EFFECT OF WATER QUALITY STANDARDS ON FARM INCOME,RISK, AND NPS POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Enforceable standards play a crucial role in the design and implementation of most water quality policies. The impacts of these standards on farm income and nonpoint source (NPS) pollution can provide valuable information to develop economic policies that can improve water quality with minimal loss in income and minimal risk. This study uses an integration of nonlinear programming and a simulation model to assess the impacts of enforceable standards at technology and farm boundary levels. The results indicate that the type of pollutant regulated, enforcement type, and the level of standard had a significant impact on farm income and water quality. Choice of farm boundary standards over technology standards is dependent on the impact of the policy on other NPS pollutants, in addition to the reduction of nitrate and phosphorus pollutants. Enforcing farm boundary standards on nitrates had desirable effects on subsurface and percolate nitrogen and variance in income. Technology standards were uncertain in their effects because of the restriction on the choice of technologies available to farmers. A comparative policy analysis considering incentives, multiple impacts, transaction costs of implementation, and regional consideration is important to an effective policy design.     

SIMULATION OF FRESHWATER DISCHARGES FROM UNGAGED AREAS TO THE SEBASTIAN RIVER,FLORIDA1

ABSTRACT: Due to alterations in the natural drainage system over the past several decades and intensified agricultural practices, freshwater discharges to the Sebastian River, Florida, have increased substantially. As a result, salinity patterns in the Sebastian River and adjacent Indian River lagoon have been disrupted and the influx of nutrients has increased. Recently, the St. Johns River Water Management District has developed a 3‐D hydrodynamic and salinity model for the Sebastian River and adjacent Indian River to study the effects of freshwater inflows, and to set guidelines for management of future freshwater discharges. Freshwater inflows to the Sebastian River are part of the input data of the hydrodynamic model. Except for the downstream drainage areas, inflows are gaged, and the data were used for calibration of the hydrologic simulations. Collectively, the downstream ungaged areas constitute about 16 percent of the total drainage area. Because of the significant contribution to the total drainage area, reliable estimates of freshwater discharges from the ungaged areas to the Sebastian River are needed. This case study illustrates the development of a set of model parameters, reflecting the hydrologic and physiographic characteristics of the entire region. In this context region applies to the watersheds located in the coastal area along the Indian River from Titusville in the north to Vero Beach in the south. The parameter set was first tested on a number of gaged drainage basins in the region, and was then applied to the ungaged areas.     

半经验生物滴滤器模型研究

生物滴滤(BTF)净化有机废气是一个复杂的过程,其数学模型往往形式繁琐、参数众多,实际应用比较困难.半经验生物滴滤模型是基于生物酶促反应基本原理(米-门方程),并在含苯废气的生物滴滤净化动态实验和生物膜静态实验等研究的基础上建立和完善的一个应用模型.为了符合生物滴滤器内的实际状况,在建模过程中引入了微生物质量浓度沿床层深度变化的函数等合理假设.模型的检验采用将静态实验所得参数代入模型计算,并与生物滴滤动态实验结果进行对比的方法.检验结果表明:在较宽的负荷、表观过滤气速范围内,该模型对滴滤器的模拟值均较符合实验值.该模型的数学形式简单,参数也较少,且主要参数,如生物膜最大净化速率,K值及微生物质量浓度分布等均可通过生物膜静态实验测得.      

洞庭湖区生态环境的问题与治理对策

在广泛、深入调查的基础上,分析了洞庭湖区生态环境的主要问题,并提出了治理对策。     

REGRESSION MODELS FOR ESTIMATING HERBICIDE CONCENTRATIONS IN U.S. STREAMS FROM WATERSHED CHARACTERISTICS1

ABSTRACT: Regression models were developed for estimating stream concentrations of the herbicides alachlor, atrazine, cyanazine, metolachior, and trilluralin from use‐intensity data and watershed characteristics. Concentrations were determined from samples collected from 45 streams throughout the United States during 1993 to 1995 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water‐Quality Assessment (NAWQA). Separate regression models were developed for each of six percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th) of the annual distribution of stream concentrations and for the annual time‐weighted mean concentration. Estimates for the individual percentiles can be combined to provide an estimate of the annual distribution of concentrations for a given stream. Agricultural use of the herbicide in the watershed was a significant predictor in nearly all of the models. Several hydrologic and soil parameters also were useful in explaining the variability in concentrations of herbicides among the streams. Most of the regression models developed for estimation of concentration percentiles and annual mean concentrations accounted for 50 percent to 90 percent of the variability among streams. Predicted concentrations were nearly always within an order of magnitude of the measured concentrations for the model‐development streams, and predicted concentration distributions reasonably matched the actual distributions in most cases. Results from application of the models to streams not included in the model development data set are encouraging, but further validation of the regression approach described in this paper is needed.     

