Earth Sciences Commons^™

Application Of Machine Learning In Flood Depth Prediction, Armando Esquivel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Machine learning technologies have helped provide answers for problems with a high degree of complexity. Machine learning has been utilized by various disciplines within the Civil Engineering profession and has proven to be efficient in solving complex problems. Although machine learning is being used in the Civil Engineering profession, a formal framework on developing and integrating machine learning has not been developed for flood depth prediction. The proposed word uses machine learning to predict the depth of flood at Houston, TX, due to a 100-year 24-hour storm. The proposed work can be used to collect, store and analyze data to …

Extreme Event Reconstructions For The Upper Fraser River Basin, British Columbia, Canada, Inga K. Homfeld

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Spring freshets and summer droughts have recently worsened in the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia, Canada, with significant impacts to the keystone Pacific salmon populations, the food and economic sovereignty of over eighty First Nations, and the western Canadian economy. These extreme events present a potential risk since, unlike many large and less hydroclimatically-complex and/or empounded watersheds, the Fraser River Basin is susceptible to a combination of unregulated spring freshet and summer drought events even within the same year. A major limitation for understanding past and future extreme event risk in the Fraser River Basin is that observational streamflow datasets …

Using Low-Flow Sampling Data To Estimate Hydraulic Conductivity In Aquifers, Joy Kiefer

Masters Theses

Hydrogeologists sample wells to test aquifer water quality and use slug tests to estimate aquifer permeability. Robbins et al. (2009) proposed a more efficient way to obtain the goals of the two tests—the use of low-flow sampling and the use of the resulting flow rate and drawdown data to estimate aquifer hydraulic conductivity (K). The Robbins et al. method calculates K by using the slope of the best fit line from the graph of flow rate vs. drawdown for all low-flow pumping data collected at a well. When the method was applied to low-flow data from four Kalamazoo, MI, it …

Carbon-Isotope Chemostratigraphy And Fluvial Sedimentology Of The Moenave Formation, Utah, Jordan Oefinger

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The end Triassic extinction (ETE) is one of the largest mass extinction events of the Phanerozoic, and it has been hypothesized that this event, as well as the Triassic-Jurassic (TJ) boundary, are preserved within the Moenave Formation of the Colorado Plateau. Identification of this boundary within southwest Utah sections of the Colorado Plateau region is critical for better understanding the relationship between climate change and the ETE in terrestrial, low latitude paleoenvironments. The Moenave Formation is well exposed in Blacks Canyon of Zion National Park and in the nearby Warner Valley, where detailed sedimentologic observations and carbon isotope sampling have …

Donnelly River Model Review, Justin Hughes

Natural resources commissioned reports

The Donnelly River Model was prepared for the Department of Water and Environment Regulation (DWER) by an external consultant (Hydrology and Risk Consultants) in 2018. The purpose of this model was largely to evaluate the feasibility of a proposed irrigation development centred on diversions from the Middle Donnelly near Chappel's Bridge into a reservoir in the nearby Record Brook catchment. As a part of the model build and reporting process, the HARC (2018) report was reviewed by Ecological Australia (2018) against the model specifications. ECL concluded that the model was "fit for purpose", but made many recommendations. Since re­port release, …

Bioaccumulation And Partitioning Of Heavy Metals In Cicindelidia Haemorrhagica In Yellowstone National Park, Monica Gotschall

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The tiger beetle Cicindelidia haemorrhagica (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) are widely distributed in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) and exclusively living on thermal areas. Heavy metals including arsenic, copper, lead, and selenium are present in these thermal springs, presenting an unique environment for C. haemorrhagica. Therefore, from 2018 – 2020 I sampled adult C. haemorrhagica from YNP and adult C. haemorrhagica from a known population in a salt flat in Idaho not associated with a hot spring and measured heavy metal concentrations. All populations of C. haemorrhagica bioaccumulated heavy metals. Cuticular waxes showed small concentrations of metals indicating that those metals are …

069— Geomorphic Characteristics Of Canadice Lake, Ny, Watersheds And The Anthropogenic Effects On Watershed Output And Sensitivity, Carla Crampton

