airborne-LiDAR elevation data and corresponding geographical information system (GIS) tools, present new opportunities for automated and rapid fluvial geomorphic (FGM) assessments that can cover entire watersheds. In this thesis, semi-automated GIS tools are used to extract channel centerlines and bankfull width values from digital elevation models (DEM) for five New England watersheds. For each study site, four centerlines are mapped. LiDAR and NED lines are delineated using ArcGIS spatial analyst tools with high-resolution (1-m to 2-m) LiDAR DEMs or USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED) DEMs, respectively. Resampled LiDAR decreases LiDAR DEM …

Impacts Of Three-Dimensional Non-Uniform Groundwater Flows For Quantifying Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions Using Heat As A Tracer, Jonathan M. Reeves

Masters Theses

Heat-as-a-tracer has become a common method to quantify surface water-groundwater interactions (SW/GW). However, the method relies on a number of assumptions that are likely violated in natural systems. Numerical studies have explored the effects of violating these fundamental assumptions to various degrees, such as heterogeneous streambed properties, two-dimensional groundwater flow fields and uncertainty in thermal parameters for the 1-dimensional heat-as-a-tracer method. No work to date has addressed the impacts of non-uniform, three-dimensional groundwater flows on the use of heat-as-a-tracer to quantify SW/GW interactions. Synthetic temperature time series were generated using COMSOL Multiphysics for a three-dimensional cube designed to represent a …

Phosphorus Sorption Dynamics In Shallow Groundwater, Coastal Everglades, Florida, Usa, Hilary Flower

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For this dissertation I studied phosphorus (P) sorption dynamics in the shallow groundwater of the southern Everglades. In particular, I examined how the ambient water type governs soluble reactive P (SRP) availability through adsorption/desorption reactions with the aquifer matrix. Chapter 2 investigated how P sorption dynamics of the mangrove root zone sediment are affected by high bicarbonate brackish groundwater compared to both fresh groundwater and saltwater. The results from chapter 2 show that the sediment exhibited exceptionally low sorption efficiency in the high bicarbonate brackish water, which would allow ambient water SRP concentration to be maintained at a higher level. …

Evaluation Of Low-Cost Low Impact Development Practices In Southwest Florida For The Control Of Urban Runoff, Laura Kathren Rankin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater management is required due to development and alteration of the natural environment. It is heavily regulated in Florida and at the national level. Over the last two decades, Low Impact Development (LID) has been promoted as a sustainable and environmentally friendly method of controlling urban runoff. Case studies, provided in Chapter 2, show that LIDs can restore watershed hydrology by balancing the water budget. The difference in runoff between pre-development and post-development appears to increase with soil perviousness. However, the potential for mitigating the impacts of urbanization through runoff reduction is also greater for pervious, sandy soils that dominate …

Hydrogeologic Investigation Of A Pumice Aquifer, Fremont/Winema National Forest, Oregon, Jonathan Michael Weatherford

Dissertations and Theses

The middle Holocene cataclysmic eruption of Mount Mazama blanketed Walker Rim, in south central Oregon, with 270 cm to 300 cm of pumice, causing capture of surface water systems by groundwater, stream relocation, and the formation of biologically diverse fens and seasonal wetlands. The pumice aquifer at Round Meadow, an 8.6 km² basin, hosts both a fen and seasonally ponded wetlands. The Round Meadow watershed lies within a closed basin between the upper Klamath and Deschutes river basins. As the highest meadow at Walker Rim, it is a relatively well-constrained system to study the effects of hydrological disruption.

