Genoa in the Second Part of XX Century: An Analysis through Contemporary Migrations

Genoa knew, as well as other town in Italy, a fast development during the Italian economic boom (1958-1963), marked by a great urbanization of the city. This phenomenon took the construction of new neighborhoods, the demolition of others in the early 70s, the fast improvement of the port in the 80s and changes in economic, political and territorial order. It is also the era of great songwriters as Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco and Fabrizio de Andr\ue8 who, with their music, described a Genoa with a particular attention to its neighborhoods and its people, places sometimes considered marginal and where often resided \u201cthe last ones\u201d, like in the case of De Andr\ue8. Genoa changed its face for Expo 92, event that allowed the entire renovation of Old Port area, thanks to the architect Renzo Piano. The city also saw a migration from abroad, mainly from Africa and Latin America. Actually foreigners in Genoa are about a tenth of the population and this paper wants to show, through an analysis of available official data, as they changed the traditional structures of the neighborhoods, their distribution in the urban areas, bringing colors, smells and flavors and also developing successful business activities

Improved Methods and Guidelines for Modeling Stormwater Runoff from Surface Coal Mined Lands

The investgations, developments and guidelines for several hydrologic modeling strategies are presented. Investigations were conducted to determine appropriate event curve numbers for surface mined disturbed watersheds; and performance of four synthetic unit hydrograph models (SCS curvilinear, SCS single triangle, Williams and TVA double triangle) on 38 USDA experimental watersheds in 14 physiographic provinces using in excess of 270 events. A second test using only the SCS curvilinear unit hydrograph on 11 small watersheds and 48 events was conducted to investigate the excess rainfall pattern simulated with the curve number model. A procedure for developing a unit hydrograph using the time area method and a two parameter gamma distribution is presented for ungaged watersheds or watersheds undergoing land use changes. The development of a coupled explicit finite difference Green and Ampt infiltration-implicit finite element kinematic wave model is presented. The deterministic overland flow model includes a variable width which is essential for the accurate modeling of the watershed geometry. Both impervious and pervious watershed simulations are presented for the deterministic overland flow model

Characterizing runoff responses in a mountaintop mine impacted and forested catchment in the coalfields of West Virginia

Mountaintop mining (MTM) represents the largest land cover/landuse change in the Central Appalachian region. By 2012, the U.S. EPA estimates that MTR will have impacted approximately 6.8% of the predominately forested Appalachian Coalfield region of West Virginia (WV), Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia with nearly 4,000 miles of headwater streams buried under valley fills (VF). In spite of the scale and extent of MTM, its hydrologic impacts are poorly understood. Several devastating floods in the region have been attributed to MTM, but there is little evidence to either confirm or refute this belief. Existing research on the hydrologic impacts of MTM has documented a range of potential impacts to the storm hydrograph and seasonal flow regimes but has also revealed considerable variability in hydrologic responses to differing storm events, extents of disturbance, and stage of reclamation. Additional uncertainty stems from our poor understanding runoff processes of forested catchments in the southern coalfields of West Virginia. This study begins to address this knowledge gap by exploring rainfall-runoff relationships in two headwater catchments in southern West Virginia: a predominantly forested catchment with no active surface mining and another undergoing active MTM and VF that disturbs 20% of its catchment area. Streamflow (Q) and precipitation (P) were measured in each catchment from 01 September 2011 to 30 September 2012 and 23 discrete storm events were selected for analysis. Both catchments responded rapidly to precipitation inputs but the MTM-impacted catchment experienced significantly greater total runoff (3x), higher peak runoff (2x), greater runoff ratios (Q/P) (2x), greater baseflows, and shorter time lags from peak precipitation to peak runoff (2x). Hydraulic response time, a fundamental hydraulic parameter that controls the conversion of rainfall to runoff, was modeled with a transfer function rainfall-runoff model and found to be more rapid in the MTM-impacted catchment. The source of these differences is likely attributable to some combination of three factors: surface disturbance of MTM/VF operations, the smaller drainage area of the MTM-impacted catchment and additional water inputs from legacy underground mining in the MTM-impacted catchment. Results from this study reflect the hydrologic complexity of runoff generation the southern coalfields of West Virginia. Future research efforts should quantify the physical processes that control hydrologic response in these heavily disturbed landscapes

AQUAGRID: an extensible platform for collaborative problem solving in groundwater protection

