On the Use of Hydrological Models and Satellite Data to Study the Water Budget of River Basins Affected by Human Activities: Examples from the Garonne Basin of France

Natural and anthropogenic forcing factors and their changes significantly impact water resources in many river basins around the world. Information on such changes can be derived from fine scale in situ and satellite observations, used in combination with hydrological models. The latter need to account for hydrological changes caused by human activities to correctly estimate the actual water resource. In this study, we consider the catchment area of the Garonne river (in France) to investigate the capabilities of space-based observations and up-to-date hydrological modeling in estimating water resources of a river basin modified by human activities and a changing climate. Using the ISBA–MODCOU and SWAT hydrological models, we find that the water resources of the Garonne basin display a negative climate trend since 1960. The snow component of the two models is validated using the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer snow cover extent climatology. Crop sowing dates based on remote sensing studies are also considered in the validation procedure. Use of this dataset improves the simulated evapotranspiration and river discharge amounts when compared to conventional data. Finally, we investigate the benefit of using the MAELIA multi-agent model that accounts for a realistic agricultural and management scenario. Among other results, we find that changes in crop systems have significant impacts on water uptake for agriculture. This work constitutes a basis for the construction of a future modeling framework of the sociological and hydrological system of the Garonne river region.     

Delineating floodplain and upland areas for hydrologic models: a comparison of methods

A spatially distributed representation of basin hydrology and transport processes in hydrologic models facilitates the identification of critical source areas and the placement of management and conservation measures. Floodplains are critical landscape features that differ from neighbouring uplands in terms of their hydrological processes and functions. Accordingly, an important step in watershed modelling is the representation of floodplain and upland areas within a watershed. The aim of this study is (1) to evaluate four floodplain–upland delineation methods that use readily available topographic data (topographic wetness index, slope position, uniform flood stage, and variable flood stage) with regard to their suitability for hydrological models and (2) to introduce an evaluation scheme for the delineated landscape units. The methods are tested in three U.S. watersheds ranging in size from 334 to 629 km² with different climatic, hydrological, and geomorphological characteristics. Evaluation of the landscape delineation methods includes visual comparisons, error matrices (i.e. cross‐tabulations of delineated vs reference data), and geometric accuracy metrics. Reference data were obtained from the Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps. Results suggest that the slope position and the variable flood stage method work very well in all three watersheds. Overall percentages of floodplain and upland areas allocated correctly were obtained by comparing delineated and reference data. Values range from 83 to 93% for the slope position and from 80 to 95% for the variable flood stage method. Future studies will incorporate these two floodplain–upland delineation methods into the subwatershed‐based hydrologic model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to improve the representation of hydrological processes within floodplain and upland areas. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A New Interlaboratory Characterisation of Silicon,Rare Earth Elements and Twenty‐Two Other Trace Element Concentrations in the Natural River Water Certified Reference Material SLRS‐6 (NRC‐CNRC)

The natural river water reference material SLRS‐6 (NRC‐CNRC) is the newest batch of a quality control material routinely used in many international environmental laboratories. This work presents a nine‐laboratory compilation of measurements of major and trace element concentrations and their related uncertainties, unavailable in the NRC‐CNRC certificate (B, Cs, Li, Ga, Ge, Hf, Nb, P, Rb, Rh, Re, S, Sc, Se, Si, Sn, Th, Ti, Tl, W, Y, Y, Zr and REEs). Measurements were mostly made using inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry. The results are compared with equivalent data for the last batch of the material, SLRS‐5, measured simultaneously with SLRS‐6 in this study. In general, very low concentrations, close to the quantification limits, were found in the new batch. The Sr isotopic ratio is also reported.     

Experimental and theoretical study of the structural environment of magnesium in minerals and silicate glasses using X-ray absorption near-edge structure

X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Mg K-edge is used to obtain information on magnesium environment in minerals, silicate and alumino-silicate glasses. First-principles XANES calculations are performed for minerals using a plane-wave density functional formalism with core-hole effects treated in a supercell approach. The good agreement obtained between experimental and theoretical spectra provides useful information to interpret the spectral features. With the help of calculation, the position of the first peak of XANES spectra is related to both coordination and polyhedron distortion changes. In alumino-silicate glasses, magnesium is found to be mainly 5-fold coordinated to oxygen whatever the aluminum saturation index value. In silicate glasses, magnesium coordination increases from 4 in Cs-, Rb- and K-bearing glasses to 5 in Na- and Li-bearing glasses but remains equal as the polymerization degree of the glass varies. The variation of the C feature (position and intensity) is strongly related to the alkali type providing information on the medium range order.

Bar-driven evolution of S0s: the edge-on galaxy NGC 4570

We present circumstantial evidence that the central region of the edge-on S0 galaxy NGC 4570, which harbours a 150-pc scale nuclear disc in addition to its main outer disc, has been shaped under the influence of a small (∼ 500 pc) bar. This is based on the discovery of two edge-on rings, the locations of which are consistent with the inner Lindblad and ultraharmonic resonances of a rapidly tumbling triaxial potential. Observed features in the photometry and rotation curve correspond nicely with the positions of the main resonances, strengthening the case for a tumbling bar potential. The relative blue colour of the ILR ring, and the complete absence of any detected ISM, indicates that the nuclear ring is made of relatively young (≲ 2 Gyr) stars. We discuss a possible secular evolution scenario for this complex multicomponent galaxy, which may also apply to many other S0 galaxies with observed rings and/or multiple disc components.