Ecohydrology and fisheries of the upper Brahmaputra basin

The Brahmaputra changes its course and pattern along with its current flow very frequently especially in its upper stretches and this has a strong bearing on its hydrobiology. The hydro-geological pattern of the Brahmaputra has resulted in a possible zonation of the river into five major types of fish habitat. Altogether 167 fish species have been recorded from the upper Brahmaputra of which about 30 percent may be considered as ornamental varieties. Again, according to their seasonal availability, the fish fauna has been grouped into four principal categories. Among all the hydrological factors, flood impulse is probably the strongest factor that regulates other limnological conditions and faunal distribution. Usually, there are three or four high floods between May and October and fish migration is intimately related to this flood regime. During the dry season fishing is mostly restricted to near the confluents of tributaries or channels and also at river meanders. However, large-scale felling of trees in the catchment areas and construction of embankments along the river banks have altered the riverine ecosystem drastically, as a result of which, the river has become heavily silted and the connecting channels of the floodplain lakes are also dammed. Consequently, fishes and other megafauna are deprived of adequate water cover, food supply and breeding grounds. An ecohydrological approach has been advocated for habitat restoration.     

BRINGING DOWN OUR DAMS: TRENDS IN AMERICAN DAM REMOVAL RATIONALES1

ABSTRACT: Over 76,000 dams have been constructed on American rivers to provide services such as flood protection, water storage, hydroelectric power, and navigation. Although most dams continue to provide sufficient benefits to retain the structure, dam removal is becoming increasingly common. This study involved the construction of a dam removal database to analyze spatial and temporal trends in dam removal. The data included information on 417 cases of dismantled American dams, 153 with known rationales for removal. Database analysis indicated that the leading purposes for dismantling structures are safety concerns and interest in environmental restoration. There is substantial geographic variability in dam removal rationales, with California leading in razing dams for environmental purposes, and Wisconsin leading in economic and safety rationales. States with substantial removals tend to have programs that support and fund dam razing. Although removals for safety reasons have been increasing steadily in the past three decades, environmental removals made a rather dramatic and sudden entry into the dam removal arena in the 1990s. Analysis of spatial and temporal trends in dam razing are of particular significance given the likely increase in dam removals in the 21st Century.     

DUAL URBAN AND RURAL HYDROGRAPH SIGNALS IN THREE SMALL WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT: Many studies can be found in the literature pertaining to the effects of urbanization on surface runoff in small watersheds and the hydrologic response of undeveloped watersheds. However, an extensive literature review yielded few published studies that illustrate differing hydrologic responses from multiple source areas within a watershed. The concepts discussed here are not new, but the methods used provide a unique, basic procedure for investigating stormwater hydrology in topographically diverse basins. Six storm hydrographs from three small central Pennsylvania watersheds were analyzed for this paper; five are presented. Two important conclusions are deduced from this investigation. First, in all cases we found two distinct peaks in stream discharge, each representing different contributing areas to direct discharge with greatly differing curve numbers and lags representative of urban and rural source regions. Second, the direct discharge represents only a small fraction of the total drainage area with the urban peak becoming increasingly important with respect to the rural peak with the amount of urbanization and as the magnitude of the rain event decreases.     

洪水多站峰量同时模拟的随机模型

洪水过程是一复杂的随机动力系统，随机模拟技术至今仍是研究洪水过程时空统计特性的有力工具。该文以同时模拟上游站、下游站及其区间的最大洪峰流量、最大五日洪量和最大十二日洪量为例，建立了一种简便而适用的随机模型。实例结果表明，该随机模型是可行而有效的，在水资源系统工程的理论与实践中具有重要价值。     

