Atoll island vulnerability to flooding and inundation revealed by historical reconstruction: Fongafale Islet, Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu

The reef islands formed on coral atolls are generally small, low, and flat, with elevations of only a few meters. These islands are thus highly vulnerable to elevated sea levels caused by extreme events and global warming. Such vulnerability was recently evidenced at Fongafale Islet, the capital of Tuvalu, when it flooded during accelerated spring high tides possibly related to sea level rise caused by global warming. Many factors, not only environmental but also economic and social, determine the vulnerability of an island to sea level rise. In this study, we used data spanning 108 yrs to reconstruct changes in topography, land use/cover, population, and the distribution of buildings at Fongafale Islet. The results indicate that the vulnerability of Fongafale Islet relates to its original landform characteristics: the central part of the island was formerly dominated by swampland that flooded at high tides. Fongafale Islet experienced greater population in-migration and centralization beginning in the 1970s following the independence of Tuvalu and Kiribati. Migrants were also responding to declines in overseas mining operations and limited options for paid employment. As the population increased, construction took place in vulnerable swampland areas. Our results clearly demonstrate that examinations of global environmental issues should focus on characteristics specific to the region of interest. These characteristics should be specified using historical reconstruction to understand and address the vulnerability of an area to global environmental changes.     

Simulated impacts of irrigation on evapotranspiration in a strongly exploited region: a case study of the Haihe River basin,China

Irrigation is the major water supply for crop production in water‐limited regions. However, this important water component is usually neglected or simplified in hydrological modelling primarily because information concerning irrigation is notably difficult to collect. To assess real effects of irrigation on the simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) in water‐limited region, the Community Land Model version 4 was established over a typical semi‐humid agricultural basin in the northern China – the Haihe River basin. In the irrigated cropland, incorporating an irrigation scheme can enhance the simulated ET and improve the simulation of spatial variability of soil moisture content. We found that different configurations in the irrigation scheme do not cause significant differences in the simulated annual ET. However, simulated ET with simulated irrigation differs clearly from that with observed irrigation in mean annual magnitude, long‐term trend and spatial distribution. Once the irrigation scheme is well‐calibrated against observations, it reasonably reproduces the interannual variability of annual irrigation, when irrigation water management is relatively stable. More importantly, parameter calibration should be consistent with the configuration of the source of irrigation water. However, an irrigation scheme with a constant parameter value cannot capture the trend in the annual irrigation amount caused by abrupt changes in agricultural water management. Compared with different remotely sensed ET products, the enhancement in the simulated ET by irrigation is smaller than the differences among these products, and the trend in simulated ET with the observed irrigation cannot be captured correctly by the remotely sensed ET. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Isotopes and geochemistry in a managed aquifer recharge scheme: a case study of fresh water injection at the Damascus University Campus,Syria

A combination of stable isotopes (¹⁸O and ²H) and hydrochemistry has been applied to investigate storage processes in relation to aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) of the shallow alluvial Quaternary aquifer in Damascus basin. The stored water, entirely taken from the Figeh springs during flood periods, was injected in a single well having a brackish groundwater. Water samples were collected from four observation wells drilled in the Damascus University Campus (DUC) site during a 3‐year period (2006–2008). The injectant water, which deviates in its chemical and isotopic signatures from that of the ambient groundwater, shows that the stored water plume remains within close proximity to the injection well (IW) (<≈ 100 m). Thus, only two wells (W13 and W14) located at a distance less than 80 m from the injection point were affected by this injection. The observation wells located at longer distances from the IW (≈145 m and ≈ 600 m for wells W15 and WHz, respectively) were completely unaffected by the injection. Although most of the chemical and isotopic parameters usefully reflected the mixing process that occurs between the injectant water and ambient groundwater, the stable isotope (¹⁸O) and chloride (Cl⁻) were the most sensitive parameters that quickly reflect this signature. Using a simple mass balance, the calculated proportion of injectant water reaching the well W13 was in the range of 50–90%. This proportion was even lower (30–55%) in the case of well W14. Although the drought event prevailing during this study did not much help to inject further amounts of water, higher than the injected volume (0·2416 M m³) and also not favourable to better evaluate the fate and subsurface hydrological processes, these findings offer encouragement to continue the ASR activities, as an alternative way for better management of water resources in this basin facing intensive problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling the impacts of subsurface drainage on surface runoff and sediment yield in the Le Sueur Watershed,Minnesota, USA

Abstract

Tile drainage influences infiltration and surface runoff and is thus an important factor in the erosion process. Tile drainage reduces surface runoff, but questions abound on its influence on sediment transport through its dense network and into the stream network. The impact of subsurface tiling on upland erosion rates in the Le Sueur River watershed, USA, was assessed using the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model. Six different scenarios of tile drainage with varying drainage coefficient and management type (no till and autumn mulch-till) were evaluated. The mean annual surface runoff depth, soil loss rate and sediment delivery ratio (SDR) for croplands, based on a 30-year simulation for the watershed with untiled autumn mulch-till (Scenario 1), were estimated to be 83.5 mm, 0.27 kg/m² and 86.7%, respectively; on no-till management systems (Scenario 4), the respective results were 72.3 mm, 0.06 kg/m² and 88.2%. Tile drains reduced surface runoff, soil loss and SDR estimates for Scenario 1 by, on average, 14.5, 8.1 and 7.9%, respectively; and for Scenario 4 by an estimated 31.5, 22.1 and 20.2%, respectively. The impact of tile drains on surface runoff, soil loss and SDR was greater under the no-till management system than under the autumn mulch-till management system. Comparison of WEPP outputs with those of the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) showed differences between the two methods.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz

Citation Maalim, F.K. and Melesse. A.M., 2013. Modelling impacts of subsurface drainage on surface runoff and sediment yield in the Le Sueur Watershed in Minnesota, USA. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (3), 570–586.     

