Dynamics Of Flood Flow In Red River Basin

In recent decades, flooding has become a major issue in many areas of the Upper Midwest. Many rivers and streams in the region had considerable increases in mean annual peak flows during this period, which was driven by a combination of natural factors including discharge synchrony with the spring thaw, ice jams, glacial lake plain, and a decrease in gradient downstream. The Red River of the North is a prominent river in the United States and Canada\u27s Upper Midwest. It flows from its headwaters in Minnesota and North Dakota to Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba. The river is well-known for its spring floods, which can cause havoc on communities along its banks. There is an increasing need to improve the characterization and identification of precursors in the Red River basin that affect the hydrological conditions that cause spring snowmelt floods and improve predictions to reduce Red River flood damage. This dissertation has developed different research that concerns the dynamics of floods in the Red River basin by integrating hydrological, hydraulic, and machine-learning models. The primary objectives were to improve flood prediction accuracy by deriving the parameters of the Muskingum Routing method using discharge measurements obtained by an Autonomous Surface Vehicle, to predict scour potential of the river through HEC-RAS modeling, and to provide an estimate of the flood progression downstream based on the flow characteristics. The study also compared the effectiveness of Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA), Random Forest (RF), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) algorithms for flood prediction. Additionally, the research investigated the surface water area variation and response to wet and dry seasons across the entire Red River basin, which can inform the development of effective flood mitigation strategies. The results of this study contributed to a better understanding of flood control strategies in the Red River Basin and helped to inform policy decisions related to flood mitigation in the region. Ultimately, this research aimed to understand the complex dynamics of the RRB and derive hydrological and hydraulic models that could help to improve flood prediction. The first research developed a linear and nonlinear Muskingum model with lateral inflows for flood routing in the Red River Basin using Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA). The distributed Muskingum model is introduced to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the calculations. The study focuses on developing a linear and nonlinear Muskingum model for the Grand Forks and Drayton USGS stations deriving the parameters of the Muskingum Routing method using discharge measurements based on spatial variable exponent parameters. The suggested approach minimizes the Sum of Square Errors (SSE) between observed and routed outflows. The results show for an icy river like Red River, the Muskingum method proposed is a convenient way to predict outflow hydrographs caused by snowmelt. The second study improved flood inundation mapping accuracy in flood-prone rivers, such as the Red River of the North, by using simulation tools in HEC-RAS for flood modeling and determining Manning\u27s n coefficient. An Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) was used to collect bathymetry and discharge data, including a flood event with a 16.5-year return period in 2022. The results showed that Manning\u27s n-coefficient of 0.07 and 0.15 for the channel and overbanks, respectively, agreed well with the observed and simulated water level values under steady flow conditions. The study also demonstrated the efficiency of using ASVs for flood mapping and examined the scour potential and any local scour development in the streambed near the bridge piers. The third study of this dissertation used hourly level records from three USGS stations to evaluate water level predictions using three methods: SARIMA, RF, and LSTM. The LSTM method outperformed the other methods, demonstrating high precision for flood water level prediction. The results showed that the LSTM method was a reliable choice for predicting flood water levels up to one week in advance. This study contributes to the development of data-driven forecasting systems that provide cost-effective solutions and improved performance in simulating the complex physical processes of floods using mathematical expressions. This last study focused on the spatiotemporal dynamics of surface water area in the Red River Basin (RRB) by using a high-resolution global surface water dataset to investigate the changes in surface water extent from 1990 to 2019. The results showed that there were four distinct phases of variation in surface water: wetting (1990-2001), dry (2002-2005), recent wetting (2006-2013), and recent drying (2014-2019). The transition from bare land to permanent and seasonal water area was observed during the wetting phase, while the other phases experienced relatively little fluctuation. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the spatiotemporal variation of surface water area in the RRB and provides insights into the impact of recent wetting and drying periods on the lakes and wetlands of the RRB

Flood Risk and Resilience

Flooding is widely recognized as a global threat, due to the extent and magnitude of damage it causes around the world each year. Reducing flood risk and improving flood resilience are two closely related aspects of flood management. This book presents the latest advances in flood risk and resilience management on the following themes: hazard and risk analysis, flood behaviour analysis, assessment frameworks and metrics and intervention strategies. It can help the reader to understand the current challenges in flood management and the development of sustainable flood management interventions to reduce the social, economic and environmental consequences from flooding

