Storm Water Management for Society and Nature Via Service Learning, Ecological Engineering and Ecohydrology

A framework for urban storm-water management that moves beyond flood control to improve societal and ecological services will maximize the functions and benefits of water resources management. Theoretical constructs for such work originate from the integration of ecological engineering, ecohydrology and service learning paradigms. Implementation consists of simulating, monitoring and reporting how storm-water design decisions to infiltrate or directly discharge runoff result in a complex set of linked adjustments to the dynamics of the water table, soil chemistry concentrations, plant stress/viability, terrestrial habitat, river loads/flows, and aquatic habitat patterns. Coordination of a socio-ecological-based urban storm-water management programme is discussed using a case study in the Onondaga Creek watershed that drains through the City of Syracuse, NY, USA. In Onondaga Creek, service learning-directed research gathered findings on the geomorphological characterization of a healthy stream, flood impacts of storm sewer separation, and channel stability with concrete removal. Unfortunately, li11kages between systems will remain unexplored until the development of more tightly coupled channel-watershed simulation models

Communications Guidelines for Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE) Students

As an engineering professional, you need to communicate your ideas effectively to a wide variety of audiences. We have prepared these guidelines to provide you with our ideas and expectations on this important subject. We will expect you to refer to these guidelines as you practice your communications skills while a student in our program. This guide is intended to help you practice and perfect your communication. We are told by the employers of our graduates that our program generates great engineers because they have the right balance of effective communication and core engineering and critical thinking skills. To master effective communication you must practice. We expect you to practice effective communication skills throughout your four year program and beyond

CORRELAZIONI TRA VALORI IMMOBILIARI E SERVIZI ECOSISTEMICI

The market value of urban property depends not only on its specific characteristics, but also on macro-economic variables such as socio-demographic, productive, infrastructural, and environmental quality and associated ecosystem services. The links between urban property real estate values and ecosystem services, particularly those generated by urban forests, are not yet sufficiently investigated and hence are the focus of this research. The study site is the City of Syracuse, New York, USA, with well characterized urban forest ecosystem services and property values. The paper correlates real estate values and parameters of economic condition (per-capita income), ecosystem services (carbon sequestration), and urban forestry system (tree canopy area). The median home value correlation with both per capita income has an R2= 0.8748 and with carbon sequestration it has an R2 = 0.7757. The data are obtained in the online i-Tree Landscape tool. Geographic information systems analysis is used to create maps that support analysis of the correlation levels between the involved variables

Integrating Copernicus land cover data into the i-Tree Cool Air model to evaluate and map urban heat mitigation by tree cover

Cities host more than half of the world’s population and due to global warming and land use change their vulnerability to deadly heat waves has increased. A healthy vegetated landscape can abate heat wave severity and diminish the related urban heat island through the process of evapotranspiration. This research aimed to develop a methodology for cities to use publicly available Copernicus land cover maps within the i-Tree Cool Air water and energy balance model to map air temperature and humidity. The manuscript presents proof of concept using Naples, Italy with its Mediterranean climate characterized by limited soil water for cooling via evapotranspiration. The approach achieved strong correlations between predicted and observed air temperatures across the city (r ≥ 0.89). During the warm season of 2020, forested land cover was 5°C cooler than land cover dominated by impervious cover. Simulated land cover change, limited to a 10% increase or decrease in tree cover, generated an inverse change of 0.2°C in maximum hourly air temperature, with more trees obtaining cooler air. Soil water limited the cooling, with the generally wetter spring season enabling greater cooling of air temperatures, and summer droughts without irrigation had constrained cooling. Sustainable urban design will likely require an increase in plant cover along with a reduction of impervious surfaces that absorb and reradiate heat in order to improve community resilience to heat waves

Streambed and Water Profile Response to In-Channel Restoration Structures in a Laboratory Meandering Stream

In-channel structures are often installed in alluvial rivers during restoration to steer currents, but they also modify the streambed morphology and water surface profile, and alter hydraulic gradients driving ecologically important hyporheic exchange. Although river features before and after restoration need to be compared, few studies have collected detailed observations to facilitate this comparison. We created a laboratory mobile-bed alluvial meandering river and collected detailed measurements in the highly sinuous meander before and after installation of in-channel structures, which included one cross vane and six J-hooks situated along 1 bar unit. Measurements of streambed and water surface elevation with sub-millimeter vertical accuracy and horizontal resolution were obtained using close-range photogrammetry. Compared to the smooth gradually varied water surface profile for control runs without structures, the structures created rapidly varied flow with subcritical to supercritical flow transitions, as well as backwater and forced-morphology pools, which increased volumetric storage by 74% in the entire stream reach. The J-hooks, located along the outer bank of the meander bend and downstream of the cross vane, created stepwise patterns in the streambed and water surface longitudinal profiles. The pooling of water behind the cross vane increased the hydraulic gradient across the meander neck by 1% and increased local groundwater gradients by 4%, with smaller increases across other transects through the intrameander zone. Scour pools developed downstream of the cross vane and around the J-hooks situated near the meander apex. In-channel structures significantly changed meander bend hydraulic gradients, and the detailed streambed and water surface 3-D maps provide valuable data for computational modeling of changes to hyporheic exchange

