A contaminant transport model for wetlands accounting for distinct residence time bimodality

Vegetation plays a major role in controlling the fate of contaminants in natural and constructed wetlands. Estimating the efficiency of contaminant removal of a wetland requires separate knowledge of the residence time statistics in the main flow channels, where the flow velocity is relatively higher, and in the more densely vegetated zones, where the velocity is smaller and most of the biochemical transformations occur. A conceptual wetland characterized by a main flow channel (MFC) and lateral vegetated zones (LVZs) is modeled here using a two-dimensional depth-averaged hydrodynamic and advection\u2013dispersion model. The effect of vegetation is described as a flow resistance represented in the hydrodynamic model as a function of the stem density. Simulations are performed for a given flow discharge and for increasing values of the ratio between the vegetation density in the LVZs and in the MFC. Residence time distributions (RTDs) of a nonreactive tracer are derived from numerical simulations of the solute breakthrough curves (BTCs) resulting from a continuous concentration input. Results show that increasing vegetation densities produce an increasingly pronounced bimodality of the RTDs. At longer times, the RTDs decrease exponentially, with different timescales depending on the stem density ratio and other system parameters. The overall residence time distribution can be decomposed into a first component associated with the relatively fast transport in the MFC, and a second component associated with the slower transport in the LVZs. The weight of each temporal component is related to the exchange flux at the MFC-LVZ interface. A one-dimensional transport model is proposed that is capable to reproduce the RTDs predicted by the depth-averaged model, and the relationship between model and system parameters is investigated using a combination of direct and inverse modeling approaches

Spectral Decomposition of Regulatory Thresholds for Climate-Driven Fluctuations in Hydro- and Wind Power Availability

Abstract Climate-driven fluctuations in the runoff and potential energy of surface water are generally large in comparison to the capacity of hydropower regulation, particularly when hydropower is used to balance the electricity production from covarying renewable energy sources such as wind power. To define the bounds of reservoir storage capacity, we introduce a dedicated reservoir volume that aggregates the storage capacity of several reservoirs to handle runoff from specific watersheds. We show how the storage bounds can be related to a spectrum of the climate-driven modes of variability in water availability and to the covariation between water and wind availability. A regional case study of the entire hydropower system in Sweden indicates that the longest regulation period possible to consider spans from a few days of individual subwatersheds up to several years, with an average limit of a couple of months. Watershed damping of the runoff substantially increases the longest considered regulation period and capacity. The high covariance found between the potential energy of the surface water and wind energy significantly reduces the longest considered regulation period when hydropower is used to balance the fluctuating wind power

Diffusive regimes of the motion of bed load particles in open channel flows at low transport stages

The stochasticity of fluid and sediment parameters has been identified as a source of diffusion, particularly anomalous diffusion at different temporal and spatial scales of bed load particle trajectories. Data from two sets of flume experiments are presented, one data set has gravel particle trajectories tracked over a limited area and was used in identifying the influence of different shear stress conditions on diffusive processes. A new experiment was performed using spherical particles moving as bed load in an annular flume in order to address concerns about censorship effects caused by the size of the detection window. An annular flume allowed collection of practically uncensored particle trajectories over longer time period than has been previously possible in the laboratory. Three diffusive regimes were observed at distinct stages of particle motion: (i) ballistic regime at the local range; (ii) Fickian diffusion at the intermediate range; (iii) subdiffusion at the global range. Characteristic time scales separate the regimes and correlate with the mean traveling and resting times of particles. Fickian diffusion in the intermediate range is first recognized as a result of the balance between intermittent weak transport and near-bed turbulence, as first predicted by Nikora et al. (2002, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001WR000513). In the global range, extreme values were observed in the distribution of particle resting times, suggesting that two types of distributions (related to surface motion and vertical mixing) were responsible for the subdiffusion at longer time scales. Diffusion was found to be anisotropic at all stages of particle motion

Benthic Biofilm Controls on Fine Particle Dynamics in Streams

Este artículo contiene 15 páginas, 7 figuras, 3 tablas.Benthic (streambed) biofilms metabolize a substantial fraction of particulate organic matter and nutrient inputs to streams. These microbial communities comprise a significant proportion of overall biomass in headwater streams, and they present a primary control on the transformation and export of labile organic carbon. Biofilm growth has been linked to enhanced fine particle deposition and retention, a feedback that confers a distinct advantage for the acquisition and utilization of energy sources. We quantified the influence of biofilm structure on fine particle deposition and resuspension in experimental stream mesocosms. Biofilms were grown in identical 3 m recirculating flumes over periods of 18–47 days to obtain a range of biofilm characteristics. Fluorescent, 8 mm particles were introduced to each flume, and their concentrations in the water column were monitored over a 30 min period. We measured particle concentrations using a flow cytometer and mesoscale (10 mm to 1 cm) biofilm structure using optical coherence tomography. Particle deposition-resuspension dynamics were determined by fitting results to a stochastic mobile-immobile model, which showed that retention timescales for particles within the biofilm-covered streambeds followed a power-law residence time distribution. Particle retention times increased with biofilm areal coverage, biofilm roughness, and mean biofilm height. Our findings suggest that biofilm structural parameters are key predictors of particle retention in streams and rivers.This study was funded by a Marie Curie Intra- European Fellowship to WRH (FP7- PEOPLE-2011-IEF-302297) and an Austrian Science Fund grant to T.J.B. (START Y420-B17). K.R.R. was supported by a CUAHSI Pathfinder fellowship and U.S. NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. J.D.D. was supported by a Fulbright-Spain fellowship. The modeling effort was supported by U.S. NSF grants EAR- 1215898 and EAR-1344280 to AIP. Supporting data are provided at doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.4252193.Peer reviewe