AQUAGRID is the subsurface hydrology computational service of the Sardinian GRIDA3 infrastructure, designed to deliver complex environmental applications via a user-friendly Web portal. The service aims to provide to water professionals integrated modeling tools to solve water resources management problems and aid decision making for contaminated soil and groundwater. In this paper, the AQUAGRID application concept and enabling technologies are illustrated. At the heart of the service are the computational models to simulate complex and large groundwater flow and contaminant transport problems and geochemical speciation. AQUAGRID is built on top of compute-Grid technologies by means of the EnginFrame Grid framework. Distributed data management is provided by the Storage Resource Broker data-Grid middleware. The resulting environment allows end-users to perform groundwater simulations and to visualize and interact with their results, using graphs, 3D images and annotated maps. The problem solving capability of the platform is demonstrated using the results of two case studies deployed

PROBABILISTIC APPROACH TO WATER, SEDIMENT, AND NUTRIENT CONNECTIVITY FOR ADVANCING WATERSHED MODELLING

The goal of this dissertation is to represent the spatial and temporal domains of water, sediment, and nutrient flux and pathways within fluvial and watershed settings. To complete this goal, we integrate connectivity theory into watershed model structures to simulate water, sediment, and nutrient movement at the fundamental unit they occur. Fluvial-based sediment and nutrient flux is an important driver of global sediment and nutrient budgets, and the quantification of which serves as an ongoing challenge to limnologists, engineers, and watershed managers. Watershed models have been richly developed over the past century, but are currently restrained by problems related to omission of physical transport and detachment processes as well ambiguous representation of active non-point sources and their transport pathways. To overcome limitations such as these, geomorphologists introduced connectivity theory, which has garnered popularity from watershed managers and modelers due perhaps to its ability to explain the non-linearity of system response and explicitly detail non-point sources, sinks, and transport pathways. Connectivity is defined herein as, “the integrated transfer of material from source to sink facilitated by the continuum of material generation, loss, and transport in three dimensions and through time.” Connectivity theory has matured such that we now have a holistic view of phenomena controlling connectivity, however, the connectivity community has not yet adopted a unified conceptual framework with the goal of connectivity quantification. Existing connectivity models have varying approaches to quantify connectivity such as: (1) index-based connectivity assessments; (2) effective catchment area estimation; and (3) network-based connectivity simulations. While these models often adequately represent the structural connections of landscape elements, few frameworks are able to represent the variability of connectivity from dynamic hydrologic forcings. We argue that explicit coupling of watershed models with a unified connectivity framework will help to improve the basis of watershed modelling in physics while avoiding problems that current watershed models possess: namely due to spatial and temporal lumping and empirical estimations of non-point source generation and fate. This dissertation seeks to fulfill this objective through of six studies that advance formulation of the tenets of connectivity including the magnitude, extent, timing, and continuity of connectivity with respect to water, sediment, and nutrients

Hydrologic analysis of a limestone quarry using EPA\u27s HELP Version 3.08 Model

Aggregates were historically a low cost commodity but with communities and governmental agencies reducing the amount of mining the cost is increasing dramatically. An awareness needs to be brought to communities that aggregate production is necessary for ensuring the existing infrastructure in today’s world. This can be accomplished using proven technologies in other areas and applying them to show how viable reclamation is feasible. A proposed mine reclamation, Douglas Township quarry (DTQ), in Dakota Township, MN was evaluated using Visual Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model. The HELP is commonly employed for estimating the water budget of a landfill, however, it was applied to determine the water budget of the DTQ following mining. Using an environmental impact statement as the case study, modeling predictions indicated the DTQ will adequately drain the water being put into the system. The height of the groundwater table will rise slightly due to the mining excavations but no ponding will occur. The application of HELP model determined the water budget of the DTQ and can be used as a viable option for mining companies to demonstrate how land can be reclaimed following mining operations

Numerical modelling in research on geothermal systems

Nowadays, numerical modelling is a common tool for support research of geothermal systems. This is possible because of development of computer sciences and access to software dedicated to numerical modelling of hydrogeological processes. With computer applications researches can do scheme of hydrogeological conditions and simulate work of geothermal systems and thermal water intakes. Researches create numerical models of geothermal systems in regional and local scale, for simulating work of specific thermal water formation and intakes and their particular elements - well active zone for example.In parallel with the economic development of the use of thermal water in Poland there are a lot of research projects where numerical modelling occurs as a primary or supporting tool. This paper provides an overview of research issues where the solution of the problem was found with using computer application and numerical simulators