Variation of hydrogeochemical characteristics of water in surface flows,shallow wells,and boreholes in the coastal city of Douala (Cameroon)

ABSTRACT

Groundwater is used by 3?million inhabitants in the coastal urban city of Douala, Cameroon, but comprehensive data are too sparse for it to be managed in a sustainable manner. Hence this study aimed to (1) assess the potability of the groundwater; (2) evaluate the spatial variation of groundwater composition; and (3) assess the interaction and recharge mechanisms of different water bodies. Hydrogeochemical tools and methods revealed the following results in the Wouri and Nkappa formations of the Douala basin, which is beneath Douala city: 30% of water samples from hand-dug wells in the shallow Pleistocene alluvium aquifer were saline and highly mineralized. However, water from boreholes in the deeper (49–92 m depth) Palaeocene aquifer was saline-free, less mineralized and potable. Water in the shallow aquifer (0.5–22 m depth) was of Na⁺-K⁺-Cl^?-NO₃^? type and not potable due to point source pollution, whereas Ca⁺-HCO₃^? unpolluted water dominates in the deeper aquifer. Water in the deep and shallow aquifers indicates the results of preferential flow pass and evaporative recharge, respectively. Possible hydrogeochemical processes include point source pollution, reverse ion exchange, remote recharge areas and mixing of waters with different chemical signatures.

EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis ASSOCIATE EDITOR M.D. Fidelibus     

Coastal aquifer response to extreme storm events in Emilia‐Romagna,Italy

With global warming and sea level rise, many coastal systems will experience increased levels of inundation and storm flooding, especially along sandy lowland coastal areas, such as the Northern Adriatic coast (Italy). Understanding how extreme events may directly affect groundwater hydrology in shallow unconfined coastal aquifers is important to assess coastal vulnerability and quantify freshwater resources. This study investigates shallow coastal aquifer response to storm events. The transitory and permanent effects of storm waves are evaluated through the real time monitoring of groundwater and soil parameters, in order to characterize both the saturated and unsaturated portions of the coastal aquifer of Ravenna and Ferrara (southern Po Delta, Italy). Results highlight a general increase in hydraulic head and soil moisture, along with a decrease in groundwater salinity and pore water salinity due to rainfall infiltration during the 2 days storm event. The only exceptions are represented by the observation wells in proximity to the coastline (within 100 m), which recorded a temporary increase in soil and water salinity caused by the exceptional high waves, which persist on top of the dune crest during the storm event. This generates a saline plume that infiltrates through the vadose zone down to the saturated portion of the aquifer causing a temporary disappearance of the freshwater lens generally present, although limited in size, below the coastal dunes. Despite the high hydraulic conductivity, the aquifer system does not quickly recover the pre‐storm equilibrium and the storm effects are evident in groundwater and soil parameters after 10 days past the storm overwash recess.     

Fine‐resolution pollen‐analytical study of Holocene woodland dynamics and land use in north Sligo,Ireland

The results of detailed pollen‐analytical investigations of a core from Lough Dargan, Co. Sligo, Ireland are presented. The pollen diagram spans much of the postglacial and documents changes in woodland composition and cover, and farming activity. Special attention is paid to prehistoric farming and to the significance of cereal‐type pollen. The first sign of arable farming coincides with the Elm Decline at c. 3760 BC. This early Neolithic farming phase extended over c. 750 years, the main Landnam phase having a duration of ～700 years. After a break of about three centuries, Neolithic farming resumed. Late Neolithic farming was at first predominantly pastoral, but later (c. 2360–2130 BC) it had a distinct arable component. In the early Bronze Age, beginning c. 2130 BC, farming increased and woodland was substantially reduced for the first time. From then until the beginning of the late Iron Age (c. 80 BC), there was a sustained and strong human impact. In the late Iron Age, a distinct lull in pastoral farming lasted for about four centuries (c. 80 BC–AD 350). This facilitated woodland regeneration that included yew. Substantial woodland clearance, and farming that included a considerable arable component, characterized the Medieval and later periods. The changes recorded at L. Dargan and other sites in the region are discussed in the light of evidence for climate change provided by regional and super‐regional climate proxies. It is argued that climate may not have been a decisive factor in determining human impact and farming activity.     

Investigation on the effect of strong out-of-band signals on global navigation satellite systems receivers

The mitigation of radio frequency interference (RFI) has a fundamental role in global navigation satellite system (GNSS) applications, especially when a high level of availability is required. Several electromagnetic sources, in fact, might degrade the performance of the global positioning system (GPS) and Galileo receivers, and their effects can be either in-band (i.e., secondary harmonics generated by transmitters of other communication systems due to non-linearity distortions) or out-of-band (i.e., strong signals that occupy frequency bandwidths very close to GNSS bands). We investigated the effects of real out-of-band signals on GNSS receivers and analyzed the impact on the overall receiver chain in order to evaluate the impact of the interference source. In particular, the analysis focuses on the spectrum at the front-end output, on the automatic gain control (AGC) behavior, as well as on the digital processing stages (signal acquisition and tracking) at the analog digital converter (ADC) output. This study refers to several experiments and data collections performed in interfered areas of downtown Torino (Italy). The obtained results underline how digital/analog TV transmissions represent a potential interference source for GNSS applications and might be critical for the safety of life services.     