MESOSCALE ATMOSPHERIC 2XCO2 CLIMATE CHANGE SIMULATION APPLIED TO AN OREGON WATERSHED1

ABSTRACT: A 2xCO2 climate and runoff in the Upper Deschutes Basin in central Oregon is simulated using a mesoscale atmospheric model and a watershed model that incorporates spatial variability of the runoff process. A nine‐year control climate monthly time series provides a benchmark for assessing changes related to a warmer and wetter 2xCO2 climate. Potential evapotranspiration is increased by 23 percent and snow water equivalent is reduced by 59 percent in the 2xCO2 climate. Annual runoff increases by 23 percent, while November runoff increases by 55 percent. The average maximum monthly runoff is in May for both the control climate and 2xCO2 climate, but in five of the nine years the monthly maximum runoff for the 2xCO2 climate occurs two to five months earlier than for the control climate. The minimum runoff month is one to five months earlier in the 2xCO2 climate in seven of the nine years, and the month of average minimum runoff is March in the control climate and November in the 2xCO2 climate. Since precipitation is greatest in December in both the control climate and 2xCO2 climate, the earlier maximum and minimum runoff for a 2xCO2 climate indicates greater watershed sensitivity to temperature than to precipitation.     

MANAGEMENT OF FLOOD CONTROL SUMPS AND POLLUTANT TRANSPORT1

ABSTRACT: Levee sump systems are used by many riverine communities for temporary storage of urban wet weather flows. The hydrologic performance and transport of stormwater pollutants in sump systems, however, have not been systematically studied. The objective of this paper is to present a case study to demonstrate development and application of a procedure for assessing the hydraulic performance of flood control sumps in an urban watershed. Two sumps of highly variable physical and hydraulic characteristics were selected for analysis. A hydrologic modeling package was used to estimate the flow hydrograph for each outfall as part of the flow balance for the sump. To validate these results, a water balance was used to estimate the total runoff using sump operational data. The hydrologic model calculations provide a satisfactory estimate of the total runoff and its time‐distribution to the sump. The model was then used to estimate pollutant loads to the sump and to the river. Although flow of stormwater through a sump system is regulated solely by flood‐control requirements, these sumps may function as sedimentation basins that provide purification of stormwater. A sample calculation of removals of several conventional pollutants in the target sumps using a mass balance approach is presented.     

EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION ON CHANNEL INSTABILITY1

ABSTRACT: Channel instability and aquatic ecosystem degradation have been linked to watershed imperviousness in humid regions of the U.S. In an effort to provide a more process‐based linkage between observed thresholds of aquatic ecosystem degradation and urbanization, standard single event approaches (U.S. Geological Survey Flood Regression Equations and rational) and continuous hydrologic models (HSPF and CASC2D) were used to examine potential changes in flow regime associated with varying levels of watershed imperviousness. The predicted changes in flow parameters were then interpreted in concert with risk‐based models of channel form and instability. Although low levels of imperviousness (10 to 20 percent) clearly have the potential to destabilize streams, changes in discharge, and thus stream power, associated with increased impervious area are highly variable and dependent upon watershed‐specific conditions. In addition to the storage characteristics of the pre‐development watershed, the magnitude of change is sensitive to the connectivity and conveyance of impervious areas as well as the specific characteristics of the receiving channels. Different stream types are likely to exhibit varying degrees and types of instability, depending on entrenchment, relative erodibility of bed and banks, riparian condition, mode of sediment transport (bedload versus suspended load), and proximity to geomorphic thresholds. Nonetheless, simple risk‐based analyses of the potential impacts of land use change on aquatic ecosystems have the potential to redirect and improve the effectiveness of watershed management strategies by facilitating the identification of channels that may be most sensitive to changes in stream power.     

DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF A SPATIAL HYDROLOGY MODEL OF OKEFENOKEE SWAMP,GEORGIA1

ABSTRACT: :The model described herein was used to assess effects of the Suwannee River sill (a low earthen dam constructed to impound the Suwannee River within the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to eliminate wildfires) on the hydrologic environment of Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia. Developed with Arc/Info Macro Language routines in the GRID environment, the model distributes water in the swamp landscape using precipitation, inflow, evapotranspiration, outflow, and standing water. Water movement direction and rate are determined by the neighborhood topographic gradient, determined using survey grade Global Positioning Systems technology. Model data include flow rates from USGS monitored gauges, precipitation volumes and water levels measured within the swamp, and estimated evapotranspiration volumes spatially modified by vegetation type. Model output in semi‐monthly time steps includes water depth, water surface elevation above mean sea level, and movement direction and volume. Model simulations indicate the sill impoundment affects 18 percent of the swamp during high water conditions when wildfires are scarce and has minimal spatial effect (increasing hydroperiods in less than 5 percent of the swamp) during low water and drought conditions when fire occurrence is high but precipitation and inflow volumes are limited.     

PHYSICAL DETERMINANTS OF ECONOMIC VALUE OF RIPARIAN BUFFERS IN AN AGRICULTURAL WATERSHED1

ABSTRACT: Economic values of riparian buffers in a watershed are evaluated by the changes in the net economic return for farming with and without riparian buffers when achieving the same water quality objectives. The simulated water quality impacts of alternative farming systems using SWAT and experimental data for riparian buffers are used in a mathematical optimization model to estimate net economic return for farming subject to a water quality objective. Physical characteristics such as stream length, channel slope, average land slope, cropland percentage and several soil attributes are identified in the watershed using ARC/INFO GIS. A regression model is then used to evaluate the impacts of these physical characteristics on the estimated economic values of buffers. The study is conducted in Goodwater Creek watershed, Missouri. The results show the estimated economic value of buffers is significantly affected by some soil properties, stream length, and cropland percentage in watershed and can be used to improve the effectiveness of riparian buffers at watershed and regional levels.