加拿大内陆水的保护

Contrary to general international perception, Canada does not have an unlimited supply of freshwater. However, because Canada has a small population, it does have a generous water allocation on a per capita basis. Nor is Canada immune from water quality problems:its cold continental climate, urbanization and industrial activities all contribute to water quality concerns and deterioration. Generally, the authority to manage water in Canada is held by the country''s provincial governments. The Great Lakes basin is the world''s largest freshwater ecosystem and is located in Canada''s industrial heartland. Water issues, starting with phosphorus in the 1960''s, created international headlines. In the 1970''s toxics became the predominant issue and this led to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement which established the ecosystem approach to water quality management. This approach is now the standard approach to water quality management and has been successfully applied to a number of other lake and river ecosystems in Canada. While there have been improvements in the water quality of the Great Lakes much remains to be done on toxic elimination and the large contaminant stores in the sediments. Atmospheric deposition has become a significant source of chemicals from outside the basin The Canadian prairies, the agricultural heartland of Canada, is one major ecozone that has not been selected to have current and potential water quality problems examined by a federal government program. Both the quantity and quality of water in this region are potentially significant factors limiting economic diversification and sustainable development in this vast and ecologically disturbed region.     

Assessing the state of water masses of the Southern Baikal in the zone of influence of Baikal PPM by many-year microbiological characteristics

Results of many-year (1990–2009) microbiological studies of waters in different parts of Southern Baikal subject to different anthropogenic load are presented. Long-term observation series made it possible to establish tendencies in variations of the structure and functional activity of microbiocenoses as the result of natural evolution and anthropogenic impact. The obtained microbiological data characterizes water quality and the level of technogenic disturbances near Baikal Pulp-and-Paper Mill. Water quality assessment by sanitary-bacteriological characteristics suggests that the water area near the discharge site of effluents from Baikal PPM chronically experiences bacterial pollution. No significant changes in the technogenic stress on Southern Baikal ecosystem have taken place since the 1990s.     

Groundwater Availability as Constrained by Hydrogeology and Environmental Flows

Groundwater pumping from aquifers in hydraulic connection with nearby streams has the potential to cause adverse impacts by decreasing flows to levels below those necessary to maintain aquatic ecosystems. The recent passage of the Great Lakes‐St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact has brought attention to this issue in the Great Lakes region. In particular, the legislation requires the Great Lakes states to enact measures for limiting water withdrawals that can cause adverse ecosystem impacts. This study explores how both hydrogeologic and environmental flow limitations may constrain groundwater availability in the Great Lakes Basin. A methodology for calculating maximum allowable pumping rates is presented. Groundwater availability across the basin may be constrained by a combination of hydrogeologic yield and environmental flow limitations varying over both local and regional scales. The results are sensitive to factors such as pumping time, regional and local hydrogeology, streambed conductance, and streamflow depletion limits. Understanding how these restrictions constrain groundwater usage and which hydrogeologic characteristics and spatial variables have the most influence on potential streamflow depletions has important water resources policy and management implications.     

Assessing the trophic state of water bodies by high-resolution remote spectrometry in visible band

Analysis is presented of many-year spectrometric data in the visible band of electromagnetic spectrum collected for the Don R., including the Tsimlyansk Reservoir in 2010–2013 with a period of ~15 days. An algorithm has been proposed for separating spectral brightness coefficient of the rising radiation from water into six categories. A nomenclature scale of the trophic status of water bodies has been constructed. The obtained scale coincides with the nomenclature scales constructed by chlorophyll a concentration for water bodies under different physiographic conditions. The unquestioning advantage of remote sensing methods for assessing water body (WB) trophic status is emphasized, i.e., the possibility to carry out real-time studies within minutes at high representativeness of the results with respect to the examined aquatic ecosystem.     

