DISCHARGE CHARACTERISTICS OF PERFORATED PIPE FOR USE IN INFILTRATION TRENCHES1

ABSTRACT: Infiltration trenches are an effective stormwater management alternative for the control of urban runoff from small areas. Perforated pipes buried within the gravel of an infiltration trench are used to distribute the inflowing runoff along the length of the trench. Laboratory tests are described that characterize the hydraulics of the orifices in perforated pipes. The results show that the steady-state exfiltration of water from the pipe into a surrounding gravel trench can be described by the orifice equation.     

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF POINT SOIL MOISTURE ESTIMATES USING LANDSAT TM DATA AND FUZZY-C CLASSIFICATION1

ABSTRACT: Many hydrologic models have input data requirements that are difficult to satisfy for all but a few well-instrumented, experimental watersheds. In this study, point soil moisture in a mountain watershed with various types of vegetative cover was modeled using a generalized regression model. Information on sur-ficial characteristics of the watershed was obtained by applying fuzzy set theory to a database consisting of only satellite and a digital elevation model (DEM). The fuzzy-c algorithm separated the watershed into distinguishable classes and provided regression coefficients for each ground pixel. The regression model used the coefficients to estimate distributed soil moisture over the entire watershed. A soil moisture accounting model was used to resolve temporal differences between measurements at prototypical measurement sites and validation sites. The results were reasonably accurate for all classes in the watershed. The spatial distribution of soil moisture estimates corresponded accurately with soil moisture measurements at validation sites on the watershed. It was concluded that use of the regression model to distribute soil moisture from a specified number of points can be combined with satellite and DEM information to provide a reasonable estimation of the spatial distribution of soil moisture for a watershed.     

GROUND-WATER RECHARGE THROUGH ACTWE SAND DUNES IN NORTHWESTERN NEVADA1

ABSTRACT: Most water-resouree investigations in semiarid basins of the Great Basin in western North America conclude that ground-water recharge from direct precipitation on the valley floor is negligible. However, many of these basins contain large areas covered by unvegetated, active sand dunes that may act as conduits for ground-water recharge. The potential for this previously undocumented recharge was investigated in an area covered by sand dunes in Desert Valley, northwestern Nevada, using a deep percolation model. The model uses daily measurements of precipitation and temperature th determine energy and moisture balances, from which estimates of long-term mean annual recharge are made. For the study area, the model calculated a mean annual recharge rate of as much as 1.3 inches per year, or 17 percent of the long-term mean precipitation. Model simulations also indicate that recharge would be virtually zero if the study area were covered by vegetation rather than dunes.     

COUPLING OF NONPARAMETRIC FREQUENCY AND L-MOMENT ANALYSES FOR MIXED DISTRIBUTION IDENTIFICATION 1

ABSTRACT: Both L-moment and nonparametric frequency analyses were performed on a series of annual maximum floods from New Brunswick, Canada. The L-moment analysis concluded that the data were generated from a unimodal Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution. However, the nonparametric frequency analysis indicated that a majority of stations followed nonunimodal mixed distributions since peak flows occur during different seasons and are the result of different generating mechanisms. The coupling of L-moment and nonparametric analyses facilitates mixed distribution identification. Thus, the nonparametric method helps in identifying underlying probability distribution, especially when samples arise from mixed distributions.     

CENTRAL NEBRASKA RIVER BASINS,NEBRASKA1

ABSTRACT: The Central Nebraska Basins (NAWQA) study unit includes the Platte River and two major tributaries, the Loup and Elkhorn Rivers. Platte River flows are variable in the western part of the study unit because of diversions, but the Loup and Elkhorn Rivers originate in an area of dune sand covered by grassland that generates consistent base flows. More frequent runoff in the eastern part of the study unit also sustains stream flow. Ground water in the study unit has no regional confining units and the system is a water table aquifer throughout. Macroinvertebrate and fish taxa at biological sampling sites in the state were related to stream flow. One of the four wetland complexes identified in the study unit includes habitat for threatened and endangered bird species. The study unit is an agricultural area that includes row crops, both irrigated and nonirrigated in the eastern and southern parts, and rangeland in the Sand Hills of the western part. A water quality assessment will be based on the differences in environmental setting in each of four subunits within the study unit.]     

PROBABILISTIC GREAT LAKES HYDROLOGY OUTLOOKS1

ABSTRACT: The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory developed a semiautomatic software package for making hydrological outlooks for the Great Lakes. These include basin moisture storages, basin runoff, lake heat storage, lake evaporation, heat fluxes, and net lake supplies, one or more full months into the future. The package combines GLERL's rainfall-runoff and lake evaporation models with near real-time data reduction techniques to represent current system states. Users select historical meteorologic record segments as candidate future scenarios to generate deterministic near real-time hydrological outlooks. GLERL has extended the package to make probabilistic outlooks for a decision-maker who must estimate the risk associated with his decisions. GLERL matches National Weather Service meteorologic outlook probabilities by selecting groups of historical meteorologic sequences, and constructs embedded outlook intervals for each hydrologic variable of interest. Interval probabilities are assigned from comparisons over a recent evaluation period. This physically-based approach for generating outlooks offers the ability, as compared to other statistically-based approaches, to incorporate improvements in the understanding, of process dynamics as they occur in the future and to respond reasonably to conditions initial to a forecast (such as heat and moisture storages), not observed in the past.     

