Lessons learned from bacterial transport research at the South Oyster Site

This paper provides a review of bacterial transport experiments conducted by a multiinvestigator, multiinstitution, multidisciplinary team of researchers under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The experiments were conducted during the time period 1999-2001 at a field site near the town of Oyster, Virginia known as the South Oyster Site, and included four major experimental campaigns aimed at understanding and quantifying bacterial transport in the subsurface environment. Several key elements of the research are discussed here: (1) quantification of bacterial transport in physically, chemically, and biologically heterogeneous aquifers, (2) evaluation of the efficacy of conventional colloid filtration theory, (3) scale effects in bacterial transport, (4) development of new methods for microbial enumeration and screening for low adhesion strains, (5) application of novel hydrogeophysical techniques for aquifer characterization, and (6) experiences regarding management of a large field research effort. Lessons learned are summarized in each of these areas. The body of literature resulting from South Oyster Site research has been widely cited and continues to influence research into the controls exerted by aquifer heterogeneity on reactive transport (including microbial transport). It also served as a model (and provided valuable experience) for subsequent and ongoing highly-instrumented field research efforts conducted by DOE-sponsored investigators.     

Lessons in bridge damage learned from the Wenchuan earthquake

A strong earthquake occurred in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, China, on May 12, 2008. Shortly after the earthquake, the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center of the Federal Highway Administration, in partnership with the Research Institute of Highways, the Ministry of Communication of China, led a reconnaissance team to conduct a post-earthquake bridge performance investigation of the transportation system in the earthquake affected areas. The U.S.transportation system reconnaissance team visited the area during July 20-24, 2008. This paper presents the findings and lessons learned by the team.     

从2004年苏门答腊—安达曼巨型逆冲断层破裂得到的经验教训

发生于2004年的苏门答腊—安达曼地震,因其规模巨大,并且造成了毁灭性的后果,而得到广泛的研究。研究者通过分析大量高质量的地震、大地测量和地质数据,提出很多构造模型,以进一步了解这次地震的破裂长度、持续时间、断层几何形状、破裂速度和滑动过程等信息。一些最新的模型尽管在细节上有所不同,但在大尺度特征上都是一致的,例如,沿着整个长1300～1500km的破裂区域都有明显的同震滑动。块体滑动的速度非常快,足以辐射出地震波。由于这次地震的规模很大,使用传统方法进行数据处理会面临很多困难和挑战,这也促使人们创造和发展新的分析和反演方法,如多源反演、高频体波成像,以及通过卫星观测海啸浪高和重力变化等。苏门答腊巨型逆冲断层地震是40年来发生的最大地震,也是到目前为止资料记载保存最完好的地震,但它的一些特性与其他大的俯冲带地震看起来没有根本上的不同。     

Lessons learned from public participation in hydrologic engineering projects

ABSTRACT

Public participation in engineering projects has been minimal to date, whereas it is growing in other fields. This paper assesses the lessons learned from public participation in two hydrologic engineering projects, as citizen scientists or through participatory mapping. The two projects were conducted in communities that faced a common problem of flooding due to sea-level rise. The lessons learned include the need to invest time at the beginning of a project to get an idea of what knowledge the public can contribute and have a plan in place to sustain participation at the level needed for the project to be successful. Our cost comparison shows that public participation should be encouraged when the project area is large enough to make travel for data collection cost prohibitive, or when extensive interaction with the public will already be required.     