Groundwater chemistry in intrapermafrost taliks in Central Yakutia

An intrapermafrost aquifer system, which is widespread in the sand deposits of bestyakhskaya terrace of the Lena R. (Central Yakutia), is characterized by generalized data of many-year studies of its groundwater chemistry. The groundwater discharges onto land surface through high-yield springs. The largest such source forms the Ulakhan-Taryn Creek with a mean many-year yield of 20 740 m³/day. The results of generalization were used to show the chemistry of intrapermafrost water to be stable at both many-year and annual scales, to characterize the hydraulic interaction of intrapermafrost water with suprapermafrost and subpermafrost water, to assess the spatial variations of groundwater resources in the intrapermafrost aquifer from the head-formation to the discharge domain. The results of the study are of importance for solving the problem of centralized drinking water supply to large populated localities in the Central Yakutia, including Yakutsk City.     

Simulating flood events at the Twin Ports of Duluth-Superior using a linked hydrologic-hydrodynamic framework

Ocean Dynamics - Generally, ports in the North American Great Lakes are not supported with navigational guidance (water level, water temperature, currents, ice) by NOAA’s Great Lakes...     

Spatial and Temporal Variations in the Formation of the Kamennaya Steppe Water Regime

The processes of water regime formation in the catchment areas of deans in the Kamennaya Steppe are studied based on the data of many-year field experiments. Certain regular variations are recognized in the characteristics of the Kamennaya Steppe hydrological and ecological condition and their correlation with anthropogenic and climatic factors is established.     

Factors governing strontium-90 export with surface runoff in the Chernobyl NPP restricted zone

Statistical analysis of collected data revealed priority factors affecting radionuclide migration in water. Considerable changes in the coefficients of correlations between the many-year values of those factors and the water export of ⁹⁰Sr make it possible to identify the stages associated with a mass passage of primary ⁹⁰Sr inputs into water-soluble forms. The landscape characteristics of drainage basins were used to construct regression forecast models of the export of pollutants from watersheds.     

The effect of water level variations on production-destruction processes in the Mozhaisk Reservoir

The results of many-year studies of production destruction processes in the Mozhaisk Reservoir are used to examine their specific features in extremely dry years. It is shown that the processes of organic matter formation and destruction in the reservoir are more active when water level is low. Variations in the intensity of production-destruction processes in all phases of synoptic cycle are analyzed (during cooling, cold, heating, and warm). Changes in weather conditions are shown to be accompanied by phytocenosis restructuring. Fine-cell phytoplankton forms are shown to dominate in phytocenosis composition when water level in the reservoir is extremely low.     

Hydrology and geomorphology of the Upper White Nile lakes and their relevance for water resources management in the Nile basin

Remote sensing data and digital elevation models were utilized to extract the catchment hydrological parameters and to delineate storage areas for the Ugandan Equatorial Lakes region. Available rainfall/discharge data are integrated with these morphometric data to construct a hydrological model that simulates the water balance of the different interconnected basins and enables the impact of potential management options to be examined. The total annual discharges of the basins are generally very low (less than 7% of the total annual rainfall). The basin of the shallow (5 m deep) Lake Kioga makes only a minor hydrological contribution compared with other Equatorial Lakes, because most of the overflow from Lake Victoria basin into Lake Kioga is lost by evaporation and evapotranspiration. The discharge from Lake Kioga could be significantly increased by draining the swamps through dredging and deepening certain channel reaches. Development of hydropower dams on the Equatorial Lakes will have an adverse impact on the annual water discharge downstream, including the occasional reduction of flow required for filling up to designed storage capacities and permanently increasing the surface areas of water that is exposed to evaporation. On the basis of modelling studies, alternative sites are proposed for hydropower development and water storage schemes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lake Volume Monitoring from Space

