Sustainability Commons^™

Dynamic Fallowing In The Middle Rio Grande: A Look At The Environmental Water Leasing Program, Jared Wood

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Environmental Water Leasing Program (EWLP) is a federally-funded collaborative effort of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that has paid irrigators in the Middle Rio Grande to temporarily lease water rights and forgo their water use so that it may be used to provide environmental flows for the endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow. The program operates in a sometimes socially contentious context, in a region with an overallocated, legally constrained water system, to offer much needed water management flexibility. While dynamic fallowing payments for ecosystem services programs like the EWLP are common policy …

Groundwater Budgeting And Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Of Water Supply At Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Maximiliano Trujillo

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Water resources management is becoming increasingly complex in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, where the negative impacts of climate change and growing demand for a fully allocated river put further strain on diminishing water supply. The precarity of future water availability emphasizes the importance of fully accounting for existing water rights allocations and understanding how ever changing social and ecological processes might hinder those rights from being fully realized. This study aimed at improving knowledge of the groundwater budget at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico by utilizing experimental methods of Darcy Flow analysis to estimate groundwater flow …

Irrigation And Innovation: Understanding Barriers To Innovative Actions To Manage Drought On Middle Rio Grande Farms, Eleanor C. Hasenbeck

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Rio Grande has irrigated agricultural land in central New Mexico since time immemorial. Today, agriculture in New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande valley is adapting to an increasingly scarce water supply due to long-term drought and climate change (Dunbar et al., 2022). As supply is decreasing, demands are increasing because of several factors: an increase in evapotranspiration (Dunbar et al., 2022); population growth in the Middle Rio Grande valley (NM LFC, 2021); and legal obligations to provide water for endangered species and to Texas and Mexico (NM ISC, 2017). Agriculture is largest water use by sector in the Rio Grande …

Incorporation Of Carbon Dioxide Production And Transport Module Into A Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum Model, Sahila Beegum, Wenguang Sun, Dennis Timlin, Zhuangji Wang, David Fleisher, Vangimalla R. Reddy, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Carbon dioxide release from agricultural soils is influenced by multiple factors, including soil (soil properties, soil-microbial respiration, water content, temperature, soil diffusivity), plant (carbon assimilation, rhizosphere respiration), atmosphere (climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide), etc. Accurate estimation of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) fluxes in the soil and soil respiration (CO₂ flux between soil and atmosphere) requires a process-based modeling approach that accounts for the influence of all these factors. In this study, a module for CO₂ production via root and microbial respiration and diffusion-based carbon dioxide transport is developed and integrated with MAIZSIM (a process-based maize crop growth …

The Association Between Drought Exposure And Respiratory-Related Mortality In The United States From 2000 To 2018, Yeongjin Gwon, Yuanyuan Ji, Jesse E. Bell, Azar M. Abadi, Jesse D. Berman, Austin Rau, Ronald D. Leeper, Jared Rennie

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Climate change has brought increasing attention to the assessment of health risks associated with climate and extreme events. Drought is a complex climate phenomenon that has been increasing in frequency and severity both locally and globally due to climate change. However, the health risks of drought are often overlooked, especially in places such as the United States, as the pathways to health impacts are complex and indirect. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the effects of monthly drought exposure on respiratory mortality for NOAA climate regions in the United States from 2000 to 2018. A two-stage model …

Sustainability Analysis: Large-Scale Desalination Implications For Coastal California, Elizabeth H. Whitford

Master's Projects and Capstones

In response to prolonged drought, desalination is gaining popularity as an alternative water production method for fresh water. However, water desalting technology poses concerns; the process is energy intensive, creates brine waste, and has the potential to damage sensitive coastal ecosystems. Significant research is available on the technological, economic, and energy efficiency aspects of desalination, while only a small percentage of the current literature focuses on environmental impacts. This research analyzes the desalination literature holistically in terms of both energy consumption and environmental impacts by conducting 1) a historical and current state review of the sector, 2) a technology analysis …

Stormwater To Groundwater: How California Can Increase Groundwater Storage And Build Climate Resilience., Emily M. Perales

