Water Resource Management Commons^™

Drainage Area Limitations Of Single Watershed, Peak Flow Estimates From Nrcs Methods, Timothy A. Maughan, Rollin H. Hotchkiss, Riley Hales

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Most state Department of Transportation roadway design sections predict peak flow for culvert design using, amongst other approaches, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) TR-20 technology. Even though this technology is more than 50 years old, there are no clear guidelines for how large a single watershed drainage area may be while remaining appropriate for predicting peak discharge with this method. Our objective was to identify the drainage area where TR-20 peak flow predictions significantly deviate from flow frequency predictions. We developed flow frequency estimates for 130 small-area stream gage sites in rural Nebraska and compared the calculated return period discharges …

Optimizing Nitrogen Management: Assessing Nitrate Transport In The Deep Vadose Zone And Its Impact On Groundwater Quality In East-Central Nebraska, Muili O. Lawal

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Groundwater contamination by nitrate (NO₃-N) is a growing environmental and public health concern driven largely by intensive agricultural fertilizer applications. The vadose zone plays an important role in NO₃-N transport, influencing groundwater quality and agricultural sustainability. This study investigated NO₃-N leaching dynamics in the deep vadose zone of Water Quality Sub-Area 30 (WQA30) within the Lower Loup Natural Resources District (LLNRD), northeast of Columbus, Nebraska (mean groundwater NO₃-N: 20.3 mg/L), using soil cores from 16 shallow (to 6.1 m) and four deep (down to 25.9 m) across four zones, two with inorganic fertilizer (Zones 1 and 4) and two with …

Carbon Dioxide, Methane, And Nitrous Oxide Fluxes From Managed Aquatic Systems Of The Rio Grande Valley, Siena Rose Stassi

Theses and Dissertations

Greenhouse gas (GHG) dynamics from small-scale inland water remain relatively understudied, with knowledge gaps across ecosystem types and regions. In South Texas, there is a unique system of managed distributaries and their associated ox-bow lakes, commonly known as resacas. Most resacas are artificially managed and considered novel ecosystems, yet their GHG dynamics are unknown. Two resaca systems were monitored throughout one year to understand the magnitude, temporal variation, and environmental drivers of diffusive fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), along with ebullitive CH4 emissions. Emissions of both CO2 and CH4 peaked in hot summer months, …

Training Sensor-Agnostic Deep Learning Models For Remote Sensing: Achieving State-Of-The-Art Cloud And Cloud Shadow Identification With Omnicloudmask, Nicholas J. Wright, John M A Duncan, Nik Callow, Sally E. Thompson, Richard J. George

Natural Resources Research Articles

Deep learning models are widely used to extract features and insights from remotely sensed imagery. However, these models typically perform optimally when applied to the same sensor, resolution and imagery processing level as used during their training, and are rarely used or evaluated on out-of-domain data. This limitation results in duplication of efforts in collecting similar training datasets from different satellites to train sensor-specific models. Here, we introduce a range of techniques to train deep learning models that generalise across various sensors, resolutions, and processing levels. We applied this approach to train OmniCloudMask (OCM), a sensor-agnostic deep learning model that …

Managing For Disturbance: Trade-Offs Associated With Population Resilience And Ecosystem Size, Ellie Wallace

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Populations can recover from and withstand disturbance through characteristics such as reproduction and maintaining large abundances. While these traits are beneficial to native species conservation, they can simultaneously challenge effective invasive species management. Effective invasive species control requires sufficient efforts to overcome a population's ability to recover from disturbance, such as harvest. My dissertation aimed to address how the size of an invasive population and its ability to recover from disturbance impact a suite of invasive species control methods, including those that (1) target mainly larger and older individuals (i.e., mechanical removal), (2) target all sizes of individuals (i.e., targeted …

Towards Advancing Streamflow And Peak Flow Prediction With Machine Learning: Identifying Infrastructure At Risk, Sudan Pokharel

