Hydrology Commons^™

Climate Change Adaptation For Southern California Groundwater Managers: A Case Study Of The Six Basins Aquifer, Frank Lyles

Pomona Senior Theses

Groundwater has been very important to the economic development of Southern California, and will continue to be a crucial resource in the 21st century. However, Climate Change threatens to disrupt many of the physical and economic processes that control the flow of water in and out of aquifers. One groundwater manager, the Six Basins Watermaster in eastern Los Angeles and western San Bernardino Counties, has developed a long-term planning document called the Strategic Plan that mostly fails to address the implications of Climate Change, especially for local water supplies. This thesis presents an in-depth analysis of the Six Basin Watermaster’s …

Characterizing Coastal Marsh Groundwater Hydrology With Multichannel Electrical Resistivity Tomography, Matthew R. Kestner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Subsurface waters are highly enriched in nutrients compared to surface waters in the coastal salt marsh environment and may, therefore, have a large effect on biogeochemical processes. There have been numerous studies examining marsh platform hydrology, however, there is a lack of information on the hyporheic zone within tidal creeks in coastal salt marsh environments. Hyporheic exchange has been studied in various non-tidal freshwater systems and verified as a significant pathway for solute transport in typical stream settings. The total volume of water cycled through salt marsh tidal creek hyporheic zones could prove to be a significant component of the …

Developing A Hydrological Monitoring Program For Ponds In Wapusk National Park, Manitoba, Using Water Isotope Tracers, Stephanie Roy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern lake-rich landscapes are vulnerable to increases in surface air temperatures and are changing in dynamic ways. Current meteorological records indicate that some of the greatest warming in the past century has occurred in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL). As the HBL is an extensive wetland consisting of hundreds of thousands of shallow lakes and ponds, it is difficult to anticipate the long-term implications that climate change will have on pond water balance. To develop and implement long-term monitoring of hydrological conditions, sampling of pond water isotope composition has occurred during the past six years in Wapusk National Park (WNP), …

Permafrost Thaw Induced Changes To Runoff Generation And Hydrologic Connectivity In Low-Relief, Discontinuous Permafrost Terrains, Ryan Connon

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Recent climate warming in northwestern Canada is occurring at an unprecedented rate in recorded history and has resulted in the widespread thaw of permafrost. Where present, permafrost exerts a significant control on local hydrology, and disappearance of permafrost threatens to change the hydrology of northern basins. In the peatlands that characterise the southern distribution of permafrost in low relief terrain, permafrost takes the form of forested peat plateaus and is interspersed by permafrost-free wetlands (i.e. channel fens and flat bogs). Previous field studies have found that channel fens serve as the drainage network and route water to the basin …

Rock Glacier Hydrology In The San Juan Mountains, Colorado, Emilio Ian Mateo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rock glaciers are unique geomorphological features located in alpine environments and are found in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. There has been little research done on rock glaciers compared to their ice glacier counterparts. Most rock glaciers are located on the northern slope aspect in mountainous areas (Janke 2007), however, there are multiple in southwest Colorado with different aspects. This research project asks how slope aspect influences the hydrological processes of streams sourced from rock glaciers in the San Juan Mountains. This project focused on three basins that are adjacent to each other and share a common peak, Gilpin …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2016, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Leslie M. Howard, Michele M. Waszgis, R. Matthew Joeckel, Sue Olafsen Lackey

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The term “groundwater” has come to be all but synonymous with Nebraska. Nearly three-quarters of the volume of the High Plains aquifer lies beneath the State, and groundwater maintains our streams, our ecosystems, our people, and our vitally important agricultural economy. Although Nebraska’s total groundwater resource is vast, it is also quite vulnerable to changes induced by natural processes and by humankind, necessitating a long-term commitment to wise management through informed decision making. Monitoring, studying, and reporting are the essential basis for such management and, ultimately, for meeting the myriad challenges presented by change.