Simulation and analysis of sea-level change from tide gauge station by using artificial neural network models

Sea level change is one of the most certain results of global warming. Sea level change would increase erosion in coastal areas, result in intrusion into water supplies, inundate coastal marshes and other important habitats, and make the coastal property more vulnerable to erosion and flooding. This situation coincides with the massive socio-economic development of the coastal city areas. The coastal areas of the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia are vulnerable to sea-level change, flooding, and extreme erosion events. The monthly Mean Sea Level (MSL) change was simulated by using two Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models, Feed Forward- Neural Network (FF-NN) and Nonlinear Autoregressive Exogenous- Neural Network (NARX-NN) models. Both models did well in recreating sea levels and their fluctuating patterns, according to the data. The NARX-NN model with architecture (5-6-1) and four lag options, on the other hand, got the greatest results. The findings of the model’s mean sea level rise simulation show that Kuala Terengganu would have a growing and upward trend of roughly 25.34 mm/year. This paper shows that the eastern coast of Malaysia is highly vulnerable to sea-level rise and therefore, requires sustainable adaptation policies and plans to manage the potential impacts. It recommends that various policies, which enable areas to be occupied for longer before the eventual retreat, could be adapted to accommodate vulnerable settlements on the eastern coast of Malaysia

Water level management of lakes connected to regulated rivers: An integrated modeling and analytical methodology

Reservoir operations significantly alter the hydrological regime of the downstream river and river-connected lake, which has far-reaching impacts on the lake ecosystem. To facilitate the management of lakes connected to regulated rivers, the following information must be provided: (1) the response of lake water levels to reservoir operation schedules in the near future and (2) the importance of different rivers in terms of affecting the water levels in different lake regions of interest. We develop an integrated modeling and analytical methodology for the water level management of such lakes. The data-driven method is used to model the lake level as it has the potential of producing quick and accurate predictions. A new genetic algorithm-based synchronized search is proposed to optimize input variable time lags and data-driven model parameters simultaneously. The methodology also involves the orthogonal design and range analysis for extracting the influence of an individual river from that of all the rivers. The integrated methodology is applied to the second largest freshwater lake in China, the Dongting Lake. The results show that: (1) the antecedent lake levels are of crucial importance for the current lake level prediction; (2) the selected river discharge time lags reflect the spatial heterogeneity of the rivers’ impacts on lake level changes; (3) the predicted lake levels are in very good agreement with the observed data (RMSE ≤ 0.091 m; R2 ≥ 0.9986). This study demonstrates the practical potential of the integrated methodology, which can provide both the lake level responses to future dam releases and the relative contributions of different rivers to lake level changes

Political Ecology of Water Governance in South Asia: A Case Study of the Koshi River Communities

Nepalese communities around the Koshi River, a transboundary river between Nepal and India, are facing unprecedented water-related problems. They face scarcity of water in dry seasons and recurrent flood disasters during monsoons. One of the main reasons behind these problems is the governance of the river via the Koshi River Agreement (1954, revised in 1966) between Nepal and India. This thesis analyses the political ecology of water governance in South Asia. Specifically, it examines how the Koshi River Governance contributes to environmental injustice for the riverine communities. It uses an actor-oriented political ecology framework, integrating the concepts of governance, theory of access and environmental justice, to understand various dimensions of injustice. Using the mixed methods research, it explores how multi-scalar power relationships and access-regulation of resources produce environmental injustice. The thesis argues that environmental injustice for transboundary riverine communities is produced by socio-natural complexes, where multi-scalar power relationships play a critical role. It demonstrates that the hydro-hegemony, not only at the international scale but also the internal hydro-hegemony at the national scale, influence governance of resources to a large extent. Results show that the governance provided the powerful with even more power for regulating the access of the communities to resources, creating uneven environmental injustice and coping capabilities. Highlighting the need for enhancing environmental justice, this thesis proposes an alternative governance framework by considering various roles, rules and relationships among actors with differential powers across multiple scales and places. The thesis has produced the evidence-based local knowledge and advanced the evidence, narratives, insights and the discourse on political ecology

