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

Ecoute microsismique appliquée aux versants instables, exemple des ruines de Séchilienne (Isère, 38)

International audienceField observations and movements measured since 1985 by the Lyon CETE (Public works regional engineering office) monitoring system at the Ruines de Séchilienne show that the slope deformation and fault mechanisms are complex. To provide a deeper understanding of these mechanisms, INERIS has been investigating the site through the instrumentation of deep drillholes since 2009. An experimental multi-parameter monitoring system was installed on the western edge of the large active zone. It uses an integrated technology platform which combines microseismic, geotechnical, hydrogeological, meteorological and 3D displacements. The article outlines the objectives and the methodology applied by INERIS to meet the requirements of early warning multi-parameter systems applied to unstable rock slopes. The studied site and the main characteristics of the system are presented. Items dealing with the system calibration and characterization data are described and preliminary data are givenLes observations et les mouvements mesurés, depuis 1985, par le système de surveillance du CETE de Lyon sur le mouvement des Ruines de Séchilienne, montrent que les mécanismes de déformation et rupture du versant sont complexes. Pour progresser dans la compréhension de ces mécanismes, l'INERIS contribue depuis 2009 aux investigations menées sur le site par forages profonds. Un système d'observation multi-paramètres a ainsi été installé en bordure Ouest de la zone active. Il fait appel à une plateforme technologique intégrée qui combine des mesures microsismiques, géotechniques, hydrologiques, météorologiques et des mesures de déplacement tridimensionnel. L'article décrit les objectifs de la démarche et la méthodologie mise en oeuvre par l'INERIS pour répondre aux exigences des systèmes d'alerte précoce multi-paramètres, appliqués aux mouvements de versants instables. Le site d'étude et les principales caractéristiques du dispositif sont présentés. Des considérations sur le calibrage du système et la qualification des données sont décrites et les premières données sont présentées

Herdbook analyses of the Asturiana beef cattle breeds

International audienc

Mirror Illumination and Spillover Measurements of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) is a 6 m telescope designed to map the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) simultaneously at 145 GHz, 220GHz and 280GHz, The receiver in ACT, the Millimeter Bolometer Array Camera, features 1000 TES bolometers in each band, The detector performance depends critically on the total optical loading, requiring the spmover contributions from the optics to be minimal. This inspired the use of a cold Lyot stop to limit the illumination of the primary and the use of guard rings surrounding the primary and secondary reflectors. Here, we present a direct measurement of the illumination aperture for both reflectors and of the attenuation level outside the main optical path. We used a 145 GHz, 1 m W source and a chopper wheel to produce a time-varying signal with a broad heam proflle, We sampled the response of the camera for different locations of the source, placed in front and beside the primary and secondary mirrors. The aperture of the primary was measured to be 5,72 plus or minus 0,17m in diameter (95 plus or minus 3% of its geometrical size), while the aperture of the secondary yielded 2 plus or minus 0.12m in diameter. Both apertures are consistent with the optical design. Comparing to previous measurements of the beam solid angle from planet observations, we estimate an optical efficiency of 72.3 plus or minus 4,8%. We found that the attenuation outside the primary aperture was -16 plus or minus 2dB, which is below the theoretical expectations, and -22 plus or minus 1 dB outside the secondary aperture, which is consistent with simulations. These results motivated the extension of the baffles surrounding the secondary mirror, with the following reduction in detector optical loading from 2,24 pW to 188pW