Distribution and origin of nitrate in groundwater in an urban and suburban aquifer in Mar del Plata,Argentina

The impact of urbanization on groundwater quality is of special concern for water managers dealing with the provision of drinking water to large urban centers. Nitrate is one of the most common contaminants found in urban aquifers. This paper presents a case study aiming at evaluating the distribution and sources of nitrate in an urban aquifer in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. Four study zones under different land uses, including a pristine, a semi-rural, an intermediate, and an urban area, were evaluated as a part of this study. The three latter zones are linked by the groundwater flow system. The average nitrate concentration in the pristine area is 6.7 mg/L as nitrate and is over the permissible level of 50 mg/L for drinking water in the other areas. In the semi-rural area it ranges from 39.2 to 107.1 mg/L with an average value of 38.2 mg/L and the nitrate concentration tends to decrease in the intermediate zone to an average value of 38.2 mg/L; however, values above 60 mg/L are also observed there. Then the nitrate concentration in the urban area water is higher than that in the intermediate zonewater ranging from 48.2 to 100.3 mg/L with an average value of 67.3 mg/L. Data on the stable isotopes 15N and 18O in nitrate show that the main sources of nitrate in the study area are manure associated to agriculture uses and cesspools in the semi-rural area, and leakage of the sewage distribution network in the urban area, respectively. This is supported by a previous study which found that 20 % of the water flooding many underground structures in the city came from leakage of the sewage network. No evidence of nitrate attenuation by denitrification was found in the groundwater. This study has shown that aquifers in urban areas can be affected by agricultural activity in the upstream areas and leakage of the sewage network in the urban area.     

Evaluating TCE Abiotic and Biotic Degradation Pathways in a Permeable Reactive Barrier Using Compound Specific Isotope Analysis

A pilot‐scale zero valent iron (ZVI) Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) was installed using an azimuth‐controlled ‐vertical hydrofracturing at an industrial facility to treat a chlorinated Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) plume. Following ZVI injection, no significant reduction in concentration was observed to occur with the exception of some multilevel monitoring wells, which also showed high levels of total organic carbon (TOC). These patterns suggested that the zero valent iron was not well distributed in the PRB creating leaky conditions. The geochemical data indicated reducing conditions in these areas where VOC reduction was observed, suggesting that biotic processes, associated to the guar used in the injection of the iron, could be a major mechanism of VOC degradation. Compound‐Specific Isotope Analysis (CSIA) using both carbon and chlorine stable isotopes were used as a complementary tool for evaluating the contribution of abiotic and biotic processes to VOC trends in the vicinity of the PRB. The isotopic data showed enriched isotope values around the PRB compared to the isotope composition of the VOC source confirming that VOC degradation is occurring along the PRB. A batch experiment using site groundwater collected near the VOC source and the ZVI used in the PRB was performed to evaluate the site‐specific abiotic isotopic fractionation patterns. Field isotopic trends, typical of biodegradations were observed at the site and were different from those obtained during the batch abiotic experiment. These differences in isotopic trends combined with changes in VOC concentrations and redox parameters suggested that biotic processes are the predominant pathways involved in the degradation of VOCs in the vicinity of the PRB.     

Relationship between bedload and suspended sediment in the sand-bed Exu River,in the semi-arid region of Brazil

Abstract

Suspended sediment and bedload discharges in sand-bed rivers shape semi-arid landscapes and impact sediment delivery from these landscapes, but are still incompletely understood. Suspended sediment and bedload fluxes of the intermittent Exu River, Brazil, were sampled by direct measurements. The highest suspended sediment concentration observed was 4847.4 mg L^-1 and this value was possibly associated with the entrainment of sediment that was deposited in the preceding year. The bedload flux was well related to the stream power and the river efficiently transported all available bedload with a mean rate of 0.0047 kg m^-1 s^-1, and the percentage of bedload to suspended sediment varied between 4 and 12.72. The bed sediment of Exu River was prone to entrainment and showed a proclivity for transport. Thus, sand-bed and gravel-bed rivers of arid environments seem to exhibit the same mobility in the absence of armour layer.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor B. Touaibia

Citation Cantalice, J.R.B., Cunha Filho, M., Stosic, B.D., Piscoya, V.C., Guerra, S.M.S., and Singh, V.P., 2013. Relationship between bedload and suspended sediment in the sand-bed Exu River, in the semi-arid region of Brazil. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (8), 1789–1802.     

High-resolution grain-size characterisation of gravel bars using imagery analysis and geo-statistics

The scarcity of grain-size data from gravel-bed rivers has traditionally hindered hydraulic, sediment transport and river habitat studies. A new remote sensing methodology to estimate grain-size distribution is presented. It combines textural digital images of the riverbed at 1 : 1000 and 1 : 40 scales with grain-size sampling. It was applied to a 12-km reach of the Isábena River (Central Pyrenees NE Spain). First, textural patterns for each grain-size range were obtained, selecting the most closely related texture variables, including the use of semivariograms. Second, multiple linear regression equations were derived from the textural variables to estimate each value of the grain-size distribution. The highest correlation values (r²) were obtained from the central part of the distribution (D₅₀ with a RMS error of 12.7%). Finally, new multiple linear regression equations to estimate the D₅₀ and D₈₄ were obtained from 1 : 1000 images and four textural variables. These were used to derive D₅₀ and D₈₄ maps of the riverbed, re-sampled at a resolution of 1.5 m pixels, with RMS estimation errors of 26% and 32%, respectively. Downstream change in grain-size is also well reproduced by the method. The mean D₅₀ of 72 and 32 mm were estimated in the upper and the lower reaches of the river, respectively. The methodology shows great potential for application, the relation between the spatial resolution of the images and the mean grain-size of the riverbed sediment being the main issue for future development.     