Leverage Points Used in a Systems Approach of River and River Basin Restoration

River basins are complex spatiotemporal systems, and too often, restoration efforts are ineffective due to a lack of understanding of the purpose of the system, defined by the system structure and function. The river basin system structure includes stocks (e.g., water volume or quality), inflows (e.g., precipitation or fertilization), outflows (e.g., evaporation or runoff), and positive and negative feedback loops with delays in responsiveness, that all function to change or stabilize the state of the system (e.g., the stock of interest, such as water level or quality). External drivers on this structure, together with goals and rules, contribute to how a river basin functions. This article reviews several new research projects to identify and rank the twelve most effective leverage points to address discrepancies between the desired and actual state of the river basin system. This article demonstrates river basin restoration is most likely to succeed when we change paradigms rather than trying to change the system elements, as the paradigm will establish the system goals, structure, rules, delays, and parameters

A River Temperature Model to Assist Managers in Identifying Thermal Pollution Causes and Solutions

Thermal pollution of rivers degrades water quality and ecosystem health, and cities can protect rivers by decreasing warmer impervious surface stormwater inflows and increasing cooler subsurface inflows and shading from riparian vegetation. This study develops the mechanistic i-Tree Cool River Model and tests if it can be used to identify likely causes and mitigation of thermal pollution. The model represents the impacts of external loads including solar radiation in the absence of riparian shade, multiple lateral storm sewer inflows, tributaries draining reservoirs, groundwater flow, and hyporheic exchange flow in dry weather steady flows and wet weather unsteady flows. The i-Tree Cool River Model estimates the shading effects of the riparian vegetation and other features as a function of heights and distances as well as solar geometry. The model was tested along 1500 m of a New York mountain river with a riparian forest and urban areas during 30 h with two summer storm events in 2007. The simulations were sensitive to the inflows of storm sewers, subsurface inflows, as well as riparian shading, and upstream boundary temperature inflows for steady and unsteady conditions. The model simulated hourly river temperature with an R2 of 0.98; when shading was removed from the simulation the R2 decreased 0.88, indicating the importance of riparian shading in river thermal modeling. When stormwater inflows were removed from the simulation, the R2 decreased from 0.98 to 0.92, and when subsurface inflows were removed, the R2 decreased to 0.94. The simulation of thermal loading is important to manage against pollution of rivers

Characterization of Hyporheic Exchange Drivers and Patterns within a Low-Gradient, First-Order, River Confluence during Low and High Flow

Confluences are nodes in riverine networks characterized by complex three-dimensional changes in flow hydrodynamics and riverbed morphology, and are valued for important ecological functions. This physical complexity is often investigated within the water column or riverbed, while few studies have focused on hyporheic fluxes, which is the mixing of surface water and groundwater across the riverbed. This study aims to understand how hyporheic flux across the riverbed is organized by confluence physical drivers. Field investigations were carried out at a low gradient, headwater confluence between Baltimore Brook and Cold Brook in Marcellus, New York, USA. The study measured channel bathymetry, hydraulic permeability, and vertical temperature profiles, as indicators of the hyporheic exchange due to temperature gradients. Confluence geometry, hydrodynamics, and morphodynamics were found to significantly affect hyporheic exchange rate and patterns. Local scale bed morphology, such as the confluence scour hole and minor topographic irregularities, influenced the distribution of bed pressure head and the related patterns of downwelling/upwelling. Furthermore, classical back-to-back bend planform and the related secondary circulation probably affected hyporheic exchange patterns around the confluence shear layer. Finally, even variations in the hydrological conditions played a role on hyporheic fluxes modifying confluence planform, and, in turn, flow circulation patterns

Tree Cover Is Unevenly Distributed Across Cities Globally, With Lowest Levels Near Highway Pollution Sources

Obtaining accurate tree cover maps within cities is a first step toward managing for equitable access to their ecosystem services. For example, by removing air pollutants trees contribute to fewer health impacts, and tree cover expansion could extend these benefits by targeting the most polluted areas and vulnerable populations. To support strategic tree expansion, this research created urban tree cover maps using the 2017 NASA MOD44B satellite 250 m pixel product for 35 megacities, areas with large levels of pollution and vulnerable populations. Estimates of tree cover from photo-interpretation (PI) were used to characterize map error, city-wide, and from low to high tree cover, using 21 bins from 0 to 100% tree cover. Map accuracy was highest when MOD44B percent tree cover was combined with its tree cover standard deviation product, with average difference of 1.8% compared with PI estimates of 19.9% city-wide tree cover. MOD44B estimates of tree cover spatial patterns had strong explanatory value. The maps explained the PI estimates of low to high tree cover at 5% tree cover intervals with an R2 = 0.97. The Getis Ord Gi* statistic determined a non-random spatial distribution of tree cover within the megacities, with significant clustering into hot spots of relatively high tree cover and cold spots of relatively low tree cover. Tree cover hot spots were most often furthest from downtown, at the rural-urban interface or within higher elevation terrain. Tree cover cold spots were most often in areas of concentrated development and along traffic corridors known for high levels of particulate matter and other air pollutants that could be reduced by trees. Given small increases in exposure to particulate matter are associated with significant increases in death rates from viruses, and that climate change and associated heat waves are forecast to exacerbate health risks to air pollution, we need to improve global urban tree cover. These map products can be used to expand tree cover that strategically contributes to pollutant abatement, human well-being, and sustainable cities