Water Resource Management Commons^™

Droughtscape, Summer 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Summer 2023

Mentoring Experiences Of Undergraduate Students And Faculty Members In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics, Pamela Martínez Oquendo

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

I present a comprehensive view of mentoring experiences of undergraduate students and faculty members in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In Chapter 1, I describe a brief outline of this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I present an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of former STEM undergraduate mentors of the Nebraska STEM For You (NE STEM 4U) afterschool mentoring program. In Chapter 3, I describe how the ramifications of faculty mentorship influence the science pipeline using a qualitative synthesis. In Chapter 4, I describe how the STEM faculty-student mentoring engagement involves a strong psychological support component using a …

An Introduction To Consumptive Use Of Water In South Carolina, Heather Bergerud Nix, Mani Rouhi Rad

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

Effective water resource management requires understanding the supply of and the demand for water. In South Carolina, as in other places, water demand is often determined using total withdrawal volumes. However, the volume of water that is withdrawn can be significantly different from the volume that is actually consumed, which becomes unavailable for downstream uses. Water used for energy generation is commonly excluded from evaluations of total withdrawal volume because it is often assumed to be no or low consumptive use, meaning much of the withdrawn water is returned to the source and remains available for downstream uses. Additionally, energy …

The Flow Of Power: Addressing Asymmetric Flood Risk In The Upper Valley, Eric Vr Hryniewicz

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

Floods are the most damaging natural disasters in America. Land use change in upland watersheds can increase the probability and severity of floods (Bronstert, Niehoff, & Burger, 2002). When watersheds are divided by political and private property boundaries it leads to a misalignment of incentives in which downstream users lack recourse for upstream land use decisions contributing to flood risk. In this thesis, researchers interrogate the attributes of town officials and towns that determine what motivates town governments to act on flooding and what motivates and enables town officials to collaborate on planning and how do they collaborate in practice. …

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 …

Review Of Toxicity Of Agricultural Chemicals And Implications For Aquatic Fauna Of The Keep River, Samanatha Reynolds, David Morgan

Natural resources commissioned reports

This report was compiled for the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) as part of the National Water Grid Authority (NWGA) project entitled “Managing water quality to enable future irrigation development in the Kimberley Region, WA”. The purpose of this report is to review the toxicity of farm chemicals (herbicides and insecticides) used by farm operators in the Keep River catchment and their potential impacts on the aquatic species in the river, in particular those species that are listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It is designed to complement the report entitled …

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

Desalination: Adapting To A Changing Climate And An Increasing Demand For Freshwater, Rebecca A. Acosta

Master's Projects and Capstones

The state of California is just one place in the world that is experiencing an increasing demand for freshwater while also experiencing increasingly hotter conditions and longer periods of drought. There are a number of plants slated for development in the state of California but have been met with resistance from the public with concerns regarding their impacts to the surrounding marine environments. This paper provides background on desalination plants, provides evidence for a potential indicator species, identifies potential impacts to marine environments, and addresses stakeholder concerns and perceptions around desalination plants.

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 …

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 …

Evaluation Of Hydrogeochemical Characteristics Of San Joaquin, Tulare, And Mojave Aquifers, Southern California, Maedeh Hassanvand

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Before making attempts to enhance and manage the quality of water, a thorough understanding of these processes is necessary since the chemical quality of groundwater is impacted by a number of linked processes. This would be more important in arid and semiarid regions like the southern part of California where more rely on groundwater for agriculture and drinking water uses than the other states. As a result, fundamental knowledge of the governing processes of groundwater chemistry is required for effective water resource management. Thus, this study is primarily concerned with three aspects in Mojave, Tulare, and San Joaquin aquifers: The …

The Last Drought Frontier: Building A Drought Index For The State Of Alaska, Olivia Campbell

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

Drought is characterized by periods of below average precipitation. There are five major types of drought recognized in the literature: meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, socioeconomic, and ecological. A relatively new concept in the drought literature is “snow drought.” A key part of the definition of drought is that it is not always accompanied by extreme heat. This means drought can occur even in cold climates, cold seasons, and higher latitudes and altitudes, like Alaska. Drought is a natural part of climate variability, but Alaska’s climate is changing faster than any other state in the United States. Alaska is no stranger to …

The Role Of Gender And Curiosity On Transformational Leadership: A Mixed-Methods Study, Brooke Colleen Mott

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

Environmental leaders are tasked with finding innovative solutions to dynamic environmental challenges. Leaders must gain and use new knowledge and experiences that motivate resolving gaps in one’s knowledge (i.e., curiosity) and thereby find forward-thinking solutions. Although curiosity is an integral part of human existence, it may be experienced in various ways. Studies have shown that men and women may possess different leadership styles. Nevertheless, the influence of curiosity on leadership between genders has not been as readily explored. Women exhibit unique characteristics for successful leadership in many contexts, but they are often underrepresented in natural resource management overall. Characteristics of …

Water Erosion In The South-West Of Western Australia, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

The averaged annual direct cost of water erosion to dryland farming in Western Australia is estimated to be $10 million, but the costs are much higher in years of severe summer storms.

Water erosion occurs when water flowing over the land surface moves soil particles downslope. Water erosion is a natural process, but is accelerated under agriculture, especially on cropped land. Water erosion causes loss of topsoil, reduced crop yields, damaged infrastructure, weed dispersal, eutrophication (algal blooms) and silting of dams and natural waterways.

Water Current, Volume 55, No. 1, Spring 2023

Water Current Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Droughtscape, Spring 2023, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Spring 2023

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 …

Assessing Ecosystem Health Through Contaminants In The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Nancy Torres

Theses

Although the Tijuana River Estuary (TRE) remains the largest, most-intact coastal wetland in Southern California, it has a history of major changes, much of this related to its location immediately north of the US / Mexico Border. One of the primary challenges is cross-border flows from the rapidly growing city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, and the delivery of wastewater, debris, and sediment to sensitive coastal wetland ecosystems. There is a need to more fully investigate these environmental changes to assess the ecosystem health of the Tijuana River Estuary over time, especially related to pollution impacts. This can inform an …

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. …

Multi-Scale Adaptive Management Of Social-Ecological Systems, A. Garmestani, Craig R. Allen, D. G. Angeler, L. Gunderson, J. B. Ruhl

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Local-Scale Impacts Of Water Hyacinth On Water Quality In A Hypereutrophic Lake, J. R. Corman, A. Z. Roegner, Z. Ogari, T. R. Miller, C. M. Aura

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Extreme Precipitation In The Southern Great Plains Hydroclimate Region, P. Flanagan, R. Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Resilience Theory And Coerced Resilience In Agriculture, S. M. Sundstrom, D. G. Angeler, C. R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Storms And Ph Of Dam Releases Affects Downstream Phosphorus Cycling In An Arid Regulated River, B. R. Deemer, R. H. Reibold, A. Fatta, J. R. Corman, C. B. Yackulic, S. C. Reed

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.