Lakes are integrators of environmental change occurring at both the regional and global scale. They present a wide range of behavior on a variety of timescales (cyclic and secular) depending on their morphology and climate conditions. Lakes play a crucial role in retaining and stocking water, and because of the significant global environmental changes occurring at several anthropocentric levels, the necessity to monitor all morphodynamic characteristics [e.g., water level, surface (water contour) and volume] has increased substantially. Satellite altimetry and imagery are now widely used together to calculate lake and reservoir water storage changes worldwide. However, strategies and algorithms to calculate these characteristics are not straightforward, and specific approaches need to be developed. We present a review of some of these methodologies by using lakes over the Tibetan Plateau to illustrate some critical aspects and issues (technical and scientific) linked to the observation of climate change impact on surface waters from remote sensing data. Many authors have measured water variation using the limited remote sensing measurements available over short time periods, even though the time series are probably too short to directly link these results with climate change. Indeed, there are many processes and factors, like the influence of lake morphology, that are beyond observation and are still uncertain. The time response for lakes to reach a new state of equilibrium is a key aspect that is often neglected in current literature. Observations over a long period of time, including maintaining a constellation of comprehensive and complementary satellite missions with service continuity over decades, are therefore necessary especially when the ground gauge network is too limited. In addition, the design of future satellite missions with new instrumental concepts (e.g., SAR, SARin, Ka band altimetry, Ka interferometry) will also be suitable for complete monitoring of continental waters.     

Development,implementation, and skill assessment of the NOAA/NOS Great Lakes Operational Forecast System

The NOAA Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (GLOFS) uses near-real-time atmospheric observations and numerical weather prediction forecast guidance to produce three-dimensional forecasts of water temperature and currents, and two-dimensional forecasts of water levels of the Great Lakes. This system, originally called the Great Lakes forecasting system (GLFS), was developed at The Ohio State University and NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in 1989. In 1996, a workstation version of the GLFS was ported to GLERL to generate semi-operational nowcasts and forecasts daily. In 2004, GLFS went through rigorous skill assessment and was transitioned to the National Ocean Service (NOS) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) in Silver Spring, MD. GLOFS has been making operational nowcasts and forecasts at CO-OPS since September 30, 2005. Hindcast, nowcast, and forecast evaluations using the NOS-developed skill assessment software tool indicated both surface water levels and temperature predictions passed the NOS specified criteria at a majority of the validation locations with relatively low root mean square error (4–8 cm for water levels and 0.5 to 1°C for surface water temperatures). The difficulty of accurately simulating seiches generated by storms (in particular in shallow lakes like Lake Erie) remains a major source of error in water level prediction and should be addressed in future improvements of the forecast system.     

Water temperature in different types of lakes in Karelia under changing climate based on data of instrumental measurements in 1953–2011

Data of many-year observations (1953–2011) have been used to study the effect of changes in regional climate on water surface temperature in different types of Karelian lakes. Positive trends are identified in water temperature in the lakes over ice-free period; the amplitudes and periods of oscillations have been determined.     

Changes in the resources and reserves of subsoil waters in the permafrost zone of Pechora-Ural Region under climate warming

Climate-warming-induced changes in the natural resources and the storage reserves of phreatic waters in zones of massive-insular, discontinuous, and continuous permafrost in the region are discussed. The relationship between a long-term trend toward rise in the phreatic water table and an increase in the period of their infiltration recharge is substantiated. The increments of phreatic-water natural resources typical of hydrogeological subdivisions of the region over a many-year period are evaluated. It is shown that the natural resources and storage reserves of phreatic waters in taliks increase almost over the entire territory of the Pechora-Ural Region.     

Many-year variations in river delta structures

Data on several river deltas are used to analyze the regularities in their dynamics in the context of variations of water and sediment runoff, sea level, and hydroengineering activities in delta areas. The basis for this analysis includes the results of many-year studies of river deltas in Russia and the world. The specific features of the evolution of the structure and morphometry of bayhead deltas, forming in bays, lagoons, and estuaries are shown in the case of the Alikazgan delta in the Terek mouth area and the deltas of two watercourses in the Mississippi mouth area. Data on many-year variations of the morphometric characteristics of modern protruding deltas in open coastal zones are systematized, and the factors that have an effect on these changes are analyzed. The types of delta formation processes and the types of deltas are considered with regard to the factors involved. The majority of modern river deltas are found to slow down their progradation into seas under the effect of anthropogenic runoff decline; moreover, some deltas have started retreating and degrading.     

