Richards Bay Harbour: metal exposure monitoring over the last 34 years

Richards Bay Harbour is South Africa’s premier bulk cargo port. It was constructed in the Mhlathuze estuary in 1976 and over the past 34 years has become South Africa’s most modern and largest cargo handling port. Although no official monitoring programme is in progress various studies by different groups have provided relevant data with respect to changing metal levels in brown mussel tissue (Perna perna) over the last 34 years. Eleven elements were analysed in brown mussels from the main channel in Richards Bay Harbour using ICP-MS. The results indicate that the metal concentrations in the mussel tissue remained relatively constant between 1974 and 2005. The mean metal concentrations increased significantly in 2005 possibly due to the construction of the new coal terminal and associated dredging activities. Mean metal concentrations in the 2008 sampling event were also elevated due to increased run off during an above average rainy season.     

Water uptake of riparian plants in the lower Lhasa River Basin,South Tibetan Plateau using stable water isotopes

Riparian plants can adapt their water uptake strategies based on climatic and hydrological conditions within a river basin. The response of cold-alpine riparian trees to changes in water availability is poorly understood. The Lhasa River is a representative cold-alpine river in South Tibet and an under-studied environment. Therefore, a 96 km section of the lower Lhasa River was selected for a study on the water-use patterns of riparian plants. Plant water, soil water, groundwater and river water were measured at three sites for δ¹⁸O and δ²H values during the warm-wet and cold-dry periods in 2018. Soil profiles differed in isotope values between seasons and with the distance along the river. During the cold-dry period, the upper parts of the soil profiles were significantly affected by evaporation. During the warm-wet period, the soil profile was influenced by precipitation infiltration in the upper reaches of the study area and by various water sources in the lower reaches. Calculations using the IsoSource model indicated that the mature salix and birch trees (Salix cheilophila Schneid. and Betula platyphylla Suk.) accessed water from multiple sources during the cold-dry period, whereas they sourced more than 70% of their requirement from the upper 60–80 cm of the soil profile during the warm-wet period. The model indicated that the immature rose willow tree (Tamarix ramosissima Ledeb) accessed 66% of its water from the surface soil during the cold-dry period, but used the deeper layers during the warm-wet period. The plant type was not the dominant factor driving water uptake patterns in mature plants. Our findings can contribute to strategies for the sustainable development of cold-alpine riparian ecosystems. It is recommended that reducing plantation density and collocating plants with different rooting depths would be conducive to optimal plant growth in this environment.     

1990-2019年咸海水量平衡及其影响因素分析

咸海地处中亚,气候和人类的双重影响下湖面急剧萎缩引发区域生态危机,定量解析其水量平衡互动关系及影响因素对咸海地区水资源管理和生态保护有重要意义.基于1990-2019年密集时序Landsat影像、T/P卫星、Jason1/2测高卫星及咸海数字测深模型(DBM),提取近30年咸海面积、水位变化信息,重建咸海水位-面积-库...     

我国南方夏季低频雨型的季节内水汽输送特征

利用1962～2006年NCEP/NCAR再分析资料,采用对历史个例进行合成分析的方法,研究了异常降水中心分别位于长江以南区域的江南型和长江-淮河流域的江淮型低频雨型的季节内水汽输送特征.研究表明,江南型的总水汽输送主要来源于孟加拉湾,并经中南半岛和南海输入江南区域;江淮型的总水汽输送主要直接来源于南海,但水汽源地主要为印度季风区.对于水汽输送异常,江南型和江淮型具有明显不同的特征.江南型的水汽输送异常主要来源于热带西太平洋-南海,中纬度西风带和中高纬度南下的水汽输送异常的贡献次之;而江淮型的水汽输送异常主要来源于热带和副热带西太平洋,中纬度西风带水汽输送异常的贡献次之.另外,水汽输送异常对江南型的区域总水汽收支的贡献约为50%,而对江淮型的区域总水汽收支的贡献高达70%左右.因此,虽然总水汽输送主要取决于气候平均水汽输送,但是,水汽输送异常与气候平均水汽输送对江南型和江淮型的水汽供应具有相同甚至更为重要的贡献.特别是对于江淮型,区域总水汽收支主要取决于水汽输送异常的贡献,而水汽输送异常的变化较平均水汽输送更为复杂,这有可能是江淮流域汛期降水预报较为困难的原因之一.     

