Hydrology Commons^™

Three-Dimensional Deformable Pore Networks, Jack W. Conrad, Laura J Pyrak-Nolte

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Porous structures in materials play a part in many areas of research and development. A couple of examples of this are extraction of water through aquifers and oil through fracking processes. Current understanding of the small scale fluid-fluid interactions in the structure of these porous materials stops at data of the two dimensional interface between the two fluids. This experiment aimed to create three dimensional, transparent, deformable micro-models which are expected allow us to obtain three dimensional data sets of the capillary pressure–saturation–interfacial area per volume relationship. The micro-models were synthesized using a grain deposition technique. Grains were formed using …

U.S. Drought Monitor, August 5, 2014, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for August 5, 2014 (8/5/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Constructing Water Budgets For A Coastal Stormwater Catchment To Examine Temporal Dynamics Between Urban Groundwater And Surface Runoff, Leigha E. Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is well understood that urbanization results in changes to the hydrologic cycle, namely increasing surface runoff production rates. Precipitation falling on impervious areas is typically directed via a network of drainage pipes to detention reservoirs, a process shown to negatively impact aquifer recharge rates. Historically, urban hydrologists have focused primarily on surface processes with little consideration to subsurface implications of the urban water cycle. Here, we present an approach to construct long-term, high-resolution water budgets for a coastal stormwater catchment resolving surface runoff and groundwater fractions within the water body and associated source-specific fluid exports to the coastal ocean. …

Automatic Calibration Of Water Quality And Hydrodynamic Model (Ce-Qual-W2), Nasim Shojaei

Dissertations and Theses

One of the most important purposes of surface water resource management is to develop predictive models to assist in identifying and evaluating operational and structural measures for improving water quality. To better understand the effects of external and internal nutrient and organic loading and the effects of reservoir operation, a model is often developed, calibrated, and used for sensitivity and management simulations. The importance of modeling and simulation in the scientific community has drawn interest towards methods for automated calibration. This study addresses using an automatic technique to calibrate the water quality model CE-QUAL-W2 (Cole and Wells, 2013). CE-QUAL-W2 is …

Nitrate Uptake In Central Illinois Streams: A Comparison Along A Transient Storage Gradient, Kristen Lynn Theesfeld

Theses and Dissertations

Transient storage can be influenced by channel morphology. Anthropogenic activities can alter stream morphology by straightening channels, lining channels, or even restoration of previously altered channels. This study focused on whether relative transient storage (RTS) was related to stream type - modified lined, modified unlined, or natural. The study further sought to determine if a greater RTS is correlated to a decrease in percent nitrate-N.

Eight (8) sites, encompassing three (3) different stream types - modified lines, modified unlined, and natural - were studied. Chloride and nitrate tracers were added to streams, and samples were analyzed for tracer concentrations and …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Regulatory Stormwater Monitoring Protocols On Groundwater Quality In Urbanized Karst Regions, Daniel C. Nedvidek

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Non-point pollution from stormwater runoff is one of the greatest threats to water quality in the United States today, particularly in urban karst settings. In these settings, the use of karst features and injection wells for stormwater management results in virtually untreated water being directed into the karst aquifer. Currently, no policies exist specifically to provide water quality protections to karst environments. This study utilized a combination of karst stormwater quality data, along with survey data collected from MS4 Phase II communities, and an analysis of current federal, local, and state water quality regulations, to assess the need for karst-specific …

Carbon Cycling Dynamics Inferred From Carbon Isotope Sourcing In A Mid-Latitude Karst-Influenced River, Kegan N. Mcclanahan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

As ever-increasing levels of carbon dioxide alter the chemistry of the Earth’s atmosphere, understanding the global carbon cycle becomes increasingly important. A particularly important component is the riverine carbon cycle, as rivers are the primary conduits for dissolved inorganic carbon from terrestrial watersheds to ocean basins. Stable carbon isotopes (13C/12C) were collected weekly and input into the mixing model IsoSource to delineate seasonal carbon sourcing along two nested basins in the upper Green River System, Kentucky. In the more siliciclastic upstream catchment, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) was primarily derived from soil respiration (34%). Groundwater dissolving carbonate bedrock and carbonate dissolution/precipitation …

