Flow,Organic, and Inorganic Sediment Yields from a Channelized Watershed in the South Carolina Lower Coastal Plain

Many small streams in coastal watersheds in the southeastern United States are modified for agricultural, residential, and commercial development. In the South Carolina Lower Coastal Plain, low‐relief topography and a shallow water table make stream channelization ubiquitous. To quantify the impacts of urbanization and stream channelization, we measured flow and sediment from an urbanizing watershed and a small forested watershed. Flow and sediment export rates were used to infer specific yields from forested and nonforested regions of the urbanizing watershed. Study objectives were to: (1) quantify the range of runoff‐to‐rainfall ratios; (2) quantify the range of specific sediment yields; (3) characterize the quantity and quality of particulate matter exported; and (4) estimate sediment yield attributable to agriculture, development, and channelization activities in the urbanizing watershed. Our results showed that the urban watershed exported over five times more sediment per unit area compared with the forested watershed. Sediment concentration was related to flow flashiness in the urban watershed and to flow magnitude in the forested watershed. Sediments from the forested watershed were dominated by organic matter, whereas mineral matter dominated sediment from the urban stream. Our results indicated that a significant shift in sediment quality and quantity are likely to occur as forested watersheds are transformed by urbanization in coastal South Carolina.     

Five Hundred Years of Hydrological Drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin1

Abstract: This article evaluates drought scenarios of the Upper Colorado River basin (UCRB) considering multiple drought variables for the past 500 years and positions the current drought in terms of the magnitude and frequency. Drought characteristics were developed considering water‐year data of UCRB’s streamflow, and basin‐wide averages of the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI) and the Palmer Z Index. Streamflow and drought indices were reconstructed for the last 500 years using a principal component regression model based on tree‐ring data. The reconstructed streamflow showed higher variability as compared with reconstructed PHDI and reconstructed Palmer Z Index. The magnitude and severity of all droughts were obtained for the last 500 years for historical and reconstructed drought variables and ranked accordingly. The frequency of the current drought was obtained by considering two different drought frequency statistical approaches and three different methods of determining the beginning and end of the drought period (annual, 5‐year moving, and ten year moving average). It was concluded that the current drought is the worst in the observed record period (1923‐2004), but 6th to 14th largest in terms of magnitude and 1st to 12th considering severity in the past 500 years. Similarly, the current drought has a return period ranging from 37 to 103 years based on how the drought period was determined. It was concluded that if the 10‐year moving average is used for defining the drought period, the current drought appears less severe in terms of magnitude and severity in the last 500 years compared with the results using 1‐ and 5‐year averages.     

基于资源价值折耗的石油资源账户建立与分析——以黄河三角洲石油开发为例

在国际上通行的环境经济综合核算体系(SEEA)的基础上,以黄河三角洲石油资源开发为研究案例,根据黄河三角洲2003-2008年石油开发利用等数据,经过计算和统计依次建立了石油资源的实物型账户、价值型账户和综合账户。计算和统计结果表明:2003-2008年,黄河三角洲石油资源因开采而造成的价值折耗分别为154.0×10⁸、111.3×10⁸、121.6×10⁸、104.9×10⁸、106.0×10⁸、83.0×10⁸元,考虑了资源价值折耗的石油行业增加值占工业增加值和地区GDP的比例,以及因价值折耗造成的工业经济和地区GDP损失比例都有减小的趋势,平均分别为59.1%和42.0%,以及14.3%和9.8%。巨大的价值折耗带来了石油资源利用的可持续性下降,但是在当地的整体经济中,黄河三角洲石油开发带来的经济增长的可持续性在一定程度上增强。最后对结果进行了分析和讨论。     

Effects of Urbanization on Flow Duration and Stream Flashiness: A Case Study of Puget Sound Streams,Western Washington,USA

The overall influence of urbanization on how flows of different frequency might change over time, while important in hydrologic design, remains imprecisely known. In this study, we investigate the effects of urbanization on flow duration curves (FDCs) and flow variability through a case study of eight watersheds that underwent different amounts of growth, in the Puget Sound region in Western Washington State, United States. We computed annual FDCs from flow records spanning 1960‐2010 and, after accounting for the effects of precipitation, we conducted statistical trend analyses on flow metrics to quantify how key FDC percentiles changed with time in response to urbanization. In the urban watersheds, the entire FDC tended to increase in magnitude of flow, especially the 95th‐99th percentile of the daily mean flow series, which increased by an average of 43%. Stream flashiness in urban watersheds was found to increase by an average of 70%. The increases in FDC magnitude and flashiness in urbanizing watersheds are most likely a result of increasing watershed imperviousness and altered hydrologic routing. Rural watersheds were found to have decreasing FDC magnitude over the same time period, which is possibly due to anthropogenic extractions of groundwater, and increasing stream flashiness, which is likely a result of reductions in base flow and increasing precipitation intensity and variability.     