The personnel of the Conservation and …

An Examination Of Water Consumption During And After Severe Drought In Coastal Stands Of Douglas-Fir In The Pacific Northwest, Kirsten Reddy

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Pacific Northwest region is predicted to encounter rising temperatures over the next century, ultimately leading to less water storage during seasonal drought periods. Vast coniferous forests dependent upon this storage and will encounter periods of increased stress due to the lessening of available water supply. Under these conditions, stream flows will be directly affected by the forests competing for freshwater sources. Thinning treatments have been investigated as a means to compensate for increased water use by even-aged forest stands left over from past logging-practices.

This study was completed on two sites within Humboldt County, CA: one inland site with …

Upscaling Stem To Community-Level Transpiration For Two Sand-Fixing Plants: Salix Gordejevii And Caragana Microphylla, Limin Duan, Yang Li, Xue Yan, Tingxi Liu, Xixi Wang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The information on transpiration is vital for sustaining fragile ecosystem in arid/semiarid environment, including the Horqin Sandy Land (HSL) located in northeast China. However, such information is scarce in existing literature. The objectives of this study were to: (1) measure sap flow of selected individual stems of two sand-fixing plants, namely Salix gordejevii and Caragana microphylla, in HSL; and (2) upscale the measured stem-level sap flow for estimating the community-level transpiration. The measurements were done from 1 May to 30 September 2015 (i.e., during the growing season). The upscaling function was developed to have one dependent variable, namely sap …

Water–Soil–Vegetation Dynamic Interactions In Changing Climate, Xixi Wang, Xuefeng Chu, Tingxi Liu, Xiangju Cheng, Rich Whittecar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Previous studies of land degradation, topsoil erosion, and hydrologic alteration typically focus on these subjects individually, missing important interrelationships among these important aspects of the Earth's system. However, an understanding of water–soil–vegetation dynamic interactions is needed to develop practical and effective solutions to sustain the globe's eco-environment and grassland agriculture, which depends on grasses, legumes, and other fodder or soil-building crops. This special issue is intended to be a platform for a discussion of the relevant scientific findings based on experimental and/or modeling studies. Its 12 peer-reviewed articles present data, novel analysis/modeling approaches, and convincing results of water–soil–vegetation interactions under …

Numerical Modeling Of The Interactions Between Nonlinear Waves And Arbitrarily Flexible Vegetation, Navid Tahvildari

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Coastal wetlands are among the natural features with the capability to dissipate wave energy and reduce storm damage. Inadequate representation of wave and vegetation characteristics in numerical models may reduce their capability in predicting wave processes over wetlands. Previous numerical wave models have typically applied simplifications on vegetation behavior. For instance, vegetation stems were usually assumed to be rigid or semi-flexible and thus extreme stem deflections could not be captured. In this study, a time-domain nonlinear numerical model based on extended Boussinesq formulation is developed and coupled with a numerical model for vegetation blade dynamics that allows for arbitrary flexibility. …

Effects Of Sea Level Rise On Hydrology: Case Study In A Typical Mid-Atlantic Coastal Watershed, Xixi Wang, Rui Li, Homa Jalaeian Taghadomi, Shohreh Pedram, Xiao Zhao

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Sea level rise (SLR) can negatively affect the hydrology of coastal watersheds. However, the relevant information is incomplete and insufficient in existing literature. The objective of this study is to present a modeling approach to predict long-term effects of SLR on changes of flood peak, flood stage, and groundwater table with an assumption that the historical climate would reoccur in the future. The study was conducted for a typical coastal watershed in southeast USA. The results indicate that sea level had been rising at a rate of 4.21 mm yr⁻¹ from 1948 to 1982 but at a faster rate …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 27, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 27, 2016 (12/27/16) 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.