三峡工程蓄水对洞庭湖水情的影响格局及其作用机制

三峡工程建成投入运行后,汛末蓄水将使坝下河湖水情发生变化,长江中下游秋季来水减少成为常态.为客观分析三峡蓄水对洞庭湖水情的影响分量、空间格局及其作用机制,选取三峡工程典型的蓄水过程,运用长江中游江湖耦合水动力学模型计算了因上游来水变化引起的洞庭湖水情时空变化.结果表明:1)三峡汛末蓄水对洞庭湖水位影响具有明显的"北高南低,东强西弱"的格局,即东洞庭湖最为显著、南洞庭湖东部和西洞庭湖北部次之,南洞庭湖西部和西洞庭湖南部最小.2)洲滩湿地受蓄水影响最明显的主要为东洞庭湖、南洞庭湖和湖泊洪道两侧的条带状洲滩.3)三峡蓄水对洞庭湖水位的影响机制有二:长江干流水位快速消落加速湖泊水体下泄以及削减长江三口分流补给湖泊的水量.     

Mapping hydraulic biotopes using terrestrial laser scan data of water surface properties

For more than a decade, habitat mapping using biotopes (in‐channel hydraulically‐defined habitats) has underpinned aquatic conservation in the UK through (a) providing baseline information on system complexity and (b) allowing environmental and ecological change to be monitored and evaluated. The traditional method used is the subjective river habitat or corridor survey. This has recently been revised to include the floodplain via GeoRHS, but issues still exist concerning development of a national database due to the labour intensive nature of the data collection, subjectivity issues between samplers, temporal changes, the fuzzy nature of perceived habitats and habitat boundaries. This paper takes an innovative approach to biotope definition using high resolution spatial data to define water surface roughness for two representative reaches of the River South Tyne, Cumbria, and the River Rede, Northumberland, UK. Data was collected using a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) and hydraulic variability simply expressed through assigning a local standard deviation value to a set of adjacent water surface values. Statistical linkage of these data with biotope locations defined visually in the field allowed complete mapping of the surveyed reach defining habitat and biotope areas to the fine scale resolution of the TLS data. Despite issues of data loss due to absorption and transmission through the water, the reflected signal generated an extremely detailed and objective map of the water surface roughness, which may be compared with known biotope locations as defined by visual identification in the field. The TLS accuracy achieved in the present study is comparable with those obtained using hyperspectral imagery: with 84% of the pool/glide/marginal deadwater amalgamated biotope, 88% of riffles, 57% of runs and 50% of the amalgamated cascade/rapid biotope successfully plotted. It is clear from this exercise that biotope distribution is more complex than previously mapped using subjective techniques, and based upon the water surface roughness delimiters presented in this study, the amalgamation of pools with glides and marginal deadwaters, riffles with unbroken standing waves, and cascades with rapids, is proposed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

Ballast water: A threat to the Amazon Basin

Ballast water exchange (BWE) is the most efficient measure to control the invasion of exotic species from ships. This procedure is being used for merchant ships in national and international voyages. The ballast water (BW) salinity is the main parameter to evaluate the efficacy of the mid-ocean ballast water exchange. The vessels must report to the Port State Control (PSC), via ballast water report (BWR), where and how the mid-ocean BWE was performed. This measure allows the PSC to analyze this information before the ship arrives at the port, and to decide whether or not it should berth.Ship BW reporting forms were collected from the Captaincy of Santana and some ships were visited near the Port of Santana, located in Macapá (Amazon River), to evaluate the BW quality onboard. We evaluated data submitted in these BWR forms and concluded that the BWE efficacy might be compromised, because data contained in these BWR indicate that some ships did not change their BW. We found mistakes in filling the BWR forms and lack of information. Moreover, these ships had discharged BW with high level of salinity, Escherichia coli and total coliforms into the Amazon River. We concluded that the authorities of the Amazon Region need to develop more efficient proceedings to evaluate the ballast water reporting forms and BW quality, as there is potential risk of future invasion of exotic species in Brazilian ports.     

