Calibration and validation of ET0 through an R-CRAN code in agricultural lands of south-east Spain

Currently, water demands from urban and agricultural use are increasing, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, such as the Mediterranean. This situation is expected to become worse with the climate change projections for the region, increasing the pressure, in both quantity and quality, on fresh water resources. Evapotranspiration (ET0) is a hydrologic variable with high uncertainty and considered incorrect in water balance estimations. However, its accurate assessment is essential to obtain the real value of available water to satisfy water demands, especially in extended agricultural areas such as the south-east of Spain. ET0 can be obtained using different equations with different levels of input data requirements, among them the Penman–Monteith option is the one recommended by the FAO (PMFAO), but its input data requirements are high. On the other hand, there are simpler options, such as the Hargreaves equation (ET0,HG), but there is not such a big agreement about its accuracy in the scientific literature. The main objection to the use of PMFAO is the lack of some of the required meteorological variables in most climate stations, forcing the use of simpler alternatives. This paper presents an R-CRAN code where the ET0,HG, parameterized by Samani, is calibrated and validated with the Allen model considering 18 statistical contrasts. Both ET0,HG results (pre- and post-calibrated) are compared with daily, monthly and annual results of the PMFAO. All meteorological data was provided by the CA52 Cartagena La Aljorra weather station, managed by the Agricultural Information System of the Murcia region (SE Spain). The main results show that daily, monthly and annual ET0,HG results after the Allen calibration and validation are similar to the PMFAO. However, a moderate underestimation of ET0,HG compared to PMFAO was identified. To sum up, the presented R-CRAN code provides an alternative to apply the ET0,HG method with few meteorological input requirements and, once calibrated, can be applied to extended data networks in other regions.This work was partially supported by the project GRE17-12 of the University of Alicante. Antonio Jodar-Abellan acknowledges financial support received from the Spanish FPU scholarship for the training of university teachers. In the same way, this work has been conducted within the Cátedra del Agua of the University of Alicante (https://catedradelaguaua.org/)

Identifying optimal monitoring strategies to predict soil hydraulic characteristics and water contents by inverse modeling

Aim of study: To investigate the monitoring strategies that let us to build effective models able to best estimate water contents, θ and pressure heads, h with the least amount of data. Area of study: Field data was acquired in an experimental plot at Bahía Blanca (Argentina). Material and methods: Field data of θ(t), h(t) for six soil depth were used to optimize the SHP (θr, θs, α, n and Ks) by inverse modeling with HYDRUS 1D. Several scenarios of available data from θ(t) and h(t) were considered: (1) six monitoring depths (6-MD); (2) five monitoring depths (5-MD); (3) four monitoring depths (4-MD). Model accuracy was assessed by comparing the measured and predicted θ and h for each monitoring strategy. Additionally, field measured SHP with independent methods were compared to inversely optimized SHP. Main results: The best fit between predicted and observed θ and h was achieved with the 6-MD strategy. Nevertheless, deterioration of statistics EF and rRMSE in the 5-MD or 4-MD schemes were lower than 10%, depending on the location of the missing data. The observation points that had less importance in parameter prediction corresponded to the intermediate vadose zone and to the deeper layers. The proposed strategies presented a better performance than field measured SHP to reproduce soil water retention curves for each layer of the soil profile. Research highlights: By reducing the number of vertical observations in the profile without harming the final SHP estimation, the resources needed in data monitoring strategies can be greatly enhanced.Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS) 24/H145; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)

Estimation of soil gas permeability for assessing radon risk using Rosetta pedotransfer function based on soil texture and water content