Technocratic dreams and troublesome beneficiaries : the Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) Project in Gujarat

En fersk doktoravhandling i samfunnsgeografi kaster nytt lys over den kontroversielle damutbyggingen på Narmada-elva i India. Sardar Sarovar-prosjektet var i verdens søkelys gjennom hele 1990-tallet pga massiv tvangsflytting og antatt negative miljøkonsekvenser. Sardar Sarovar er et prestisjeprosjekt: en 146 meter høy demning og 66000 kilometer med kanaler som skal sikre vann til delstatens bønder. Guro Aandahl belyser i sitt doktorgradsprosjekt hvordan endrede ideer om hva ”utvikling” er påvirket prosjektets skjebne. Videre undersøker hun hvilke problemer dette store, teknokratiske prosjektet møter når det skal gjennomføres. Hun konkluderer med at byråkratene og ingeniørene i statsapparatet har langt mindre makt over bønder og lokalbefolkning enn det som vanligvis antas i debatten om store dammer og sentralstyrt kanalvanning. Et viktig budskap fra Aandahl er at deler av den utviklingskritiske forskningen er for rask til å avvise staten som en nødvendig utviklingsaktør, og har ukritisk og naiv tillit til lokalsamfunns egen evne til å ivareta også de fattiges rettigheter og behov. Debatten om Narmada-prosjektene har vært preget av en gjennomgående teori om at store, teknokratiske prosjekter først og fremst drives fram av aktører med en egeninteresse i prosjektenes gjennomføring: byråkrater, rike bønder, og politikere som vil mele sin egen kake med offentlige midler. Avhandlingen viser hvordan slike utviklingsprosjekter også i stor grad er drevet av en idealisme som springer ut av rådende ideer om hva som skaper utvikling og framskritt for befolkning og nasjon. Disse ideene hentes blant annet fra arbeidene til akademikere og tenkere, som dermed er utviklingsaktører i større grad enn de kanskje selv innser

Rock Art Management and Landscape Change: Mixed Field Assessment Techniques for Cultural Stone Decay

As tourism continues to grow as one of the world’s most ubiquitous markets, the development and promotion of non-invasive techniques for cultural stone decay analysis and landscape change are vital to establishing conditional base-lines to best aid cultural heritage management (CRM) efficacy. Using rock art as a medium, this dissertation presents three independent case studies employing the Rock Art Stability Index (RASI) and repeat photography to explore the merits of mixed rapid field assessment techniques in relation to CRM and heritage tourism. While rock art is only one example of irreplaceable world heritage resources, examining how they decay and what methods can effectively quantify their change provides valuable data leading to a better understanding of human/environment interaction within the context of tourism and cultural resource management. The first case study examines the applicability of combining the two methods on rock art in the Arkansan Ozark region, showing considerable promise. The second addresses the temporal flexibility of the mixed methods on rapidly changing, and highly impacted, rock art sites on Grenada, West Indies, demonstrating the method pairing’s tremendous monitoring and emergency response potential. The third case study explores adapting RASI to analyze other forms of cultural stone by employing the mixed methods on selected hewn monuments in Petra, Jordan, aptly identifying a critical disparity between appearance and stability. Ultimately, each case study exemplifies different aspects of cultural stone decay and modern challenges: from initial preliminary evaluations to assessing the impact of uninformed conservation efforts, and examining the influences of mass tourism and human interaction at heritage sites. Mixed field techniques effectively highlighted both the need for and benefits of employing such methods for rock art management, cultural stone stability, and global heritage management

Reconstructing early modern disaster management in Puerto Rico: development and planning examined through the lens of Hurricanes San Ciriaco (1899), San Felipe (1928) and Santa Clara (1956)