Master's Projects and Capstones

California is predicted to have more intense and frequent changes in weather patterns within the next 50 years. Historical and current groundwater use for residential and agricultural use is unsustainable and is creating significant deficits in groundwater aquifers throughout the state. To better adapt to potential damages caused by atmospheric rivers, better stormwater management and capture could increase California’s Climate adaptability. This study is focused on the means and methods to capture stormwater and increase groundwater recharge. Nature-based infrastructure (NBI), or Green Infrastructure (GI), has been used in urban areas throughout the country to mitigate harmful stormwater effects by replicating …

Desal In So. Cal - Are We There Yet?, Luke F. Swanson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Southern California has access to a finite amount of water that is vulnerable to the state’s changing climate and growing population. The increasing population’s water demands and hydrologic variability due to climate change inspire different proposals to solve these water limitations. Seawater or brackish water desalination and wastewater recycling are all water resources that have the potential to help meet the water needs of Southern California, specifically the South Coast Hydrologic Region. Every water resource requires energy to transport, treat, and distribute the water for use; in an era of climate change, when energy use contributes to greenhouse gases, utilities …

Improving The Cotton Simulation Model, Gossym, For Soil, Photosynthesis, And Transpiration Processes, Sahila Beegum, Dennis Timlin, Kambham Raja Reddy, Vangimalla Reddy, Wenguang Sun, Zhuangji Wang, David Fleisher, Chittaranjan Ray

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

GOSSYM, a mechanistic, process-level cotton crop simulation model, has a two-dimensional (2D) gridded soil model called Rhizos that simulates the below-ground processes daily. Water movement is based on gradients of water content and not hydraulic heads. In GOSSYM, photosynthesis is calculated using a daily empirical light response function that requires calibration for response to elevated carbon dioxide ( CO₂). This report discusses improvements made to the GOSSYM model for soil, photosynthesis, and transpiration processes. GOSSYM’s predictions of below-ground processes using Rhizos are improved by replacing it with 2DSOIL, a mechanistic 2D finite element soil process model. The photosynthesis …

Downstream Hydrochemistry And Irrigation Water Quality Of The Syr Darya, Aral Sea Basin, South Kazakhstan, Bagdat Satybaldiyev, Baimurat Ismailov, Nurbek Nurpeisov, Kairat Kenges, Daniel D. Snow, Arindam Malakar, Omirzhan Taukebayev, Bolat Uralbekov

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

New hydrochemical measurements from the Syr Darya provide insights into factors affecting the composition and quality of a major freshwater source replenishing the Aral Sea. This river is heavily used for power and irrigation and crosses territories of four Central Asia republics. It is intensely managed, draining several major tributaries, many reservoirs, and numerous irrigation distribution systems and canals. Analysis of seasonal changes in dissolved ion concentrations using geochemical diagrams, elemental ratios, statistical correlation, and equilibrium modeling allowed the characterization of mineral formation processes that control the dissolved chemical composition. Measured water hydrochemistry and composition type differs substantially from previous …

Occurrence Of Radionuclides And Hazardous Elements In The Transboundary River Basin Kyrgyzstan–Kazakhstan, Mariya A. Severinenko, Vladimir P. Solodukhin, Bekmamat M. Djenbaev, The National Academy Of Science Of The Kyrgyz Republic G. Lennik, Baktiyar T. Zholboldiev, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Important for irrigation, the transboundary river basin between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan is vulnerable to geochemical and anthropogenic sources of pollution. The use of water use indices, together with measurements of the elemental and radionuclide composition of the water and bottom sediments, provides a means for evaluating the continued use of the water from this region. Recent monitoring shows the highest concentrations of hazardous contaminants include lead and thorium contained in the bottom and banks of the Kichi-Kemin River. These contaminants are likely remnants of an accidental spill at the Aktyuz tailing dump in 1964. The specific activity of the Th-232 …

Mixing Regimes In A Cluster Of Seven Maar Lakes In Tropical Monsoon Asia, Milette U. Mendoza, Jaydan I. Aguilar, Karol Sophia Agape R. Padilla, Rey Donne S. Papa, Noboru Okuda