GREAT Day Posters

Land use and size of watershed catchment areas affects the overall health and water quality of Canadice Lake. Methods in ArcGIS Pro were used for high resolution imagery and topography data to analyze the geomorphology of watersheds at Canadice Lake. Watersheds were mapped using ArcGIS Hydrology tools by constructing flow direction and accumulation grids. In each individual watershed, total area of the watershed, area of residential and agricultural land use, and total length of roads was determined to evaluate which watersheds are most sensitive to human impact and which watersheds are likely to contribute the highest flow discharge and sediment …

Flow Dynamics In A Vadose Shaft – A Case Study From The Hochschwab Karst Massif (Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria), Eva Kaminsky, Lukas Plan, Thomas Wagner, Barbara Funk, Pauline Oberender

International Journal of Speleology

Karst aquifers are highly vulnerable to contamination due to quick water flow through conduits. Their high heterogeneity and the poorly known infiltration effect of the vadose zone make quantification of recharge processes difficult. This study characterizes the water flow and storage in the upper vadose zone with almost four years monitoring of a permanent stream in a vadose shaft (Furtowischacht). Its small catchment of 4,500 m² is located in a former glaciated high Alpine environment (Hochschwab, Austria). High discharge fluctuations between 0.002 and 19 l/s, relatively high hydrograph recession coefficients, and transit velocities between 0.0015 and 2.4 m/s estimated with …

Co-Evolution Of Xylem Water And Soil Water Stable Isotopic Composition In A Northern Mixed Forest Biome, Jenna R. Snelgrove, James M. Buttle, Matthew J. Kohn, Dörthe Tetzlaff

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Plant–soil water isotopic dynamics in northern forests have been understudied relative to other forest types; nevertheless, such information can provide insight into how such forests may respond to hydroclimatic change. This study examines the co-evolution of xylem water and soil water stable isotopic compositions in a northern mixed forest in Ontario, Canada. Gross precipitation, bulk soil water and xylem water were sampled from pre-leaf out to post-senescence in 2016 for eastern white cedar, eastern hemlock, red oak and eastern white pine. Near-bole soil water contents and mobile soil water isotopic compositions were measured for the last three species. Mobile soil …

Removal Of Carbamazepine Onto Modified Zeolitic Tuff In Different Water Matrices: Batch And Continuous Flow Experiments, Othman A. Al-Mashaqbeh, Diya A. Alsafadi, Layal Z. Alsalhi, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is the most frequently detected pharmaceutical residues in aquatic environments effluent by wastewater treatment plants. Batch and column experiments were conducted to evaluate the removal of CBZ from ultra-pure water and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent using raw zeolitic tuff (RZT) and surfactant modified zeolite (SMZ). Point zero net charge (pHpzc), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) were investigated for adsorbents to evaluate the physiochemical changes resulted from the modification process using Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA-Br). XRD and FTIR showed that the surfactant modification of RZT has created an amorphous surface with new alkyl …

Validating Geoclaw For Simulating Teton Dam Failure By Comparison With Hec-Ras Results And Historical Observations, Hannah R. Spero

Geosciences Undergraduate Theses

The combination of dams degrading with age and other factors like climate change, technical errors, and human errors lead to dams breaching and failing worldwide. In the United States, over 40,000 dams pose a threat to downstream inhabited areas and constitute a widespread hazard if they were to breach. Therefore, it is critical to accurately predict the resultant floods’ downstream flow behavior to create a more resilient community. By improving research, we can concurrently develop and improve mitigation strategies for downstream communities. This study benchmarks the GeoClaw numerical modeling software with the well-documented 1976 Teton Dam failure. A vital tool …

Droughtscape, Spring 2021, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Spring 2021

Occurrence And Potential Transformation Pathways Of Nitrogen Species In The Intermediate Vadose Zone, Jordan Shields

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nebraska is a large agricultural producing state with a heavy reliance on groundwater resources and nitrogen fertilizer application to maintain output. Poor management, such as excessive fertilizer application, improper timing, and over irrigation can lead to contamination of groundwater. Nitrate is the leading groundwater contaminant in Nebraska and chronic consumption at medium to high concentrations leads to adverse health effects. Nitrate, a highly soluble anion, is present in the root zone in numerous forms and undergoes biogeochemical transformations before being leached through the profile. In order to predict the timing and quantity of nitrate contamination in groundwater, researchers study the …

