Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Environmental Impacts Of Seawater Desalination On The Marine Environment In The Kingdom Of Bahrain, Waleed Al-Zubari, Alaa Elsadek, Mohamed Khadim

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

The main water planning and management challenge facing Bahrain is in how to balance water availability and water use on a long-term basis in the face of increasing demands under the least economic and environmental costs and without endangering socio-economic development. To meet escalating municipal water demands desalination is becoming inevitable, which is associated with substantial financial, economic, and environmental costs. In this research, the environmental impact of seawater desalination on the surrounding marine environment is assessed at a government-owned MSF desalination plant (Sitra Power and Water Station (SPWS)). The assessment used a number of environmental indicators, namely temperature and …

Soil Moisture Dependent Runoff In A Dryland Region: An Investigation Of The Role Of Antecedent Conditions, Monitoring, And Modeling Strategies, Gerhard Schoener

Civil Engineering ETDs

Approximately 30% of the Earth’s land surface is characterized as arid or semiarid, including much of the western United States. Accurate runoff predictions are important for informed watershed management, particularly in rapidly urbanizing areas. Infiltration excess overland flow is the dominant mechanism for runoff generation in many dryland basins, and event-based infiltration or loss models are commonly used to estimate runoff. However, predictions are associated with considerable uncertainty due to the role antecedent soil moisture, an initial condition that must be set by the modeler. The objectives of my research were to (1) evaluate the impact of antecedent soil moisture …

A Literature Review Of Wetland Treatment Systems Used To Treat Runoff Mixtures Containing Antibiotics And Pesticides From Urban And Agricultural Landscapes, Emily R. Nottingham, Tiffany L. Messer

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Wetland treatment systems are used extensively across the world to mitigate surface runoff. While wetland treatment for nitrogen mitigation has been comprehensively reviewed, the implications of common-use pesticides and antibiotics on nitrogen reduction remain relatively unreviewed. Therefore, this review seeks to comprehensively assess the removal of commonly used pesticides and antibiotics and their implications for nitrogen removal in wetland treatment systems receiving non-point source runoff from urban and agricultural landscapes. A total of 181 primary studies were identified spanning 37 countries. Most of the reviewed publications studied pesticides (n = 153) entering wetlands systems, while antibiotics (n = 29) had …

The Effects Of Hydrologic Heterogeneity On Harmful Algal Blooms In Freshwater Reservoir, Lake Sinclair, Georgia, Margaret Blackledge

Biology Theses

Aquatic habitats are frequently studied after a major water quality problem like the occurrence of an algal bloom. In this study, A proactive rather than a reactive response was considered, where the complexity of conditions conducive to uncontrolled cell growth were studied before a bloom took place by sampling regularly. This study aimed to monitor water quality by monthly sampling of algal communities for approximately one year. As the base of the aquatic food web, algae are a highly diverse group of organisms with varying sensitivity to physical and chemical changes in the environment. Four shallow sites were monitored at …

Source Apportionment And Health Risk Assessment Of Nitrate In Foothill Aquifers Of Western Ghats, South India, Banajarani Panda, S. Chidambaram, Daniel D. Snow, Arindam Malakar, Dhiraj Kr Singh, L. Ramanathan

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The present research reports the level of nitrate (NO₃^-), associated health risks and possible sources of contamination in groundwater from south India. Many samples (32%) are above or approaching the recommended level of NO₃^- for safe drinking water. The correlation analysis indicates different sources of NO₃^- contamination in different regions rather than a common origin. The isotopic measurements provide information about potential nitrogen sources contributing NO₃^- to the groundwater. Based on isotope analysis, the sources of NO₃^- in the groundwater of this region are likely to be from (a) …

How Community Participation In Water And Sanitation Interventions Impacts Human Health, Wash Infrastructure And Service Longevity In Low-Income And Middle-Income Countries: A Realist Review, Sarah Nelson, Dorothy Drabarek, Aaron Jenkins, Joel Negin, Seye Abimbola

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objective:

To understand how, and under what circumstances community participation in water and sanitation interventions impacts the availability of safe water and sanitation, a change in health status or behaviour and the longevity of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) resources and services.

