Hydrology Commons^™

Determining Spatial Controls On Snow Isotopic Signature And Tracing The Snowmelt Pulse As It Moves Through Two Montane Catchments, Jenna K. Rolle

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this study, we investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in water across two mountainous catchments in west-central Montana to trace the input of snow to local soil, bedrock aquifers, and streams. Snowpack and snowmelt samples were collected throughout the winter season at ten sites selected to encompass a range of elevation, aspect, slope angle and hillslope position. Soil and bedrock wells at five of the ten sites were sampled after the initial snowmelt pulse and stream samples were collected weekly at the outlets of both catchments to trace the timing and partitioning …

The Effects Of Channel Incision And Land Use On Surface-Water/Groundwater Interactions In The Teanaway River Basin, Washington, Usa, Joseph Petralia

All Master's Theses

The Teanaway River basin, a major tributary to the Yakima River, is host to several restoration projects with the intention of returning the river channel to a more natural state and improving riparian habitat. These projects may also increase aquifer storage and potentially increase summertime streamflows. This study of the Teanaway Valley Family Farm, an 88-hectare parcel on the main-stem Teanaway River that was recently purchased by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, provides hydrogeologic data that will inform these restoration projects. Following the purchase of this land, ten wells were installed within and slightly above the floodplain in order …

Decadal-Scale Effects Of Large Wood Restoration On Channel Morphology And Groundwater Connectivity, Taneum Creek, Wa, Samuel Fixler

All Master's Theses

The importance of large wood (LW) in creating channel complexity is widely recognized; however, few LW projects have been in place long enough to track meaningful channel changes on a decadal timescale. Taneum Creek, located in central Washington, is one of the earliest LW restoration areas (2008) in the Yakima River Basin and the central Cascade Mountains. The flood in 2011, with an estimated discharge of 69 m³/s (2,400-2,800 cfs), provided further channel change by mobilizing LW and channel sediments. Three reaches with similar channel characteristics and LW additions were compared with a control reach without LW additions …

Integrating Deep Learning And Hydrodynamic Modeling To Improve The Great Lakes Forecast, Pengfei Xue, Aditya Wagh, Gangfeng Ma, Yilin Wang, Yongchao Yang, Tao Liu, Chenfu Huang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The Laurentian Great Lakes, one of the world’s largest surface freshwater systems, pose a modeling challenge in seasonal forecast and climate projection. While physics-based hydrodynamic modeling is a fundamental approach, improving the forecast accuracy remains critical. In recent years, machine learning (ML) has quickly emerged in geoscience applications, but its application to the Great Lakes hydrodynamic prediction is still in its early stages. This work is the first one to explore a deep learning approach to predicting spatiotemporal distributions of the lake surface temperature (LST) in the Great Lakes. Our study shows that the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network, …

Stream Recovery Post Channelization: A Case Study Of Low-Gradient Streams In Central Illinois, Usa, Joseph P. Becker, Eric W. Peterson

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Stream channelization, which entails reducing the sinuosity of a stream, widening, and in some cases deepening the stream channel, is a widespread practice in agricultural regions. Channelization efforts in central Illinois have significant impacts on the geomorphology, flow regime, and sediment transport both in and adjacent to modified reaches. The goal of this study was to characterize the changes in stream channels by comparing three streams that are at various stages of recovery post channelization, 5 years (1900N), 7 years (Frog), and 35 years (Bray), to an unmodified stream reach (Crooked) and estimate a recovery rate. Measured channel slopes within …

Strange Stones Of Skull Creek: Basalt Glacial Erratics And Omars In Eastern Nebraska, Robert M. Joeckel, Jesse T. Korus, Judith Turk, C. C. Arps, N. V. Arps, Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

We describe unusual stream- reworked glacially transported rocks (erratics) from a locality 50 km east of the limit of all pre- Illinoian (pre- 190 ka) Pleistocene glaciations in the central USA. Almost all these erratics consist of the igneous rock basalt, and of those, the vast majority have at least one fl at, smooth face. Some have two or more such faces that meet at obtuse angles along one or more well- defi ned, straight edges. We attribute these features, as well as laminations, plumose marks, and other features, to columnar jointing in ancient lava fl ows and shallow intrusions. …

The Impact Of Sampling Methodology On Soil Bulk Density Measurement By The Clod Method, Aldi J. Airori, Trinity Baker, Judith Turk

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The clod method is a widely used and accurate bulk density method. However, its use is limited to sampling from soil pits. This study was conducted to: 1) determine whether clods collected from cores provide similar bulk density measurements to those collected from soil pits and 2) evaluate the impact of various clod bulk density methods on carbon stock calculation. Clods were collected from soil pits, 5.1 cm soil cores, and 8.9 cm soil cores. Three-dimensional laser scanning was used to measure the volume of the soil clods before and after oven-drying and bulk density was calculated as the dry …