Form-based river restoration decreases wetland hyporheic exchange: Lessons learned from the Upper Colorado River

Restoration of river–wetland systems to recover lost ecosystem services and restore consistent flood regimes is commonly directed at modifying in-channel storage and hyporheic exchange. Here, we monitored the hydrologic response to channel realignment in a montane river–wetland system by comparing pre- and post-restoration measurements. In 2015, an earthen berm and 190 m segment of the Upper Colorado River were constructed to consolidate flow from multiple channels into the historic thalweg. We injected a sodium chloride tracer during baseflow and used mass-balance calculations and electrical resistivity imaging to assess changes in near-channel hyporheic exchange. Results indicate a decrease in hyporheic exchange within the wetland due to lost complexity along the consolidated flow path. Subsurface complexity appears to control hyporheic exchange more than surface complexity. Flow consolidation increased the area-adjusted wetland water yield by 231 mm, indicating a loss of wetland water storage capacity. One year of post-restoration monitoring suggests that the form-based channel restoration directed at consolidating flow into a single thread adversely affected the hyporheic exchange functioning in the pre-restoration system. Results from this case study are applicable to restoration planners as they consider the effects of form-based projects on water storage capacity in similar systems. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lessons learned from the change from supply to demand water management in irrigated agriculture: a case study from Pakistan

Scarcity of good quality water has led many countries to introduce demand-based water management in the irrigated agriculture section in place of the existing supply-based water management. This transition requires institutional changes, including the formation of Water User Associations (WUAs). The paper reviews the constraints of irrigated agriculture in Pakistan and discusses the conditions for success in the formation of farmers’ organizations. This paper seeks to show that the development of WUAs is a vital step in the development of integrated water resource management. It is argued that IWRM is a prerequisite for a sustainable society in water-dependent countries that are increasingly water-scarce—like the paternalistic and bureaucratic societies of South Asia.     

Earthquake engineering research needs in light of lessons learned from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

Earthquake engineering research and development have received much attention since the first half of the twentieth century. This valuable research presented a huge step forward in understanding earthquake hazard mitigation, which resulted in appreciable reduction of the effects of past earthquakes. Nevertheless, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami resulted in major damage. This paper presents the timeline of earthquake mitigation and recovery, as seen by the authors. Possible research directions where the authors think that many open questions still remain are identified. These are primarily based on the important lessons learned from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.     

Earthquake engineering research needs in light of lessons learned from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake

Earthquake engineering research and development have received much attention since the first half of the twentieth century. This valuable research presented a huge step forward in understanding earthquake hazard mitigation,which resulted in appreciable reduction of the effects of past earthquakes. Nevertheless,the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami resulted in major damage. This paper presents the timeline of earthquake mitigation and recovery,as seen by the authors. Possible research directions where the authors think that many open questions still remain are identified. These are primarily based on the important lessons learned from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.     

Morphodynamic research challenges for braided river environments: Lessons from the iconic case of New Zealand

Pressures on braided river systems in New Zealand are increasing due to anthropogenic stresses such as demand for irrigation water, braidplain conversion to farmland and invasive vegetation, as well as extreme natural events associated with earthquakes and climate change. These pressures create issues around preserving braided river physical environments and associated ecosystems, and managing hazards such as floods, aggradation and erosion. A need for more robust understanding and quantification of braided river morphodynamic processes underpins many of these issues. Here, we present eight morphodynamic research challenges to service this need. The first four research challenges relate to managing aggradation-related flooding hazards; the last four address issues stem largely from recent dairy expansion, which has created huge pressure to take land and irrigation water from the alp-fed braided rivers and to alter flow regimes at their mouths. Hāpua, the freshwater lagoons found where most braided rivers meet the coast, show complex morphodynamic behaviour in response to the interplay of river and coastal processes, and their special ecosystems are sensitive to river flow and sediment load changes. We discuss how physical laboratory experiments and novel numerical modelling can help to understand the morphological processes braided rivers undergo, and we show how those research advances could inform planning and legal decisions to regulate land rights and irrigation water allocation on New Zealand's braidplains. We illustrate these environmental and engineering issues and research challenges with examples from the Kowhai, Waiho, Waiau, Rangitata and Hurunui Rivers. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lessons learnt from checking the quality of openly accessible river flow data worldwide