Design:

Realist review.

Data sources:

PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases were used to identify papers from low-income and middle-income countries from 2010 to 2020.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies:

Criteria were developed for papers to be included. The contribution of each paper was assessed based on its relevance and rigour (eg, can it contribute to context, …

A Connectivity Framework To Explore The Role Of Anthropogenic Activity And Climate On The Propagation Of Water And Sediment At The Catchment Scale, Christos Giannopoulos

Doctoral Dissertations

Anthropogenic disturbance in intensively managed landscapes (IMLs) has dramatically altered critical zone processes, resulting in fundamental changes in material fluxes. Mitigating the negative effects of anthropogenic disturbance and making informed decisions for optimal placement and assessment of best management practices (BMPs) requires fundamental understanding of how different practices affect the connectivity or lack thereof of governing transport processes and resulting material fluxes across different landscape compartments within the hillslope-channel continuum of IMLs. However, there are no models operating at the event timescale that can accurately predict material flux transport from the hillslope to the catchment scale capturing the spatial and …

Characteristics Of Flow Over Rectangular Labyrinth Weirs With Round Corners, Omed S.Q. Yousif, Kawa Z. Abdulrahman, Wazira Qadir, Ahang S. Ali, Moses Karakouzian

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

The hydraulic performance of round-cornered rectangular labyrinth weirs with varying weir heights and effective lengths has not been explored in the existing literature to the authors’ knowledge. The purpose of this experimental study was to see how the height and effective length of round-cornered rectangular labyrinth weirs affect their discharge efficiency. Nine flat-crested rectangular labyrinth weirs made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) were tested in a rectangular flume under various discharges to fulfill the goals of this study. The discharge coefficients for the weirs were then calculated. The hydraulic efficiency of weirs with round corners increases as the weir height (P) …

Valley Bottom Inundation Patterns In Beaver-Modified Streams: A Potential Proxy For Hydrologic Inefficiency, Karen Bartelt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For centuries river management and land use actions in North America have caused widespread stream degradation where water now flows downstream with artificially high efficiency. When present, beaver dams slow the flow of water and decrease the efficiency of water conveyance through the landscape. These effects are often to the benefit of the function of natural physical processes and ecology of the stream. The benefits provided by beaver dams have been well studied at small scales, but the methods that these studies rely on are often expensive and time consuming and consequently not feasible to deploy at larger spatial scales …

Water Quality Responses To A Semi-Arid Beaver Meadow In Boise, Idaho, Luise Bayer Winslow

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Beavers have been instrumental in shaping the North American riverine landscape. However, land use change and beaver trapping have caused large decreases in beaver populations, resulting in fundamental changes to river morphology, hydrology, and biogeochemical function. Effective river restoration and remediation of arid western rivers relies on a comprehensive interpretation of how beaver activity influences water quantity and quality. In this study, I compared two stream reaches with and without beaver dams in a semi-arid watershed, to quantify the effects of beaver activity on hydrology and biogeochemistry. Within each reach, I combined dilution gauging and stream tracer experiments to determine …

An Enabling Environment For Asset Management Through Public Policy: The Benefits Of Standardization And Application To The Water Sector, Tiffany Batac, Kerry Brown, Rita Salgado Brito, Iain Cranston, Tetsuya Mizutani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Water services—including urban water supply, wastewater, and stormwater services—are essential to society and critical for protecting human health and the well-being of communities. Goal 6 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognizes this importance and aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Despite progress, the UN reports billions of people still lack water and sanitation services. Many governments around the world face the challenge of balancing between investment in new assets, programs, and services and providing the required funding for repair and replacement of existing water assets. This paper argues infrastructure …

Reinforcement Learning Policy Gradient Methods For Reservoir Operation Management And Control, Sadegh Sadeghi Tabas

All Theses

Changes in demand, various hydrological inputs, and environmental stressors are among issues that water managers and policymakers face on a regular basis. These concerns have sparked interest in applying different techniques to determine reservoir operation policy and improve reservoir release decisions. As the resolution of the analysis rises, it becomes more difficult to effectively represent a real-world system using traditional approaches for determining the best reservoir operation policy. One of the challenges is the “curse of dimensionality,” which occurs when the discretization of the state and action spaces becomes finer or when more state or action variables are taken into …