Investigating Decadal Changes Of Multiple Hydrological Products And Land-Cover Changes In The Mediterranean Region For 2009–2018, Wenzhao Li, Sachi Perera, Erik Linstead, Rejoice Thomas, Hesham El-Askary, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Land-cover change is a critical concern due to its climatic, ecological, and socioeconomic consequences. In this study, we used multiple variables including precipitation, vegetation index, surface soil moisture, and evapotranspiration obtained from different satellite sources to study their association with land-cover changes in the Mediterranean region. Both observational and modeling data were used for climatology and correlation analysis. Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Land Data Assimilation System (FLDAS) and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) were used to extract surface soil moisture and evapotranspiration data. Intercomparing the results of FLDAS and GLDAS suggested that FLDAS data had better …

Hydro-Morphodynamics Of Sandy Coastal Embayments, Shamim Murshid

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the hydro-morphodynamics of two major components of a sandy coastal environment: tidal inlets and embayment shorelines. In the first study, I focused on the evolution of inlet geometry by compiling and analyzing a database with 226 inlets worldwide with a special attention given to their width to depth ratio (or aspect ratio). I found that the aspect ratio has a weak dependency on tidal range and wave height, and they lie in different ranges for three types of tidal inlets: engineered, natural single-thread, and natural compound. I also developed a 2D hydro-morphodynamic model of an idealized barrier-inlet …

Exploring Viirs Continuity With Modis In An Expedited Capability For Monitoring Drought-Related Vegetation Conditions, Trenton D. Benedict, Jesslyn F. Brown, Stephen P. Boyte, Daniel M. Howard, Brian A. Fuchs, Brian D. Wardlow, Tsegaye Tadesse, Kirk A. Evenson

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Vegetation has been effectively monitored using remote sensing time-series vegetation index (VI) data for several decades. Drought monitoring has been a common application with algorithms tuned to capturing anomalous temporal and spatial vegetation patterns. Drought stress models, such as the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI), often use VIs like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The EROS expedited Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrora-diometer (eMODIS)-based, 7-day NDVI composites are integral to the VegDRI. As MODIS satellite platforms (Terra and Aqua) approach mission end, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) presents an alternate NDVI source, with daily collection, similar band passes, and …

Exploring Viirs Continuity With Modis In An Expedited Capability For Monitoring Drought-Related Vegetation Conditions, Trenton D. Benedict, Jesslyn F. Brown, Stephen P. Boyte, Daniel M. Howard, Brian A. Fuchs, Brian D. Wardlow, Tsegaye Tadesse, Kirk A. Evenson

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Vegetation has been effectively monitored using remote sensing time-series vegetation index (VI) data for several decades. Drought monitoring has been a common application with algorithms tuned to capturing anomalous temporal and spatial vegetation patterns. Drought stress models, such as the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI), often use VIs like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The EROS expedited Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrora-diometer (eMODIS)-based, 7-day NDVI composites are integral to the VegDRI. As MODIS satellite platforms (Terra and Aqua) approach mission end, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) presents an alternate NDVI source, with daily collection, similar band passes, and …

Assessment Of Water Availability In The Osage Nation Using An Integrated Hydrologic-Flow Model, Jonathan (Jp) Traylor, Shana L. Mashburn, Randall T. Hanson, Steven M. Peterson

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Document abstract

The Osage Nation of northeastern Oklahoma, conterminous with Osage County, covers about 2,900 square miles. The area is primarily rural with 62 percent of the land being native prairie grass, and much of the area is used for cattle ranching and extraction of petroleum and natural gas. Protection of water rights are important to the Osage Nation because of its reliance on cattle ranching and the potential for impairment of water quality by petroleum extraction. Additionally, the potential for future population increases, demands for water from neighboring areas such as the Tulsa metropolitan area, and expansion of petroleum …