Large-Eddy Simulations of Pollutant Removal Enhancement from Urban Canyons

Boundary-Layer Meteorology - Techniques for improving the removal of pollution from urban canyons are crucial for air quality control in cities. The removal mainly occurs at the building roof...     

A finite volume / discontinuous Galerkin method for the advective Cahn–Hilliard equation with degenerate mobility on porous domains stemming from micro-CT imaging

A numerical method is formulated for the solution of the advective Cahn–Hilliard (CH) equation with constant and degenerate mobility in three-dimensional porous media with non-vanishing velocity on the exterior boundary. The CH equation describes phase separation of an immiscible binary mixture at constant temperature in the presence of a conservation constraint and dissipation of free energy. Porous media / pore-scale problems specifically entail images of rocks in which the solid matrix and pore spaces are fully resolved. The interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method is used for the spatial discretization of the CH equation in mixed form, while a semi-implicit convex–concave splitting is utilized for temporal discretization. The spatial approximation order is arbitrary, while it reduces to a finite volume scheme for the choice of element-wise constants. The resulting nonlinear systems of equations are reduced using the Schur complement and solved via inexact Newton’s method. The numerical scheme is first validated using numerical convergence tests and then applied to a number of fundamental problems for validation and numerical experimentation purposes including the case of degenerate mobility. First-order physical applicability and robustness of the numerical method are shown in a breakthrough scenario on a voxel set obtained from a micro-CT scan of a real sandstone rock sample.     

Unraveling the time-dependent relevance of input model uncertainties for a lumped hydrologic model of a pre-alpine karst system

Uncertainties in hydrologic model outputs can arise for many reasons such as structural, parametric and input uncertainty. Identification of the sources of uncertainties and the quantification of their impacts on model results are important to appropriately reproduce hydrodynamic processes in karst aquifers and to support decision-making. The present study investigates the time-dependent relevance of model input uncertainties, defined as the conceptual uncertainties affecting the representation and parameterization of processes relevant for groundwater recharge, i.e. interception, evapotranspiration and snow dynamic, on the lumped karst model LuKARS. A total of nine different models are applied, three to compute interception (DVWK, Gash and Liu), three to compute evapotranspiration (Thornthwaite, Hamon and Oudin) and three to compute snow processes (Martinec, Girons Lopez and Magnusson). All the input model combinations are tested for the case study of the Kerschbaum spring in Austria. The model parameters are kept constant for all combinations. While parametric uncertainties computed for the same model in previous studies do not show pronounced temporal variations, the results of the present work show that input uncertainties are seasonally varying. Moreover, the input uncertainties of evapotranspiration and snowmelt are higher than the interception uncertainties. The results show that the importance of a specific process for groundwater recharge can be estimated from the respective input uncertainties. These findings have practical implications as they can guide researchers to obtain relevant field data to improve the representation of different processes in lumped parameter models and to support model calibration.

     

Evolution of the M31 disk population

An evolutionary model for the M31 inner disk population is described, which at age 12 billion years agrees closely with the narrow-band colors and line indices recently measured by Spinradet al. (1971), and with the broad-band colors from 0.36 to 3.4 . Assuming that gE galaxies have the same stellar population as the M31 inner disk, this model is used to derive evolutionary effects in cosmology. Interpretation of the magnitude-redshift relation is substantially affected, since the evolutionary correction to V magnitudes at redshift 0.2 may be 0.09 mag. if H₀=100 km s^–1 Mpc^–1, or 0.25 mag. ifH ₀=50. Changes in some line strengths may be observable at redshift 0.46, showing the younger stellar population at earlier times. Our results differ from estimates by other authors, also based on the assumption that the gE and disk populations are identical, that the photometry of Spinradet al. (1971) precludes a significant rate of evolution. One reason for the difference is that our model has an unexpectedly shallow luminosity function just below the main sequence turnoff; another reason is that authors in the past have used the change in absolute V magnitude as the evolutionary correction, whereas the appropriate quantity is the change in absolute magnitude at theemitted wavelengths, and evolution is more rapid at these shorter wavelengths.     

Temporal variation in the structure of autotrophic and heterotrophic communities in the subarctic Pacific

Autotrophic and microheterotrophic plankton populations were monitored in the euphotic zone of the eastern subarctic Pacific during 6 one-month cruises in spring and summer, 1984, 1987 and 1988. Transmitted light, epifluorescence, and electron microscopy were used to identify, enumerate and estimate the biomass of size-populations of species. The 2–10μm size class dominated the biomass of both autotrophs and heterotrophs. The autotrophic flagellate, Phaeocystis pouchetii, was frequently observed in its non-colonial phase. Temporal variation in all the stocks was evident and could be explained only partially by the physical, chemical or biological factors investigated here. The general structure of the autotrophic community was similar to that in the North Atlantic, but major, unexplained variations between cruises occurred. Variation in mixed-layer depth and day length (but not variation in daily insolation) explained 25% of the variation in autotrophic doubling rate. Heterotrophic biomass comprised, in decreasing order of importance, non-pigmented flagellates, dinoflagellates, and ciliates. Ciliates rarely contributed more than 40% to the total. Microheterotrophic biomass rarely exceeded 30μg C 1⁻¹ (avg 15μg C 1⁻¹, 0–60m) whereas autotrophic biomass averaged 20μg C 1⁻¹, 0–60m, and reached 74μg C 1⁻¹ on one occasion, yet the grazing capacity of these microheterotrophs averaged 100% of primary production.