Hydrology Commons^™

Agriculture Futures: Potential Rural Land Uses On The Palusplain, Rodney Safstrom, Nicolyn Short Dr

Resource management technical reports

The purpose of this project was to identify agricultural land use options and opportunities within the Serpentine–Jarrahdale and Murray Shires, with particular focus on the Palusplain wetland section. The report will contribute to the Department of Planning’s natural resource management plan for the region and guide development of regional and local planning strategies. Historically, the Palusplain was a slowly moving, interconnected, seasonal wetland system with areas of higher ground. Extensive clearing and drainage occurred in the late 1800s through to the mid-1900s to facilitate agriculture; however, agriculture has been found to be a major contributor of nutrients to the system. …

Slides: Unconventional Gas And Oil – Potential Air Emissions, John Imse

Air Quality Impacts from Oil and Gas Development (January 27)

Presenter: John Imse, Hydrogeologist, ENVIRON International Corporation presents an overview of the current methods for developing a shale play and the typical site operations

10 slides

Slides: Air Monitoring And Litigation Update, John Jacus

Air Quality Impacts from Oil and Gas Development (January 27)

Presenter: John Jacus, Partner, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, reviews recent litigation aimed at oil and gas development activities with respect to air emissions impacts, and also several recent and ongoing studies and ambient monitoring efforts focused upon air emissions from oil and gas activities

23 slides

Slides: Air Quality - Oil And Gas Development, Paul R. Tourangeau

Air Quality Impacts from Oil and Gas Development (January 27)

Presenter: Paul Tourangeau, Assistant General Counsel, DCP Midstream, LP and former Director, Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, addresses regulatory requirements and policies related to air emissions from the oil and gas sector, including recent and current initiatives at the state and federal level

8 slides

Slides: Hydrofracking: Air Issues And Community Exposure, Debra A. Kaden

Air Quality Impacts from Oil and Gas Development (January 27)

Presenter: Debra Kaden, Ph.D., Toxicologist, ENVIRON International Corporation, discusses air concentrations of chemicals of potential health concern surrounding oil and gas development activities, as well as temporal and spatial patterns of these chemicals in the ambient environment. Such information is necessary to evaluate possible health impacts of the drilling process on air in surrounding communities.

19 slides

Agenda: Air Quality Impacts From Oil And Gas Development, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Air Quality Impacts from Oil and Gas Development (January 27)

Oil and gas development and hydraulic fracturing have received enormous attention over the past few years, and most of that attention has focused on the potential impacts of such development on water quality. However, the potential impacts on air quality from oil and gas development have received far less public and media attention and discussion. This two-hour program will assess the current scientific knowledge, regulatory requirements and policies regarding the impacts on air quality from oil and gas development and will address current initiatives at the state and national levels to further regulate and control those impacts.

A Global Assessment Of The Water Footprint Of Farm Animal Products, Mesfin Mekonnen, Arjen Y. Hoekstra

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The increase in the consumption of animal products is likely to put further pressure on the world’s freshwater resources. This paper provides a comprehensive account of the water footprint of animal products, considering different production systems and feed composition per animal type and country. Nearly one-third of the total water footprint of agriculture in the world is related to the production of animal products. The water footprint of any animal product is larger than the water footprint of crop products with equivalent nutritional value. The average water footprint per calorie for beef is 20 times larger than for cereals and …

Groundwater Quality And Its Health Impact: An Assessment Of Dental Fluorosis In Rural Inhabitants Of The Main Ethiopian Rift, Tewodros Rango, Julia Kravchenko, Behailu Atlaw, Peter G. Mccornick, Marc Jeuland, Brittany Merola, Avner Vengosh

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This study aims to assess the link between fluoride content in groundwater and its impact on dental health in rural communities of the Ethiopian Rift. A total of 148 water samples were collected from two drainage basins within the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). In the Ziway-Shala basin in particular, wells had high fluoride levels (mean: 9.4 ± 10.5 mg/L; range: 1.1 to 68 mg/L), with 48 of 50 exceeding the WHO drinking water guideline limit of 1.5 mg/L. Total average daily intake of fluoride from drinking groundwater (calculated per weight unit) was also found to be six times higher than …

Relações Entre As Doenças Respiratórias E A Poluição Atmosférica E Variáveis Climáticas Na Cidade De Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil, Paulo R.B. Guimarães, Ricardo Berger, Fernando Lucambio Perez, Paulo Dt Dl Pires