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Due to climate change and its impact, the need for adaptive strategies for natural disaster mitigation and resource management has never been more urgent. Central to this is water resource management, which is essential for sustainable human activities, ecological balance, and the mitigation of natural hazards like floods. Streamflow is a crucial element of water resource management and plays a vital role in planning and building water infrastructure, implementing emergency response plans, supporting flood mitigation initiatives, and regulating agricultural and industrial use. However, accurate prediction of streamflow still remains a challenge due to the complex non-linear and non-stationary interaction between …

Promoting Sustainable Drinking Water Consumption At Bryant University, Matthew Gerdenich

Honors Projects in Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Many higher education institutions have either banned or restricted the sale of disposable plastic water bottles to address environmental pollution and climate change. This project seeks to gather knowledge and data related to disposable water bottle consumption at Bryant University that can be used to provide recommendations for promoting reusable water bottle use on campus. Additionally, the project seeks to find out why community members choose single-use water bottles over reusables ones and how to make reusable water bottle use more attractive and accessible. Primary research included a survey distributed to undergraduate students on campus as well as water samples …

Assessing Relationships Between Water Quality, Precipitation, Land Cover And Stormwater Conveyance Type Across A Range Of Sub-Watersheds In The Southeastern Coastal Zone, Kevencia Sabine Gabriel Faton

Theses and Dissertations

The expansion of urban land use/cover along the coast may degrade water quality by introducing a plethora of pollutants and pathogens that negatively impact human and ecological health. It is hypothesized that anthropogenic contaminants associated with stormwater runoff increase with increasing urban density and vary with the timing and magnitude of rainfall. In this study, we examined land use/cover change and relationships between Escherichia coli (E. coli), turbidity, nutrients, and the timing and magnitude of rainfall in two different types of stormwater conveyances (ditches and ponds) within Murrells Inlet, SC during the summer of 2023. Our results indicate …

Diverse Dust Sources And Warming Trigger Cyanobacteria Abundance In Freshwater Ecosystems In The Western United States, Juan Manuel González-Olalla, Janice Brahney

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The rise in global temperature and the increase in atmospheric transport and deposition of dust linked to greater aridity, land abandonment, and wildfires, are placing significant stress on freshwater microbial communities. Temperature increases and the nutrients contained in the dust may independently and together alter the metabolism and structure of these communities. However, dust chemistry is widely variable, and pre-existing lake conditions will likely influence the response of the algal and microbial communities to added nutrients and temperature stress. To fill this gap of knowledge, we tested the metabolic and structural response of phytoplankton in two aquatic ecosystems in the …

Water Quality Of The Inner Puno Bay Of Lake Titicaca, Zoe Hoaglund

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2025

Lake Titicaca straddles the border between Bolivia and Peru and is the highest lake in the world. The Lake has held great significance, particularly to the Incan empire for the last five thousand years as a source of drinking water, for agricultural use, and is the primary source for protein from native and more recently from non-native species of fish. It currently supports a growing fish farming industry for both Bolivia and Peru. Puno is one of the major urban centers on Lake Titicaca and supports a population of about 1.3 million people which derive their drinking water and a …

Evaluating Water Quality Upstream And Downstream From A Proposed Restoration Project On The Pomme De Terre River In Morris, Mn, Payton Prieve

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2025

The recent push to restore natural river conditions provides opportunities to investigate the effects of dam removal and channel modification, particularly if data are collected before such projects are initiated. The MN DNR plans to modify the Pomme de Terre River channel at the Crissy Lake dam (Morris, MN) by constructing and directing water flow over stone arch rapids to remove the barrier to fish, restore flow, and enhance river conditions. We aim to characterize the Pomme de Terre River upstream and downstream from the project site before construction to provide data to compare with river conditions after the project …

James Buttle Review: Bed, Banks And Beyond: River Flood Dynamics, Ellen Wohl, Julianne Scamardo, Ryan R. Morrison

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Floods are amplified and attenuated by features and processes across spatial scales, defined here as flood dynamics. We review and synthesise these influences at the catchment, river network and reach scales as a means of integrating understanding of controls on flood dynamics and identifying key questions that arise because of differences in techniques of investigation and disciplinary emphases between spatial scales. Catchment-scale influences include catchment area, topography, lithology, land cover, precipitation, antecedent conditions and human alterations such as changing land cover. Network-scale influences on flood dynamics include network topology, longitudinal variations in the geometry of successive river corridor reaches, lakes …

