Quantifying the cooling effect and scale of large inner-city lakes based on landscape patterns:A case study of Hangzhou and Nanjing

The rapid urbanization worldwide has brought various environmental problems. The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is one of the most concerning issues because of its strong relation with daily lives. Water bodies are generally considered a vital resource to relieve the UHI. In this context, it is critical to develop a method for measuring the cooling effect and scale of water bodies in urban areas. In this study, West Lake and Xuanwu Lake, two famous natural inner-city lakes, are selected as the measuring targets. The scatter plot and multiple linear regression model were employed to detect the relationship between the distance to the lake and land surface temperature based on Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager/Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI/TIRS) and Sentinel-2 data. The results show that West Lake and Xuanwu Lake massively reduced the land surface temperature within a few hundred meters (471 m for West Lake and 336 m for Xuanwu Lake) and have potential cooling effects within thousands of meters (2900 m for West Lake and 3700 m for Xuanwu Lake). The results provide insights for urban planners to manage tradeoffs between the large lake design in urban areas and the cooling effect demands

Energy and Water Cycles in the Third Pole

As the most prominent and complicated terrain on the globe, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is often called the “Roof of the World”, “Third Pole” or “Asian Water Tower”. The energy and water cycles in the Third Pole have great impacts on the atmospheric circulation, Asian monsoon system and global climate change. On the other hand, the TP and the surrounding higher elevation area are also experiencing evident and rapid environmental changes under the background of global warming. As the headwater area of major rivers in Asia, the TP’s environmental changes—such as glacial retreat, snow melting, lake expanding and permafrost degradation—pose potential long-term threats to water resources of the local and surrounding regions. To promote quantitative understanding of energy and water cycles of the TP, several field campaigns, including GAME/Tibet, CAMP/Tibet and TORP, have been carried out. A large amount of data have been collected to gain a better understanding of the atmospheric boundary layer structure, turbulent heat fluxes and their coupling with atmospheric circulation and hydrological processes. The focus of this reprint is to present recent advances in quantifying land–atmosphere interactions, the water cycle and its components, energy balance components, climate change and hydrological feedbacks by in situ measurements, remote sensing or numerical modelling approaches in the “Third Pole” region

Chinese Water Systems

This open-access book addresses latest Sino-German results of the joint research efforts within Major Water Program of the Chinese Government supported by German research funding. The Major Water Program aims at the restoration of polluted water environments and sustainable management of water resources in China. The joint BMBF-CLIENT project SINOWATER deals with three most significant and strongest polluted Chinese waters, the river Liao and the Dian-lake as well as Tai-lake in the area of the metropolises Shenyang, Kunming and Suzhou, respectively. The project was conducted by the Research Institute for Water and Waste Management at RWTH Aachen (FiW) e.V., Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection, Technical University of Munich, RWTH Aachen University, German and Chinese companies (Martin Membrane Systems AG, Steinhardt GmbH Wassertechnik, GuHong, JT-elektronik, bluemetric, Huawang Water, EVU Group, Atemis GmbH, i+f process GmbH) in close cooperation with Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Tongji University, and the Dianchi Lake Management Authorities. Overall, the joint Sino-German research project SINOWATER provided solutions for the improvement of the water quality in the mentioned water bodies as well as development and optimization of Good Water Governance. These objectives could be achieved through the implementation of innovative German water technologies and the optimization of water management elements in the fields of industrial and municipal wastewater treatment as well as river and shallow lake management