Environmental Science Faculty Publications

The 7 maar lakes of San Pablo are a cluster of small volcanic lakes on Luzon Island; Philippines. These lakes; which are heavily utilized for aquaculture and ecotourism; usually experience fish kills that coincide with the northeast monsoon (NEM). This study explores limnophysical processes; particularly mixing regimes; in the lakes in relation to prevailing monsoons. We monitored monthly vertical and seasonal profiles of water temperature; salinity; conductivity; and dissolved oxygen from October 2016 to December 2018. Three types of mixing regimes were observed among the lakes; which have similar surface areas but different depths: polymixis in the shallowest; warm monomixis …

Final Report: Turtle Creek Park, Auden Block, Juliette Chandler, Bethany Fitch, Haley Dickinson, Will Earley

Final Reports in ENST 411: Environmental Community Projects

During the Spring 2023 semester, we worked as a group with East Buffalo Township supervisors to develop plans for newly-acquired Turtle Creek Park. Specifically, our project centered on facilitating community engagement with Phase One of the restoration plan and helping the Supervisors lay a foundation for future phases of the park's revitalization. Our report details our work on mapping the park's trail system, identifying and mapping areas of poor drainage, and creating a series of interpretive signs for public education about the park, its natural history, and its ecology.

Droughtscape, Spring 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Spring 2023

Projected Long-Term Climate Trends Reveal The Critical Role Of Vapor Pressure Deficit For Soybean Yields In The Us Midwest, Wenguang Sun, David Fleisher, Dennis Timlin, Chittaranjan Ray, Zhuangji Wang, Sahila Beegum, Vangimalla Reddy

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Extreme climate events including heat waves and droughts are projected to become more frequent under future climate change conditions. However, the mechanisms between soybean yields and climate factors, specifically involving variable rainfall and high heat episodes, are still unclear, particularly with respect to spatial trends in the United States (US) Midwest. A recently modified version of the model GLYCIM was used to evaluate rainfed soybean production across 12 states at a 10 km spatial resolution for three time periods (2011–2020, 2051–2060, 2091–2099) under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios 4.5 and 8.5. Results showed that except for the northernmost Midwest counties, …

Ecological And Environmental Changes And Protection Measures Of Lakes In China, Ganlin Zhang, Xiaohong Gu, Tao Zhao, Yunlin Zhang, Ligang Xu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Lakes (including artificial reservoirs) are important surface water resources, and they are also an important part of the earth surface system consisting of "mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grassland and desert". Based on the lake survey data and long-term monitoring data collected by the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences as well as other institutions, this paper systematically analyzed the overall status and long-term trends of the ecological and environmental changes of natural and artificial lakes in China, focused on the ecological and environmental status and changes of typical lakes in the five major lake zones …

Achievement Of Wetland Protection And Restoration And Development Strategies In China, Hui Zhu, Haitao Wu, Xiaoxu Xing, Tian Xie, Changchun Song, Guodong Wang, Ming Jiang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Wetland provides various ecological functions, and wetland protection and restoration directly affect national security, sustainability of economy and society, as well as human well-being. This study has systematically summarized the current status of wetland resource and the achievement of wetland protection in China, and the conclusions will provide scientific support for the policy making in wetland protection and management. The area of wetland in China was 41.2×104 km2 based on remote sensing monitoring in 2020, which lead the first in Asia. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the area of wetland has showed a …

Changes And Protection Suggestions In Water Resources And Ecological Environment In Arid Region Of Northwest China, Yaning Chen, Zhongqin Li, Jianhua Xu, Yanjun Shen, Xiaoxu Xing, Tian Xie, Zhi Li, Linshan Yang, Haiyan Xi, Chenggang Zhu, Gonghuan Fang, Jianhua Si, Yuanming Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The arid region of Northwest China is one of the driest regions in the world and is characterized with severe water scarcity. Water shortage is the most critical natural factor limiting the high-quality economic and social development and ecological security in the arid region of Northwest China. Based on the long-term monitoring data from the field stations of Chinese Academy of Sciences, observation data of meteorological stations, water resources bulletin and the remote sensing data, this study systematically analyzes the basic characteristics of water resources and ecological environment in the arid region of Northwest China, assesses the changing trends of …

