Water Resource Management Commons^™

Wagin Townsite Borefield: Review Of Aquifer Performance, Rockwater

Natural resources commissioned reports

The Wagin Borefield was established by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia in 2000-2007 to control groundwater levels in the town that had risen to critical levels as a result of increased recharge and runoff following the clearing of native vegetation for urban development and agriculture. Similar investigations were conducted as part of the Rural Towns Program and Rural Towns-Liquid Assets projects in 41 other wheatbelt towns, but none, except perhaps from Merredin, have been as comprehensively implemented, operated and monitored as Wagin.

The Wagin Borefield comprises 8 production bores, of which only 3 have been operated. To …

Development Of A Modified Screen Printed Electrode For The Determination Of Heavy Metals In Water Before And After Remediation With Food Grade Pectin And Citrofortunella Microcarpa Rinds, Shirley Palisoc, Natividad Michelle, Marissa Noel

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The rapid increase in population, urbanization, and industrialization, along with inadequate water quality monitoring and wastewater management, contribute heavily to the pollution of water resources. Among the water contaminants of major concern, heavy metals are particularly considered as the most worrisome. Heavy metals tend to accumulate in the tissues of aquatic organisms (Ahmed et al., 2019; Rajeshkumar & Li, 2018; Tabrez et al., 2021) and thus increase in concentration upon moving higher up the food chain. This indicates that once humans ingest these organisms, they have a high risk of experiencing health problems as heavy metals are absorbed into their …

Hydrological Drought Forecasting Using A Deep Transformer Model, Amobichukwu C. Amanambu, Joann Mossa, Yin-Hsuen Chen

University Administration Publications

Hydrological drought forecasting is essential for effective water resource management planning. Innovations in computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) have been incorporated into Earth science research domains to improve predictive performance for water resource planning and disaster management. Forecasting of future hydrological drought can assist with mitigation strategies for various stakeholders. This study uses the transformer deep learning model to forecast hydrological drought, with a benchmark comparison with the long short-term memory (LSTM) model. These models were applied to the Apalachicola River, Florida, with two gauging stations located at Chattahoochee and Blountstown. Daily stage-height data from the period 1928–2022 were …

Hydrogeologic Investigation Of A Covered Karst Terrain, Joseph Peter Honings

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Increasing demand for water for agricultural use within the Dougherty Plain of the Southeastern United States has depleted surface water bodies. In karstic landscapes, such as the Dougherty Plain in southwest Georgia where the linkages between surface and ground waters are close, there is a need to understand the physical characteristics of the subsurface that allow these close linkages. Having a better understanding of the subsurface characteristics will aid numerical modeling efforts that underpin policy decisions and economic analyses. Two common features on this karstic landscape are draws and geographically isolated wetlands. Using LiDAR, aerial imagery, and ground-penetrating radar, this …

A Long-Term Vision For An Ecologically Sound Platte River, Andrew J. Caven, Melissa M. Mosier, Kristal Stoner, Bill Taddicken, Brice Krohn, Ashley Gramza, Craig R. Allen, Mike Carter, Michelle Koch, Kirk D. Schroeder, Sarah Bailey, Rich Walters, Brian C. Chaffin, Erica Gnuse, Amy Jones, Kate Bird

Zea E-Books Collection

The Platte River extends about 310 mi (499 km) from North Platte, Nebraska, to its terminus at the Missouri River confluence near Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The Platte River Valley is a continentally significant ecosystem that serves as a major stopover for migratory waterbirds in the Central Flyway including the endangered Whooping Crane (Grus americana) and >1 million Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) at the peak of spring migration. However, the Platte River Valley also supports a great diversity of avifauna including grassland breeding birds, native stream fish, vascular plants, herpetofauna, mammals, pollinators, and aquatic macroinvertebrates. Despite ongoing conservation …

Population Health Metrics During The Early Stages Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Correlative Pilot Study, Marie A. Severson, David A. Cassada, Victor C. Huber, Daniel D. Snow, Lisa M. Mcfadden

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Background: COVID-19 has caused nearly 1 million deaths in the United States, not to mention job losses, business and school closures, stay-at-home orders, and mask mandates. Many people have suffered increased anxiety and depression since the pandemic began. Not only have mental health symptoms become more prevalent, but alcohol consumption has also increased during this time. Helplines offer important insight into both physical and mental wellness of a population by offering immediate, anonymous, cheap, and accessible resources for health and substance use disorders (SUD) that was unobstructed by many of the mandates of the pandemic. Further, the pandemic also …

Changing Behavior Of Cyclone In Bangladesh And Its Risk Assessment For Adaptation, Sareea Rahman Heea, Muhammad Qumrul Hassan, Abdul Mannan, Nazrul I. Khandaker

Publications and Research

Tropical cyclone (TC) is one of the most crucial topics not only for the natural loss but also for physical and economical loss of any country. The Bay of Bengal (BoB) generates number of tropical cyclones in each year. Bangladesh also experiences a number of cyclones. The surface temperature of the sea and air temperature is observed from NOAA high resolution satellite image. The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) of about 27°C and its higher is one of the prerequisite conditions for formation of a TC. But SST has increased by 1.2°C since last 40 years. It can be settled that …

2022 Academic Program Review

School of Natural Resources: Documents and Reviews

No abstract provided.

