Optimization of water allocation in the Shatt al-Arab River under different salinity regimes and tide impact

Wastewater effluents from irrigation and the domestic and industrial sectors have serious impacts in deteriorating water quality in many rivers, particularly in areas under tidal influence. There is a need to develop an approach that considers the impact of human and natural causes of salinization. This study uses a multi-objective optimization–simulation model to investigate and describe the interactions of such impacts in the Shatt al-Arab River, Iraq. The developed model is able to reproduce the salinity distribution in the river given varying conditions. The salinity regime in the river varies according to different hydrological conditions and anthropogenic activities. Due to tidal effects, salinity caused by drainage water is seen to intrude further upstream into the river. The applied approach provides a way to obtain optimal solutions where both river salinity and deficit in water supply can be minimized. The approach is used for exploring the trade-off between these two objectives.     

Coastal changes at the Sulina mouth of the Danube River as a result of human activities

Sulina, the middle distributary of the Danube Delta, has been significantly changed by human activities over the past 150 yr. These include engineering works in the second half of the 19th century, when the channel was transformed for navigation and the construction of jetties which nowadays extend 8 km seawards. These interventions have strongly affected the natural processes of the Black Sea coast near the Sulina mouth. To the south of the Sulina mouth, the natural mild erosion has been reversed in the area close to the jetties where accretion is occurring, while southwards the greatest erosion rate along the entire Romanian coast, of more than 20 m/yr, has been recorded. Sediment accumulation in the northern part of the mouth is also huge and has brought to the creation and swift elongation of a sediment spit in several decades. Thus, the bay located here suffers from a rapid transformation into a lagoon.     

Dealing with erosion along the Danube Delta coast. The CONSCIENCE experience towards a sustainable coastline management

The most severe shoreline retreat (over 20 m/year) along the Danube Delta coast has been recorded in the coastal stretch confined by the Sulina branch (north) and Sahalin spit island (south). This erosive trend is caused by the natural evolution of some stretches of the Danube Delta coast, but strongly enhanced by the human activities. Human interventions result in the dramatic decrease in quantity of sediments reaching the coast and in the disruption of natural sediment circulation in the coastal area. EUROSION FP5 Project developed four concepts to be used in coastal studies: coastal sediment cell, coastal resilience, favourable sediment status and strategic sediment reservoir. The main objectives of this study regard the application of the CONSCIENCE methodology and test of the concepts in order to identify and understand the main threats for Sulina - Sahalin littoral cell, especially the coastal erosion one, as well as to provide a sound working methodology for coastal managers to deal with these threats. The sediment budget computed in previous studies, as well as the field observations, indicate a lack of sediments for the littoral cell (unfavourable sediment status). In order to asses the vulnerability of the coast to short term extreme events (especially storms), simulations of water level changes were performed and calibrated with the field observations. A processes based numerical model was used to simulate the storm induced water level variations and the main input data were the bathymetry of the active beach, wind direction and speed (storm scenarios) and the characteristics of water and air. The results show large water level increases for the central part of the study zone, especially for northern wind directions.The main solution proposed to deal the problems arising from a sediment-starved coast, vulnerable to the extreme events, is artificial nourishment. Two strategic sediment reservoirs were identified, both of them at the northern boundary of the cell: the sediments dredged periodically from Sulina mouth and the sediments accumulated in Musura Bay, just north of Sulina jetties. The transfer of these sediments towards the central part of the littoral cell Sulina - Sahalin would decrease the erosion rates to a natural level and restore the natural coastal resilience. The methodology developed in CONSCIENCE Framework and applied to Danube Delta coastal zone provided good results when problems and solutions for the coastal zone were to be identified and tested. This methodology and its related results can be applied by the local coastal managers to Sulina - Sahalin littoral cell, while this experience can be extended to other similar environments facing the same problems.     

Understanding groundwater chemistry using mixing models

For the last 15 a, SKB (the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company) has been using the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (HRL) as the main test site for the development of suitable tools and methods for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Major achievements have been made in the development of a new groundwater modelling technique. The technique described in this paper is used within the ongoing site investigations of Forsmark and Simpevarp in Sweden.     

The impact of heat waves on surface urban heat island and local economy in Cluj-Napoca city,Romania

The association between heat waves and the urban heat island effect can increase the impact on environment and society inducing biophysical hazards. Heat stress and their associated public health problems are among the most frequent. This paper explores the heat waves impact on surface urban heat island and on the local economy loss during three heat periods in Cluj-Napoca city in the summer of 2015. The heat wave events were identified based on daily maximum temperature, and they were divided into three classes considering the intensity threshold: moderate heat waves (daily maximum temperature exceeding the 90th percentile), severe heat waves (daily maximum temperature over the 95th percentile), and extremely severe heat waves (daily maximum temperature exceeding the 98th percentile). The minimum length of an event was of minimum three consecutive days. The surface urban heat island was detected based on land surface temperature derived from Landsat 8 thermal infrared data, while the economic impact was estimated based on data on work force structure and work productivity in Cluj-Napoca derived from the data released by Eurostat, National Bank of Romania, and National Institute of Statistics. The results indicate that the intensity and spatial extension of surface urban heat island could be governed by the magnitude of the heat wave event, but due to the low number of satellite images available, we should consider this information only as preliminary results. Thermal infrared remote sensing has proven to be a very efficient method to study surface urban heat island, due to the fact that the synoptic conditions associated with heat wave events usually favor cloud free image. The resolution of the OLI_TIRS sensor provided good results for a mid-extension city, but the low revisiting time is still a drawback. The potential economic loss was calculated for the working days during heat waves and the estimated loss reached more than 2.5 mil. EUR for each heat wave day at city scale, cumulating more than 38 mil. EUR for the three cases considered.     

Unsaturated resilient behavior of a natural compacted sand

Granular materials are generally used in unbound layers of road pavement structures. The mechanical behavior of these materials is widely studied with repeated load triaxial tests (RLTT) in which the elastic response is defined as the resilient behavior. Usually observed under total stress conditions, the effect of pore pressure changes during loading are not usually included in design. Further, the unbound layers frequently exist under partially saturated conditions. The influence of the unsaturated state, i.e., the suction, on the mechanical behavior, of unbound granular materials for roads has not been sufficiently studied and is generally not taken into account in models used for these materials.     

Evaluation of the boundary layer morning transition using the CL-31 ceilometer signals

The morning transition of the atmospheric boundary layer from nighttime to daytime conditions was investigated using the Vaisala’s CL-31 ceilometer, located at Magurele, Romania (44.35°N, 26.03°E). Based on the 5-days backward trajectories, we rejected those measurements which were related to the intrusions of long-range transported particles. In the several discussed cases, which are representative for the morning transition in spring and summer seasons over Magurele, the increasing depth of the boundary layer related to the local aerosol load was well discernible. The dynamic change of its depth was estimated with errors using a simple method based on finding the minimum of the first derivative of the ceilometer signal. In the summer, the increase of the boundary layer depth due to the morning transition from the nighttime to daytime conditions starts on average of about 80 min earlier and the growth rate of this depth is 143 ± 6 m/h and about 37% slower than in the spring case.