This is the first longitudinal, retrospective, qualitative, descriptive and multi-case study of hurricanes in Puerto Rico, from 1899 to 1956, researching for planning purposes the key lessons from the disaster management changes that happened during the transition of Puerto Rico from a Spanish colony to a Commonwealth of the United States. The selected time period is crucial to grasp the foundations of modern disaster management, development and planning processes. Disasters are potent lenses through which inspect realpolitik in historical and current times, and grasp legacies that persist today, germane planning tasks. Moreover, Puerto Rico is an exemplary case; it has been an experimental laboratory for policies later promoted by the US abroad, and it embodies key common conditions to develop my research interface between urban planning and design, meteorology, hydrology, sociology, political science, culture and social history. After introducing the dissertation, I present a literature review of the emergence of the secular characterization of disasters and a recent paradigm shift for understanding what a disaster is, its causes and how to respond. Next, I summarize the multidisciplinary research and policy knowledge concerning Puerto Rican hurricanes. Subsequently, I explain my methodological sequential data analysis, beginning with three case studies, followed by cross-case comparisons and assessments, ending in answer, recommendations and conclusions. I implemented a version of Grounded Theory, combining deductive and inductive thinking, with a phenomenologist standpoint that valued people's experiences and interpretations of the world. I aimed to denaturalize so-called ‘natural disasters’, exposing with a political economy lens the political character of public decision-making before, during and after a disaster; and grasp how politics impacted the society under study. My research methods were archival research in the field and online, visual sociology and case study. Based on information-oriented sampling, I chose the destructive hurricanes San Ciriaco (1899), San Felipe (1928) and Santa Clara (1956), which occurred at critical historical junctures. I examined three themes: characterization, causation, and relief. Those themes divided into six sub-questions and thirty-eight variables, summarized later. Answer: Disaster management vastly improved mirroring shifting ideas of God, nature, knowledge and humanity; always influenced by the dependent position of the island. Historically, citizens tried to handle hurricanes through mythological beliefs, empirical observations, rituals and material practices; some of which endured colonization and modernization into the mid 20th century. Disaster management emerged haphazardly; at first it was ineffective and improvised relief, without much preventive or reconstructive policy-making. The official perception of hurricanes changed from being essentially uncontrollable religious or natural events, to natural events that could be tamed with technology, physical changes and policies. Yet, it was a more nuanced confluence of environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political factors that enabled storms to become destructive disasters affecting the Puerto Rican economy, environment and society. The social groups that experienced higher resilience or vulnerability during a disaster respectively corresponded to the groups that were best and least served during relief and who could or could not produce public transcripts and policies. Such division resulted from entrenched social and political arrangements, including citizens’ rights, colonial administrative policies, social hierarchy that merged local and external power dynamics, and notions of habitus . Eventually, the growing understanding of citizens’ rights was critical to reduce hurricane casualties and the worst forms of vulnerability through New Deal and Commonwealth developmental projects. By also including contentious aims though, they created other forms of underdevelopment and dependency from the US; whilst technology and modernity paradigms bolstered new risks that would become rather costly. Simultaneously, disaster management became a federal responsibility, which reached Puerto Rico; but it was the unplanned intersection of a hodge-podge of disciplines, approaches and institutions, centered on physical interventions and neglecting the role of culture and the political economy of disasters with negative lasting impacts. Although improvised, contradictory and controversial; the main factors enabling the rise of disaster management were increased governmental leadership, knowledge construction, public awareness, planning and investment in hard and soft infrastructure, and relief provision. My dissertation contributes to Puerto Rican Studies and to emerging planning discussions about the Circum-Caribbean. Also, it contributes to disaster management, an area of academic and practice-oriented literature relevant for planning, fastly growing given the rising frequency and intensity of multiple disasters; and which is usually focused on contemporary events, prospective forecasting and proposal-making. Contrastingly, my dissertation’s strengths reside in being a critical and exhaustive historical study of hurricanes that proposes an option to the customary deleterious disciplinary fragmentation of disaster studies and management, and to the emphasis on physical change that remain standards in most countries

Private irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: regional Seminar on Private Sector Participation and Irrigation Expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa, Accra, Ghana, 22-26 October 2001

Irrigation management / Privatization / Irrigated farming / Financing / Irrigation systems / Gender / Women / Government managed irrigation systems / Farmer managed irrigation systems / Rice / Horticulture / Technology transfer / Pumps / Drip irrigation / Filtration / Capacity building / Urban agriculture / Poverty / Water users associations / Agricultural credit

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution showing the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution to July, 1896, Pt 1.

Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution. 1 July. HD 352 (pts. 1 and 2), 54-2, v72-73, 1909p. (3548-3549] Research related to the American Indian