Studies on the Toxieity of Pulp and Paper Factory Wastes to the Fish Notopterus Notopterus (PALLAS)

Studies are performed on the toxicity for 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours in the static test with dilutions of 10 … 32 vol.% of wastewaters from the pulp and paper production as well as of the mixed wastewater. The pulp waste shows the highest toxic effect, the LC₅₀ of the three types of wastewater being between 15 and 27% in dependence on the test conditions. A general increase of the toxic effect is caused by a rise in temperature from 26 °C to 36 °C and an increase of the pH value from 7.5 to 8.2. The increase of the oxygen concentration from 5.2 to 7.2 mg/1 results in a reduction of the toxicity of the pulp and mixed wastes, the size of fishes having a significant effect only for the pulp waste. Concentrations of wastes of 6 … 9% may be regarded to be harmless for long periods of time.     

Turbulence spectra of CO2, water vapor,temperature and wind velocity fluctuations over a crop surface

A prototype rapid-response CO₂ sensor was used in conjunction with a Lyman-alpha hygrometer, fine-wire thermocouples and a three-dimensional drag anemometer to measure CO₂, humidity, temperature and wind velocity fluctuations. Measurements were made over a soybean crop grown on relatively flat terrain near Mead, Nebraska.Temperature, humidity and CO₂ spectra measured under near neutral conditions were most similar in shape while longitudinal velocity (U) spectra appeared to be somewhat broader. Peaks occurred around f = 0.02 to 0.06 (where f is the non-dimensional frequency) in all spectra except for vertical velocity which had a peak near f = 0.5. As thermal stability changed from neutral to stable, spectra exhibited lower peaks, were narrower in shape and were shifted towards higher frequencies. Opposite behavior was observed with increasing instability.Cospectra for momentum, heat, water vapor and CO₂ measured during neutral conditions had similar peak frequencies (near f = 0.15). Among the cospectra studied, CO₂ and water vapor cospectra had the greatest similarity in shape.Published as Paper No. 7481, Journal Series, Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station. The work reported here was conducted under Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station Project 27-003 and Regional Research Project 11-33.Post-doctoral Research Associate and Professor, respectively, Center for Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583-0728.     

Earthquakes associated with the Clark Hill reservoir, South Carolina — A case of induced seismicity

Following the McCormick County, South Carolina, local magnitude 4.3 earthquake on August 2, 1974, continuous seismic activity has been observed in the area. The epicenters are located within 3 km from the Clark Hill reservoir. The shallow seismic activity appears to be related to water level fluctuations in the reservoir, and follows them by about two days. The frequency of earthquakes is related to the rate of change of water level, while the energy release is seen to depend on the water level itself. Pore pressure fluctuations at focal depths in a regime of high tectonic stresses is the suggested cause for the triggering of earthquakes.     

Speculation on the causes of continuing seismicity near Koyna reservoir,India

The cause for continuous induced seismicity at Koyna is not well understood. A heuristic model based on various physical parameters observed at Koyna is being proposed to explain the ongoing seismicity. This model contains two essential elements: (i) Intersecting faults near Koyna provide means of stress build-up in response to plate tectonic forces. (ii) The annual reservoir loading cycle and changes in the ground water table perturb this stress build-up by an influx of pore pressure in a fluid infiltrated medium. Hence, the spatial and temporal pattern of the pore prussure distribution and the seismicity will be governed by the location and hydromechanical properties of the faults and fractures. The predictions of the model can be tested by comparing the temporal and spatial pattern of seismicity with the changes in lake level and water table.     

Components of surface energy balance in a temperate grassland ecosystem

Eddy correlation measurements were made of fluxes of moisture, heat and momentum at a tallgrass prairie site near Manhattan, Kansas, U.S.A. during the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) in 1987. The study site is dominated by three C₄ grass species: big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). The stomatal conductance and leaf water potential of these grass species were also measured.In this paper, daily and seasonal variations in the components of the surface energy balance are examined. The aerodynamic and canopy surface conductances for the prairie vegetation are also evaluated.Published as Paper No. 8987, Journal Series, Nebraska Agricultural Research Division.