Pfoa Loaded Gac Fall 2021 Report, Ramiro Nava

Water Resources Science and Technology Theses and Graduate Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Optimization Of Nitrogen Removal Rate In One-Stage Reactor Through Partial Nitrification Anammox Process During Direct Treatment Of Poultry Litter Wastewater, Yiting Xiao

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anammox is an increasingly common process used for the treatment of reject water and even mainstream wastewater due to its low oxygen demand. However, anammox is not commonly utilized in the direct treatment of poultry litter because of the high organic content, which would inhibit the anammox process. Thus, this project is aimed at optimizing the nitrogen removal rate through partial nitrification anammox process (PN/A) to treat synthetic poultry litter wastewater. Nitrogen removal efficiencies will therefore be improved through optimizing the combination of three operating parameters including hydraulic retention time (HRT), dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, and carbon to nitrogen (C/N) …

Predictive Models Of Post-Wildfire Debris Flow Volume And Grain Size Distribution In The Intermountain West, Sara Wall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Post-fire debris flows represent the most erosive and potentially hazardous consequence associated with increasing wildfire severity. While an abundance of research has explored where they are likely to occur and their potential magnitude, investigations into understanding how they impact downstream resources are limited. Recent advancements are seeking to link predictive models together to be able to predict how erosion after wildfire may impact reservoirs and aquatic habitat downstream. However, there are two key missing pieces into our ability to examine watershed-scale impacts of post-fire erosion. These include having accurate predictions of how much sediment is likely to be deposited by …

Use Patterns And Influencing Factors Of Irrigation Best Management Practices In The Lower Mississippi River Basin, Merri E. Day

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the 2016 Irrigation Survey from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to document the use of irrigation best management practices (IBMPs), analyze use patterns, and use quantitative methods to determine factors that influence producers’ decisions regarding IBMPs. IBMPs included in the survey can be grouped as: field management practices (zero-grade leveling, precision-grade leveling, end blocking, warped surface, and deep tillage), water flow control practices (computerized pipe-hole selection, multiple-inlet irrigation, surge irrigation, alternate wetting and drying, cutback irrigation, flow meters, and pump timers), water recovery/storage practices (tail-water recovery system and on-farm storage reservoir), and advanced irrigation scheduling practices (soil moisture …

Data Analytics For Sustainable Food And Agriculture Systems, Megan Lord Reavis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is altering the climate, posing a serious threat to global agriculture and food security. Agriculture and food production contribute a quarter of all GHG emissions produced, so there is a critical need to limit emissions in this area while increasing food production to feed the anticipated 10 billion people by 2050. To address the needs of the future, data-driven solutions are needed to guide decision-making and provide support for actionable climate mitigation and survival strategies. Research efforts must be focused on analyzing problems on multiple scales, identifying new ways to …

Identification Of Phosphorous Loading Point Source Facilities To 303(D) Listed Nutrient Impaired Waters Through Watershed Delineation Using Arcgis For Life Cycle Assessment Applications, John Zimmerman

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The work done for this project is part of a larger “life cycle assessment (LCA) of novel electrochemical phosphorus recovery technology at the wastewater treatment plant and U.S. watershed scales” (Morrissey 2019). The goal of that LCA is to determine “environmental impacts of implementing electrochemical struvite recovery at the wastewater treatment plant, U.S watershed, and global scales” (Morrissey 2019). This project’s goal is to identify locations deemed more sensitive to eutrophication impacts. The results will be used as part of the life cycle inventory (LCI) accounting for geographically explicit phosphorus flows. The waters identified as impaired were sourced from the …

Mobilizing Discomfort For Water Security As A Human Right: A Newspaper Analysis Of Social Conflict In South Africa, Madison Gonzalez

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

There are 884 million people globally that do not have access to improved drinking water, while 2.5 billion do not have improved access to sanitation (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2010). Those living in informal settlements and slums—what I call the ‘solidaric disaffiliated’ zones—represent one such location where individuals around the world have found themselves in a situation of neglected crisis as their geographic, economic, and social expulsion pushes them beyond the reach of opportunity and access to basic human rights such as water and sanitation. As individuals feel their dignity deteriorating due to the extreme precarity …