Rock Glen Wildlife Area: A Landscape History, Gerry Steinauer, Robert Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Nestled in the hills of southern Jefferson County, Rock Glen Wildlife Management Area, as its name implies, is a rocky land shaped by ancient geological forces, among them, meandering tropical rivers and grinding glacial ice. Euro-American settlers in the region arrived to a picturesque scene: rolling hills cloaked in tallgrass prairie fingered by glens, narrow valleys and canyons, filled with sprawling bur oaks. Too rocky to plow, southern Jefferson County has survived as an island of prairie amidst a sea of cropland. Settlement was not kind to the land. Fire suppression allowed eastern red cedars and other trees to spread, …

The Drought Monitor Comes Of Age, Brad Rippey, Brian Fuchs, David Simeral, Deborah J. Bathke, Richard R. Heim Jr., Mark Svoboda

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The 20th century featured immense scientific discoveries and advances. Astrophysics gained Einstein’s life-altering theory of relativity, opening the door to nuclear weaponry and the mind-bending Big Bang theory. The medical field achieved stunning success in suppressing or vanquishing a host of deadly diseases, including polio and smallpox. And through advances in computing technology, meteorological forecasting moved from back-of-the-envelope calculations to supercomputers. However, drought monitoring fell behind the curve of scientific advancement. Not until 1965, when the United States Department of Commerce published Wayne C. Palmer’s “Research Paper No. 45: Meteorological Drought,” was there even a complex mathematical definition of drought. …

Desktop Review Of Groundwater Prospectivity For Irrigation In The Lower De Grey River Area, Don L. Bennett, John A. Simons

Resource management technical reports

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) has identified priority areas in the Pilbara that warrant further investigation into their capacity for irrigated agriculture and related businesses. The De Grey River area is one of these.

The lower De Grey River area, upstream of the De Grey River Water Reserve, was identified by the Transforming Agriculture in the Pilbara (TAP) project for staged investigations of viability. Progression through these stages, each with increasingly detailed groundwater and soil suitability investigations, is dependent on prospectivity.

This document provides a summary of DPIRD’s initial desktop groundwater evaluation in the lower De …

Altimetry For The Future: Building On 25 Years Of Progress, Saleh Abdalla, Abdolnabi Kolahchi, Micheal Ablain, Susheel Adusumilli, Suchandra Aich Bhowmick, Eva Alou-Font, Laiba Amarouche, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Edward Zaron, Multiple Additional Authors

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the …

On The Genesis Of Aluminum-Rich Speleothems In A Granite Cave Of Nw Spain, Jorge Sanjurjo-Sanchez, Carlos Arce Chamorro, Juan Ramón Vidal Romaní, Marcos Vaqueiro-Rodríguez, Victor Barrientos, Joeri Kaal

International Journal of Speleology

Granite massifs often contain caves, with dimensions ranging from a few meters up to 1,000 m, also referred to as pseudokarst. The speleothems in such caves are mostly composed of either Si-rich (commonly opal-A) or Al-rich authigenic mineraloids. Whereas the formation and geochemical composition of opal-A biospeleothems have been studied and are fairly well understood, knowledge on the Al-rich analogues is scarce. This work reports for the first time a study on the composition, accretion process, age and growth rate of an Al-rich speleothem type flowstone from the A Trapa Cave System (Galicia, NW Spain), developed in a granite cave. …

Determination Of Aquifer Parameters From Resistivity Data: A Case Of University Of Ilorin Campus, Northcentral Nigeria, Babatunde Onawola, Saminu Olatunji, Oluwatoyin Ologe, Razak Jimoh

Tanzania Journal of Science

A total of twenty-one (21) vertical electrical sounding (VES) data were acquired using Pz-02 resistivity meter within the Precambrian basement area of part of Ilorin Metropolis north central Nigeria to evaluate the hydraulic characteristics of aquifers. The Schlumberger configuration with half-current electrode separation (AB/2) varying from 1 m to 60 m was used. The aquifer hydraulic characteristics such as hydraulic conductivity K and transmissivity T (Ωm2) were calculated from the interpreted VES data using the concept of Dar-Zarrouk parameters. The data, processed with computer software IPI2WIN, indicated three to four geo-electric layers, namely; topsoil, clayey (wet to dry), weathered or …