Alpine Shrub Tundra Water Storage And Runoff Dynamics In The Mackenzie Mountains, Sahtú Territory, Nt, Geoffrey Kershaw

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Alpine regions receive large volumes of precipitation and are important to local and regional water balances, particularly during baseflow periods of winter cold and summer drought when the larger basin area is frozen and/or water limited. Alpine headwaters in western Canada are expected to warm and receive more precipitation during the coming decades, with implications for groundwater recharge and streamflow generation within these systems and the regional river networks to which they contribute. Throughout the North, thawing peat plateaus and other ice-rich permafrost features are resulting in an increased extent of thermokarst and wetland land cover. This transition places infrastructure …

Influence Of Abiotic Drivers On 1-Year Seedling Survival Of Six Mangrove Species In Southeast Asia, Taylor M. Sloey, Kiah Eng Lim, Jared Moore, Jie Min Heng, Jia Min Heng, Michiel Van Breugel

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Establishment and survival of plant species in systems with dominant environmental drivers (i.e. factors that exert disproportionate control over species establishment and survival) is often thought to be dominated by one master variable. In forested wetlands such as mangroves, hydrology is typically considered the dominant limiting driver. At the same time, light is a major driver of plant community dynamics, with some of the best understood plant life-history tradeoffs related to fast growth under high-light conditions versus survival under low-light conditions. Yet light is given relatively limited consideration in mangrove research compared to other drivers. Understanding the relative importance of …

Sea Surface Temperatures And Vertical Wind Shear As Precursors To Tropical Cyclone Activity In The Caribbean And An Expanding Main Developing Region, Keneshia Hibbert

Dissertations and Theses

Sea surface temperatures and vertical wind shear are essential to tropical cyclone formation. TCs need warm SSTs and low shear for genesis. Increasing SSTs and VWS changes influence storm development. This work analyzes SST and VWS trends for the Caribbean, surrounding region, and the Atlantic hurricane main developing region from 1982 to 2020. Storm intensity increases significantly during this period. Annual and seasonal trends show regional SSTs in the MDR are warming annually (0.0219°C yr^-1) and per season (0.0280°C yr^-1). Simultaneously, VWS decreases during the late rainfall season at 0.0556m/s yr^-1 in the MDR and …

Evaluation Of Snow And Streamflow In The National Water Model With Analysis Using Machine Learning, Engela Sthapit

Dissertations and Theses

Snow has great influence on land-atmosphere interactions and snowmelt from the mountains is a vital water source for downstream communities dependent on snow fed lakes, rivers and streams. This study explored the snow and streamflow prediction capabilities of process-based numerical prediction and data-driven machine learning models.

The overall goal of this study was to understand the deficiencies in the NOAA’s National Water Model (NWM) to represent snow, subsequently streamflow, and recognize the areas where it could be improved for future model developments. The goal was also to evaluate if the recent advancements in machine learning techniques is useful for predicting …

Data Fusion And Synergy Of Active And Passive Remote Sensing; An Application For Freeze Thaw Detections, Zahra Sharifnezhadazizi

Dissertations and Theses

There has been a recent evolvement in the field of remote sensing after increase of number satellites and sensors data which could be fused to produce new data and products. These efforts are mainly focused on using of simultaneous observations from different platforms with different spatial and temporal resolutions. The research dissertation aims to enhance the synergy use of active and passive microwave observations and examine the results in detection land freeze and thaw (FT) predictions. Freeze thaw cycles particularly in high-latitude regions have a crucial role in many applications such as agriculture, biogeochemical transitions, hydrology and ecosystem studies. The …

Trapped Under Ice: Spatial And Seasonal Dynamics Of Dissolved Organic Matter Composition In Tundra Lakes, Martin R. Kurek, Karen E. Frey, François Guillemette, David C. Podgorski, Amy Townsend-Small, Christopher D. Arp, Anne M. Kellerman, Robert G.M. Spencer

Geography

Arctic lakes store, modify, and transport large quantities of carbon from terrestrial environments to the atmosphere; however, the spatial and temporal relationships between quantity and composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) have not been well characterized across broad arctic regions. Moreover, most arctic lake DOM compositions have been examined during the ice-free summer, whereas DOM cycling between the ice-covered winter months and summer have not been addressed. To resolve these spatial and seasonal uncertainties in DOM cycling, we sampled a series of arctic lakes from the North Slope of Alaska across a latitudinal gradient in the winter and summer over …

Analysis Of Sunscreens And Antibiotics In Groundwater During The Covid-19 Pandemic In The Riviera Maya, Mexico, Jackie Cooney

