432 research outputs found
Precipitation parameters of stochastic climate models for a changing climate
Changing climate can impact erosion directly by increasing or decreasing the rainfall depth and
intensity and indirectly by influencing the vegetative cover on landscapes. Stochastic climate models
are increasingly being used to allow the assessment of erosion to be done using ensemble statistics.
Precipitation is mostly widely represented by first determining the state of the day is wet or dry using
discrete transitional probabilities and then, for a wet day, determining the precipitation depth. The
parameters for stochastic models are based on the statistical analysis of observed data for the current
conditions. Simple methods to modify these stochastic parameters under different climate scenarios
are desired to easily simulate their impact on erosion. Modifying parameters for precipitation depth
needs to be considered carefully because changes in depth can be achieved by varying the statistics of
daily precipitation, by changing the number of wet days, or by a combination of these statistics. A
framework for modifying the precipitation depth for new climate conditions is developed in the study.
In addition to the stochastic climate parameters related to the moments of probability density functions
and transitional probabilities under the current conditions, the proposed framework requires the user to
specify the fractional changes in the total precipitation depth and the mean daily precipitation depth.
Relationships are developed to determine indirectly the proper number of wet days from transitional
probabilities for a first-order Markov chain. These relationships are dependent on a user-specified
parameter of the ratio of the mean number of wet-wet day sequences of the current and new climate
conditions. The sequence of wet-wet days is important in modeling soil erosion. The framework is
applied to 80 years of precipitation data for Stillwater, OK. The implications of assuming no change in
the wet-wet-day ratio with new climate conditions is compared to the results obtained assuming a ratio
equal to the fractional change in the mean number of wet days. If the new climate condition
corresponds to an increase in the number of wet days, the assumption of an unchanged ration
corresponds to new storm patterns that develop more often on dry days and dissipate more rapidly on
wet days. The opposite trend occurs if the new climate condition corresponds to a decrease in the
number of dry day. Under this scenario, storm patterns tend to dissipate more slowly resulting, on
average, in more frequent consecutive days with precipitation. A wet-wet day ratio equal to the
fractional change in the mean number of wet days corresponds to no change between the current and
new climate conditions of the transitional probability of wet-given- wet-day. This result suggests that
the persistence of storm systems do not change under the new climate conditions. The proposed
framework is useful and easy to implement in stochastic climate models
Effects of Intra-Storm Soil Moisture and Runoff Characteristics on Ephemeral Gully Development: Evidence from a No-Till Field Study
Citation: Karimov, V.R.; Sheshukov, A.Y. Effects of Intra-Storm Soil Moisture and Runoff Characteristics on Ephemeral Gully Development: Evidence from a No-Till Field Study. Water 2017, 9, 742.Ephemeral gully erosion, prevalent on agricultural landscapes of the Great Plains, is recognized as a large source of soil loss and a substantial contributor to the sedimentation of small ponds and large reservoirs. Multi-seasonal field studies can provide needed information on ephemeral gully development and its relationship to physical factors associated with field characteristics, rainfall patterns, runoff hydrograph, and management practices. In this study, an ephemeral gully on a no-till cultivated crop field in central Kansas, U.S., was monitored in 2013 and 2014. Data collection included continuous sub-hourly precipitation, soil moisture, soil temperature, and 15 field surveys of cross-sectional profiles in the headcut and channelized parts of the gully. Rainfall excess from a contributing catchment was calculated with the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model for all storm events and validated on channel flow measurements. Twelve significant runoff events with hydraulic shear stresses higher than the critical value were identified to potentially cause soil erosion in three out of fourteen survey periods. Analysis of shear stress imposed by peak channel flow on soil surface, antecedent soil moisture condition, and channel shape at individual events provided the basis on which to extend the definition of the critical shear stress function by incorporating the intra-storm changes in soil moisture content. One potential form of this function was suggested and tested with collected data. Similar field studies in other agriculturally-dominated areas and laboratory experiments can develop datasets for a better understanding of the physical mechanisms associated with ephemeral gully progression.