A Parametric Study on the Effects of Green Roofs, Green Walls and Trees on Air Quality, Temperature and Velocity

The rapid increase in urbanisation and population growth living in urban areas leads to major problems including increased rates of air pollution and global warming. Assessing the impact of buildings on wind flow, air temperature and pollution dispersion on people at the pedestrian level is, therefore, of crucial importance for urban design. In this study, the effect of different forms of urban vegetation including green roofs, green walls and trees on velocity, air temperature and air quality is assessed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for a selected area of the East Village. This study indicates that adding a building increases air temperature, pollution concentration and velocity at the pedestrian level. A parametric analysis is conducted to assess the impact of various key parameters on air temperature, pollution and velocity at the pedestrian level. The variables under consideration include wind speed, ranging from 4–8 m/s at a reference height of 10 m, and vegetation cooling intensity, ranging from 250–500 W·m−3. Three scenarios are tested in which the streets have no bottom heating, 2 °C bottom heating and 10 °C bottom heating. Pollution is simulated as a form of passive scalar with an emission rate of 100 ppb s−1, considering NO2 as the pollutant. In all cases, vegetation is found to reduce air velocity, pollutant concentration and temperature. However, the presence of vegetation in various forms alters the pattern of pollution dispersion differently. More specifically, the results indicate that planting trees (e.g., birch trees) close to the edge of buildings can decrease the air temperature by up to 2–3 °C at the pedestrian level. Increasing the cooling intensity of the vegetation from 250 to 500 W·m−3 results in significantly lower air temperature, whereas lower wind speeds result in a higher concentration of pollutants at the pedestrian level. A combination of green walls and trees is found to be the most effective strategy to improve the thermal environment and air quality

Hydraulic response in flooded stream networks

Average water travel times through a stream network were determined as a function of stage (discharge) and stream network properties. Contrary to most previous studies on the topic, the present work allowed for streamflow velocities to vary spatially (for most of the analyses) as well as temporally. The results show that different stream network mechanisms and properties interact in a complex and stage-dependent manner, implying that the relative importance of the different hydraulic properties varies in space and over time. Theoretical reasoning, based on the central temporal moments derived from the kinematic-diffusive wave equation in a semi-2-D formulation including the effects of flooded cross sections, shows that the hydraulic properties in contrast to the geomorphological properties will become increasingly important as the discharge increases, stressing the importance of accurately describing the hydraulic mechanisms within stream networks. Using the physically based, stage-dependent response function as a parameterization basis for the streamflow routing routine (a linear reservoir) of a hydrological model, discharge predictions were shown to improve in two Swedish catchments, compared with a conventional, statistically based parameterization scheme. Predictions improved for a wide range of modeled scenarios, for the entire discharge series as well as for peak flow conditions. The foremost novelty of the study lies in that the physically based response function for a streamflow routing routine has successfully been determined independent of calibration, i.e., entirely through process-based hydraulic stream network modeling

Incorporating Hydrologic Routing into Reservoir Operation Models: Implications for Hydropower Production Planning

none3Increased reliance on variable and intermittent energy sources is likely to lead to a change in the production strategies of hydropower, thereby increasing the importance of accurate forecasting of production. For optimization models applied to water reservoirs, the computational cost increases with the number of reservoirs and future time-steps considered, often requiring simplification of the physical description of the flow dynamics. Here it is demonstrated that deficiency of the model of the flow dynamics on stream-reaches gives rise to errors in short-term planning, which leads to sub-optimal production. Here a simplified hydraulic model based on the kinematic-diffusion wave model was incorporated in the optimization of reservoir production planning. The time-lag distributions of the streams were evaluated for River Dalalven and implemented in a computationally efficient form of the kinematic-diffusion wave equation incorporated in a production optimization algorithm for a series of reservoirs. Compared to using a single time-lag for the water transfer on flow reaches between hydropower stations, the wave diffusion was found to affect the management as a deviation between the actual production and the planned production. The deviation was found to increase with increasing short-term regulation and decreasing Peclet number below about 10. For a sufficiently high Peclet number and long wavelength characterizing individual stream reaches, the distribution of time-lags become sufficiently narrow to motivate being replaced by a simpler description such as the constant time-lag.noneN Zmijewski; Bottacin-Busolin Andrea; A WormanZmijewski, N; Bottacin-Busolin, Andrea; Worman,