Some aspects of the hydrochemical regime of a small river under the conditions of zoogenic disturbance

Results of many-year (2001–2007) observations on the small Il’d River, a tributary of the Rybinsk Reservoir, are given. River water chemistry has changed since the beginning of river water regulation induced by beavers. The construction of beaver ponds, giving rise to the formation of specific communities of aquatic organisms, facilitates the active mineralization of organic matter.     

Seasonal variations of the distribution of river water quality

The probability distributions of different values of water quality indices have been shown theoretically to follow a two-parameter lognormal law with season-dependent parameters. The obtained distribution law was checked against data of many-year water quality monitoring in the Moskva R. (at Rublevo Settl.). The distributions of several hydrochemical and microbiological indices have been studied. The seasonal dependence of parameters have been shown to cause the splitting of water quality index distributions predominantly into two lognormal branches, one corresponding to low-water seasons and the other corresponding to floods. Exceptions are water turbidity and color index: the former splits into three lognormal branches (corresponding to periods of winter low-water period, summer period with moderate rains, floods, and high rain floods), while the color index has only one branch, embracing all seasons.     

Denitrification in a Laurentian Great Lakes coastal wetland invaded by hybrid cattail (Typha × glauca)

Wetland ecosystems maintain and improve water quality through the process of denitrification, an increasingly important ecosystem service due to global N pollution. Invasive plants have the potential to disrupt denitrification by altering the environmental conditions that facilitate this process. Great Lakes coastal wetlands are experiencing widespread invasion by highly productive hybrid cattail with largely uncertain biogeochemical effects. Through field and controlled mesocosm studies, we sought to determine the effects of cattail invasion through time on denitrification rates and associated environmental factors in a Great Lakes coastal wetland. In the field, we found that cattail density correlated with increased denitrification and a suite of environmental and plant community characteristics and denitrification rates were positively correlated with NH₄ ⁺, sediment organic matter, reduced water levels, and cattail stand age. Through our controlled mesocosm study, we documented conditions 1- and 5-year following invasion and found that denitrification rates and soil organic matter increased in year 5, and cattail and year-since-invasion altered plant communities and soil NH₄ ⁺. Only a weak correlation between denitrification rates and cattail treatments was noted, however, owing to high replicate variability. Our results indicate that with increasing cattail residence time, one ecosystem service, biodiversity, was negatively impacted, while two other services, denitrification and sediment carbon accumulation, were enhanced. Thus, this highly invaded wetland still provides valuable services to aquatic ecosystems and to society. A holistic perspective is therefore critical when evaluating invasive species impacts in which negative impacts are weighed against other ecosystem services, which may be stimulated.     

Groundwater quality formaiton at water intakes of lacustrine type

The results of many-year hydrochemical observations in several water intakes on the Valdai Hills are generalized. The formation of groundwater quality in karst carbonate deposits is studied. The extent of interaction between operated aquifers and the accumulation of some toxicants in bottom sediments of lake systems is analyzed.     

Long-Term Variations of Water Runoff and Suspended Sediment Yield in the Parana and Uruguay Rivers

The hydroclimatic conditions of water runoff formation and the hydrography of Parana and Uruguay river basins in the South America are considered. A survey of the recent studies of the hydrological regime of these rivers is given. Observation data are used to evaluate the long-term average values of water runoff and suspended sediment yield in the Parana and Uruguay and their variations along the rivers. Characteristics of many-year runoff variations in the rivers were evaluated. A climate-induced increase was identified in the Parana and Uruguay water runoff, and the corresponding present-day trends in river runoff variations in both rivers were evaluated. The total water runoff and suspended sediment yield of the Parana and Uruguay into La Plata estuary were calculated. Water balance of the drainage basin of La Plata estuary was characterized.