Radon is a natural source of radioactivity and it can be found in all soils and rocks in the Earth. The presence of radon gas in indoor environments implies a serious risk for human health, already listed as carcinogenic by the World Health Organization. The most relevant methods to infer the risk for radon exposure are based on soil radon concentration and gas permeability that describe the effective radon movement in the soil. However, they neglect crucial soil properties and water content in soil, which can affect greatly soil permeability to gases. Additionally, soil permeability measurement remains expensive, difficult and time-consuming. In this paper we show a new and simple methodology to infer radon risk based on Rosetta3 pedotransfer function as well as soil texture and water content. We also determine the influence of soil texture both on the gas permeability variation in dependence on water content and on the parameter n of the van Genuchten –Mualem model, which establishes the shape of the relative permeability curves. We show that radon risk exposure may change importantly for the same soil with different soil water contents. We finally apply and validate the proposed method using radon permeability data from the Canadian component of the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project (NASGLP). Results highlight that the proposed methodology provides reliable estimations of the gas permeability and reveal that the presence of water content may cross the boundary between two radon risk categories, and consequently, may change the radon risk category to safer situations.This work was supported by the Spanish Government [grant number RTI2018-099052-B-I00] and the University of Alicante [grant number GRE17-12]

Estimation of the Radon Risk Under Different European Climates and Soil Textures

Radon is a radioactive gas produced from the natural radioactive decay of uranium and is found in almost all rocks and soils. In confined places (e.g., dwellings, workplaces, caves, and underground mines), radon may accumulate and become a substantial health risk since it is considered the second most important cause of lung cancer in many developed countries. Radon risk assessment commonly considers either field or estimate values of the radon concentration and the gas permeability of soils. However, radon risk assessment from single measurement surveys to radon potential largescale mapping is strongly sensitive to the soil texture variability and climate changes, and particularly, to the soil water content dynamic and its effect on soil gas permeability. In this paper, the gas permeability of soils, and thus, the estimation of radon risk, is studied considering the effect of three different climates following the Köppen classification and four soil textures on soil water content dynamics. This investigation considers the CLIGEN weather simulator to elaborate 100-year length climatic series; Rosseta 3 pedotransfer function to calculate soil hydraulics parameters, and the HYDRUS-1D software to model the dynamics of water content in the soil. Results reveal that climate strongly affects gas permeability of soils and they must be considered as an additional factor during the evaluation of radon exposure risk. The impact of climate and texture defines the soil water content dynamic. Coarse soils show smaller gas permeability variations and then radon risk, in this case, is less affected by the climate type. However, in clay soils, the effect of climate and the differences in soil water content derive in gas permeability variations between 100 and 1,000 times through an annual cycle. As a result, it may cross the boundary between two radon risk categories. Results deeply confirm that both climate and texture should be compulsory considered when calculating the radon exposure risk and in the definition of new strategies for the elaboration of more reliable geogenic radon potential largescale maps.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities [grant number RTI2018-099052-BI00] and Regional Governments of Comunidad Valenciana (Spain) [grant number AICO/2020/175]. A pre-doctoral research fellowship (PRE2019-088294) was awarded to SG-O for the project RTI2018-099052-BI00

Pipe replacement by age only, how misleading could it be?

Traditional methods for prioritizing the renewal of water are based on heuristic models, such as the number of breaks per length, rule-of-thumb, and records held by the water utility companies. Efficient management of water distribution networks involves factoring in water and energy losses as the key criteria for planning pipe renewal. Prioritizing the replacement of a pipe according to the highest value of unit headloss due to ageing does not consider the impact on water and energy consumption for the whole network. Thus, this paper proposes a methodology to prioritize pipe replacement according to water and energy savings per monetary unit invested – economic prioritization. This renewal plan shows different results if comparing with replacing pipelines with regard to age and it requires calculating water and energy audits of the water distribution networks. Moreover, the required time to recover the investment performed needs to be calculated. The methodology proposed in this work is compared with the unit headloss criterion used in a real water-pressurized network. The results demonstrate that using the unit headloss criterion neither water, energy nor the investment is optimized. Significant water and energy savings are not fully exploited.This work was supported by the research project ‘GESAEN’ through the 2016 call of the Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación de la Universidad de Alicante GRE-16-08. The translation of this paper has been funded by the Escuela Politécnica Superior, University of Alicante