Hydrologic processes that govern stormwater infrastructure behaviour

Using water budget data from published literature, we demonstrate how hydrologic processes govern the function of various stormwater infrastructure technologies. Hydrologic observations are displayed on a Water Budget Triangle, a ternary plot tool developed to visualize simplified water budgets, enabling side‐by‐side comparison of green and grey approaches to stormwater management. The tool indicates ranges of hydrologic function for green roofs, constructed wetlands, cisterns, bioretention, and other stormwater control management structures. Water budgets are plotted for several example systems to provide insight on structural and environmental design factors, and seasonal variation in hydrologic processes of stormwater management systems. Previously published water budgets and models are used to suggest appropriate operational standards for several green and grey stormwater control structures and compare between conventional and low‐impact development approaches. We compare models, characterize and quantify water budgets and expected ranges for green and grey infrastructure systems, and demonstrate how the Water Budget Triangle tool may help users to develop a data‐driven approach for understanding design and retrofit of green stormwater infrastructure.     

Towards sustainable development of the environmentally degraded River Heihe basin,China

Abstract

Changes in development and use of water resources over the last 30 years have led to significant environmental and hydrological degradation of the River Heihe basin in the People's Republic of China. Water discharge of the lower reaches has been seriously compromised and more than 30 tributaries and terminal lakes have dried up. The water output of springs has dropped significantly. Also water quality problems have been observed, in both surface waters and groundwater. Hydrological changes have resulted in a marked degradation of aquatic habitats, and have caused substantial, and expanding, land salinization and desertification. Solving these problems, which have been largely caused by human activities, requires massive and long-lasting concerted efforts.     

An experiment on reservoir representation schemes to improve hydrologic prediction: coupling the national water model with the HEC-ResSim

ABSTRACT

This study experiments with reservoir representation schemes to improve the ability to model active water management in the National Water Model (NWM). For this purpose, we developed an integrated water management model, NWM-ResSim, by coupling the NWM with HEC-ResSim, and two reservoir representation schemes are tested: simulation of reservoir operations and retrieval of scheduled operations. The experiments focus on a pilot reservoir domain in the Russian River basin – Lake Mendocino, California – and its contributing watershed. The evaluation results suggest that the NWM-ResSim improves the simulation performance of reservoir outflow from this managed reservoir over the NWM default level pool routing scheme. The degree of this improvement depends on the suitability of the operation guidance; the reservoir operations simulation scheme could have acceptable errors for the purposes of water resources management, but not for flood operations. Results of the retrieval scheme of scheduled operations demonstrated better performance for sub-daily flood operations.     

鄱阳湖水龄季节性变化特征

基于环境水动力学模型EFDC源程序,建立了染色剂模型和水龄模型,在将模型与航测水文数据验证吻合的基础上,分别计算了鄱阳湖自然条件下春、夏、秋、冬季的水龄和倒灌前后鄱阳湖染色剂和水龄分布的变化,以及五河水系各分支河流水龄.分季节的水龄计算表明鄱阳湖水体交换受季节性来水影响明显.夏、秋季的水龄相对较小,在多数年份又受到长江水倒灌的影响导致水龄有所增大;冬、春季水龄较大,亦无长江水倒灌现象,相较于夏、秋季,水域面积明显减少.分支流的水龄计算表明,西南湖区的水体交换主要受到赣江的影响,西北湖区水体交换主要受到修水和赣江的影响,南部湖区主要受到抚河与信江的影响,东部湖区主要受到饶河的影响,湖心区和入江水道则受到五河水系的综合影响.同时水龄的研究表明拟建的鄱阳湖水利枢纽工程"调枯不调洪"的原则是合理的,为鄱阳湖水利枢纽工程论证提供了重要的参考依据.     

What history reveals about Forge River pollution on Long Island, New York’s south shore

Fifty years ago, the Forge River and Moriches Bay, of Long Island’s south shore lagoonal system, achieved notoriety when their polluted conditions were alluded to in a report of the US President’s Science Advisory Committee (1965). The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution investigated the bay throughout the 1950s, identifying duck farming as the cause of “objectionable”, “highly contaminated” conditions of these waters.Much has changed: duck farming declined; the river was dredged to remove polluted sediments, improve navigation; and barrier island inlets stabilized. Yet, the river remains seasonally eutrophic.Why? This paper reviews what occurred in the Forge River watershed. While governments aggressively curtailed the impacts of duck pollution, they failed to manage development and sewage pollution. The Forge experience indicates that watershed management is a continuing governmental responsibility as development accelerates. Otherwise, we will always be looking for that instantaneous remediation that is usually not affordable and is socially contentious.     