Water Current, Volume 54, No. 2, Fall 2022

Water Current Newsletter

Fall Harvest: Research, News and More from the Nebraska Water Center

Droughtscape, Fall 2022, National Drought Mitigation Center

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

DroughtScape, Fall 2022

Landscape Change, Scale, And Human Response To Change In The Great Plains, Kate Bird

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

Great Plains landscapes are undergoing changes at multiple spatial and temporal scales due to processes ranging from woody encroachment to climate change. These changes may fundamentally alter the agroecosystems of the Great Plains such that the provisioning of ecosystem services including biodiversity and livestock production is affected. Improving our understanding of the effects of landscape change at multiple scales and how humans perceive and respond to these changes is important for facilitating research and management that enhances the resilience of these agroecosystems. As such, I first applied discontinuity theory and graph theory to evaluate the functional connectivity of the Central …

Getting Ahead Of Flash Drought: From Early Warning To Early Action, Jason A. Otkin, Molly Woloszyn, Hailan Wang, Mark D. Svoboda, Marina Skumanich, Roger Pulwarty, Joel Lisonbee, Andrew Hoell, Mike Hobbins, Tonya Haigh, Amanda E. Cravens

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Flash droughts, characterized by their unusually rapid intensification, have garnered increasing attention within the weather, climate, agriculture, and ecological communities in recent years due to their large environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Because flash droughts intensify quickly, they require different early warning capabilities and management approaches than are typically used for slower-developing “conventional” droughts. In this essay, we describe an integrated research-and-applications agenda that emphasizes the need to reconceptualize our understanding of flash drought within existing drought early warning systems by focusing on opportunities to improve monitoring and prediction. We illustrate the need for engagement among physical scientists, social scientists, operational …

Charting A Course To Conserve 30% Of Freshwaters By 2030, Sandra B. Zellmer

William & Mary Law Review

One of President Biden’s earliest executive orders established an ambitious national goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. lands, waters, and oceans by 2030. The Biden administration is not alone; over 100 countries support this goal as a means of combating climate change and slowing the pace of species extinction, both of which are accelerating at a rate that is unprecedented in history.

Despite its vow to pursue a wide-sweeping, all-of-government approach, Biden’s 30 by 30 initiative overlooks a critical component of the conservation goal—it pays virtually no attention to freshwater. Freshwater ecosystems are among the most endangered …

The Politics Of Water: The Jordanian Water Crisis And The Future Of Refugee Migration In The Middle East, Ruhama Bekele

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The rise of water-related conflicts around the world has challenged the norms of international relations as environmental developments have transboundary effects that threaten the security of sovereign states and have the potential to destabilize regions. Furthermore, water-related conflicts are more dangerous in countries like Jordan that suffer from extreme water scarcity and have high populations of refugees as a consequence of political instability in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. The following research investigates the role of water in relation to geopolitical factors such as refugee migration, Israel’s diversion of the Jordan River, and the construction of Syrian dams on …

Aman Iman: Resilient Customs, Community Water Management, And Dry Futures In Anounizme, Morocco, Haley Kirtland

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project explores how Anounizme, a village in southeastern Morocco, interacts with water. I was particularly curious about how traditional community management systems operate in the context of drought. I argue that the customary management system exhibits resiliency like it has in the face of Arabization, colonization, exploitative industry, and land privatization. It is capable of adapting to drought because it is more than a management system; it is a part of culture engrained as custom. Customs have porous boundaries, allowing a space for old aspects of culture to interact with both emerging aspects of culture and external pressures. I …

Enrofloxacin And Sulfamethoxazole Sorption On Carbonized Leonardite: Kinetics, Isotherms, Influential Effects, And Antibacterial Activity Toward S. Aureus Atcc 25923, Chanat Chokejaroenrat, Chainarong Sakulthaew, Khomson Satchasataporn, Daniel D. Snow, Tarik E. Ali, Mohammed A. Assiri, Apichon Watcharenwong, Saksit Imman, Nopparat Suriyachai, Torpong Kreetachat

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Excessive antibiotic use in veterinary applications has resulted in water contamination and potentially poses a serious threat to aquatic environments and human health. The objective of the current study was to quantify carbonized leonardite (cLND) adsorption capabilities to remove sulfamethoxazole (SMX)- and enrofloxacin (ENR)-contaminated water and to determine the microbial activity of ENR residuals on cLND following adsorption. The cLND samples prepared at 450^oC and 850^oC (cLND450 and cLND550, respectively) were evaluated for structural and physical characteristics and adsorption capabilities based on adsorption kinetics and isotherm studies. The low pyrolysis temperature of cLND resulted in a …

Relief Wells For Water Resources And Managing Salinity And Waterlogging, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

Relief wells can provide water resources and help reduce the severity and extent of waterlogging and salinity caused by leaky artesian systems.