Modelling the impacts of land-used and climate change in Skudai river watershed

Predicting the impact of land-use, climate change and Best Management Practices (BMPs) on a watershed is imperative for effective management of aquatic ecosystems, floods, pollutant control and maintenance of water quality standard in a tropical climate. Based on the prediction, unique information can be derived that is critical to the watershed management under dynamic environmental conditions. The study seeks to evaluate how land-use and climate change influences the hydrology, sediments, and water quality of an urbanized tropical watershed in which the land-use is controlled by urban development as observed from historical and projected land covers. Therefore, the response of a tropica l watershed and its river system under climate and land-use changes were evaluated using Skudai River watershed as a case study. Seven land-use scenarios from the year 1989 to 2039 were developed using remote sensing teclmiques, and nine projected climate change scenarios were derived using dynamically downscaled model from the based projection under representative concentration pathways (RCPs) scenarios. These scenarios were integrated into the Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model to determine the impact of land-use , climate change, and pollutants control via best management practices in a tropical watershed system. The model was calibrated and validated from 2002 to 2014, and the performance coefficients showed a good correlation between simulated and observed streamflow, water temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), nitrate nitrogen (N03-N), and orthophosphate (P04) concentrations. The output of the validated model under land-use changes showed that the hydrological water balance of the watershed changes with total runoff as the primary source of water loss. For streamflows and in-stream concentrations (NH3-N, N03-N, and P04) , as the streamflow increases, NH3-N and P04 concentrations increase while N03-N concentration showed low response as compared to the other two concentrations. As urban development increased from 18.2% to 49.2%, nutrient influx such as total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) loads increased from 3080 to 4560 kg/yr and from 130 to 270 kg/yr, respectively. Furthermore, TN to TP ratio changed from 8.3:1 to 7:1, an indication that the rivers are receiving excess nutrients flows which might result in eutrophication at the downstream of the watershed . The amount of sediment load produced in the watershed decreased by approximately 17.8% as a result of the changes in land-use derived from urban development. Further analysis ofthe results showed that climate change with high rainfall and increase in air temperature do not affect DO concentration and water temperature in comparison to climate change with low rainfall. Implementation of multiple detention pond BMPs in identified Critical Source Areas (CSAs) reduced pollutant loads by 14% to 27% as compared to watershed without any BMPS, independent ofclimate and landuse changes. Analysis ofBMPs using existing and future land-use is very important to ensure their effectiveness to control and maintain water quality. This study provides a basis to develop water resource management in an urban watershed and be resilient to land-use and climate changes

Holocene Environmental Change in Mainland Southeast Asia: Pollen and Charcoal Records From Cambodia.

Major Holocene environmental changes in continental Southeast Asia are reconstructed using proxy data derived from analysis of 14C-dated changes in pollen, microscopic charcoal, and organic/inorganic carbon in sediment cores taken from permanent, closed-basin, volcanic lakes in Ratanakiri Province, northeastern Cambodia. Analysis focuses on the history of monsoon climate and land use, inferred from changes in vegetation, fire regime, and lake conditions. These data provide the first well dated palynological record, covering most of the Holocene and continuous up to the present, from an upland site in mainland Southeast Asia. The record from a 15-meter core retrieved from Yeak Kara Lake, representing the last 9300 years, shows that the Late Glacial period ended about 8500 BP, more than 1000 years later than sites in southwest China. Maximum summer monsoon intensity occurred ca. 8000--5400 BP, similar to most other sites in the Asian monsoon region. A subsequent increase in burning caused expansion of secondary forests at the expense of dense semi-evergreen forests. After ca. 3500 BP fire frequency may have increased further, leading to expansion of dry deciduous forests. From ca. 2500 BP up to the present, dense forest has recovered in a mosaic with annually-burned dry forest, due either to a Late Holocene strengthening of the monsoon or to more pervasive control of the fire regime by indigenous populations. The pattern of burning for the last 2500 years, corroborated by charcoal records from two other nearby lakes, shows lowest burning intensity perhaps coinciding with the development and demise of major civilizations (Funan, Chenla, Angkor) in the region

Experimental approach for quantifying crop water use and pollutant loading from agricultural plot