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Neste estudo, foram observados níveis de concentrações de poluentes atmosféricos da cidade de Curitiba, no período de novembro de 2003 a junho de 2008, da estação automática de monitoramento da praça Ouvidor Pardinho. O objetivo foi desenvolver uma metodologia de modelagem estatística que explique o número de notificações de doenças respiratórias registradas em idosos (acima de 60 anos) e crianças (abaixo de 5 anos). Além das concentrações de poluentes, algumas variáveis climáticas foram analisadas. Após estudo de diversas metodologias estatísticas, considerou-se mais adequado o ajuste de Modelos Aditivos Generalizados para Locação, Escala e Forma. Os modelos ajustados apresentaram resultados satisfatórios …

As Unidades De Conservação E A Floresta Ombrófila Mista No Estado Do Paraná, Paulo Dt Dl Pires, Douglas Magnus Zeni Jr, Debora Gaulke

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

O intenso processo de ocupação territorial, uso desordenado dos recursos naturais e destruição de áreas verdes iniciadas no século XIX, são os principais motivos da intensa devastação das Florestas com Araucárias. Como meio de efetivação da proteção e desenvolvimento florestal, o Brasil adotou em sua política ambiental a criação do Sistema de Unidades de Conservação nas categorias, de proteção integral e uso sustentável. Uma alternativa viável é a regulação dos estoques de madeira no Estado por meio de Unidade de Conservação de Uso Sustentável. O que se pretende a partir deste ponto é analisar a possibilidade da criação de regulamentação …

Climate Divisions For Alaska Based On Objective Methods, Peter A. Bieniek, Uma S. Bhatt, Richard L. Thoman, Heather Angeloff, James Partain, John Papineau, Frederick Fritsch, Eric Holloway, John E. Walsh, Christopher Daly, Martha Shulski, Gary Hufford, David F. Hill, Stavros Calos, Rudiger Gens

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Alaska encompasses several climate types because of its vast size, high-latitude location, proximity to oceans, and complex topography. There is a great need to understand how climate varies regionally for climatic research and forecasting applications. Although climate-type zones have been established for Alaska on the basis of seasonal climatological mean behavior, there has been little attempt to construct climate divisions that identify regions with consistently homogeneous climatic variability. In this study, cluster analysis was applied to monthly-average temperature data from 1977 to 2010 at a robust set of weather stations to develop climate divisions for the state. Mean-adjusted Advanced Very …

Drought Monitoring: Historical And Current Perspectives, Michael J. Hayes, Mark D. Svoboda, Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Felix Kogan

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought is a normal, recurring feature of climate throughout the world, with characteristics and impacts that can vary from region to region. Figure 1.1 illustrates the regular occurrence of drought within the United States between 1895 and 2010 with approximately 14% of the country, on average (plotted by black dotted line), experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions during any given year. Drought conditions can persist in a region for several years, as occurred in the United States in the 1930s, 1950s, and early 2000s, and tree ring and other proxy records confirm that multiple-year droughts are part of the long-term …

Future Opportunities And Challenges In Remote Sensing Of Drought, Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Justin Sheffield, Bradley D. Doorn, James P. Verdin, Xiwu Zhan, Matthew Rodell

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The value of satellite remote sensing for drought monitoring was first realized more than two decades ago with the application of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) for assessing the effect of drought on vegetation, as summarized by Anyamba and Tucker (2012, Chapter 2). Other indices such as the Vegetation Health Index (VHI) (Kogan, 1995) were also developed during this time period and applied to AVHRR NDVI and brightness temperature data for routine global monitoring of drought conditions. These early efforts demonstrated the unique perspective that global imagers like AVHRR could provide …

Microwave Remote Sensing Of Soil Moisture Science And Applications, Son V. Nghiem, Brian D. Wardlow, David Allured, Mark Svoboda, Doug Lecomte, Matthew Rosencrans, Steven K. Chan, Gregory Neumann

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Soil moisture is a fundamental link between global water and carbon cycles and has major applications in predicting natural hazards such as droughts and floods (National Research Council, 2007). From precipitation data, soil wetness can be estimated by hydrological land-surface models. In the United States, preliminary precipitation data are based on measurements gathered from many active stations nationwide each month, and it takes 3–4 months to assemble final, quality-controlled data. In the western United States, some climate divisions may have no stations reporting in a particular month or may lack first- or second-order stations, and significant blockages by mountains limit …