关中盆地地-气系统灾变的节律性及耦合关系

依据丰富而系统的历史资料，建立了关中盆地历史地震与旱涝灾害两个数据库，分析了近2000a来地-气系统环境灾变的节律性及耦合关系。结果发现：(1)地震活动具有一定的节律性，并先后经历了3个平静期和3个活跃期，平静期与活跃期呈交替出现，具有3～4个世纪的周期；(2)较为严重的干旱、洪涝灾害亦具有一定的周期性，先后经历了2个洪涝期和3个干旱期，其较长尺度的转换周期亦为3～4个世纪；(3)在世纪尺度上，地震活动与旱涝灾害具有某种耦合关系，表现为在地震活动的活跃期，旱涝灾害呈多发性，而在地震活动的平静期，旱涝灾害较为稀少；(4)以较大级别的地震群发为节点，地气系统环境灾变的耦合关系具有先旱→后震→再涝的演替特征。基于上述事实，提出了一个地-气系统环境灾变的概念模型，对地震与旱涝灾害的耦合关系给出了确定性解释。为关中盆地世纪尺度的环境灾变群发性预测提供了新的依据。     

基于GIS技术的县市级防汛信息系统

防汛减灾是县市水利部门的重点工作。以临海市防汛决策指挥系统为实例，探讨了基于GIS技术，采用Client／Server模式的防汛信息系统的解决方案。根据防汛业务管理工作的实际要求，分析了系统的属性和空间数据库的存储结构和建库方法，实现了防汛信息系统的各主要模块及其功能。     

Securing water for people, crops, and ecosystems: New mindset and new priorities

A fundamentally new approach to water and human development will be needed during this new century if we are to secure sufficient freshwater to meet the needs of some 9 billion people while at the same time protecting the critical ecosystem services upon which the human economy depends. Signs of unsustainable water use — including falling water tables, shrinking lakes, and the drying up of rivers and streams — are widespread and spreading. In many regions, greater modification and appropriation of freshwater systems for human purposes will yield greater costs than benefits and create the risk of irreversible losses of species and ecosystem services. A new mindset is needed to guide water use and management in this new century, one that views the human water economy as a subset of nature's water economy. Living within nature's limits will require that societies satisfy the basic needs of people and ecosystems before non-essential water demands are met. It will require on the order of a doubling of water productivity. And it will require stronger institutions to encourage equitable sharing of water to alleviate tensions within and between countries.     

新疆河流水质调查及评价

采用2001年水质监测结果，用单项指标法对新疆河流水质进行评价，对新疆河流水质污染状况依据污染物标准做出分析判断。探讨污染途径及污染原因，寻找地下水水质恶化的根源，加强河流点源与非点源污染治理，为改善新疆河流水质提供依据。     

EVALUATION OF HYDROLOGIC BENEFITS OF INFILTRATION BASED URBAN STORM WATER MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACT: As watersheds are urbanized, their surfaces are made less pervious and more channelized, which reduces infiltration and speeds up the removal of excess runoff. Traditional storm water management seeks to remove runoff as quickly as possible, gathering excess runoff in detention basins for peak reduction where necessary. In contrast, more recently developed “low impact” alternatives manage rainfall where it falls, through a combination of enhancing infiltration properties of pervious areas and rerouting impervious runoff across pervious areas to allow an opportunity for infiltration. In this paper, we investigate the potential for reducing the hydrologic impacts of urbanization by using infiltration based, low impact storm water management. We describe a group of preliminary experiments using relatively simple engineering tools to compare three basic scenarios of development: an undeveloped landscape; a fully developed landscape using traditional, high impact storm water management; and a fully developed landscape using infiltration based, low impact design. Based on these experiments, it appears that by manipulating the layout of urbanized landscapes, it is possible to reduce impacts on hydrology relative to traditional, fully connected storm water systems. However, the amount of reduction in impact is sensitive to both rainfall event size and soil texture, with greatest reductions being possible for small, relatively frequent rainfall events and more pervious soil textures. Thus, low impact techniques appear to provide a valuable tool for reducing runoff for the events that see the greatest relative increases from urbanization: those generated by the small, relatively frequent rainfall events that are small enough to produce little or no runoff from pervious surfaces, but produce runoff from impervious areas. However, it is clear that there still needs to be measures in place for flood management for larger, more intense, and relatively rarer storm events, which are capable of producing significant runoff even for undeveloped basins.