ABSTRACT

Advances in open data science serve large-scale model developments and, subsequently, hydroclimate services. Local river flow observations are key in hydrology but data sharing remains limited due to unclear quality, or to political, economic or infrastructure reasons. This paper provides methods for quality checking openly accessible river-flow time series. Availability, outliers, homogeneity and trends were assessed in 21 586 time series from 13 data providers worldwide. We found a decrease in data availability since the 1980s, scarce open information in southern Asia, the Middle East and North and Central Africa, and significant river-flow trends in Africa, Australia, southwest Europe and Southeast Asia. We distinguish numerical outliers from high-flow peaks, and integrate all investigated quality characteristics in a composite indicator. We stress the need to maintain existing gauging networks, and highlight opportunities in extending existing global databases, understanding drivers for trends and inhomogeneity, and in innovative acquisition methods in data-scarce regions.     

The use of liquefaction features in paleoseismology: Lessons learned in the New Madrid seismic zone, central United States

A recent study in the New Madrid seismic zone demonstrates that large uncertainties, often involved but rarely expressed, in paleoliquefaction studies can be reduced by conducting detailed investigations at the most promising sites for dating liquefaction features. During the site investigations, care must be taken to collect samples that will provide close maximum and minimum dates for liquefaction features. It is advisable to use two-sigma calibrated dates, rather than one-sigma calibrated dates or radiocarbon ages, when estimating ages of liquefaction features. Well-constrained ages of individual liquefaction features should provide the basis for estimating the timing of paleoearthquakes and correlating features across a region. As uncertainty in ages of liquefaction features decreases, confidence in estimates of timing, source areas and magnitudes of paleoearthquakes increases. The New Madrid study also shows that modern or historic earthquakes that induced liquefaction in the same region and whose locations and magnitudes are fairly well know can serve as calibration events for paleoearthquakes. Future efforts that could further improve the usefulness of liquefaction feature in paleoseismology include (1) the development of new techniques for dating liquefaction features directly, (2) case studies of modern earthquakes that focus on the site and spatial distributions of liquefaction feature as well as geotechnical properties of liquefaction sites and (3) more rigorous quantification of uncertainties associated with estimates of timing, source areas and magnitudes of paleoearthquakes.     

Delineation of an exhumed intermediate-depth crustal fault in a collisional setting: An example from the Himalaya

The regionally prominent main boundary thrust (MBT) of the Himalayan fold-thrust belt in northwest India is typically defined by the presence of Proterozoic rocks in the hanging wall and Cenozoic rocks in the footwall. The present study focuses on identifying the MBT contact across Gambar River section in Himachal Pradesh, India, using alternative methodologies, such as the meter-scale litho-structural mapping, followed by detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology to precisely identify the thrust contact and provide insights on the deformation history of the MBT zone. We have identified a sharp change in the age (from ~600 to ~61 Ma) of the sedimentary units along a narrow zone in the study area by detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology using LA-ICP-MS. The sharp change in the detrital zircon U–Pb age data thus delineate the MBT occurring in the area along a < ~1 m thickness. The lithological assemblage and the age data indicate the unified maximum depositional age from ~700 to ~600 Ma for the hanging wall rocks, which have been equated with the Krol Group of the Lesser Himalayan Sequence (LHS). In comparison, the footwall rocks exhibit the maximum depositional age of ~61 Ma and have been equated with the Cenozoic Subathu Formation of the Sub-Himalayan Sequence (SHS).     

Wave Energy from the North Sea: Experiences from the Lysekil Research Site

This paper provides a status update on the development of the Swedish wave energy research area located close to Lysekil on the Swedish West coast. The Lysekil project is run by the Centre for Renewable Electric Energy Conversion at Uppsala University. The project was started in 2004 and currently has permission to run until the end of 2013. During this time period 10 grid-connected wave energy converters, 30 buoys for studies on environmental impact, and a surveillance tower for monitoring the interaction between waves and converters will be installed and studied. To date the research area holds one complete wave energy converter connected to a measuring station on shore via a sea cable, a Wave Rider? buoy for wave measurements, 25 buoys for studies on environmental impact, and a surveillance tower. The wave energy converter is based on a linear synchronous generator which is placed on the sea bed and driven by a heaving point absorber at the ocean surface. The converter is directly driven, i.e. it has no gearbox or other mechanical or hydraulic conversion system. This results in a simple and robust mechanical system, but also in a somewhat more complicated electrical system.     