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Estimation of Columbia River virgin flow: 1879 to 1928

The Columbia River is a major source of and conduit for Pacific Northwest economic activity, and is one of the more heavily modified rivers in North America. Understanding human and climate‐induced changes in its hydrologic properties is, therefore, vital. Long streamflow records are essential to determining how runoff has changed over time, and Columbia River daily streamflow record at The Dalles began in 1878. To understand and separate anthropogenic and climate effects, however, it is also necessary to have a basin‐scale estimate of virgin or naturalized flow. The United States Geological Survey has calculated a monthly averaged adjusted river flow at The Dalles for 1879–1999 that accounts for the effects of flow regulation. The Bonneville Power Administration has estimated the monthly averaged virgin flow at The Dalles, i.e. the flow in the absence of both flow regulation and irrigation depletion for 1929–89. We have estimated the monthly virgin flow of the Columbia River at The Dalles from records of irrigated area for the missing early years, i.e. for the period 1879–1928. In addition, to allow hindcasting of a virgin flow sediment transport for the system, a daily virgin flow index with realistic higher moments and spectral properties has been calculated. Examination of the virgin flow record shows that climate change since the late 19th century has decreased annual average flow volume by > 7%; irrigation depletion has reduced the flow by another ∼7%. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relative Efficiency of Single-Outlier Discordancy Tests for Processing Geochemical Data on Reference Materials and Application to Instrumental Calibrations by a Weighted Least-Squares Linear Regression Model

Numerous studies report geochemical data on reference materials (RMs) processed by outlier-based methods that use univariate discordancy tests. However, the relative efficiency of the discordancy tests is not precisely known. We used an extensive geochemical database for thirty-five RMs from four countries (Canada, Japan, South Africa and USA) to empirically evaluate the performance of nine single-outlier tests with thirteen test variants. It appears that the kurtosis test (N15) is the most powerful test for detecting discordant outliers in such geochemical RM databases and is closely followed by the Grubbs type tests (N1 and N4) and the skewness test (N14). The Dixon-type tests (N7, N8, N9 and N10) as well as the Grubbs type test (N2) depicted smaller global relative efficiency criterion values for the detection of outlying observations in this extensive database. Upper discordant outliers were more common than the lower discordant outliers, implying that positively skewed inter-laboratory geochemical datasets are more frequent than negatively skewed ones and that the median, a robust central tendency indicator, is likely to be biased especially for small-sized samples. Our outlier-based procedure should be useful for objectively identifying discordant outliers in many fields of science and engineering and for interpreting them accordingly. After processing these databases by single-outlier discordancy tests and obtaining reliable estimates of central tendency and dispersion parameters of the geochemical data for the RMs in our database, we used these statistical data to apply a weighted least-squares linear regression (WLR) model for the major element determinations by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and compared the WLR results with an ordinary least-squares linear regression model. An advantage in using our outlier procedure and the new concentration values and uncertainty estimates for these RMs was clearly established.     

Predictive modelling of rainfall-induced landslide hazard in the Lesser Himalaya of Nepal based on weights-of-evidence

Landslide hazard mapping is a fundamental tool for disaster management activities in mountainous terrains. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the predictive power of weights-of-evidence modelling in landslide hazard assessment in the Lesser Himalaya of Nepal. The modelling was performed within a geographical information system (GIS), to derive a landslide hazard map of the south-western marginal hills of the Kathmandu Valley. Thematic maps representing various factors (e.g., slope, aspect, relief, flow accumulation, distance to drainage, soil depth, engineering soil type, landuse, geology, distance to road and extreme one-day rainfall) that are related to landslide activity were generated, using field data and GIS techniques, at a scale of 1:10,000. Landslide events of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were used to assess the Bayesian probability of landslides in each cell unit with respect to the causative factors. To assess the accuracy of the resulting landslide hazard map, it was correlated with a map of landslides triggered by the 2002 extreme rainfall events. The accuracy of the map was evaluated by various techniques, including the area under the curve, success rate and prediction rate. The resulting landslide hazard value calculated from the old landslide data showed a prediction accuracy of > 80%. The analysis suggests that geomorphological and human-related factors play significant roles in determining the probability value, while geological factors play only minor roles. Finally, after the rectification of the landslide hazard values of the new landslides using those of the old landslides, a landslide hazard map with > 88% prediction accuracy was prepared. The methodology appears to have extensive applicability to the Lesser Himalaya of Nepal, with the limitation that the model's performance is contingent on the availability of data from past landslides.     

A new methodology for water resources multicriteria decision making under uncertainty

A multiciteria decision making problem in water resource is addressed through the generation of fuzzy Pareto optimal set. Methodology is using positive and negative ideal solutions (Lai, Y.-J., Liu, T.-Y., Hwang, C.L. (1994). TOPSIS for MODM. European Journal of Operational Research 76, 486-500) and a set of weights assigned to the objective functions in fuzzy triangular form. Solution of the problem is obtained by transforming each objective function into a set of three objective functions. A planning problem of multicriteria waste water treatment from the literature is used as an illustrative example to demonstrate the utility of the proposed methodology. The obtained fuzzy Pareto solution set has been compared with the deterministic solution set. It is shown that the proposed approach can: (a) capture the uncertainty associated with the assignment of weights; and (b) provide the decision makers with a wider range of solutions to select from.