NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE EFFECTS OF LAND USE CHANGE AND IRRIGATION ON STREAMFLOW DEPLETION OF FRENCHMAN CREEK, NEBRASKA

A three-dimensional Control Volume Finite Difference-based numerical groundwater flow model was constructed to assess the effects of agricultural irrigation and land use change on streamflow depletion. The study area is Frenchman Creek basin located in southwestern corner of the State of Nebraska, USA. This area was subject to an increased proliferation of groundwater abstraction for agricultural purposes since industrial revolution. It has also been subject to land use change from native rangeland to dry and irrigated cropland. The groundwater flow model was spatially discretized using Voronoi cells in unstructured grid built with the USGS MODFLOW-6. Temporal discretization defined 151 time steps with varying lengths and organized in 76 non-growing season time steps alternating with 75 growing season time steps and covering a period of 75 years. Results show that the combined application of irrigation and land use change over the study area consumed up to 98% of a portion of groundwater that would overwise discharge under the influence of ambient groundwater flow as baseflow to Frenchman Creek. A run of the model in base conditions, which consists of maintaining land use and irrigation constant from early stage, shows that anthropogenic activities curtailed the amount of groundwater discharge to evapotranspiration. The study also shows the advantage of using un-structurally discretized numerical model over previously developed analytical model by Traylor and Zlotnik in accounting for aquifer heterogeneity as well as spatial and temporal changes in transmissivity. Advisor: Vitaly A Zlotni

Agro morphological characterization of cashew trees (Anacardium occidental L.), in improvement for the high yield and high quality of raw nuts in Burkina Faso

The cashew sector has taken a great economic interest, due to the strong global demand for raw nuts. However, in Burkina Faso, the productivity of orchards still remains low, a consequence of a lack of breeding program on the species. In order to increase yields and improve the quality of the raw nut, efficient clones must be developed. Surveys were carried out and a primary in situ collection was made from which a core collection of 15 trees was extracted. An agro-morphological description of the selected trees and an analysis of the structuration of the variability within them were carried out. The study revealed appreciable agro-morphological diversity through shape, size and color of apple, type of inflorescence, fruiting period and the health of trees. A structure of diversity based on agronomic criteria led to identify 5 groups of trees, characterized by an average weight of the nut between 6.64 and 8.32 g, a kernel rate between 28.10 and 31.26% and a yield per tree between 34.27 and 104.42 kg. Performing trees will be erected as heads of clones for the production of grafted plants. La filière anacarde a pris un grand intérêt économique, suite à la forte demande mondiale en noix brutes. Cependant, au Burkina Faso, la productivité des vergers demeure encore faible, conséquence d’une absence de sélection variétale du matériel végétal. En vue d’accroître les rendements et d’améliorer la qualité de la noix brute, une recherche de clones performants était indispensable. Des prospections ont été conduites et une collection primaire in situ a été constituée dont une core collection de 15 arbres a été extraite. Une description agro-morphologique des arbres sélectionnés et une analyse de la structuration de la variabilité en son sein ont été conduites. L’étude a révélé une diversité agro morphologique appréciable à travers la forme, le calibre et la couleur de la pomme, le type d’inflorescence, la période de fructification et l’état sanitaire des arbres. Une structuration de la diversité basée sur les critères agronomiques a permis d’identifier 5 groupes d’arbres, caractérisés par un poids moyen de la noix compris entre 6,64 et 8,32 g, un taux d’amande compris entre 28,10 et 31,26% et un rendement par arbre compris entre 34,27 et 104,42 kg. Les arbres les plus performants constitueront des têtes de clones pour la production de plants par greffage

Groundwater Availability of the Northern High Plains Aquifer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming

The Northern High Plains aquifer underlies about 93,000 square miles of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming and is the largest subregion of the nationally important High Plains aquifer. Irrigation, primarily using groundwater, has supported agricultural production since before 1940, resulting in nearly $50 billion in sales in 2012. In 2010, the High Plains aquifer had the largest groundwater withdrawals of any major aquifer system in the United States.Nearly one-half of those withdrawals were from the Northern High Plains aquifer, which has little hydrologic interaction with parts of the aquifer farther south. Land-surface elevation ranges from more than 7,400 feet (ft) near the western edge to less than 1,100 ft near the eastern edge. Major streams primarily flow west to east and include the Big Blue River, Elkhorn River, Loup River, Niobrara River, Republican Riverand Platte River with its two forks—the North Platte River and South Platte River. Population in the Northern High Plains aquifer area is sparse with only 2 cities having a population greater than 30,000.Droughts across much of the area from 2001 to 2007, combined with recent (2004–18) legislation, have heightened concerns regarding future groundwater availability and highlighted the need for science-based water-resource management. Groundwater models with the capability to provide forecasts of groundwater availability and related stream base flows from the Northern High Plains aquifer were published recently (2016) and were used to analyze groundwater avail-ability. Stream base flows are generally the dominant component of total streamflow in the Northern High Plains aquifer, and total streamflows or shortages thereof define conjunctive management triggers, at least in Nebraska. Groundwater availability was evaluated through comparison of aquifer-scale water budgets compared for periods before and after major groundwater development and across selected future fore-casts. Groundwater-level declines and the forecast amount of groundwater in storage in the aquifer also were examined

NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE EFFECTS OF LAND USE CHANGE AND IRRIGATION ON STREAMFLOW DEPLETION OF FRENCHMAN CREEK, NEBRASKA

A three-dimensional Control Volume Finite Difference-based numerical groundwater flow model was constructed to assess the effects of agricultural irrigation and land use change on streamflow depletion. The study area is Frenchman Creek basin located in southwestern corner of the State of Nebraska, USA. This area was subject to an increased proliferation of groundwater abstraction for agricultural purposes since industrial revolution. It has also been subject to land use change from native rangeland to dry and irrigated cropland. The groundwater flow model was spatially discretized using Voronoi cells in unstructured grid built with the USGS MODFLOW-6. Temporal discretization defined 151 time steps with varying lengths and organized in 76 non-growing season time steps alternating with 75 growing season time steps and covering a period of 75 years. Results show that the combined application of irrigation and land use change over the study area consumed up to 98% of a portion of groundwater that would overwise discharge under the influence of ambient groundwater flow as baseflow to Frenchman Creek. A run of the model in base conditions, which consists of maintaining land use and irrigation constant from early stage, shows that anthropogenic activities curtailed the amount of groundwater discharge to evapotranspiration. The study also shows the advantage of using un-structurally discretized numerical model over previously developed analytical model by Traylor and Zlotnik in accounting for aquifer heterogeneity as well as spatial and temporal changes in transmissivity. Advisor: Vitaly A Zlotni

Fracture Evolution in the Niobrara Chalks of the Castle Rock Area, west-central Kansas

Castle Rock is a predominantly north-south exposure of the Cretaceous age of Niobrara Chalks. At this location, multiple structural features are visible for analysis and interpretation, including normal faults, veins (opening fracture with mineralization), and joints (unmineralized opening fracture), from which a history of deformation can be constructed. In the middle of the continent, such deformations are uncommon and faults can suggest a potential seismic risk. The faults cut through both the lower and upper chalk units, are filled with calcite slickensides, and are oriented mostly east-west, but with significant variability. All faults were normal faults, which are associated with local extension. Vertical fault offsets varied from centimeters to meters. Two joint sets were mapped in the study area: longitudinal joints striking SE-NW, and cross joints striking SW-NE. A cross cutting relationship suggests that joints are more recent than faults. The veins are predominantly found in the lower part of the exposed stratigraphy, are typically dish/bowl shaped in cross section with sub-horizontal bases, and have a preferred orientation. We conclude that there were at least three distinct periods of deformation each forming the different types of fractures. The different episodes of deformations and orientations may be due to changes in the stress field associated with North American plate tectonics. There is also a possibility that fracturing occurred during sediment burial and due to compaction, de-watering and mineralogical changes. The veins may be due to modern weathering and topography

Groundwater Availability of the Northern High Plains Aquifer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming

The Northern High Plains aquifer underlies about 93,000 square miles of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming and is the largest subregion of the nationally important High Plains aquifer. Irrigation, primarily using groundwater, has supported agricultural production since before 1940, resulting in nearly $50 billion in sales in 2012. In 2010, the High Plains aquifer had the largest groundwater withdrawals of any major aquifer system in the United States.Nearly one-half of those withdrawals were from the Northern High Plains aquifer, which has little hydrologic interaction with parts of the aquifer farther south. Land-surface elevation ranges from more than 7,400 feet (ft) near the western edge to less than 1,100 ft near the eastern edge. Major streams primarily flow west to east and include the Big Blue River, Elkhorn River, Loup River, Niobrara River, Republican Riverand Platte River with its two forks—the North Platte River and South Platte River. Population in the Northern High Plains aquifer area is sparse with only 2 cities having a population greater than 30,000.Droughts across much of the area from 2001 to 2007, combined with recent (2004–18) legislation, have heightened concerns regarding future groundwater availability and highlighted the need for science-based water-resource management. Groundwater models with the capability to provide forecasts of groundwater availability and related stream base flows from the Northern High Plains aquifer were published recently (2016) and were used to analyze groundwater avail-ability. Stream base flows are generally the dominant component of total streamflow in the Northern High Plains aquifer, and total streamflows or shortages thereof define conjunctive management triggers, at least in Nebraska. Groundwater availability was evaluated through comparison of aquifer-scale water budgets compared for periods before and after major groundwater development and across selected future fore-casts. Groundwater-level declines and the forecast amount of groundwater in storage in the aquifer also were examined