Investigation Of The Flow And Fate Of Nitrate In Epikarst At The Savoy Experimental Watershed, Northwest Arkansas, Jozef Laincz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many karst aquifers are at high risk of nitrate contamination due to a combination of vulnerable geology characterized by thin soils and conduit flow, and excess inputs of nutrients from animal feeding operations. One zone that is present in many karst regions and could play an important role in nitrate attenuation due to properties such as increased residence time and matrix-water contact is the upper, weathered portion of karst, the epikarst. However, the understanding of this role is lacking, and the objective of this dissertation was to elucidate it. The fate of nitrate in the epikarst was traced along a …

Time, Money, And Melting Ice: Proposal For A Coopertive Study Of The World’S Cave Ice In A Race Against Climate Change, George Veni, Lewis Land, Aurel Perşoiu

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

Climate change is a global phenomenon that is melting and threatening to melt ice deposits in many of the world’s ice caves. The National Cave and Karst Research Institute of the USA is concerned that major and important paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental records stored in cave ice will soon be lost, and is proposing an international collaborative effort to overcome funding and logistical challenges to sample and analyze at least a representative collection of ice from several regions before further melting occurs.

Some New Potential Subterranean Glaciation Research Sites From Velebit Mt. (Croatia), Neven Bočić, Nenad Buzjak, Zoltan Kern

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

Despite the frequent reports about their shrinkage detailed survey of the major subterranean ice deposits is still lacking in Croatia. Here we present cave maps and detailed description of cave ice accumulation from five caves of the Velebit Mt. Morphological constraints allowed ice volume estimation for four of them. Ice volumes were estimated as ~1500 m³ at the Gavranova Pit in 1999, 100 m³ at Štirovača ice cave in 1987, 150 m³ at Japagina 3 in 2000, 1500 m³ at Kugina ice cave in 2004. These new records provide reference data for future studies to evaluate …

Internal Drainage Of Glaciers And Its Origin, Bulat R. Mavlyudov

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

Ways of occurrence of elements of an internal drainage of glaciers and also origin of internal drainage systems as a whole are considered. It is shown that elements of an internal drainage can be formed either on the base of fissures and crevasses or by incision of water streams into ice from glacier surface. The basic way of glacier drainage is formed on the base of sliding plane which is formed closely to glacier bed and smooth all roughnesses of the bed. Spreading of water on the surface of this plane during spring time forms not effective drainage system however …

New Research In Cave Ledenica In Bukovi Vrh On Velebit Mt In Croatian Dinaric Karst, Mladen Garasic

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Road Salt On Asylum Lake Geochemistry, Davina A. Wyman

Masters Theses

Several studies indicate that seasonal applications of road deicers can lead to saline runoff entering surface water and groundwater, which can in turn change the chemistry, density, and physical mixing patterns of urban lakes. An investigation at Asylum Lake, an urban lake located near three major roadways, was conducted to determine the degree of road salt contamination in the lake, to determine if salt loading disrupts seasonal mixing patterns, and to determine the extent of redox stratification present due to eutrophic conditions. Samples were collected monthly from the deepest point in Asylum Lake over a 19-month period and analyzed for …

A Comparative Study Of Underwater Robot Path Planning Algorithms For Adaptive Sampling In A Network Of Sensors, Sreeja Banerjee

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Monitoring lakes, rivers, and oceans is critical to improving our understanding of complex large-scale ecosystems. We introduce a method of underwater monitoring using semi-mobile underwater sensor networks and mobile underwater robots in this thesis. The underwater robots can move freely in all dimension while the sensor nodes are anchored to the bottom of the water column and can move only up and down along the depth of the water column. We develop three different algorithms to optimize the path of the underwater robot and the positions of the sensors to improve the overall quality of sensing of an area of …

