Application of newly developed ensemble machine learning models for daily suspended sediment load prediction and related uncertainty analysis

Ensemble machine learning models have been widely used in hydro-systems modeling as robust prediction tools that combine multiple decision trees. In this study, three newly developed ensemble machine learning models, namely gradient boost regression (GBR), AdaBoost regression (ABR) and random forest regression (RFR) are proposed for prediction of suspended sediment load (SSL), and their prediction performance and related uncertainty are assessed. The SSL of the Mississippi River, which is one of the major world rivers and is significantly affected by sedimentation, is predicted based on daily values of river discharge (Q) and suspended sediment concentration (SSC). Based on performance metrics and visualization, the RFR model shows a slight lead in prediction performance. The uncertainty analysis also indicates that the input variable combination has more impact on the obtained predictions than the model structure selection

Transbasin water transfers

Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.It too often is the case that transbasin water transfer projects, worldwide, could be beneficial to an entire region and are well engineered and yet will never be constructed. This paper reviews social, political, financial, economic, and environmental factors that were dealt with in an effective manner by strong project advocates to realize the construction of the Laja Diguillin Irrigation Project. The Project is located in Region VIII of southern Chile. It stretches across nearly 100 kilometers of stream-dissected terrain to the south of the City of Chillan. The newly built primary transmission canal was designed to convey 1400 cusecs (40 cumecs) of diverted river flow from the Laja River, across six intermediate streams, to discharge some 28 miles (45 kilometers) distant into a pool created by a rubber dam on the Diguillin River. From this pool at the town of Bulnes the water is to be further diverted, along with flow of the Diguillin River, into a system of large primary irrigation canals. This transbasin diversion project was designed to provide economic uplift to the farmers of the region who had not participated in the near countrywide economic boom of the 199Os. Thus the Chilean Government chose to plan, design, and build the project while still maintaining the principle that the private sector should own, operate, and maintain irrigation projects. Additionally, the Directorate of Irrigation of the Ministry of Public Works was empowered, after some 50 years without designing a major irrigation project, to carry out with government financing the Laja Diguillin Project. The coalescence of factors that the Ministry recognized and made effective accommodations for may be grouped into four categories. They were: 1) advocacy, which was strongly provided by Directorate personnel; 2) social, characterized by the challenge to integrate newly enfranchised irrigators with existing water users and their organizations; 3) government, which as a dynamic emergent democracy with an established bureaucracy of skilled technocrats and economists was flexible and able to adopt new or innovative approaches; and 4) competing interests for water and land, embodied in three groups who actively opposed the project for environmental and commercial reasons

Transbasin water transfers

Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document

Transbasin water transfers

Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.Includes bibliographical references.As the headwaters for seven major rivers, water resources in Colorado have been diverted for use for over 150 years. Transbasin diversions have been developed to move water from one river basin to another, including transmountain diversions, which move water over the continental divide. Transmountain diversions have historically been developed to provide water for irrigated agriculture and municipal purposes. This paper briefly discusses the development of each of Colorado's 30 transmountain diversions between the Colorado, South Platte, Arkansas and Rio Grande river basins, and provides a summary of diversions for recent years

Transbasin water transfers

Presented at the 2001 USCID water management conference, Transbasin water transfers on June 27-30, 2001 in Denver, Colorado.Includes bibliographical references.Manusmara River Basin, a sub-basin of the Bagmati River Basin, lies in the Terai of Nepal. It lies in the sub-tropical climatic zone. The topography is almost flat with a very gentle slope towards the south. Up to the mid 1960s, a large portion was covered by dense, Sal forest. At present, only 6% of the area is occupied by forest. Over the last few decades, consumption of water especially for agriculture has increased tremendously. This paper draws out the history of agricultural development in the basin and its interface with the efforts made by the fanners to use the basin water resources. Water accounting has revealed that Manusmara is an "open basin" and it still offers ample scope for transbasin transfers and further harnessing of the available water. Even during the driest year, only 46% of the available water resources is depleted. This leaves more than half of the basin's yield for undeclared uses. The basin is at the initial stage of development. On the basis of the water account and an institutional analysis, the paper offers some suggestions for integrated development of the basin

Future Coal Supply for the World Energy Balance; Proceedings of the Third IIASA Conference on Energy Resources, November 28 - December 2, 1977

There is growing concern and interest in the re-emergence into the energy picture of "King Coal." Coal, as it is produced today and, still more, as it will be produced tomorrow and in the next century, has many new features. Reserves and resources are revised upward, by jumps greater than the total estimated world oil resources. Production techniques are shifting from fully automated underground mines to gigantic surface mines with annual capacities of some tens of millions of tons. Coal slurry pipelines will be used for transportation, and sophisticated processes can transform coal into almost any other fuel: gas, syncrude, methanol, gasoline, and so on. How do the various nations, whether producers or consumers or both, react to these changing conditions? And what could be the effects on the future world energy balance, and on a potential world coal market trying to compete with the world oil market? All these questions--and many others--were raised and dealt with during the Third IIASA Conference on Energy Resources, devoted to Future Coal Supply for the World Energy Balance. More than seventy experts from East and West--technicians, economists, futurologists, modelers--contributed. The papers presented in this book treat technical aspects and prospects and economic (national, international, and global) problems and perspectives