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Sunscreens and antibiotics are contaminants of emerging concern in groundwater, especially in areas with high tourism. The Riviera Maya in Quintana Roo, Mexico, is an international travel destination with a popular aquatic tourism industry. The region experienced a significant decrease in tourist visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, setting up a natural experiment to characterize the baseline contamination of groundwater in the absence of tourists. Additionally, municipalities installed new sewage disposal systems to combat the poor water quality due to inadequate septic systems and wastewater treatment plants. Water samples were collected during the pandemic from March 2020 to July 2021 from …

Transport Of Polyethylene Microplastic Spheres In A Sandy Aquifer, Alyssa Marie Graveline

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Microplastic particles are currently listed as a Contaminant of Emerging Concern (CEC) since they are in much of Earth’s water systems and recent studies indicate plastic particles can sorb toxic contaminants. Microplastics (MP) are defined as plastic particles under 5 mm in length. Currently, there is a paucity of data on the transport of MP in the subsurface. This study investigated the transport, filtration, retardation, and influence of 5-100ߎm plastic polyethylene spheres in a shallow sandy aquifer over a distance of 1m by utilizing two forced hydraulic gradient tracer studies. Slug tests were used to estimate hydraulic conductivity prior and …

Climate Change Impacts On Baseflow Contributions In A Semi-Arid, Snowmelt-Dominated Basin Within The Upper Colorado River Basin, Kaelyn Quinlan

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) is a significant water resource in the southwestern United States, providing water to Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. (Reclamation, 2012). Communities and industries within these states are dependent on the Colorado River’s water availability and accessibility. Growing population and development demands, in conjunction with climate change, can have drastic consequences for the ecosystems and municipalities dependent on these reservoirs. It is critical that as watersheds within this region are strained under increased demands and decreased inputs, water use practices use informed decision-making to manage the budget and quality of its water resources.

I …

Hydrogeomorphic Response Of Steep Streams Following Severe Wildfire In The Western Cascades, Oregon, David Matthew Busby

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Severe wildfire may alter the morphologic resilience of steep mountain streams by increasing peak discharges, elevating inputs of sediment and wood into channels, and increasing susceptibility to landslides and debris flows. In the Pacific Northwest, where mean annual precipitation is high and mean fire return intervals range from decades to centuries, understanding of steep stream response to fire is limited. In 2020, the Western Cascade Range, Oregon, experienced wildfire of historic magnitude and severity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the hydrologic and geomorphic response of steep streams to the 2020 fires. I assessed streamflow, instream wood, and …

Future Climate Streamflow Estimation In The Donnelly River Catchment, Justin Hughes, Bill Wang

Natural resources commissioned reports

The Donnelly River is located in the south-west of Western Australia. An irrigation development has been proposed in the catchment that would extract water from the Donnelly River and store this in an off stream reservoir for irrigation use. Given the known issues related to non-stationarity and hydrological prediction, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) contracted CSIRO to review the hydrological model that was used to estimate future climate streamflow in the Donnelly River. This model was owned and operated by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER). The CSIRO review of the model, which also …

Evaluating Essential Processes And Forecast Requirements For Meteotsunami-Induced Coastal Flooding, Chenfu Huang, Eric Anderson, Yi Liu, Gangfeng Ma, Greg Mann, Pengfei Xue

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Meteotsunamis pose a unique threat to coastal communities and often lead to damage of coastal infrastructure, deluge of nearby property, and loss of life and injury. The Great Lakes are a known hot-spot of meteotsunami activity and serve as an important region for investigation of essential hydrodynamic processes and model forecast requirements in meteotsunami-induced coastal flooding. For this work, we developed an advanced hydrodynamic model and evaluate key model attributes and dynamic processes, including: (1) coastal model grid resolution and wetting and drying process in low-lying zones, (2) coastal infrastructure, including breakwaters and associated submerging and overtopping processes, (3) annual/seasonal …

Dynamic Modeling Of Inland Flooding And Storm Surge On Coastal Cities Under Climate Change Scenarios: Transportation Infrastructure Impacts In Norfolk, Virginia Usa As A Case Study, Yawen Shen, Navid Tahvildari, Mohamed M. Morsy, Chris Huxley, T. Donna Chen, Jonathan Lee Goodall

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-lying coastal cities across the world are vulnerable to the combined impact of rainfall and storm tide. However, existing approaches lack the ability to model the combined effect of these flood mechanisms, especially under climate change and sea level rise (SLR). Thus, to increase flood resilience of coastal cities, modeling techniques to improve the understanding and prediction of the combined effect of these flood hazards are critical. To address this need, this study presents a modeling system for assessing the combined flood impact on coastal cities under selected future climate scenarios that leverages ocean modeling with land surface modeling capable …