Modeling the Processes of Fluvial Scouring and Sediment Transport of Dajia River, Taiwan

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Modeling the Combined Effects of River Stage and Groundwater Flow on Riverbank Stability Before and After Dam Removal

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Adaptation of Southwest Coast of Taiwan Due to Climate Change

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Assessment of Dam Removal in Dajia River Basin with Numerical Modeling

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

The Establishment of Rapid Evaluating System for Surficial Inundations

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Assessing water resources vulnerability and resilience of southern Taiwan to climate change

Water resources management has become more challenging in Taiwan due to rapid socio-economic development and the complications of climate change. This study developed a systematic procedure for assessing water resources vulnerability and resilience with an integrated tool, TaiWAP, including climate change scenarios, a weather generator, a hydrological model, and system dynamic models. Five assessment indicators, including two for vulnerability, two for resilience, and one for availability were used to quantify changes in water resources and improvements after implementing adaption measures. Each indicator was presented with 3 grades, namely low, medium, and high. Water resources vulnerability and resilience for Tainan City in southern Taiwan were evaluated. Insufficient water supply facilities capacity is the major weakness causing low resilience. Water resources allocation flexibility is limited by substantial agricultural water demands. A total of 9 adaption measures and combinations of measures were assessed. Desalination plant implementation can steadily supply public water to lessen system failure duration. Although agricultural water conservation and fallow land can greatly reduce water demand, fallow compensation is a potential cost. When food security is considered, reducing irrigation leakage will be a better adaption measure to both water and agriculture stakeholders. Both agriculture water conservation and cropping systems adjustment have cross-spatial flexibilities. The combination of desalination, reservoirs and public water conservation provide the most beneficial effects in reducing climate change impact

Implementing Coastal Inundation Data with an Integrated Wind Wave Model and Hydrological Watershed Simulations

Coastal inundation due to wave overtopping coastal structures and storm surges often causes serious damage and danger to the population of Taiwan. Ascertaining the areas that are prone to coastal inundation is essential to provide countermeasures for mitigating the problem. Simulations without precipitation are examined in this study since overtopping has been determined to be a controlling factor in coastal flooding. We present scenarios for the simulation of coastal flooding with a unified wind wave and hydrological watershed model. The eastern coastal areas in Taiwan are selected as the study area. Simulations show that the resulting waves and tidal levels, generated by the Rankin-Vortex model and wind wave calculations, can be successfully obtained from the input data during wave overtopping simulations. A watershed model, WASH123D, was then employed for surface routing. The simulations indicate that the low-lying Yilan River and Dezikou Stream drainage systems were among the primary areas subject to inundation. Extensive inundation along both sides of the river banks was obtained in the case of extreme overtopping events. Coastal inundation could occur between the estuary of the Meilun Stream and most of the Nan-Bai-Bin areas in Hualien City. Calculations showed that more croplands flooded than did residential regions. No further damage to the upland of Hualien City was identified. The remaining study sites, Sinchen Township, Taitung City and Taimali Township, would only be slightly affected by seawater run-ups. Inundations caused by overtopping under extreme circumstances only affected the coast with almost trifling influence inland

Texture-Etched SnO 2

Transparent electrodes of tin dioxide (SnO2) on glasses were further wet-etched in the diluted HCl:Cr solution to obtain larger surface roughness and better light-scattering characteristic for thin-film solar cell applications. The process parameters in terms of HCl/Cr mixture ratio, etching temperature, and etching time have been investigated. After etching process, the surface roughness, transmission haze, and sheet resistance of SnO2 glasses were measured. It was found that the etching rate was increased with the additions in etchant concentration of Cr and etching temperature. The optimum texture-etching parameters were 0.15 wt.% Cr in 49% HCl, temperature of 90°C, and time of 30 sec. Moreover, silicon thin-film solar cells with the p-i-n structure were fabricated on the textured SnO2 glasses using hot-wire chemical vapor deposition. By optimizing the texture-etching process, the cell efficiency was increased from 4.04% to 4.39%, resulting from the increment of short-circuit current density from 14.14 to 15.58 mA/cm2. This improvement in cell performances can be ascribed to the light-scattering effect induced by surface texturization of SnO2

Proteomics of Buccal Cavity Mucus in Female Tilapia Fish (Oreochromis spp.): A Comparison between Parental and Non-Parental Fish

Mouthbrooding is an elaborate form of parental care displayed by many teleost species. While the direct benefits of mouthbrooding such as protection and transportation of offsprings are known, it is unclear if mouthbrooding offers additional benefits to embryos during incubation. In addition, mouthbrooding could incur negative costs on parental fish, due to limited feeding opportunities. Parental tilapia fish (Oreochromis spp.) display an elaborated form of parental care by incubating newly hatched embryos in oral buccal cavity until the complete adsorption of yolk sac. In order to understand the functional aspects of mouthbrooding, we undertake a proteomics approach to compare oral mucus sampled from mouthbrooders and non-mouthbrooders, respectively. Majority of the identified proteins have also been previously identified in other biological fluids or mucus-rich organs in different organisms. We also showed the upregulation of 22 proteins and down regulation of 3 proteins in mucus collected from mouthbrooders. Anterior gradient protein, hemoglobin beta-A chain and alpha-2 globin levels were lower in mouthbrooder samples. Mouthbrooder oral mucus collectively showed increase levels of proteins related to cytoskeletal properties, glycolytic pathway and mediation of oxidative stress. Overall the findings suggest cellular stress response, probably to support production of mucus during mouthbrooding phase

Applying Biomineralization Technology to Study the Effects of Rainfall Induced Soil Erosion

The rainless days and drought seasons reveal a tendency to lengthen the wet and dry period in recent years in Taiwan. In the bare riverbeds in central Taiwan, such as the Dajia and Zhuoshui rivers, fugitive dust is the common problem during the winter’s dry period with northeast monsoon. The study aims to use the biological method, Microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), to solidify the soil and implement a series of rainfall simulator experiments to reduce the Aeolian dust emission problems. Accordingly, the relationship between rainfall-induced soil erosion and its soil specimens are also discussed. The soil conducted the MICP for seven days as the curing age, and then be analyzed the degree of soil solidification under different conditions, rainfall intensity of 41 mm/h and 61 mm/h by the soil erosion experiment. The effect of soil solidification with various relative density of soils of 60%, 70%, and 80%, and hillside slopes of 5°, 10°, 20° were tested. The result indicated that, the higher the relative density of soils, the better the effect of soil solidification would be. The relative density of soils from 60% to 80% all kept the effect of soil solidification as applying to MICP. Therefore, it was important to select the curing age with the matching relative density of soils. Moreover, the most appropriate condition for the effects of soil solidification by MICP was the slopes below 10° and the curing age for seven days. The effect of soil solidification was still preserved in that with the high intensity rainfall (66 mm/h) due to the Aeolian dust emission commonly happening in the bare riverbeds with mild slopes