Hydrologic Alterations Predicted by Seasonally-Consistent Subset Ensembles of General Circulation Models
Citation: Sheshukov, A.Y.; Douglas-Mankin, K.R. Hydrologic Alterations Predicted by Seasonally-Consistent Subset Ensembles of General Circulation Models. Climate 2017, 5, 44.The Missouri River system has a large water storage capacity, where baseflow plays an important role. Understanding historical baseflow characteristics with respect to climate and land use impacts is essential for effective planning and management of water resources in the Missouri River Basin (MORB). This study evaluated statistical trends in baseflow and precipitation for 99 MORB minimally disturbed watersheds during 1950–2014. Elasticity of baseflow to climate variability and agricultural land use change were quantified for the 99 studied watersheds. Baseflow was derived from daily streamflow records with a recursive digital filter method. The results showed that baseflow varied between 38 and 80% (0 and 331 mm/year) of total streamflow with an average of 60%, indicating that more than half of streamflow in the MORB is derived from baseflow. The trend analysis revealed that precipitation increased during the study period in 78 out of 99 watersheds, leading to 1–3.9% noticeable increase in baseflow for 68 of 99 watersheds. Although the changes in baseflow obtained in this study were a result of the combined effects of climate and land use change across the basin, upward trends in baseflow generally coincide with increased precipitation and agricultural land use trends in the basin. Agricultural land use increase mostly led to a 0–5.7% decrease in annual baseflow in the basin, except toward east of the basin where baseflow mostly increased with agricultural land use increase (0.1–2.0%). In general, a 1% increase in precipitation and a 1% increase in agricultural land use resulted in 1.5% increase and 0.2% decrease in baseflow, respectively, during the study period. These results are entirely dependent on the quality of data used; however, they provide useful insight into the relative influence of climate and land use change on baseflow conditions in the Great Plains region of the USA
Evaluating ephemeral gullies with a process-based topographic index model
Soil conservation practices have been implemented to control soil degradation from sheet and rill erosion, but excessive sediment runoff remains among the most prevalent water quality problems in the world. Ephemeral gully (EG) erosion has been recognized as a major source of sediment in agricultural watersheds; thus, predicting location and length of EGs is important to assess sediment contribution from EG erosion. Geomorphological models are based on topographic information and ignore other important factors such as precipitation, soil, topography, and land use/land management practices, whereas physically based models are complex, require detailed input information, and are difficult to apply to larger areas. In this study, an approach was developed to incorporate a process-based Overland Flow-Turbulent (OFT) EG model that contained factors accounting for drainage area, surface roughness, slope, soil critical shear stress, and surface runoff in the ArcGIS environment. Two hydrologic models, Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and ArcCN-Runoff (ACR), were adopted to simulate precipitation excess in Goose Creek watershed in central Kansas, USA. These two realizations of the OFT model were compared with the Slope-Area (SA) topographic index model for accuracy of EG location identification and length calculation. The critical threshold index in the SA model was calibrated in a single field in the watershed prior to EG identification whereas the OFT models were uncalibrated. Results demonstrated overall similar performance between calibrated SA model and uncalibrated OFT-SWAT model, and both outperformed the uncalibrated OFT-ACR model. In simulation of EG location, the OFT-SWAT model resulted in 12% fewer false negatives but 8% more false positives than the SA model, compared with 19% fewer false positive and 6% more false negatives than the OFT-ACR model. Greater errors in runoff estimation by ACR translated directly into errors in EG simulation. All models over-predicted EG lengths compared with observed data, though OFT-SWAT and SA models did so with better fit exceedance probability curves, about zero Nash-Sutcliff model efficiency and ≤40% bias compared to -3 model efficiency and >100% bias for OFT-ACR. Success of the uncalibrated OFT-SWAT model in producing satisfactory predictions of EG location and EG length shows promise for process-based EG simulation. The OFT-SWAT model used data and parameters also commonly used for SWAT model development, which should simplify its adoption to other watersheds and regions. Further testing is needed to determine the robustness of the OFT-SWAT model to dissimilar field and hydrologic conditions. It is expected that inclusion of more site-specific physical properties in OFT-SWAT would improve model performance in predicting location and length of EGs, which is essential for accurate estimation of EG sediment erosion rates