Some aspects of the HAPEX-MOBILHY programme: The data base and the modelling strategy

The main thrust of the HAPEX-MOBILHY experiment was towards investigating techniques involved in integrating the turbulent surface fluxes measured at local sites to a larger scale approaching that used in general circulation models.Some aspects of the field data collected at various times and spatial scales are presented. Annual cycle of the soil moisture at many sites is discussed in relation with outputs of a large scale hydrological model. At shorter time scales, the spatial variability of surface energy partition is examined with regard to spatial contrasts in albedo, surface roughness and plant properties related to the two main vegetation classes found in the HAPEX square: A pine forest and the nearby agricultural area.Finally, examples of daily spatial integration with an atmospheric mesoscale model including a comprehensive treatment of land surface processes are presented.     

Benthic community structure and sediment processes on an intertidal flat: results from the ECOFLAT project

Interactions between physical and biological processes in intertidal sediments have been the focus of studies in the framework of the ECOFLAT project. Process studies were focused on the Molenplaat, a 1.5 km² intertidal flat in the Westerschelde estuary, The Netherlands. Distinct spatial patterns in the biological community on the flat were found and related to patterns in bottom shear stress as derived from a hydrodynamic model. Based on these survey results five stations were selected with contrasting sediment composition and benthic communities.Long-term net sedimentation of mainly sand was deduced from radionuclide profiles. Sedimentation of mud on the surface of part of the intertidal flat was shown to be a seasonally cyclic process, with a magnitude sufficient to significantly affect the mud balance of the estuary. Measurements of erodability as a function of tidal current showed a biological control on this variable. Benthic microalgae stabilise the sediment surface, whereas the benthic macrofauna has a destabilising effect.Food web studies show that the contrasting biological communities (microbenthos, meiobenthos, macrobenthos) at muddy and sandy sites have substantial differences in the quantitative aspects of their food web. Turnover of microalgae is much lower at muddy than at sandy sites, and this is mostly related to a lower grazing pressure. It is hypothesised that high mud content decreases the availability of benthic microalgae to grazers.We demonstrate a positive feedback between benthic microalgae and mud sedimentation which may lead to the existence of different stable states. This may explain the existence of relatively sharp boundaries and strong community contrasts in the presence of weak and smooth environmental gradients.     

Near-real-time volcanic ash cloud detection: Experiences from the Alaska Volcano Observatory

Volcanic eruptions produce ash clouds, which are a major hazard to population centers and the aviation community. Within the North Pacific (NOPAC) region, there have been numerous volcanic ash clouds that have reached aviation routes. Others have closed airports and traveled for thousands of kilometers. Being able to detect these ash clouds and then provide an assessment of their potential movement is essential for hazard assessment and mitigation. Remote sensing satellite data, through the reverse absorption or split window method, is used to detect these volcanic ash clouds, with a negative signal produced from spectrally semi-transparent ash clouds. Single channel satellite is used to detect the early eruption spectrally opaque ash clouds. Volcanic Ash Transport and Dispersion (VATD) models are used to provide a forecast of the ash clouds' future location. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) remote sensing ash detection system automatically analyzes satellite data of volcanic ash clouds, detecting new ash clouds and also providing alerts, both email and text, to those with AVO. However, there are also non-volcanic related features across the NOPAC region that can produce a negative signal. These can complicate alerts and warning of impending ash clouds. Discussions and examples are shown of these non-volcanic features and some analysis is provided on how these features can be discriminated from volcanic ash clouds. Finally, there is discussion on how information of the ash cloud such as location, particle size and concentrations, could be used as VATD model initialization. These model forecasts could then provide an improved assessment of the clouds' future movement.