MATLAB algorithm to implement soil water data assimilation with the Ensemble Kalman Filter using HYDRUS

Data assimilation is becoming a promising technique in hydrologic modelling to update not only model states but also to infer model parameters, specifically to infer soil hydraulic properties in Richard-equation-based soil water models. The Ensemble Kalman Filter method is one of the most widely employed method among the different data assimilation alternatives. In this study the complete Matlab© code used to study soil data assimilation efficiency under different soil and climatic conditions is shown. The code shows the method how data assimilation through EnKF was implemented. Richards equation was solved by the used of Hydrus-1D software which was run from Matlab. • MATLAB routines are released to be used/modified without restrictions for other researchers • Data assimilation Ensemble Kalman Filter method code. • Soil water Richard equation flow solved by Hydrus-1D.This study forms part of the CGL2013-48802-C3-3-R project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the FPDI-2013-16742 from the Spanish Ministry of Economics, and GRE15-19 financed by the University of Alicante. A post-doctoral research fellowship (CAS 15/00244) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation was awarded to J. Valdes-Abellan for this project

Impact of marble powder amendment on hydraulic properties of a sandy soil

Marble powder is one of carbonate rock amendments that is used to improve soil reaction. We hypothesized that the powdered marble addition can cause favorable changes in hydraulic properties of sandy soils. Six levels of marble powder addition to an aridisol soil (0%; M0; 5%; M5; 10%; M10; 15%; M15; 20%; M20 and 25%, M25; by bulk volume) were analyzed in triplicate. The saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil water retention curves were obtained. Pore space properties were investigated using soil water retention curves, mercury intrusion porosimetry and scanning electron microscopy. The saturated hydraulic conductivity significantly decreased (between 83 and 97% for M5 and M25 respectively) and parameters α and n of the van Genuchten model significantly decreased in marble-amended soils. Both field capacity and permanent wilting point increased with the addition of marble powder. Plant-available water, increased significantly until 10% of marble powder application; higher percentages of application did not provide additional significant changes in the plant-available water. Pore space distributions from soil water retention curves parameters showed an increase in the pore size range and a decrease in the average pore size; pore space distribution from the scanning electron microscopy also showed the presence of a new family of dominant pore sizes which was not detected by the soil water retention curves parameters approach. It was concluded that the addition of marble powder can improve the ability of soil to store water providing an advantage for irrigation water management in water scarce environments. Further research will have to address the impact of marble powder amendment under field semi-arid conditions.This work was partially funded by the project GRE17-12 from the University of Alicante (2018-2019)

Empleabilidad en la Ingeniería Civil. Fortalezas y debilidades desde el punto de vista de alumnos y egresados

La actual situación económica de España ha reducido notablemente la empleabilidad de los estudiantes de la rama de la construcción/ingeniería. Paralelamente la matriculación en las titulaciones de Grado en Ingeniería Civil (GIC) y Master en Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos (MICCP) ha sufrido un descenso, aunque con un menor impacto del que podría esperarse de la reducción en la empleabilidad. Este trabajo recoge los resultados de un estudio de campo realizado sobre actuales estudiantes de GIC y egresados/estudiantes de MICCP. Entre las principales conclusiones obtenidas en este estudio cabe destacar que los alumnos consideran el estado económico del país la principal causa de la falta de empleo en el sector. Consideran necesaria la mejora en la formación en herramientas informáticas, ven su gran capacidad de trabajo como la mejor de sus fortalezas y consideran que el nivel del profesorado debería mejorar en términos generales. Existe asimismo un pesimismo más o menos extendido en cuanto a sus requerimientos salariales que se agrava en la población de alumnos egresados, y estiman de manera mayoritaria que encontrarán trabajo entre los 6 meses y 1 año posteriores a obtener el título universitario