Drought Triggers And Declarations: Science And Policy Considerations For Drought Risk Management, Linda Courtenay Botterill, Michael J. Hayes

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This paper explores the value of triggers and declarations in the management of drought, bringing together two disciplinary perspectives, those of the public policy scholar and the climate scientist. These two perspectives highlight the complexity of the development and use of triggers in drought risk management by drawing on the experience of the United States, which has the most sophisticated system of drought triggers in the world, and that of Australia that has the most developed and longest standing national drought policy based on principles of risk management. The paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of triggers in managing drought, …

Investigation Of Arsenic In The Transition Zone Basin Of The Mojave River, Matthew Edward Howard

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project was to identify the source(s) of arsenic in the Transition Zone subbasin of the Mojave River. The transition zone is a sub-section of the Mojave River watershed. The project area is located in the arid southwestern desert region of the United States. 43 monitoring wells were sampled during September of 2010 and October of 2011. The objective of this project is to understand the processes by which arsenic is being released from sediment into groundwater supply. This project is part of an ongoing study of Transition Zone subbasin and will be used in future work …

Nitrogen Partitioning And Transport Through A Subalpine Lake Measured With An Isotope Tracer, Dave M. Epstein, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Michelle A. Baker

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

We used a stable isotope tracer to measure nitrogen (N) assimilation and transfer through Bull Trout Lake, a 0.3-km2 mountain lake in Idaho, specifically to explore the relative importance of pelagic and benthic producers. was added into the inflow stream above the lake during spring runoff and the resulting mass of tracer was measured within the various ecosystem compartments, including the outflow stream. Although a portion of the moved through the lake quickly due to a low hydraulic residence time during the addition, the tracer was also assimilated rapidly by seston in the water column and at a slower rate …

A Synoptic Perspective Of The Record 1-2 May 2010 Mid-South Heavy Precipitation Event, Joshua D. Durkee, Lee Campbell, Kyle Berry, Dustin Jordan, Gregory Goodrich, Rezaul Mahmood, Stuart Foster

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

During 1–2 May 2010, a series of strong thunderstorms led to 41, 57, and 43 tornado, severe wind, and severe hail reports, respectively, across portions of the southern United States. In addition to severe weather, these storms also distributed recordsetting rainfall amounts across the mid-South region, which contributed to historic flooding across portions of central and western Kentucky and Tennessee (Fig. 1). This heavy precipitation event was sampled by multiple surface observational networks, including (but not limited to) 48 research-grade automated stations from the Kentucky Mesonet (www.kymesonet .org), first-order automated stations from the National Weather Service (NWS; www.ncdc.noaa.gov /oa/ncdc.html), and …

Saturated Thickness And Water In Storage In The High Plains Aquifer, 2009, And Water-Level Changes And Changes In Water In Storage In The High Plains Aquifer, 1980 To 1995, 1995 To 2000, 2000 To 2005, And 2005 To 2009, Virginia L. Mcguire, Kris D. Lund, Brenda K. Densmore

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

The High Plains aquifer underlies about 112 million acres (about 175,000 square miles) in parts of eight States—Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Water levels declined in parts of the High Plains aquifer soon after the onset of substantial irrigation with groundwater (about 1950). This report presents the volume of saturated aquifer material and drainable water in storage in the High Plains aquifer in 2009; water-level changes in the High Plains aquifer from 1980 to 1995, 1995 to 2000, 2000 to 2005, and 2005 to 2009; and changes in the volume of drainable water in …

Hydrostratigraphic Interpretation Of Test-Hole And Surface Geophysical Data, Elkhorn And Loup River Basins, Nebraska, 2008 To 2011, Christopher M. Hobza, Paul A. Bedrosian, Benjamin R. Bloss

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

The Elkhorn-Loup Model (ELM) was begun in 2006 to understand the effect of various groundwater-management scenarios on surface-water resources. During phase one of the ELM study, a lack of subsurface geological information was identified as a data gap. Test holes drilled to the base of the aquifer in the ELM study area are spaced as much as 25 miles apart, especially in areas of the western Sand Hills. Given the variable character of the hydrostratigraphic units that compose the High Plains aquifer system, substantial variation in aquifer thickness and characteristics can exist between test holes. To improve the hydrogeologic understanding …