Characterizing The Hydrology Of Rock Glaciers And Other High-Mountain Stream Types In The Intermountain West, Usa, Jace Kjar, Anna Shampain

Student Research Symposium

Rock glaciers are high mountain landforms composed of an ice core covered and insulated by unconsolidated talus (Figure 1). Rock glaciers—like other forms of mountain snow and ice (e.g., surface ice glaciers)—are vital water sources in high mountain ecosystems. However, the relevance of rock glaciers for mountain hydrology has been largely overlooked. For this project, I helped to collect and analyze stream flow data from 17 sites across the Wasatch, Teton, and Northern Rockies mountain ranges including rock glacier and non-rock glacier streams. By including multiple sources, our goal was to place rock glacier streams in context.

Discovery Of Suitable Habitat For Freshwater Mussel Species In The Appomattox River Through The Use Of Environmental Dna., Nicholas Duellman

Longwood Senior Thesis Proposal

Freshwater mussels are a keystone species providing crucial ecosystem services and river composition resiliency. Anecdotal evidence suggests the presence of freshwater mussels within the Appomattox river, the specifics of population sizes and suitable habitat remains an open question. Environmental DNA (eDNA) usage in conservation ecology has exploded in use within the past two decades, being far less invasive and cost-demanding than traditional methods. An eDNA metabarcoding pipeline of the 16s mitochondrial ribosomal subunit was built in R v. 4.4.2, using dada2 v. 3.2.1 package to trim MinION single read ASV outputs for freshwater mussel species identification in the interest of …

Water Holding Capacity Of Soil And Resilience To Drought, Taro Mieno

Cornhusker Economics

For the past two years, I have been involved in an NSF-funded research project titled “RII Track-2 FEC: Supporting Rural Livelihoods in the Water-Stressed Central High Plains.” The overarching goal of this project is to evaluate the potential of microbials and biochar to enhance soil water holding capacity (hereafter, WHC), thereby improving drought resilience in crop production and reducing irrigation demand to slow aquifer depletion. Visit the project website for more details. A key component of this research is assessing the economic viability of these interventions, a task for which I am responsible.

To understand the economic benefits of increasing …

Turning Farm Waste Into Energy: Pragmatic Approaches For Cleaner Midwestern American Communities, Rebecca Gaisie

Selected or Submitted Student Research Papers/Projects

Mismanagement of farm waste in the Midwest of the United States has resulted in significant methane emissions, water contamination, and public health concerns. The present manure management rules are still inconsistent, underfunded, and insufficient to motivate individuals to behave in a way that benefits the environment, despite increasing concerns about the environment. This policy study investigates anaerobic digestion as a potential means to convert waste into energy that could support rural and environmental development. Some of the problems with the federal and state legislation examined in this study under an EPI framework are a lack of incentives, inadequate technical support, …

Water Current, Volume 57, No. 1, Spring 2025

Water Current Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Experimental Evaluation Of Friedel’S Salt For Chloride Removal In Road Salt-Impacted Stormwater And Lakes, Marwan Alhinaai

Masters Theses

Road salt (e.g., NaCl) application in cold-temperature regions has increased Cl- concentrations in freshwater. Removing Cl- from water is challenging because it’s highly soluble. This paper is the first to demonstrate and characterize the removal of Cl- from stormwater by Friedel’s salt (Ca4Al2(OH)12Cl2(H2O)4) precipitation (FSP), achieved by adding calcium oxide (CaO) and sodium aluminate (NaAlO2). Laboratory tests were done on Cl- removal with FSP using a range of Ca/Al/Cl ratios in deionized (DI) water and in stormwater samples impacted by road salt. Even the lowest doses resulted in significant removal of Cl- with maximum removal rates for comparable Ca/Al/Cl ratios …

Ground-Arthropod Assemblage Response To Groundwater As A Metric Of Flooding In The Middle Rio Grande, Wesley J. Noe

