Managing Recreational Trail Environments for Mountain Bike User Preferences

N  = 406), highlight some important issues concerning the design and management of wildland recreation environments that are primarily used for mountain biking. For example, bikers were found to significantly prefer water bars above all other tested soil erosion management techniques; trail erosion factors, including the presence of rocks, roots, and gullies, all added to biking experiences on average; trail design factors, such as the presence of turns, bumps, jumps, and obstacles, all added to biking experiences in general. These findings were used to address questions that resource managers should consider when striving to effectively manage wildland recreation areas primarily used for mountain biking.     

Physical and numerical modelling of tsunami generation by a moving obstacle at the bottom boundary

This paper presents a study of the waves generated by a solid block landslide moving along a horizontal boundary. The landslide was controlled using a mechanical system in a series of physical experiments, and laser-induced fluorescence measurements resolved both spatial and temporal variations in the free surface elevation. During its constant-velocity motion, the landslide transferred energy into ‘trapped’ offshore-propagating waves within a narrow frequency band. The wave trapping is demonstrated by investigating the wave dispersion characteristics using a two-dimensional Fourier Transform. The first of the trailing waves broke at Froude numbers greater than or equal to 0.625. The parametric dependence of the largest-amplitude waves and the potential energy within the wave field are discussed. The experimental results were compared to the predictions of an incompressible Navier–Stokes solver with and without turbulence models. The numerical model under-predicted the measured wave amplitudes, although it accurately predicted the measured wave phasing. The turbulent model more accurately predicted the shapes of the trailing waves. Both experimental and numerical results confirmed that investigations into wave generation by submerged objects moving at constant velocity should also consider the initial acceleration of the object, as this affects the overall evolution of the wave field. The applicability of the horizontal-boundary results to more realistic field scenarios is discussed.     

Transverse vertical dispersion in groundwater and the capillary fringe

Transverse dispersion is the most relevant process in mass transfer of contaminants across the capillary fringe (both directions), dilution of contaminants, and mixing of electron acceptors and electron donors in biodegrading groundwater plumes. This paper gives an overview on literature values of transverse vertical dispersivities alpha(tv) measured at different flow velocities and compares them to results from well-controlled laboratory-tank experiments on mass transfer of trichloroethene (TCE) across the capillary fringe. The measured values of transverse vertical dispersion in the capillary fringe region were larger than in fully saturated media, which is credited to enhanced tortuosity of the flow paths due to entrapped air within the capillary fringe. In all cases, the values observed for alpha(tv) were < 1 mm. The new measurements and the literature values indicate that alpha(tv) apparently declines with increasing flow velocity. The latter is attributed to incomplete diffusive mixing at the pore scale (pore throats). A simple conceptual model, based on the mean square displacement and the pore size accounting for only partial diffusive mixing at increasing flow velocities, shows very good agreement with measured and published data.