Essays Related To Water Transfer And Water Sharing: The Past And The Present, Arpita Nehra

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation explores the impacts of resource procurement on economic growth and urbanization in a county through a historical case study, moving on to discuss the welfare impacts of resource-sharing in two regions. The first two essays explore the impact of the Owens Valley water transfer in the 1900s on the urban sprawl and the economic growth of Los Angeles. The main contribution that the first two essays make is to present an empirical analysis on the impact of procurement of resources on the economy. The third essay examines the welfare impacts of a proposed water sharing and development project. …

Preliminary Results Of Measurements Of Potentially Cancerogenic 1,4-Dioxane In Surface Water Of Twin Lakes Preserve, Wantagh, Ny, Lijo Jose Varghese

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

1,4-dioxane is a volatile organic compound categorized by the United States Environmental Protection agency (EPA, 2017) as a possible human carcinogen potent to cause tumors in humans. Even though this compound poses significant environmental danger when it contaminates water sources, it is surprisingly less studied, and how it behaves in surface water is less understood. The biggest 1,4-dioxane plume in the United States is located in Long Island region of New York. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of 1,4-dioxane in surface water and document the influence of existing 1,4-dioxane plume to Twin Lakes Preserve. To …

Numerical Studies Of Regularized Navier-Stokes Equations And An Application Of A Run-To-Run Control Model For Membrane Filtration At A Large Urban Water Treatment Facility, Jeffrey Belding

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part consists of research on accurate and efficient turbulent fluid flow modeling via a family of regularizations of the Navier-Stokes equation which are known as Time Relaxation models. In the second part, we look into the modeling application for the filtration/backwash process at the River Mountains Water Treatment Facility in Henderson, NV.

In the first two chapters, we introduce the Time Relaxation models and their associated differential filter equations. In addition, we develop the regularization method which employs the Nth van Cittert deconvolution operator, which gives rise to the family of models. …

Spatiotemporal Variations Of Precipitation And Climate-Resilient Structure Design In Virginia, Xiaomin Yang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

How to consider effects of climate change on the design and management of hydrology related infrastructure is crucial but remains a challenge for sustaining resilient society. To address this challenge, existing hydrologic design procedures may need to be revised and/or redeveloped to take into account the precipitation non-stationarity resulting from climate change. Using the state of Virginia as a testbed and advanced statistical techniques such as nonparametric test, spatial autocorrelation, linear regression, distribution fitting, and spatial interpolation, this dissertation developed an innovative framework to detect the historical spatiotemporal variations of various precipitation characteristics, namely maximum precipitation intensity, precipitation amount, simple …

Pressure Retarded Osmosis: A Potential Technology For Seawater Desalination Energy Recovery And Concentrate Management, Joshua Benjamin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, a significant challenge with reverse osmosis-based desalination is reducing the energy consumption and environmental impacts of the process. This project analyzed the viability of using pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) for energy recovery in seawater desalination facilities using brine concentrate (the draw solution) and other water sources (the feed solution) such as wastewater effluent. The primary goal of this project is to decrease the cost and overall energy consumption of seawater desalination through PRO-based energy recovery. Process modeling, statistical and sensitivity analysis, energy and cost analysis, geospatial and GIS analysis, laboratory-scale testing, water quality analysis, SEM-EDS microscopy, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), …

A System Architecture For Water Distribution Networks, Noha Abdel-Mottaleb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines structure-function relationships of water distribution networks (WDNs), with focus on improving the decision-making process for water utilities. WDNs are lifeline infrastructure systems, necessary for the functioning of cities. Yet water utilities around the world struggle with emerging challenges that include but are not limited to aging infrastructure components, limited budgets, increased interdependencies between infrastructure systems, increased rates of urbanization, and increasing extreme weather conditions. This is why enhancing the performance of WDNs is a priority for water utilities around the world. This research begins to delineate a system architecture for WDNs and evaluates the use of various …