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Riparian zones are dynamic ecosystems, crucial for maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance, particularly in arid environments like the Middle Rio Grande (MRG). Ground arthropods, with their sensitivity to environmental changes, serve as bioindicators for assessing the impacts of water regime changes in the MRG, specifically flooding which was historically the main driver of the MRG ecosystem. This study investigated the responses of ground arthropod communities to fluctuations in groundwater and land management practices within MRG riparian habitats. Using a combination of pitfall trapping and habitat assessments, arthropod abundance was assessed in relation to depth to groundwater (DTG). Findings revealed shifts …

Analysis Of The Potential Impacts Of Brine And The Main Challenges Of The Water Importing Project From The Gulf Of California To Phoenix, Arizona (Arizona Water Project Solution), Alejandro Corral Hernandez

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

In December 2022, the Arizona Water Project Solution (AWPS) was presented to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA). The project proposes to develop, construct, and operate a Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) plant in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico, and transport potable water through a 200-mile pipeline to supply the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States.

This study includes a cross-multiple-case analysis, incorporating expert data and information, to evaluate the brine impacts and challenges faced in developing the five operational SWRO plants in Israel and the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad plant in California, United States. By identifying patterns, …

Ground-Arthropod Assemblage Response To Groundwater As A Metric Of Flooding In The Middle Rio Grande, Wesley Noe

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Riparian zones are dynamic ecosystems, crucial for maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance, particularly in arid environments like the Middle Rio Grande (MRG). Ground arthropods, with their sensitivity to environmental changes, serve as bioindicators for assessing the impacts of water regime changes in the MRG, specifically flooding which was historically the main driver of the MRG ecosystem. This study investigated the responses of ground arthropod communities to fluctuations in groundwater and land management practices within MRG riparian habitats. Using a combination of pitfall trapping and habitat assessments, arthropod abundance was assessed in relation to depth to groundwater (DTG). Findings revealed shifts …

Spatial And Equity Analysis Of The Xeriscape Conversion Rebate Program In Albuquerque, Nm., Claire Jordy

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

With increasing water scarcity concerns threatening water supplies, many cities in the Western U.S. are focusing more effort on their water conservation programs to reduce consumptive water use. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (Water Authority) in Bernalillo County, NM has had several water conservation programs in place since the 1990s, and still, they aim to further reduce water consumption. The Xeriscape Conversion Rebate Program is one of the primary tools to achieve this goal, encouraging customers to convert their high water-use turfgrass lawns to desert-friendly xeriscaping by providing a one-time rebate on their water bill. This rebate program …

Urban Base Cations: Fate, Transport, And Effect On Nitrogen Cycling Genes In Green Stormwater Infrastructure, Duyen Thuy Lam

Dissertations (1934 -)

Urbanization has significantly changed the natural cycling of base cations, primarily due to the use of deicer salts, such as sodium chloride, and chemical weathering of limestone and concrete infrastructure. An unintended consequence is the accumulation of salt across urban settings. These base cations, transported mainly by stormwater runoff, accumulate in soils, streams, lakes, and groundwater, posing risks to soil health, water quality, and ecosystems. To mitigate stormwater runoff and pollutants, cities have adopted stormwater best management practices, shifting from traditional gray to hybrid gray-green infrastructure. As a result, salt-laden runoff is increasingly routed into green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), where …

Low Dissolved Oxygen Operation Enhances Biological Phosphorus Removal In Wastewater Treatment, Haley Morgan

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Biological phosphorus (bio-P) removal occurs when bacteria are exposed to anaerobic/aerobic conditions that stimulate polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) to uptake phosphorus. In most treatment plants, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in the aeration tanks are commonly at or above 2.0 mg O₂/L, which is often referred to as the most optimal aeration condition for bio-P. If bio-P can happen efficiently at lower DO (< 0.3 mg O₂/L), then the energy demand of aeration can be decreased appreciably. This research was conducted in a biological nutrient removal (BNR) pilot plant to assess the performance of bio-P at progressively lower DO operation. This …

Constructed Wetlands: A Sustainable Solution For Wastewater Treatment In Ireland, Dominic M. Hernandez, Jeanne Sumrall