鄂尔多斯盆地及其周边的新构造运动

本区新构造运动十分活跃,表现出多次波动性,周边山系呈不均衡抬升,盆地则呈不均衡沉降,因此使盆地呈现不对称的簸箕状,盆地中的水系结构也呈现不对称性。区内构造变形主要有褶皱、断裂、新隆起、新坳陷、拱曲和掀斜等,并产生现代地震、地热和火山活动。不均衡掀斜是导致上述现象的根本原因。     

Are sea-level-rise trends along the coasts of the north Indian Ocean consistent with global estimates?

Mean-sea-level data from coastal tide gauges in the north Indian Ocean were used to show that low-frequency variability is consistent among the stations in the basin. Statistically significant trends obtained from records longer than 40 years yielded sea-level-rise estimates between 1.06–1.75 mm yr^− 1, with a regional average of 1.29 mm yr^− 1, when corrected for global isostatic adjustment (GIA) using model data. These estimates are consistent with the 1–2 mm yr^− 1 global sea-level-rise estimates reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.     

Capturing the essential spatial variability in distributed hydrological modelling: Infiltration parameters

Selecting the correct resolution in distributed hydrological modelling at the watershed scale is essential in reducing scale-related errors. The work presented herein uses information content (entropy) to identify the resolution which captures the essential variability, at the watershed scale, of the infiltration parameters in the Green and Ampt infiltration equation. A soil map of the Little Washita watershed in south-west Oklahoma, USA was used to investigate the effects of grid cell resolution on the distributed modelling of infiltration. Soil-derived parameters and infiltration exhibit decreased entropy as resolutions become coarser. This is reflected in a decrease in the maximum entropy value for the reclassified/derived parameters vis a vis the original data. Moreover, the entropy curve, when plotted against resolution, shows two distinct segments: a constant section where no entropy was lost with decreasing resolution and another part which is characterized by a sharp decrease in entropy after a critical resolution of 1209 m is reached. This methodology offers a technique for assessing the largest cell size that captures the spatial variability of infiltration parameters for a particular basin. A geographical information system (GIS) based rainfall-runoff model is used to simulate storm hydrographs using infiltration parameter maps at different resolutions as inputs. Model results up to the critical resolution are reproducible and errors are small. However, at resolutions beyond the critical resolution the results are erratic with large errors. A major finding of this study is that a large resolution (1209 m for this basin) yields reproducible model results. When modelling a river basin using a distributed model, the resolution (grid cell size) can drastically affect the model results and calibration. The error structure attributable to grid cell resolution using entropy as a spatial variability measure is shown.     

The soil hydrologic response to forest regrowth: a case study from southwestern Amazonia

As a large and dynamic land‐use category, tropical secondary forests may affect climate, soils, and hydrology in a manner different from primary forests or agricultural areas. We investigated the saturated hydraulic conductivity K_sat of a Kandiudult under different land uses in Rondonia, Brazil. We measured K_sat at four depths (12·5, 20, 30 and 50 cm) under (a) primary forest, (b) a former banana–cacao plantation (SF1), and (c) an abandoned pasture (SF2). At 12·5 cm, all three land uses differ significantly (α = 0·1), but not at the 20 and 30 cm depths. At 50 cm, K_sat was significantly greater in the former pasture than in other land uses. Lateral subsurface flow is expected during intense rainfall (about 30 times per year) at 30 cm depth in SF1 and at 50 cm depth in the forest, whereas the relatively low permeability at shallow 12·5 cm in the SF2 may result not only in lateral subsurface flow, but also saturation overland flow. For modelling purposes, recovering systems seem to have K_sat values distinct from primary forest at shallow depths, whereas at deeper layers (>20 cm) they may be considered similar to forests. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

鄂尔多斯盆地高自然伽马异常特征

为了加深对盆地深部和浅部高自然伽马异常特征综合分析研究,揭示高自然伽马异常地质成因,从而促进盆地多种能源矿产协同开发研究,针对收集大量的地球物理测井资料、地质资料及其他相关成果,绘制并分析了相关成果图。研究中遵循从单孔测井曲线特征分析到典型剖面研究,并按层对高自然伽马的平面分布特征进行分析研究。化验测试结果和自然伽马能谱测井成果研究表明,在本区,自然伽马异常增大主要是由于铀的活化和聚集,导致铀元素增加而引起。相关研究表明,盆地深部和浅部的铀异常具有一定的关系,盆地历经的沉积环境变迁是铀元素富集的主导因素。     

Putative Meteoritic Craters in Río Cuarto (Central Argentina) Interpreted as Eolian Structures

Ten oblong aligned depressions in the Río Cuarto area (provincia de Córdoba, Argentina) were supposed to be the result of very-low-angle Holocene meteoroid impacts. However, we consider that authors that studied the structures did not demonstrated their extraterrestrial origin. We suggest that an eolian origin for the structures of Río Cuarto is more likely. Actually, these landforms integrate large systems of similar deflation/accumulation geoforms aligned according to predominant winds during different periods.