Inter- and intra-annual trend analysis of water level and flow in the middle and lower reaches of the Ganjiang River,China

ABSTRACT

The Ganjiang River is the largest tributary of Poyang Lake in China, and its hydrological regime variation greatly affects the utilization of regional water resources and the ecological environment of the lake. In this study, a novel trend analysis method, the Moving Average over Shifting Horizon (MASH), was applied to investigate the inter- and intra-annual trends of flow and water level from 1976 to 2016 at the Xiajiang and the Waizhou hydrological stations in the Ganjiang River. The Significant Change Rate Method (SCRM) was proposed to determine the MASH averaging parameters. The trend analysis results show a statistically significant decrease in water level series throughout the year and the relationship of flow and water level have changed greatly at the Waizhou station. The sediment load reduction, large-scale sand mining and water level decrease of Poyang Lake are identified as the main causes for the water level decrease.     

Internet-based applications for interrogating 50 years of data from the South African national water quality monitoring network

ABSTRACT

National and regional water quality monitoring networks have been operated in South Africa since the early 1970s. These originally had text-based inventories that were convenient for specialists who were familiar with the national networks and knew the locations of their sites of interest. However, within two decades the networks had expanded in geographical extent and variables monitored to such an extent that users needed spatial context in order to locate sites that fitted their information requirements. Mapping applications running on the Internet, such as Google Earth and Leaflet, form the foundation of a system for providing online inventories and summaries of the data available on the water quality database. The interfaces were constructed using available software, mainly ArcInfo and R. A recent concern is a decrease in the collection of water quality data, which is reducing the value of data summaries for water resource management.     

基于泥沙因子的水深遥感反演模型

针对悬浮泥沙影响水体遥感测深精度的问题,选择长江口南港至南槽为研究区,通过对遥感测深方法研究,结合悬浮泥沙光谱特性分析,把"泥沙因子"引入到水体遥感测深反演模型中,研究表明:1)单因子非线性模型中,指数模型对0-2m的水深反演效果较好,对数模型对2-7m的水深反演较好,二次回归模型对7-14m的水深反演效果较好:2)建立的BP人工神经网络水深反演模型综合了多个波段具有的水深信息,模型的反演效果好于单因子非线性模型;3)实验构建的泥沙遥感参数综合了不同波段具有的悬沙信息,削弱了叶绿素和外界环境条件对泥沙信息的干扰,可较好地反映悬沙浓度变化特征;4)建立的BP人工神经网络泥沙因子水深反演模型削弱了悬浮泥沙对遥感测深的影响,模型实际反演能力明显优于单因子非线性模型和多因子BP人工神经网络水深反演模型.     

Defining an estuary using the Hilbert-Huang transform

Abstract

Researchers have used various physical, chemical, or topographic features to define estuaries, based on the needs of their particular subject. The principal features of estuaries are the tides that influence their water stages; thus, the boundaries of an estuary can be determined based on whether the water stage is subject to tidal influence. However, the water stage is also influenced by the upstream river discharge. A hydrograph of water stage will therefore include both non-stationary and nonlinear features. Here, we use the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT), which allows us to process such non-stationary and nonlinear signals, to decompose the water-stage hydrographs recorded at different gauging stations in an estuary into their intrinsic mode function (IMF) components and residuals. We then analyse the relationships between the frequencies of IMFs and known tidal components. A frequency correlation indicates that the water stage of the station is subject to tidal influences and is located within the estuary. The spatial distribution of the stations that are subject to tidal influences can then be used to define the estuary boundaries. We used data from gauging stations in the estuary region of Taiwan's Tanshui River to assess the feasibility of using the HHT to define an estuary. The results show that the HHT is a dependable and easy method for determining the boundaries of an estuary.

Citation Chen, Y.-C., Kao, S.-P., and Chiang, H.-W., 2013. Defining an estuary using the Hilbert-Huang transform. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (4), 841–853.     