Infiltration And Runoff Parameters For Tilled And No-Till Row Crops, Andrew J. Volkmer

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

Infiltration and runoff are hydrologic processes that effect the amount of water available to plants, for groundwater recharge, and for stream flow. No-till planting (NT) is a management practice used to reduce soil erosion, increase water infiltration, and reduce soil water evaporation, and can have great impact on infiltration and runoff. An investigation was conducted to determine the impact of NT on infiltration and runoff when compared to tilled conditions.

Runoff and precipitation data was gathered from sites at Fillmore County, NE, Phelps County, NE, the USDA-ARS North Appalachian Experimental Watersheds (NAEW) near Coshocton, OH, and the Lennoxville Research Station …

Vadose Zone Lag Time And Potential 21st Century Climate Change Effects On Spatially Distributed Groundwater Recharge In The Semi-Arid Nebraska Sand Hills, N. R. Rossman, Vitaly A. Zlotnik, Clinton Rowe, Jozsef Szilagyi

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Deep drainage of water below plant root zones (potential groundwater recharge) will become groundwater recharge (GR) after a delay (or lag time) in which soil moisture traverses the vadose zone before reaching the water table. Depending on the thickness of the vadose zone, the magnitude of deep drainage, and soil hydraulic properties, lag times will vary broadly, exceeding decades to centuries in semi-arid and arid environments. Yet, studies of future climate change impacts to GR have typically avoided focusing on impacts beyond 100 years and often neglect to consider lag effects caused by the vadose zone. We investigate the effects …

Air-Regulated Siphon Spillways: Performance, Modeling, Design, And Construction, Joshua Boatwright

All Theses

1:Little data exists in the literature for quantification of siphon spillway performance. Proper design of an air regulated siphon spillway requires knowledge of required flow rates and minimum vent size. A set of small siphon spillways were constructed to measure flow rate and required vent size relative to physical characteristics including pipe diameter, length of pipe, and elevation head. Vent sizing was shown to be logarithmically proportional to flow rate. Results were used to develop predictive models for flow rate and vent sizing. Models were validated and refined through testing on a siphon spillway installed on a pond at LaMaster …

Comparisons Of Hydrogeologic Modeling Methods To Define Capture Zones For Public Water Supply Wells In Northern Arkansas, Paula Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The usefulness, applicability, and practicality of more complex and resource consuming methods for groundwater modeling has been in question since computer based groundwater modeling was established (Anderson, 1992). In many situations, computer modeling of groundwater flow is a necessity and useful for extrapolating data where none exists or it is impossible or impractical to acquire. However, when delineating a recharge area around a public water well for protection purposes, it is unknown if more detailed computer modeling results are better than simpler hydrologic calculations and site study. In the case of public drinking water supply wells located in various aquifers …

U.S. Drought Monitor, July 29, 2014, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for July 29, 2014 (7/29/14) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Repeated Multibeam Echosounder Hydrographic Surveys Of 15 Selected Bridge Crossings Along The Missouri River From Niobrara To Rulo, Nebraska, During The Flood Of 2011, Benjamin J. Dietsch, Brenda K. Densmore, Kellan R. Strauch

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

In 2011, unprecedented flooding in the Missouri River prompted transportation agencies to increase the frequency of monitoring riverbed elevations near bridges that cross the Missouri River. Hydrographic surveys were completed in cooperation with the Nebraska Department of Roads, using a multibeam echosounder at 15 highway bridges spanning the Missouri River from Niobrara to Rulo, Nebraska during and after the extreme 2011 flood.

Evidence of bed elevation change near bridge piers was documented. The greatest amount of bed elevation change during the 2011 flood documented for this study occurred at the Burt County Missouri River Bridge at Decatur, Nebraska, where scour …