Simulation of rock infiltration systems
Rain gardens, infiltration trenches, and dry detention ponds are widely used to treat runoff from construction site and urban watersheds. These infiltration systems have the potential to remove contaminants by filtration, but they also may become clogged with deposited sediment and other debris. An overview of studies done at the University of Minnesota over the past 10 years to investigate the trapping of sediment and the corresponding changes in permeabilities is presented. They include experimental data collected from the laboratory cores, a prototype dry detention basin, and field studies as well as the development of algorithms used in the WATER (Watershed Assessment Tool for Environmental Risk) model
Integrating Watershed Management Across the Urban–Rural Interface: Opportunities for Extension Watershed Programs
Urban–rural partnerships are increasingly viewed as a critical component of efforts to improve water quality at the watershed scale. We present an opportunity for such partnerships, using an off-site best management practice (BMP) program developed between the City of Wichita and agricultural producers in the Little Arkansas River Watershed of south-central Kansas as an example. We highlight the critical role of Extension specialists in developing this and similar programs, the success of which hinges on targeted BMP implementation and relationships with agricultural producers
The Possibility Assessment of Complex Processing of Technogenic Formations Containing Zinc Sulfide
The comprehensive methodology for the zinc extraction from sulfide compounds into the oxide form with possible further reduction to metal is presented in this study. It was demonstrated in laboratory conditions during sludge treatment with Zn and ZnO obtaining. The remaining silicate products. It is proposed to recycle this material into Portland cement clinker to ensure a waste-free process.
Keywords: zinc sulfide, zinc oxide, sludge recycling, Portland cement clinker, waste-free recyclin
Annual baseflow variations as influenced by climate variability and agricultural land use change in the Missouri River Basin
The Missouri River system has a large water storage capacity, where baseflow plays an important role. Understanding historical baseflow characteristics with respect to climate and land use impacts is essential for effective planning and management of water resources in the Missouri River Basin (MORB). This study evaluated statistical trends in baseflow and precipitation for 99 MORB minimally disturbed watersheds during 1950–2014. Elasticity of baseflow to climate variability and agricultural land use change were quantified for the 99 studied watersheds. Baseflow was derived from daily streamflow records with a recursive digital filter method. The results showed that baseflow varied between 38 and 80% (0 and 331 mm/year) of total streamflow with an average of 60%, indicating that more than half of streamflow in the MORB is derived from baseflow. The trend analysis revealed that precipitation increased during the study period in 78 out of 99 watersheds, leading to 1–3.9% noticeable increase in baseflow for 68 of 99 watersheds. Although the changes in baseflow obtained in this study were a result of the combined effects of climate and land use change across the basin, upward trends in baseflow generally coincide with increased precipitation and agricultural land use trends in the basin. Agricultural land use increase mostly led to a 0–5.7% decrease in annual baseflow in the basin, except toward east of the basin where baseflow mostly increased with agricultural land use increase (0.1–2.0%). In general, a 1% increase in precipitation and a 1% increase in agricultural land use resulted in 1.5% increase and 0.2% decrease in baseflow, respectively, during the study period. These results are entirely dependent on the quality of data used; however, they provide useful insight into the relative influence of climate and land use change on baseflow conditions in the Great Plains region of the USA
Metal Oxidation Control at the Stage of Refining Steel Smelting in Electric Arc Furnaces
The mathematical processing results of a number of EAF-135 melts electrical parameters are presented. The influence of the foamy slag formation, molten metal carburization and the harmful impurities oxidation on the change in electrical parameters is analyzed. The methodology for determining the metal oxidation from the electrical melt parameters is characterized. In the presented form, the technique is cumbersome for the rapid assessment of the oxidation process intensity and requires refinement.
Keywords: Metal oxidation, electric parameters, electric arc furnac
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