Water allocation under the constraint of total water-use quota: a case from Dongjiang River Basin,South China

A constrained total water-use policy has been implemented to maintain sustainable water supply in some water shortage areas. Managing a constrained water-use quota (T) in water allocation is a challenging goal. This paper proposes a new framework for water allocation under total water-use constraint by utilizing the concept of the Newsboy model, commonly used in operations management and applied economics, and applying it to the Dongjiang River Basin, South China. This framework considers T as a state variable of the objective function, rather than simply dealing with it as a constraint of multi-objective analysis. Using this framework, it is revealed how different schemes of T play out in water allocation, and water-use warning is provided for each sector and water governor in water resources management.     

Vegetation water sources in California's Sierra Nevada (USA) are young and change over time,a multi-isotope (δ18O, δ2H, 3H) tracer approach.

Sierra Nevada forests transpire a significant amount of California's water resources, sparking interest in applying forest management to improve California's water supply. Determining the source water of evapotranspiration enables forest managers to make informed decisions. To this end, a significant interest in critical zone science is to develop new methods to work across time scales to predict subsurface water storage and use. In this study, forest vegetation accessed young water and switched sources depending on availability, suggesting that forest drought vulnerability may depend on the range of water sources available (rain, snowmelt and deeply stored water). This finding also suggests that changes in transpiration rates may have immediate effects on water sources in close proximity to vegetation, and delayed effects on storage and runoff. New δ¹⁸O, δ²H and ³H data were used to track precipitation, runoff, evapotranspiration and storage through the critical zone seasonally, including seasons where evapotranspiration and snowmelt were in phase (winter snowmelt) and out of phase (seasonally dry summer). The main source of this headwater catchment's runoff is derived from its meadow saturated zone water, which was dominated by snowmelt. Water that originated as snowmelt contributed to transpiration, unless other sources, such as recent rain, became available. In cases where xylem δ¹⁸O and δ²H signatures matched those of deeper saturated zone water, ³H data showed that xylem water was distinctly younger than the deep saturated zone water. During 2016, which experienced relatively normal snowpack in winter and seasonally dry summer conditions, mean summer saturated zone water and vegetation water were similar in δ¹⁸O, −12.4 ± 0.04 ‰ and − 12.5 ± 0.3 ‰, respectively, but were distinctly different in ³H, 5.5 ± 0.2 pCi/L and 13.7 ± 1.1 pCi/L, respectively. While δ¹⁸O shows that vegetation and meadow saturated zone water have similar origins, ³H shows they have dissimilar ages.     

A comparative study on a simple two-parameter monthly water balance model and the Kajiyama formula for monthly runoff estimation

ABSTRACT

A two-parameter monthly water balance model to simulate runoff can be used for a water resources planning programme and climate impact studies. However, the model estimates two parameters of transformation of time scale (c) and of the field capacity (SC) by a trial-and-error method. This study suggests a modified methodology to estimate the parameters c and SC using the meteorological and geological conditions. The modified model is compared with the Kajiyama formula to simulate the runoff in the Han River and International Hydrological Programme representative basins in South Korea. We show that the estimated c and SC can be used as the initial or optimal values for the monthly runoff simulation study in the model.

EDITOR M.C. Acreman; ASSOCIATE EDITOR S. Kanae     

The impact of the South–North Water Transfer Project (CTP)'s central route on groundwater table in the Hai River basin,North China

The central route of the South–North Water Transfer Project (CTP) is designed to divert approximately 9.5 billion m³ of water per year from the Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, to the Hai River basin in the north China. The main purpose of this study is to assess the impact of CTP on groundwater table in the Hai River basin. Our study features a large‐scale distributed hydrological model that couples a physically based groundwater module, which is sub‐basin‐based, with a conceptual surface water module, which is grid‐based. There are several grids in each sub‐basin and water exchange among grid that are considered. Our model couples surface water module and groundwater module and calculates human water use at the same time. The simulation results indicate that even with the water supply by CTP, the groundwater table will continue to decline in the Hai River basin. However, the CTP water can evidently reduce the decline rate, helping alleviate groundwater overexploitation in Hai River region. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.