Assessing The Impact Of A Constructed Wetland Biome On The Ecosystem Health Of Cedar Run, Thomas Vasilopoulos, Casey Lee

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

A wetlands ecosystem is defined as “an area saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency or duration sufficient to support...a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions” (Batzer and Sharitz, 2007). Wetlands serve as biofilters and thus have been used to treat sewage and wastewater, as well as to restore the health of polluted water systems. Solly Walker and Lorinda Palin, owners of a certified natural and biodynamic farm called Avalon Acres located in Broadway, Virginia, constructed a wetland two years ago, using the stream, Cedar Run, that flows through their property. Pollution from agricultural …

Groundwater-Flow Model Of The Northern High Plains Aquifer In Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, And Wyoming, Steven M. Peterson, Amanda T. Flynn, Jonathan (Jp) Traylor

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

The High Plains aquifer is a nationally important water resource underlying about 175,000 square miles in parts of eight states: Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Droughts across much of the Northern High Plains from 2001 to 2007 have combined with recent (2004) legislative mandates to elevate concerns regarding future availability of groundwater and the need for additional information to support science-based water-resource management. To address these needs, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) began the High Plains Groundwater Availability Study to provide a tool for water-resource managers and other stakeholders to assess the status …

How Do Designers Of The Built Environment Attempt To Make Ecological Sustainability Sensory Legible?, Carly L. Bartow

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical framework for making ecosystem function and ecologically sustainable design more perceptible or sensible to people through architecture and the built environment. Design features of the Bertschi School Science Wing and the Bullitt Center in Seattle, Washington are incorporated to illustrate the sensory legibility of ecological sustainability criteria.The criteria are available to designers to help educate a building's occupants on environmentally sustainable design and motivate more sustainable behavior.

Umphlett Qci Dec 2016, Natalie A. Umphlett

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Highlights for the Basin

Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies

Drought Conditions

Large Fires Impact Region

Heavy Rains Bring Flooding to Montana

Isolated Impacts to Agriculture

3-Month Precipitation and Temperature Outlooks

Soil Moisture Conditions

Exploring The Potential Impacts Of Climate Change On North America's Laurentian Great Lakes Tourism Sector, Natalie Chin

Open Access Dissertations

Climate change is one of the major challenges facing the global hospitality and tourism sector in the coming century and, given the important role that weather and climate play in all aspects of the tourism experience, tourism businesses owners need to start thinking about and enacting climate change adaptation strategies now. This work has utilized a combination of social science and physical science methods to (1) understand how the Great Lakes tourism sector could be impacted by climate change and (2) provide some insights into how researchers can help business owners prepare for these potential impacts. Overall, the results of …

Modeling The Impact Of Land Surface Feedbacks On Post Landfall Tropical Cyclones, Subashini Subramanian

Open Access Dissertations

The land surface is an important component of numerical models. The land surface models are modules that control energy partitioning, compute surface exchange coefficients and form the only physical boundary in a regional scale numerical model. Thus, an accurate representation of land surface is critical to compute surface fluxes, represent the boundary layer evolution and affect changes in weather systems. Land surface can affect landfalling tropical cyclones in two ways: (i) when the cyclone is offshore and land can influence cyclones by introducing dry (or moist) air that can weaken (or strengthen) the organized convective structure of cyclones, and (ii) …

A Gis Approach To Modeling Groundwater Levels In The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer, Josef Orion Lilly

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater depletion, a subject of growing concern for a significant portion of Arkansas, may lead to future economic challenges for the Arkansas Delta region. The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer is the uppermost aquifer and features the largest groundwater capacity in the Mississippi Embayment Aquifer System. The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer, commonly referred to as the “alluvial aquifer”, spans 53,000〖 km〗^2 underlying portions of Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee. As the alluvial aquifer trends southward for approximately 250 miles alongside the Mississippi River, its geographical extent ranges from 50 to 125 miles wide. There is a …

The Relationship Between Lead In Groundwater And Elementary School Students' Academic Performance In Missouri, Lynnette Xiangling Li

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Lead exposure can come from various sources, e.g., lead mines, industrial areas, and lead based paint. Missouri has more than 4,128 lead mines. Lead is a neurotoxin. The objectives of the study were to investigate i) the spatial relationship between lead mines and lead distribution in groundwater, ii) the statistical impact of lead in groundwater on students' Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores, and iii) the geographic variations of lead's impact on students' MAP scores. Geographic Information Science spatial analysis tools were used to analyze the concentration of lead in groundwater within school districts in Missouri. Regression analysis was utilized to …