Modeling Summer Month Hydrological Drought Probabilities in the United States Using Antecedent Flow Conditions

Climate change raises concern that risks of hydrological drought may be increasing. We estimate hydrological drought probabilities for rivers and streams in the United States (U.S.) using maximum likelihood logistic regression (MLLR). Streamflow data from winter months are used to estimate the chance of hydrological drought during summer months. Daily streamflow data collected from 9,144 stream gages from January 1, 1884 through January 9, 2014 provide hydrological drought streamflow probabilities for July, August, and September as functions of streamflows during October, November, December, January, and February, estimating outcomes 5‐11 months ahead of their occurrence. Few drought prediction methods exploit temporal links among streamflows. We find MLLR modeling of drought streamflow probabilities exploits the explanatory power of temporally linked water flows. MLLR models with strong correct classification rates were produced for streams throughout the U.S. One ad hoc test of correct prediction rates of September 2013 hydrological droughts exceeded 90% correct classification. Some of the best‐performing models coincide with areas of high concern including the West, the Midwest, Texas, the Southeast, and the Mid‐Atlantic. Using hydrological drought MLLR probability estimates in a water management context can inform understanding of drought streamflow conditions, provide warning of future drought conditions, and aid water management decision making.     

Estimation of Catchment Nutrient Loads in New Zealand Using Monthly Water Quality Monitoring Data

Causes of variation between loads estimated using alternative calculation methods and their repeatability were investigated using 20 years of daily flow and monthly concentration samples for 77 rivers in New Zealand. Loads of dissolved and total nitrogen and phosphorus were calculated using the Ratio, L5, and L7 methods. Estimates of loads and their precision associated with short‐term records of 5, 10, and 15 years were simulated by subsampling. The representativeness of the short‐term loads was quantified as the standard deviation of the 20 realizations. The L7 method generally produced more realistic loads with the highest precision and representativeness. Differences between load estimates were shown to be associated with poor agreement between the data and the underlying model. The best method was shown to depend on the match between the model and functional and distributional characteristics of the data, rather than on the contaminant. Short‐term load estimates poorly represented the long‐term load estimate, and deviations frequently exceeded estimated imprecision. The results highlight there is no single preferred load calculation method, the inadvisability of “unsupervised” load estimation and the importance of inspecting concentration‐flow, unit load‐flow plots and regression residuals. Regulatory authorities should be aware that the precision of loads estimated from monthly data are likely to be “optimistic” with respect to the actual repeatability of load estimates.     

PRISM vs. CFSR Precipitation Data Effects on Calibration and Validation of SWAT Models

Precipitation is one of the most important drivers in watershed models. Our objective was to compare two sources of interpolated precipitation data in terms of their effect on calibration and validation of two Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models. One model was a suburban watershed in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. The precipitation sources were Parameter‐elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) data on a 4‐km grid and climate forecast system reanalysis (CFSR) data on a 38‐km grid. The PRISM data resulted in a better fit to the calibration data (Nash Sutcliffe efficiency [NSE] = 0.64, Kling‐Gupta efficiency [KGE] = 0.74, p‐factor = 0.84, and r‐factor = 0.43) than the CFSR data (NSE = 0.47, KGE = 0.53, p‐factor = 0.67, and r‐factor = 0.39). Validation results were similar. Sensitive parameters were similar in both the PRISM and CFSR models, but fitted values indicated more rapid groundwater flow to the streams with the PRISM data. The same comparison was made in the Big Creek watershed located approximately 1,000 km away, in central Louisiana. Results were similar with a more responsive groundwater system indicating PRISM data may produce better predictions of streamflow because of a more accurate estimate of rainfall within a watershed or because of a denser grid. Our study implies PRISM is providing a better estimate than CFSR of precipitation within a watershed when rain gauge data are not available, resulting in more accurate simulations of streamflows at the watershed outlet. Editor's note: This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

Sustainability and environmental enhancement in changing cirumstances

Natural environment has endured fast economic growth and population explosion sine the 20th century,which has soil erosion,land desertification,ozone layer depletion,bio-diversity reduction and persistent toxic and harmful pollutants are among the major environmental challenges.     

臭氧层耗损对对流层大气质量的影响和在中国的响应

平流层臭氧损耗导致透射到近地面的UV-B辐射的增加,加强了低对流层的能量来源,增强了大气氧化性和化学反应性,特别是加快O₃、颗粒物、酸性物质等二次污染物的生成和一些有机污染物的光解,加剧如光化学烟雾、酸沉降等城市和区域性的大气污染,从而改变对流层的大气组成和空气质量.在中国,UV-B的增加会对城市和区域的空气质量、酸雨污染以及青藏高原地区的环境产生重要的影响.      

4种水生植物根际磷素耗竭效应的比较

利用短期盆栽试验和抖根法研究了喜旱莲子草(Alternanthera philoxeroides)、香蒲(Typha latifolia)、慈姑(Sagittaria sagittifolia)和芦苇(Phragmites communis)4种水牛植物的根际磷素耗竭效应,分析了植物根冠比、根系形态、磷素吸收有效性和磷素利用有妓性等差异,探讨了植物根际磷素耗竭效应的吸收利用调控机制.结果表明,与非根际土壤(有效磷含量为167.53ìg穏-1)相比,喜旱莲子草、香蒲、慈姑和芦苇根际土壤的有效磷含量分别减少至80.17、124.37、155.38和161.75ìg穏-1,水溶性磷含量分别减少了81%、42%、18%和16%.喜旱莲子草根系较小,但磷素吸收有效性高(1.32 mg·m-1),其磷素利用有效件不高(0.34 g·mg-1);香蒲的磷素吸收有效性虽然比喜旱莲子草低许多(0.52 mg·m-1),但其有强大的根系,且磷素利用有效性高(0.64 g·mg-1)、根冠比大(0.35).喜旱莲子草和香蒲耗竭根际磷素的能力高于慈姑和芦苇.