A relief well is a 'free flowing' groundwater bore driven by artesian pressure. Such a bore allows groundwater to flow continuously up to the surface by releasing confined pressure stored within the aquifer at depth. This confined artesian pressure is renewed by a percentage of rainfall that infiltrates the soil profile at a higher elevation and recharges aquifers that may be a source of water for a saline seep.

Siphons For Managing Groundwater Discharge And Salinisation In Western Australia, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

Siphons are a way of passively moving water from areas of higher hydraulic head to areas of lower hydraulic head, through a pipe. Siphons can be used to lower the watertable under a seepage site if the flow from the siphon (or multiple siphons) is greater than the flow of groundwater to the site. Siphons can reduce surface salt levels at the seepage, but the discharge needs to be to a safe disposal site.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recommends that siphons are used as part of an integrated water and salinity management program.

Warming Of The Willamette River, 1850–Present: The Effects Of Climate Change And Direct Human Interventions, Stefan Talke, David Jay, Heida Diefenderfer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using archival research methods, we found and combined data from multiple sources to produce a unique, 140 year record of daily water temperature (Tw) in the lower Willamette River, Oregon (1881–1890, 1941–present). Additional daily weather and river flow records from the 1850s onwards are used to develop and validate a statistical regression model of Tw for 1850–2020. The model simulates the time-lagged response of Tw to air temperature and river flow, and is calibrated for three distinct time periods: the late 19th, mid 20th, and early 21st centuries. Results show that Tw has trended upwards at ~1.1 °C …

Water-Level And Recoverable Water In Storage Changes, High Plains Aquifer, Predevelopment To 2017 And 2015–17, Virginia L. Mcguire, Kellan R. Strauch

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Document abstract

The High Plains aquifer underlies 111.8 million acres (about 175,000 square miles) in parts of eight States—Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Water-level declines began in parts of the High Plains aquifer soon after the beginning of substantial groundwater irrigation (about 1950). This report presents water-level changes and change in recoverable water in storage in the High Plains aquifer from predevelopment (about 1950) to 2017 and from 2015 to 2017.

Water-level changes from predevelopment to 2017, by well, ranged from a rise of 84 feet to a decline of 262 feet; the range …

Permafrost Landscape History Shapes Fluvial Chemistry, Ecosystem Carbon Balance, And Potential Trajectories Of Future Change, Scott Zolkos, Suzanne E. Tank, Steven V. Kokelj, Robert G. Striegl, Sarah Shakil, Carolina Voigt, Oliver Sonnentag, William L. Quinton, Edward A.G. Schuur, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Ryan C. Sullivan, Masahito Ueyama, David Billesbach, David Cook, Elyn R. Humphreys, Philip Marsh

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Intensifying permafrost thaw alters carbon cycling by mobilizing large amounts of terrestrial substrate into aquatic ecosystems. Yet, few studies have measured aquatic carbon fluxes and constrained drivers of ecosystem carbon balance across heterogeneous Arctic landscapes. Here, we characterized hydrochemical and landscape controls on fluvial carbon cycling, quantified fluvial carbon fluxes, and estimated fluvial contributions to ecosystem carbon balance across 33 watersheds in four ecoregions in the continuous permafrost zone of the western Canadian Arctic: unglaciated uplands, ice-rich moraine, and organic-rich lowlands and till plains. Major ions, stable isotopes, and carbon speciation and fluxes revealed patterns in carbon cycling across ecoregions …

Resistance To Petro-Hegemony: A Three Terrains Of Power Analysis Of The Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline In Minnesota, Melissa Burrell, Corrie Grosse, Brigid Mark

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In northern Minnesota, the Line 3 tar sands pipeline crosses Indigenous treaty territory, the Mississippi River, and wild rice lakes. Despite the severity of climate crisis and widespread public opposition, Canadian pipeline company Enbridge succeeded in securing permits for, constructing, and ultimately running oil in the pipeline in fall 2021. How was this possible and how did the climate justice movement try to resist? Drawing on participant observation and interviews in the Stop Line 3 movement, this article employs LeQuesne's (2019) concepts of petro-hegemony and carbon rebellion to explain why Line 3 was approved and to assess water protectors' resistance. …