Storm water runoff is the main contributor to non-point source (NPS) pollution in agricultural land. This issue is extremely important in tropical region due to its high intensity and frequent storms. The objectives of this study were to determine the crop coefficient of two vegetable crops – bittergourd (Mormordica Charantia) and chilli (Capsicum Annuum), investigate the mechanism of NPS pollutant transport and the influence of hydrologic regime on the pollutant loading. This study was conducted at the Modern Agriculture Centre in Kluang, Johor, from August 2013 to May 2014. A total of 86 rainfall events were recorded but only 52 storms had generated measurable runoff. Samples of runoff, soil water and groundwater were collected after every rainfall event and analysed for nutrient and sediment contents. Twenty-six reference evapotranspiration (ETo) models which were classified into four different groups were employed and their performance was ranked based on eight different statistical test. Penman model provide the best result in estimating ETo while the Schendel model tended to overestimate the observed pan ET. The limited parameters used in the temperature based group causes poor performance in predicting the ETo values. Crop coefficient (Kc) curves for both crops were developed as the ratio of actual ET measured by minilysimeters to the ET values of the best model. The Kc values for the bittergourd were 0.58, 0.88 and 0.69 while for chili were 0.58, 0.95 and 0.73 for the initial, mid and end growth stages, respectively. More runoff event was observed for the bittergourd as its growing period coincided with the North-East Monsoon. The average runoff-rainfall ratio is less than one percent due to the high hydraulic conductivity of the site. The concentrations of nutrients and sediments were very high with maximum Nitrite (NO2), Nitrate (NO3), Ammoniacal-Nitrogen (NH3-N), Phosphate (PO4), Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Phosphorus (TP), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) concentrations in the runoff were 0.385, 10, 4.2, 13.7, 27, 18, 190 and 15000 mg/l respectively. However, the calculated pollutant loading were low due to the remarkably small surface runoff volume. Soil water analysis at 15 and 60 cm soil depth shows a high Phosphorus (P) element leaching to the deeper depth even though P is less mobile. Nitrate concentration showed an increasing trend compared to other nutrients with a maximum of 1.7 mg/l at the end of the study period. The calibration and validation of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) were carried out to model the leaching of NO3 to the groundwater. The results of this study can be applied to formulate more reliable water management schemes based on the water requirement of the vegetable crops and providing new information for controlling NPS pollution loading from agricultural activities

Studies on Water Management Issues

This book shares knowledge gained through water management related research. It describes a broad range of approaches and technologies, of which have been developed and used by researchers for managing water resource problems. This multidisciplinary book covers water management issues under surface water management, groundwater management, water quality management, and water resource planning management subtopics. The main objective of this book is to enable a better understanding of these perspectives relating to water management practices. This book is expected to be useful to researchers, policy-makers, and non-governmental organizations working on water related projects in countries worldwide

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Salt management is a critical component of irrigated agriculture in arid regions. Successful crop production cannot be sustained without maintaining an acceptable level of salinity in the root zone. This requires drainage and a location to dispose drainage water, particularly, the salts it contains, which degrade the quality of receiving water bodies. Despite the need to generate drainage water to sustain productivity, many irrigation schemes have been designed and constructed with insufficient attention to drainage, to appropriate re-use or disposal of saline drainage water, and to salt disposal in general. To control the negative effects of drainage water disposal, state and federal agencies in several countries now are placing regulations on the discharge of saline drainage water into rivers. As a result, many farmers have implemented irrigation and crop management practices that reduce drainage volumes. Farmers and technical specialists also are examining water treatment schemes to remove salt or dispose of saline drainage water in evaporation basins or in underlying groundwater. We propose that the responsibility for salt management be combined with the irrigation rights of farmers. This approach will focus farmers' attention on salt management and motivate water delivery agencies and farmers to seek efficient methods for reducing the amount of salt needing disposal and to determine methods of disposing salt in ways that are environmentally acceptable

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.A In order to promote irrigation sustainability through reporting by irrigation water managers around Australia, we have developed an adaptive framework and methodology for improved triple-bottom-line reporting. The Irrigation Sustainability Assessment Framework (ISAF) was developed to provide a comprehensive framework for irrigation sustainability assessment and integrated triple-bottom-line reporting, and is structured to promote voluntary application of this framework across the irrigation industry, with monitoring, assessment and feedback into future planning, in a continual learning process. Used in this manner the framework serves not only as a "reporting tool", but also as a "planning tool" for introducing innovative technology and as a "processes implementation tool" for enhanced adoption of new scientific research findings across the irrigation industry. The ISAF was applied in case studies to selected rural irrigation sector organisations, with modifications to meet their specific interests and future planning