Developing A Watershed-Based Plan Evaluation Framework For Socio-Ecological Network Analysis In The Upper Pontchartrain Basin, Lindsey R. Lamana

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana's efforts to create regional watershed planning under the Louisiana Watershed Initiative (LWI) suggest the need to evaluate existing governance systems such as the coordination, development, and implementation of plans. The Network Analysis and Plan Evaluation (NAPE) Framework developed in this study answers initial questions related to the LWI’s long-term resilience outcomes from the content analysis and extraction of relational data in plans of LWI Region 7 located in the Upper Pontchartrain Basin. Actor-Plan Coordination Networks reveal the coordination and collaboration of entities, and a Network of Plans presents the integration of planning documents in the Region. Local government organizations …

Managing Water Stored For The Environment During Drought, Sarah Null, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Michael Dettinger, Kristen Dybala, Gokce Sencan, Anna Sturrock, Barton Thompson, Harrison Zeff

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Storing water in reservoirs is important for maintaining freshwater ecosystem health and protecting native species. Stored water also is essential for adapting to the changing climate, especially warming and drought intensification. Yet, reservoir operators often treat environmental objectives as a constraint, rather than as a priority akin to water deliveries for cities and farms. Reservoir management becomes especially challenging during severe droughts when surface water supplies are scarce, and urban and agricultural demands conflict with water supplies needed to maintain healthy waterways and wetlands. In times of drought, most freshwater ecosystems suffer.

This blog post examines 2021 water year actions …

Ligands For Complexation, Extraction, And Sensing Of Mercury(Ii) For Application To High-Level Waste (Hlw) At The Savannah River Site (Srs), Adenike O. Fasiku

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mercury (Hg) separation and sensing is of high significance due to Hg^(II) environmental mobility and toxicity. Furthermore, the use of Hg in nuclear applications has resulted in its accumulation in several DOE sites, such as in Oak Ridge and Savannah River reservations. Organic mercury species have been found in low activity waste (LAW) streams resulting from high-level waste (HLW) processing at the Savannah River Site (SRS), therefore posing a threat to humans and the environment. Mercury, being a soft Lewis acid, has a strong affinity for softer Lewis bases, such as S- or N-donor ligands. Therefore, we focus on …

The U.S. Inland Creel And Angler Survey Catalog (Creelcat): Development, Applications, And Opportunities, Abigail J. Lynch, Nicholas A. Sievert, Holly S. Embke, Ashley M. Robertson, Bonnie J.E. Myers, Micheal S. Allen, Zachary S. Feiner, Frederick Hoogakker, Scott Knoche, Rebecca M. Krogman, Stephen R. Midway, Chelsey L. Nieman, Craig P. Paukert, Kevin L. Pope, Mark W. Rogers, Lyndsie S. Wszola, T. Douglas Beard

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Inland recreational fishing, defined as primarily leisure-driven fishing in freshwaters, is a popular pastime in the USA. State natural resource agencies endeavor to provide high-quality and sustainable fishing opportunities for anglers. Managers often use creel and other angler survey data to inform state- and waterbody-level management efforts. Despite the broad implementation of angler surveys and their importance to fisheries management at state scales, regional and national coordination among these activities is minimal, limiting data applicability for larger-scale management practices and research. Here, we introduce the U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat), a first-of-its-kind, publicly available national database of …

Feasibility Of Development Of Flood Resiliency Clearinghouse Program, Commonwealth Center For Recurrent Flooding Resiliency, Mujde Erten-Unal, Carol Considine, Mark W. Luckenbach, Elizabeth Armistead Andrews

Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency (CCRFR): Reports

[Introduction]

House Bill 2187ⁱ, introduced by Delegate Keith Hodges in the 2021 session of the Virginia General Assembly, directed the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency (CCRFR), a partnership between Old Dominion University, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and the William & Mary Law School’s Virginia Coastal Policy Center (VCPC) established by Virginia Chapter 440 of the 2016 Acts of Assembly (HB 903), to evaluate the development of a Flood Resiliency Clearinghouse Program (henceforth Clearinghouse). The bill stipulated that the Center should work with the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to evaluate solutions that manage …