A …

Temperature As A Proxy To Study The Flow Of Water Within Two Maine Streambeds, Jarrod D. Cicha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Heat transport studies often focus on calculating an average direction and magnitude of groundwater flow within the streambed for long (3 days – 1 week) periods of time. Short-term changes in flow magnitude and/or direction within the streambed caused by near stream groundwater pumping and storms are not represented by these long term averaging methods. Temperature profiles collected in B Stream (Houlton, Maine) and the Stillwater River (Orono, Maine) were used to calibrate a one-dimensional heat transport model and quantify short-term hydraulic events in vertical groundwater velocity within streambeds. Temperature profiles were collected during the summer of 2014 with iButton …

Field Scale Application Of Nanoscale Zero Valent Iron: Mobility, Contaminant Degradation, And Impact On Microbial Communities, Chris M.D. Kocur

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis began by verifying that nanoscale zero valent iron (nZVI) synthesis methods could be scaled up and implemented at the field scale in a safe manner. This led to successful demonstration of nZVI injection and mobility under constant head gravity injection into a contaminated utility corridor in Sarnia, Ontario. Where field studies have fallen short in the past was linking the somewhat qualitative field geochemical parameters to other evidence of nZVI transport. Definitive nZVI detection was elusive in previous field studies due to the highly reactive nature of the particles caused by their high surface area. nZVI was detected …

Evidence Of Late Quaternary Fires From Charcoal And Siliceous Aggregates In Lake Sediments In The Eastern U.S.A., Joanne P. Ballard

Doctoral Dissertations

The late-glacial transition to the Holocene, 15,000–11,600 cal yr BP, is an enigmatic period of dynamic global changes and a major extinction event in North America. Fire is an agent of disturbance that transforms the environment physically and chemically, and affects plant community composition. To improve understanding of the linkages between fire, vegetation, and climate over the late glacial and Holocene in the eastern U.S., I analyzed lake-sediment cores for charcoal and indicators of wood ash, and compared results to existing pollen records. A new microscopic charcoal record from Anderson Pond, Tennessee revealed high fire activity from 23,000–15,000 cal yr …

Stable Isotopes Reveal A Disconnect Between Biotic And Abiotic Hydrological Processes In A Seasonally-Dry, Semi-Arid Watershed, Ryan James Mccutcheon

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, it had been thought that humid catchment woody plants transpired primarily mobile soil water that would otherwise flow to streams or recharge groundwater. However, several recent studies have suggested that trees in seasonally-dry humid catchments use primarily tightly-bound, immobile soil water that does not fully mix with new precipitation or participate in translatory flow. McDonnell (2014) called this existence of two, hydrologically-distinct, water pools “the two water worlds hypothesis.” This ecohydrological behavior has important implications for understanding a wide range of catchment processes, including the spatial and temporal variability of evapotranspiration and nutrient cycling, and our abilities to …

Impacts Of Changing Snowmelt Timing On Non-Irrigated Crop Yield, Erin Murray

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As climate changes, the final date of spring snowmelt is projected to occur earlier in the year within the western United States. This earlier snowmelt timing may impact crop yield in snow-dominated watersheds by changing the timing of water delivery to agricultural fields. There is considerable uncertainty about how agricultural impacts of snowmelt timing may vary by region, crop type, and practices like irrigation vs. dryland farming. We utilize parametric regression techniques to isolate the magnitude of impact snowmelt timing has had on historical crop yield independently of climate and physiographic variables that also impact yield. To do this, we …

Climate Impact On Groundwater Flow Processes In The Cedar Creek Watershed And Cedarburg Bog, Jackson Graham

Theses and Dissertations

A local-scale groundwater-flow model of the Cedar Creek Watershed and Cedarburg Bog area was constructed to determine the effects of future changes in temperature and precipitation on water resources. The Cedar Creek Watershed is a 330 km2 sub-basin of the Milwaukee River Watershed located about 30 km north of Milwaukee. The importance of this watershed lies in its location at the sub-continental divide separating the Mississippi River Basin from the Great Lakes Basin. The coupled steady-state and transient flow models incorporate interaction between surface water features and groundwater-surface water interactions. The 4 layer model simulates the influence of recharge on …