Hiv/Aids Transmission Dynamics: Modelling The Roles Of Long Distance Truck Drivers, Nyimvua Mbare

Tanzania Journal of Science

A mathematical model to investigate the roles of long distance truck drivers on HIV transmission dynamics was formulated and analyzed to establish the existence of disease free and endemic equilibrium points. The results show that, the disease free equilibrium point is asymptotically stable when the basic reproduction number is less than unity and unstable otherwise. Furthermore, comprehensive analyses on the two steady states (infection free and endemic) have shown that they are both globally and asymptotically stable. Sensitivity analysis is performed on the reproduction number in order to establish the relative importance of parameters, and it shows that the truck …

An Assessment Of The Filling Process Of The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam And Its Impact On The Downstream Countries, Prakrut Kansara, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Venkat Lakshmi, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa, Mohamed Abdelaty Sayed

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), formerly known as the Millennium Dam, has been filling at a fast rate. This project has created issues for the Nile Basin countries of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The filling of GERD has an impact on the Nile Basin hydrology and specifically the water storages (lakes/reservoirs) and flow downstream. In this study, through the analysis of multi-source satellite imagery, we study the filling of the GERD reservoir. The time-series generated using Sentinel-1 SAR imagery displays the number of classified water pixels in the dam from early June 2017 to September 2020, indicating a contrasting …

Flash Drought Onset Over The Contiguous United States: Sensitivity Of Inventories And Trends To Quantitative Definitions, Mahmoud Osman, Bejamin F. Zaitchik, Hamada S. Badr, Jordan I. Christian, Tsegaye Tadesse, Jason A. Otkin, Martha C. Anderson

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The term “flash drought” is frequently invoked to describe droughts that develop rapidly over a relatively short timescale. Despite extensive and growing research on flash drought processes, predictability, and trends, there is still no standard quantitative definition that encompasses all flash drought characteristics and pathways. Instead, diverse definitions have been proposed, supporting wide-ranging studies of flash drought but creating the potential for confusion as to what the term means and how to characterize it. Use of different definitions might also lead to different conclusions regarding flash drought frequency, predictability, and trends under climate change. In this study, we compared five …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2020, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Leslie M. Howard, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert Matthew Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The term “groundwater” has come to be all but synonymous with Nebraska. Nearly three-quarters of the total volume of the High Plains Aquifer lies beneath the state. Groundwater maintains our streams, our ecosystems, our people, and our vitally important agricultural economy. Nebraska’s total groundwater resource is vast, yet it is also vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic changes, necessitating a long-term commitment to wise management through informed decision-making. Monitoring, studying, and reporting form the essential basis for such management and, ultimately, for meeting the myriad challenges presented by change.

Frozen In Time: A Numerical Modeling Approach To The Study Of Ice Bearing Planetesimals Through Carbonaceous Chondrites, Jasmine M. Bayron

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Icy planetesimals are significant objects of study for meteoritics, planetary science, and astrobiology due to their connections to the origins of life and liquid water on Earth. An existing closed system aqueous alteration model was adapted to simulate several scenarios involving early Solar System geologic processes occurring in an icy planetesimal interior. The model described in this work has been developed not only to test the validity of constraints currently thought to apply to CM1 parent bodies, but to directly compare the implications of these constraints for the isotopic composition and the modal mineralogy of carbonaceous chondrites. Isotopic ratios of …

Coastal Watershed Monitoring And Management: Geomorphology, Geochemistry, And Hydrologic Modeling Of Los Peñasquitos Creek, Ca, Ravleen Khalsa-Basra

Theses

Rivers in semi-arid climates are directly influenced by local geographic and hydrologic conditions and impacted by modifications to hydrology via urbanization. Changes can influence erosion, morphology, habitat sustainability, and watershed health. In highly urbanized southern California coastal regions, these rare open spaces provide vital ecosystem services. Los Peñasquitos Creek in San Diego County is one such watershed. Using stream surveying and laboratory methods we quantified channel characteristics, grain size distribution, total metal concentration [M], organic carbon (%OC), and phosphate to longitudinally characterize the creek for improved management. Results identified three distinct reaches in the watershed (upper, middle, lower). Downstream, depth …