The Interaction Of Different Primary Producers And Physical And Chemical Dynamics Of An Urban Shallow Lake, Majid Sahin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

An artificial urban shallow lake, Prospect Park Lake (PPL), is situated on a terminal moraine in Brooklyn New York, and supplied with municipal water treated with ortho-phosphates. The constant input of the phosphate nutrient is the primary source of eutrophication in the lake. The numerous pools along the water course houses various aquatic phototrophs, which influence the water quality and the state of the system, driving conditions into favoring the survival of their species. In the first half of the dissertation, the focus of the project is on analyzing how the different primary producers in different regions of PPL affect …

Acid Mine Drainage In The Shamokin Creek Watershed: A Spatial Analysis Of Economic And Environmental Consequences Of Coal Mining, Ben Shimer

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Flint, Michigan Drinking Water Crisis, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Briefly covers the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis including providing some background, a timeline of events, and key takeaways from the perspective of public policy.

This article was originally prepared for distribution to students in Aiken's AECN 357 environmental and natural resources law course.

Evaluating The Potential Effect Of Nitrogen And Toxicological Responses Of Juvenile Lampsilis Reeveiana (Mollusca: Unionidae) In The Buffalo National River, Anna Marie Pieri

Student Theses and Dissertations

The Buffalo National River (BUFF) was established as the first national river in 1972 and later designated as an Extraordinary Resource Water and Natural and Scenic Waterway. This thesis seeks to address the potential threat of elevated nutrients and its association with freshwater mussel declines in the BUFF through laboratory and in situ exposures. Water and sediment chemistry data were collected, and relevant thresholds were used to extrapolate lab-to-field toxicity during low-flow events. Acute toxicity was not observed; however, low-concentration chronic toxicity may be influencing mussel assemblages with rising temperatures. Water quality degradation is likely the result of combined sources …

Assessment Of Water Quality, Fish Diversity, And Lead (Pb) In The Agriculturally Dominated Upper Cache River Watershed, Arkansas, Amelia K. Atwell

Student Theses and Dissertations

Freshwater is an important, finite, commodity necessary for nearly all facets of human life. Due to its vast usage, a large portion of freshwater has become impaired, impacting water quality. Worldwide, pollution from rivers and streams are causing eutrophication in marine environments into which they flow, negatively affecting aquatic life. The hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico has reached record size in the last decade with agricultural activity within the Mississippi River Basin, including the Cache River Watershed of northeast Arkansas, contributing to the cause. Over 70% of the Cache River Watershed is used for agriculture and the upper …

Assessing The Risk Of Land Subsidence In The Lower Limpopo River Basin, Mozambique With Remote Sensing, Gabriella Zuccolotto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Land subsidence is a threat to coastal cities around the world. In the lower Limpopo River Basin, the presence of compaction-prone alluvial sediments, groundwater use, and reports of saltwater intrusion suggest that subsidence could be occurring. Using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) from Sentinel-1, combined with in-situ sea level and river height measurements, this study aims to determine if land subsidence could contribute to increased saltwater intrusion. InSAR results indicate that subsidence in the lower Limpopo River valley has occurred at an average rate of -2.98 cm/yr based on data from the dry seasons (May to October) of 2017-2021. River …

Ferrate-Pretreated Directional Solvent Extraction For Hydraulic Fracturing Produced Water: Technical And Economic Feasibility Studies, Sean X. Thimons, Shray Saxena, Walter Den

Water Resources Science and Technology Faculty Publications (Archived)

Produced water (PW) generated from hydraulic fracturing operations contains varying amounts of crude oil, sand and dissolved ions, and is typically characterized as hyper-brine. It is often untreatable by existing desalination technologies. This study presents using the directional solvent extraction (DSE) technique to desalinate multiphasic, synthetic produced waters (SPW) using diisopropylamine (DIPA) as the extraction solvent and a ferrate pretreatment method. DSE with ferrate pretreatment achieved an average solvent efficiency of 0.25, 0.13 and 0.03 mL water/g solvent at 1 M, 2 M and 4 M salinity, respectively. The water extraction, turbidity reduction and salinity reduction efficiency were better for …

Understanding Conservation Specialists’ Role In The Adoption Of Precision Agriculture In Nebraska, Morgan L. Register

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

There is a complex issue by the need for strategic development of agricultural lands to ensure we can feed a growing world, while simultaneously reducing impacts on our natural resources such as water pollution from runoff, soil degradation, and habitat fragmentation. To address these growing concerns, researchers are looking for ways to optimize both agricultural production and natural resource conservation. Precision conservation was developed to ensure sustainable ecosystems for future generations. Our research evaluates conservation specialists’ ability to clearly articulate how precision conservation can help agricultural producers feed a growing world while simultaneously reducing impacts on our natural resources, I …