Measurement Of Hysteretic Shale Capillary Pressure – Saturation Relationships Using A Water Activity Meter, Brendan Michael Donnelly

Masters Theses

Capillary pressure is the pressure difference across the interface of two immiscible fluids within a porous medium due to the interfacial tension between fluids and is related to both the properties of the fluids and the porous medium. Capillary pressure within a porous medium will change depending upon its degree of saturation. Understanding the relationship between capillary pressure and saturation for a rock allows for the modeling of multi-phase flow. Many traditional methods of measuring capillary pressure are unsuitable for the characterization of shale due to their inability to measure the high capillary pressures found within the small pores. Furthermore, …

A Multivariate Modeling Approach For Generating Ensemble Climatology Forcing For Hydrologic Applications, Sepideh Khajehei

Dissertations and Theses

Reliability and accuracy of the forcing data plays a vital role in the Hydrological Streamflow Prediction. Reliability of the forcing data leads to accurate predictions and ultimately reduction of uncertainty. Currently, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models are developing ensemble forecasts for various temporal and spatial scales. However, it is proven that the raw products of the NWP models may be biased at the basin scale; unlike model grid scale, depending on the size of the catchment. Due to the large space-time variability of precipitation, bias-correcting the ensemble forecasts has proven to be a challenging task. In recent years, Ensemble Pre-Processing …

Evaluating Global Sensitivity Analysis Methods For Hydrologic Modeling Over The Columbia River Basin, Maysoun Ayad Hameed

Dissertations and Theses

Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) approach helps to identify the effectiveness of model parameters or inputs and thus provides essential information about the model performance. The effects of 14 parameters and one input (forcing data) of the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC-SMA) model are analyzed by using two GSA methods: Sobol' and Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test (FAST). The simulations are carried out over five sub-basins within the Columbia River Basin (CRB) for three different periods: one-year, four-year, and seven-year. The main parameter sensitivities (first-order) and the interactions sensitivities (second-order) are evaluated in this study. Our results show that some hydrological processes …

Metal Mobilization In Groundwater, Bauxite, Ar, Steven Alexander Hamlin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Wilcox Aquifer of Bauxite, AR contains bauxite ore deposits that may contribute heavy metals to groundwater. Twenty-four wells were sampled for aluminum, iron, manganese, zinc, lead, barium, nitrate, sulfate, sodium, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, chloride, pH, total organic carbon, and total dissolved solids. A Wilcoxon Rank-Sum compared the similarity of the three geographic areas covered in the study. All parameters for wells in Bauxite and Sardis failed to reject the null hypothesis, signifying that wells all occupy the Saline Formation. 2/3rds of the parameters from BFI261 and the Bauxite region did not agree, suggesting the two areas do not occupy …

Hydrologic Response To Conifer Removal From An Encroached Mountain Meadow, Gregory F. Van Oosbree

Master's Theses

Meadows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains are an important ecological resource that have degraded in quality and distribution due to several environmental and anthropogenic stressors. The encroachment of conifers beyond forest meadow ecotones is largely responsible for the decline of meadow habitat throughout the past century. Currently, there is little research that quantifies the hydrologic response to removal of conifers encroaching meadows in terms of implicating successful meadow restoration. This study has implemented a before after control intervention (BACI) study design to determine the hydrologic response associated with the removal of conifers from a historic meadow encroached by conifers. The …

Fluxes Of Dissolved Organic Carbon During Storm Events In The Neponset River Watershed, Keith Thomas Cialino

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The transport of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) from land to coastal environments strongly influences coastal ecosystems. The presence of first flush phenomena due to rainwater runoff traveling from land into waterways can greatly affect carbon fluxes to coastal areas. This research utilizes sensors, autosamplers, and standard watershed sampling in order to assess for the presence of first flush and its significance. A rainfall simulator was built in order to collect runoff on two land use types. Time series data suggest that first flush of dissolved organic carbon was present for all rainfall intensities simulated …