Thoughts And Suggestions On Oasis Ecological Construction And Agricultural Development In Hexi Corridor, Wenzhi Zhao, Heng Ren, Jun Du, Rong Yang, Qiyue Yang, Hu Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Oasisization is an external manifestation of the temporal and spatial evolution of oasis in arid areas, and the regional water carrying capacity is the key to restricting oasis agriculture and ecological protection in arid areas. The Hexi Corridor is not only an important passage from the east to the west in China, but also an important carrier of regional development; it is not only an important ecological barrier in Northwest China, but also a typical irrigated agricultural area. After more than 60 years of construction, the Hexi Corridor has made remarkable achievements in social progress, traffic conditions, ecological construction and …

Pan-Arctic Soil Moisture Control On Tundra Carbon Sequestration And Plant Productivity, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Koen Hufkens, Beniamino Gioli, Barbara Bailey, George Burba, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer D. Watts, Kyle A. Arndt, Mary Farina, John S. Kimball, Martin Heimann, Mathias Göckede, Martijn Pallandt, Torben R. Christensen, Mikhail Mastepanov, Efrén López-Blanco, Albertus J. Dolman, Roisin Commane, Charles E. Miller, Josh Hashemi, Lars Kutzbach, David Holl, Julia Boike, Christian Wille, Torsten Sachs, Aram Kalhori, Elyn R. Humphreys, Oliver Sonnentag, Gesa Meyer, Gabriel H. Gosselin, Philip Marsh, Walter C. Oechel

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Long-term atmospheric CO₂ concentration records have suggested a reduction in the positive effect of warming on high-latitude carbon uptake since the 1990s. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the reduced net carbon sink of northern ecosystems with increased air temperature, including water stress on vegetation and increased respiration over recent decades. However, the lack of consistent long-term carbon flux and in situ soil moisture data has severely limited our ability to identify the mechanisms responsible for the recent reduced carbon sink strength. In this study, we used a record of nearly 100 site-years of eddy covariance …

Analysis And Installation Of A Demonstration Agroforestry Orchard For Californian Mediterranean Plant Communities, Brandon Hurd

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Climate-appropriate agroforestry can provide low-input food security and ecosystem services for local Californian Mediterranean climates, while conserving natural resources (e.g., water, nitrogen, etc.). This project showcases a variety of agroforestry methods for five common plant communities of California and other analogous Mediterranean climates at the CAFES Experimental Farm on the campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Plant community species and their ethnobotanical uses were analyzed to mimic and incorporate aspects of native flora. Agricultural plants were also characterized to represent each of the five selected plant communities. GIS was used to assess the project site for soil, slope, and …

Collaboration Between Science And Art Through A Special International Symposium For Ecosystem Health And Sustainability, Changwoo Ahn Dr.

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The collaborations between ecosystem restoration and art practices was epitomized by the eco-artist Jackie Brookner who said: “it is not a matter of the scientists providing the hard-core research and artists the soft outreach; rather, the dynamics engendered in the space between disciplines is full of information necessary to solve complex problems at the systemic level”. This paper reviews and summaries the goals, activities, and lessons learned from a special symposium, which was held at the 12^th INTECOL (International Congress of Ecology) conference in Beijing, China, August 21 through 25, 2017, where about 3000 people attended from 70 countries. …

Importance Of Snowmelt On Soil Nitrate Leaching To Groundwater – A Model Study, Sahila Beegum, Arindam Malakar, Chittaranjan Ray, Daniel D. Snow

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

The movement of nitrate to surface water bodies during snow accumulation and melting has been extensively studied, but there are only limited studies on the influence of snow processes on nitrate leaching to groundwater. The present study investigated the impact of snow processes on nitrate leaching to groundwater based on a simulation modeling approach using HYDRUS-1D. HYDRUS-1D model has a temperature threshold-based snow model in addition to water, solute, and heat simulation components. The snow component in HYDRUS-1D was previously not applied to snow simulation studies since the method does not consider a detailed physical and process-based representation of snow …