Dynamical parameter analysis of continuous seismic signals of Popocatépetl volcano (Central Mexico): A case of tectonic earthquakes influencing volcanic activity

The continuous background seismic activity contains information on the internal state of a volcanic system. Here, we report the influence of major regional tectonic earthquakes (M > 5 in most cases) on such state, reflected as changes in the spectral and dynamical parameters of the volcano continuous seismic data. Although changes do not always occur, analysis of five cases of earthquake-induced variations in the signals recorded at Popocatépetl volcano in central México reveal significant fluctuations following the tectonic earthquakes. External visible volcanic activity, such as small to moderate explosions and ash emissions, were related to those fluctuations. We briefly discuss possible causes of the variations. We conclude that recognition of fluctuations in the dynamical parameters in volcano monitoring seismic signals after tectonic earthquakes, even those located in the far field, hundreds of kilometers away, may provide an additional criterion for eruption forecasting, and for decision making in the definition of volcanic alert levels.     

Present and future climatologies in the phase I CREMA experiment

We provide an overall assessment of the surface air temperature and precipitation present day (1976–2005) and future (2070–2099) ensemble climatologies in the Phase I CREMA experiment. This consists of simulations performed with different configurations (physics schemes) of the ICTP regional model RegCM4 over five CORDEX domains (Africa, Mediterranean, Central America, South America, South Asia), driven by different combinations of three global climate models (GCMs) and two greenhouse gas (GHG) representative concentration pathways (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5). The biases (1976–2005) in the driving and nested model ensembles compared to observations show a high degree of spatial variability and, when comparing GCMs and RegCM4, similar magnitudes and more similarity for precipitation than for temperature. The large scale patterns of change (2070–2099 minus 1976–2005) are broadly consistent across the GCM and RegCM4 ensembles and with previous analyses of GCM projections, indicating that the GCMs selected in the CREMA experiment are representative of the more general behavior of current GCMs. The RegCM4, however, shows a lower climate sensitivity (reduced warming) than the driving GCMs, especially when using the CLM land surface scheme. While the broad patterns of precipitation change are consistent across the GCM and RegCM4 ensembles, greater differences are found at sub-regional scales over the various domains, evidently tied to the representation of local processes. This paper serves to provide a reference view of the behavior of the CREMA ensemble, while more detailed and process-based analysis of individual domains is left to companion papers of this special issue.     

Kriging with external drift for functional data for air quality monitoring

Functional data featured by a spatial dependence structure occur in many environmental sciences when curves are observed, for example, along time or along depth. Recently, some methods allowing for the prediction of a curve at an unmonitored site have been developed. However, the existing methods do not allow to include in a model exogenous variables that, for example, bring meteorology information in modeling air pollutant concentrations. In order to introduce exogenous variables, potentially observed as curves as well, we propose to extend the so-called kriging with external drift—or regression kriging—to the case of functional data by means of a three-step procedure involving functional modeling for the trend and spatial interpolation of functional residuals. A cross-validation analysis allows to choose smoothing parameters and a preferable kriging predictor for the functional residuals. Our case study considers daily PM₁₀ concentrations measured from October 2005 to March 2006 by the monitoring network of Piemonte region (Italy), with the trend defined by meteorological time-varying covariates and orographical constant-in-time variables. The performance of the proposed methodology is evaluated by predicting PM₁₀ concentration curves on 10 validation sites, even with simulated realistic datasets on a larger number of spatial sites. In this application the proposed methodology represents an alternative to spatio-temporal modeling but it can be applied more generally to spatially dependent functional data whose domain is not a time interval.     

Interaction between shallow and deep aquifers in the Tivoli Plain (Central Italy) enhanced by groundwater extraction: A multi-isotope approach and geochemical modeling

In the Tivoli Plain (Rome, Central Italy) the interaction between shallow and deep groundwater flow systems enhanced by groundwater extraction has been investigated using isotopic and chemical tracers. A conceptual model of the groundwater flowpaths has been developed and verified by geochemical modeling. A combined hydrogeochemical and isotopic investigation using ion relationships such as DIC/Cl⁻, Ca/(Ca + Mg)/SO₄/(SO₄ + HCO₃), and environmental isotopes (δ¹⁸O, δ²H, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ³⁴S and δ¹³C) was carried out in order to determine the sources of recharge of the aquifer, the origin of solutes and the mixing processes in groundwater of Tivoli Plain. Multivariate statistical methods such as principal component analysis and Cluster analyses have confirmed the existence of different geochemical facies and the role of mixing in the chemical composition of the groundwater.