An Integrated Hydrologic Model to Support the Central Platte Natural Resources District Groundwater Management Plan, Central Nebraska

The groundwater and surface-water supply of the Central Platte Natural Resources District supports a large agricultural economy from the High Plains aquifer and Platte River, respectively. This study provided the Central Platte Natural Resources District with an advanced numerical modeling tool to assist with the update of their Groundwater Management Plan. An integrated hydrologic model, called the Central Platte Integrated Hydrologic Model, was constructed using the MODFLOW-One-Water Hydrologic Model code with the Newton solver. This code integrates climate, landscape, surface water, and groundwater-flow processes in a fully coupled approach. Model framework included 163 rows; 327 columns; 2,640 feet cell sides; and 3 vertical layers. A predevelopment model simulated steady-state hydrologic conditions prior to April 30, 1895, and a development period model discretized into 610 stress periods simulated transient hydrologic conditions from May 1, 1895, to December 31, 2016, using 170 biannual stress periods from 1895 to 1980, and monthly stress periods from May 1, 1980, to December 31, 2016. Calibration of the Central Platte Integrated Hydrologic Model involved two phases: a manual adjustment of parameters, followed by the automated calibration completed using BeoPEST that was facilitated by the employment of the singular value decomposition-assist features of PEST that specified 50 super parameters assembled from the 435 adjustable parameters and Tikhonov regularization. The average absolute groundwater-level residuals for model layers one, two, and three were 6.1, 12.4, and 7.4 feet, respectively. Calibrated horizontal hydraulic conductivity was about 70, 32, and 35 feet per day for layers 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The largest development period inflow to groundwater was recharge from deep percolation past the root zone, averaging 1,122,257 acre-feet per year (2.7 inches per year), and the largest outflow was to irrigation wells, averaging 693,171 acre-feet per year (10.2 inches per year for the Central Platte Natural Resources District). Other substantial groundwater outflows included evapotranspiration and base flow. For the total development period, there was a net change in storage of −122,393 acre-feet per year (−0.3 inch per year). The calibrated Central Platte Integrated Hydrologic Model was used to simulate eight different potential future climate and irrigation pumping conditions from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2049. Simulated future groundwater levels within the Central Platte Natural Resources District varied significantly between scenarios and locally, from 13.8 feet below to 7.6 feet above baseline 1982 groundwater levels. Most areas exhibited groundwater-level declines for the drought scenarios and rises for the alternate irrigation scenarios. Changes in scenario groundwater levels correlated with the relations between farm net recharge and irrigation pumping. Linear “first order second moment” techniques indicated that the uncertainty in projected groundwater altitudes was reduced by 15.33 feet through model calibration

Patterns of Meteorological Drought Using Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index for Massili Basin, Burkina Faso

As a Semi-arid country, Burkina Faso is highly vulnerable to climate-related disasters such as drought and flood. Analyzing drought signature is therefore a key factor in advocating climate change adaptation at the local scale. In this study, Spatiotemporal trends of drought were conducted for the period 1960–2021 within Massili Basin using the standardized precipitation and evapotranspiration index (SPEI) package in R. The non-parametric method (Mann–Kendall) was then used to test for a monotonic trend, whereas the magnitude was estimated using Sen's method. Accordingly, the result revealed that during the period 1960-1979, the mean value of SPEI varies from 0.06 to 0.71; over 1980 to 2009, the mean value of the SPEI varies from -0.08 to -0.88 and for the last decades (2010 to 2021), the mean value of the SPEI ranges from 0.05 to 0.75. Normal to middle wet conditions is thus observed over the periods 1960-1979 and 2010-2021 while the period (1980-2009) depicts a middle drought condition. The Mann-Kendall test results show a decreasing trend of SPEI-3 and SPEI-24 with a Z value of - 0.784 and -0.530 respectively. A slightly increasing trend is observed for SPEI-6 and SPEI-12 with Z ranging from 0.598 to 1.917 respectively. The magnitude of the decrease is indicated by the sens’ slope value, which is -0.0014 for SPEI-3 and -0.00010 for SPEI-24 while the magnitude of the increase ranges from 0.00011 for SPEI-6 to 0.00037 for SPEI-12. This study highlights the importance of examining past drought features to obtain essential information to assist in designing and implementing efficient water resources management strategies over the Massili Basin