Time Domain Reflectometry Waveform Interpretation With Convolutional Neural Networks, Zhuangji Wang, Shan Hua, Dennis Timlin, Yuki Kojima, Songtao Lu, Wenguang Sun, David Fleisher, Robert Horton, Vangimalla R. Reddy, Katherine Tully

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Interpreting time domain reflectometry (TDR) waveforms obtained in soils with non-uniform water content is an open question. We design a new TDR waveform interpretation model based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) that can reveal the spatial variations of soil relative permittivity and water content along a TDR sensor. The proposed model, namely TDR-CNN, is constructed with three modules. First, the geometrical features of the TDR waveforms are extracted with a simplified version of VGG16 network. Second, the reflection positions in a TDR waveform are traced using a 1D version of the region proposal network. Finally, the soil relative permittivity values …

National Development And The Sustainability Of Mining In The Atacama Desert, Chile, Dakota Soleil Osgood

Capstone Collection

As climate change continues to intensify on a global scale, efforts have been made to implement renewable energies and progressive technologies. These tools are critical in the shift towards a more sustainable practice, and yet analysis of localized impacts from the development of these mechanisms is inadequate. Chile has been and continues to be a leading country in mineral extraction, with an economic history founded in the mining industry. The establishment of mining in Chile as a progressive tool has aided the social and economic development of the nation. Consequences of mining extraction, however, include intensive environmental degradation, human rights …

Globally Scalable Approach To Estimate Net Ecosystem Exchange Based On Remote Sensing, Meteorological Data, And Direct Measurements Of Eddy Covariance Sites, Ruslan Zhuravlev, Andrey Dara, André Luís Diniz Dos Santos, Oleg Demidov, George Burba

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Despite a rapid development of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for carbon removal in recent years, the methods for evaluating NBS still have certain gaps. We propose an approach based on a combination of remote sensing data and meteorological variables to reconstruct the spatiotemporal variation of net ecosystem exchange from eddy-covariance stations. A Lagrangian particle dispersion model was used for upscaling satellite images and flux towers. We trained data-driven models based on kernel methods separately for each selected land-cover class. The results suggest that the proposed approach to quantifying carbon exchange on a medium-to-large scale by blending eddy covariance flux data with …

Role Of Social Determinants Of Health In Differential Respiratory Exposure And Health Outcomes Among Children, Jagadeesh Puvvula, Jill A. Poole, Yeongjin Gwon, Eleanor G. Rogan, Jesse E. Bell

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Background Attributes defining the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) are associated with disproportionate exposures to environmental hazards and differential health outcomes among communities. The dynamics between SDoH, disproportionate environmental exposures, and differential health outcomes are often specific to micro-geographic areas.

Methods This study focused on children less than 20 years of age who lived in Douglas County, Nebraska, during 2016–2019. To assess the role of SDoH in differential exposures, we evaluated the association between SDoH metrics and criteria pollutant concentrations and the association between SDoH and pediatric asthma exacerbations to quantify the role of SDoH in differential pediatric asthma outcomes. …

Rainwater Catchment System In Public Sector Housing, Araceli Peña, Muhammad Yanzar Sarin

2023 REYES Proceedings

Water is a universal right for all living beings on the planet, but today it has become a commercial good. It costs significantly to extract water from increasingly distant storage sources. For these reasons and many more the fight for water has become increasingly intense. Precisely, an alternative to avoid more dam construction is the implementation of public politic with actions focused on the integral solution of water, that is to say, that it be distributed fairly and equitably to all users, avoiding more concessions to great industries like as soft drinks and breweries, which are the main consumers and …

Droughtscape, Winter 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Winter 2023

Evaluation Of Plaster Creek Stewards: Results And Recommendations From Surveys, Interviews, And Education Event Feedback Forms, Laura Luchies, Jax Heil, Taylor E. Hartson

Watershed Reports

No abstract provided.