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Effective wastewater treatment is crucial for maintaining water quality in Ireland. This study examined the performance of constructed wetlands as a potential solution, by analyzing three research articles. It was found that CWs are effective in reducing pollutants, with one highlighting the seasonal impacts on phosphorus retention, one demonstrating significant nitrogen and pathogen removals, and one another revealing limitations in long-term phosphorus and nitrogen removal. These studies indicated overall that CWs offer a sustainable solution for wastewater treatment. Future research should focus on optimizing system designs and environmental factors, as those were shown to have a significant impact on CW …

Assessing Groundwater Availability And Land Subsidence Risk Associated With Anthropogenic Activities In A Complex Aquifer System, Aya Bakr Attya Mohamed

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Southern Hills aquifer system (SHAS) is the primary source of water in the Capital area of Louisiana. However, the overexploitation of freshwater-bearing aquifers and the presence of two active faults, the BR fault and the DSS fault, have resulted in groundwater depletion, saltwater intrusion, and increased the risk of land surface subsidence. Such critical issues pose substantial threats to groundwater availability and exert detrimental effects on the environment and urban infrastructures. This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation of the SHAS for recognizing the consequences of groundwater depletion and its potential long-term impacts on groundwater availability and land stability. A …

Improving Wetland Revegetation In The Intermountain West: Wetland Manager And Native Plant Vendor Insights And Challenges, Annie L. Henry, Rae Robinson, Kate Sinnott, Mark W. Brunson, Emily E. Tarsa, Adrienne Ernst, Karin M. Kettenring

All Current Publications

Diverse native vegetation supports the many ecosystem services that wetlands provide to society. In degraded wetlands, the native vegetation often needs to be reseeded or replanted as part of the restoration process. However, such wetland revegetation practices of managers are relatively undocumented and the availability of native plants for wetland restoration from vendors has been unclear. We conducted surveys of wetland managers and wetland native plant vendors in the Intermountain West in 2023 to understand their practices, challenges, and perspectives. We found that wetland managers in the Intermountain West revegetate diverse habitats for important ecosystem services despite very limited budgets …

Utilizing Deep Learning And Object-Based Image Analysis To Search For Low-Head Dams In Indiana, Usa, Brian M. Crookston, Caitlin R. Arnold

Publications

Although low-head dams in the USA provide water supply, irrigation, and recreation opportunities, many are unknown by regulators. Unfortunately, hundreds of drownings occur each decade at these dams from an entrapment current that can form immediately downstream. To explore the ability of deep learning to scan large areas of terrain to identify the locations of low-head dams, ArcGIS Pro and embedded deep learning models for object-based image analysis were investigated. The State of Indiana low-head dam dataset was selected for model training and validation. Aerial imagery (leaf-off conditions) captured from 2016 to 2018 for the nearly 94,000 km² area …

System Change, Not Climate Change: Collaborative Development Of A Few Nexus Experiential Learning Course For A Justice-Centered Comparative Study Abroad Program, Sonya Ahamed

National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW)

The International Honors Program (IHP) on Climate Change: The Politics of Land, Water and Energy Justice has been offered by the School for International Training (SIT) since 2013. This thematic multidisciplinary program currently travels to Morocco, Nepal, and Ecuador for one month each, introducing students to local food, water, and energy challenges in the context of a changing climate. In updating the program following its relaunch in 2023, renewed attention was given to the food, energy, and water nexus from a comparative perspective across and within these countries. This presentation will focus on the development of experiential learning cycles for …

Leveraging High-Frequency Sensor Data And U.S. National Water Model Output To Forecast Turbidity In A Drinking Water Supply Basin, John T. Kemper, Kristen L. Underwood, Scott D. Hamshaw, Dany Davis, Jason Siemion, James B. Shanley, Andrew W. Schroth

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

As high-frequency sensor networks increasingly enhance data-driven models of water quality, process-based models like the U.S. National Water Model (NWM) are generating accessible forecasts of streamflow at increasingly dense scales. There is now an opportunity to combine these products to construct actionable water quality forecasts. To that end, we couple streamflow forecasts from the NWM to a gradient-boosted decision tree algorithm (LightGBM) trained on 5+ years of high-frequency monitoring data to forecast in-stream turbidity levels in the Catskill Mountains, NY, USA. Results indicate LightGBM models are capable of relatively skillful predictions, which enable robust forecasts for 1–3 days lead times. …