Implementación de materias del ciclo integral del agua en los estudios de GIC y MICCP

En este documento se plantea una estrategia para coordinar las asignaturas del área de ingeniería hidráulica concernientes al ciclo integral del agua y una metodología para su implementación en los estudios de Grado en Ingeniería Civil y de Máster en Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos. Los objetivos son: corregir redundancias temáticas, completar vacíos en los contenidos y establecer una secuencia lógica de enseñanza-aprendizaje, con la finalidad de que el alumno adquiera una base de conocimiento integrada e integral del ciclo hídrico urbano. El estudio implica tres puntos estratégicos: la descripción de los elementos constituyentes del ciclo integral del agua, la caracterización de los conocimientos a adquirir y la adecuación del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. La metodología adoptada ha consistido en definir los conocimientos que deben adquirir los alumnos sobre el ciclo integral del agua, acotar la extensión de los mismos y secuenciar el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. El contraste de estos aspectos con las guías docentes de las asignaturas implicadas permite detectar posibles carencias o redundancias y, en su caso, proponer las modificaciones oportunas. De los resultados obtenidos se extraen conclusiones prácticas sobre la adquisición de competencias y el desarrollo de habilidades en las materias del ciclo hídrico urbano

Land-use changes and precipitation cycles to understand hydrodynamic responses in semiarid Mediterranean karstic watersheds

This research was funded partially by the Central University of Ecuador and by the projects RESERVOIR (PRIMA programme supported by the European Union under grant agreement no. 1924) and BBVA2021-Leonardo2 along with local companies (projects Comunidad Regantes 220-I and Comunidad Regantes 1-20T). Antonio Jodar-Abellan acknowledges financial support received from the project BBVA2021-Leonardo2. In the same way, this work has been conducted within the Catedra del Agua of the University of Alicante (catedradelaguaua.org). Moreover, authors acknowledge the reviewers of the manuscript whose comments contributed greatly to improve this paper.Non-planned agricultural land abandonment is affecting natural hydrological processes. This is especially relevant in vulnerable arid karstic watersheds, where water resources are scarce but vital for sustaining natural ecosystems and human settlements.However, studies assessing the spatiotemporal evolution of the hydrological responses considering land-use changes and precipitation cycles for long periods are rare in karstic environments. In this research, we selected a representative karstic watershed in a Mediterranean semiarid domain, since in this belt, karst environments are prone to land degradation processes due to human impacts. Geographic Information Systems-based tools and hydrological modeling considering daily time steps were combined with temporal analysis of climate variables (wavelet analysis) to demonstrate possible interactions and vulnerable responses. Observed daily flow data were used to calibrate/ validate these hydrological models by applying statistic indicators such as the NSE efficiency and a selfdeveloped index (the ANSE index). This new index could enhance goodness-of-fit measurements obtained with traditional statistics during the model optimization. We hypothesize that this is key to adding new inputs to this research line. Our results revealed that: i) changes in the type of sclerophyllous vegetation (Quercus calliprinos, ilex, rotundifolia, suber, etc.) from 81.5% during the initial stage (1990) to natural grasslands by 81.6% (2018); and, ii) decreases in agricultural areas (crops) by approximately 60% and their transformation into coniferous forests, rock outcrops, sparsely natural grasslands, etc. in the same period. Consequently, increases in the curve number (CN) rateswere identified as a result of land abandonment. As a result, an increase in peak flow events jointlywith a relevant decrease of the average flow rates (water scarcity) in the watershed was predicted by the HEC-HMS model and verified through the observed data. This research provides useful information about the effects of anthropogenic changes in the hydrodynamic behaviour of karstic watersheds andwater resource impacts, especially key in water-scarce areas that depict important hazards for the water supply of related populations and natural ecosystems.Central University of EcuadorEuropean Commission 1924Comunidad de Madrid 220-ICatedra del Agua of the University of Alicant