DETERMINING SIGNIFICANCE AND PRECISION OF ESTIMATED PARAMETERS FOR RUNOFF FROM SEMIARID WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT Significant parameters for predicting thunderstorm runoff from small semiarid watersheds are determined using data from the Walnut Gulch watershed in southern Arizona. Based on these data, thunderstorm rainfall is dominant over watershed parameters for predicting runoff from multiple linear regression equations. In some cases antecedent moisture added significantly to the models. A technique is developed for estimating precision of predicted values from multiple linear regression equations. The technique involves matrix methods in estimating the variance of mean predicted values from a regression equation. The estimated variance of the mean predicted value is then used to estimate the variance of an individual predicted value. A computer program is developed to implement these matrix methods and to form confidence limits on predicted values based on both a normality assumption and the Chebyshev inequality.     

SOME PROBLEMS IN STOCHASTIC HYDROLOGY1

In order to decrease the uncertainty that results in water resource planning and management studies due to the assumed recurrence of historical hydrological sequences, considerable study of stochastic processes in hydrology has taken place during the past 10 or 15 years. The general objective has been to develop a capability for generating a number of valid sequences, each of which could as resonably occur as could a recurrence of past events. A number of serious problems have been encountered, the consequence of which has been a serious lag in the application of stochastic processes to real planning and management problems. These problems include: a. an inability to generate droughts in some cases that are as extreme as have occurred historically, b. the generation of inconsistent values of stream flow at 2 locations on the same stream, c. the lack of mathematical techniques for the management of incomplete data sets, d. a great increase in the required computation for planning and management studies, and e. theoretical and computational difficulties in expanding the scope of stochastic hydrology from monthly quantities to short-period quantities. This paper discusses these problems and various approaches used in attempting their solution.     

Island-based catchment—The Taiwan example

Rapid economic and industrial development in Taiwan over the past five decades has elevated the islands standing and earned it a place in the group known as the Four Small Dragons of Asia. Such growth, however, has been at the expense of the environment. There are currently nearly 23 million people juggling for space on the small island of 35,873 km². Aggravating the matter further, the central mountain ranges and hills take up 73.6% of the land area with some 156 peaks surpassing 3,000 m. As a result, most people live in coastal plains which amount to only 9,490 km². Pressure to move people inland has led to road construction and deforestation, both of which have contributed to an already high denudation rate of topsoil. As a consequence of this, thirteen rivers in Taiwan are now ranked among the top 20 worldwide in terms of sediment yield. Aside from this, the frequency of both floods and droughts increased prior to 1990, perhaps because of deforestation and global warming. Fortunately, the new conservation-orientated forest management policy of 1991 has alleviated the problem, somewhat, and the occurrence of floods and droughts has since decreased. The problem of water shortage, however, has worsened because of the warming trend in atmospheric temperature. Damming may ameliorate the water shortage problem but may affect the shoreline stability, as well as the ecology and water quality in the estuaries. Furthermore, these detrimental effects may go far beyond the estuaries, and even fisheries on the continental shelves may be affected.     

A GIS Model of Subsurface Water Potential for Aquatic Resource Inventory,Assessment, and Environmental Management

Biological, chemical, and physical attributes of aquatic ecosystems are often strongly influenced by groundwater sources. Nonetheless, widespread access to predictions of subsurface contributions to rivers, lakes, and wetlands at a scale useful to environmental managers is generally lacking. In this paper, we describe a neighborhood analysis approach for estimating topographic constraints on spatial patterns of recharge and discharge and discuss how this index has proven useful in research, management, and conservation contexts. The Michigan Rivers Inventory subsurface flux model (MRI-DARCY) used digital elevation and hydraulic conductivity inferred from mapped surficial geology to estimate spatial patterns of hydraulic potential. Model predictions were calculated in units of specific discharge (meters per day) for a 30-m²-cell raster map and interpreted as an index of potential subsurface water flux (shallow groundwater and event through-flow). The model was evaluated by comparison with measurements of groundwater-related attributes at watershed, stream segment, and local spatial scales throughout Lower Michigan (USA). Map-based predictions using MRI-DARCY accounted for 85% of the observed variation in base flow from 128 USGS gauges, 69% of the observed variation in discharge accrual from 48 river segments, and 29% of the residual variation in local groundwater flux from 33 locations as measured by hyporheic temperature profiles after factoring out the effects of climate. Although it does not incorporate any information about the actual water table surface, by quantifying spatial variation of key constraints on groundwater-related attributes, the model provides strata for more intensive study, as well as a useful spatial tool for regional and local conservation planning, fisheries management, wetland characterization, and stream assessment.