Assessment of groundwater residence times in the pore aquifers of the River Elbe Basin

An area covering assessment of the groundwater residence times for the upper pore aquifers in the River Elbe Basin was performed. Residence times were determined by combining groundwater velocities and flow distances along each flow-path to the surface waters using a two-dimensional model approach. Groundwater velocity was calculated as a function of hydraulic conductivity, hydraulic gradient and effective yield of pore space. Flow paths were obtained by an analysis of the morphology of the groundwater table. The mean groundwater residence time in the pore aquifers of the River Elbe Basin was quantified to about 25 years. A strong temporal blurring in the different regions between less than one year and more than 250 years was obtained. For the regional groundwater management in the Elbe Basin the groundwater residence times are an important parameter, which helps to take into account the temporal dimension in the assessment of the impact of political measures aiming at the improvement of groundwater quality with regard to diffuse pollutants (e.g. nitrate).     

Risk Assessment on Organic Contamination of Shallow Groundwater of an Oilfield in Northeast China

With the oil contaminated site of an oil field in northeast as the research area, based on the site geological and hydrogeological conditions, and by virtue of the methods of assessment on current situation of organic contamination and environmental impact assessment as well as leaching mobility assessment on organics, the internal and external risk assessments on organic contamination of shallow groundwater in the research area are conducted respectively. According to the results, about 30 kinds of organic components, including chlorinated hydrocarbons, mononuclear aromatics, heteroaromatic compound, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and n-alkanes, are detected in the shallow groundwater in the research area. The current situation contamination of dichloromethane is the most serious, and all well points are of contamination at medium or above level. Compared with dichloromethane, contamination of trichloromethane and benzene is lighter, but several seriously contaminated well points occur in these two groups. The leaching mobility of dichloromethane, trichloromethane and benzene is extremely high, posing the greatest contamination risks against groundwater.     

Hydrograph separation to improve understanding of Dissolved Organic Carbon Dynamics in Headwater catchments

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a key component of the global carbon cycle, but, to date, large uncertainties still exist on its source and fate in first‐order streams. In a 23 ha rangeland and steep‐slope headwater of South Africa, our aim was to quantify the contribution of overland flow (OF), soil water (SW) and ground water (GW) to DOC fluxes (DOC_F), and to interpret the results in terms of DOC sources and fate. The average 2010–2011 DOC concentration (DOC_C) at the catchment outlet was 4.7 mg C l^?1 with a standard error of ±2.5 mg C l^?1, which was significantly lower than in SW (15.2 ± 1.6 mg C l^?1) and OF (11.9 ± 0.8 mg C l^?1), but higher than in GW (2.3 ± 0.6 mg C l^?1). Based on end‐member mixing using Si and Na concentration in the water compartments, the average SW contribution to DOC_F was 66.4%, followed by OF (30.0%) and GW (3.6%). The resulting estimated DOC_F at the catchment outlet was 8.05 g C m² y^?1. This was much higher than the observed value of 2.80 g C m² y^?1, meaning that 5.25 g C m² y^?1 or 65% of the DOC is lost during its downslope and/or downstream transport to the catchment outlet. Complementary investigations revealed that the DOC_C in SW dropped from 15.2 ± 1.6 to 2.6 ± 0.3 mg C l^?1 during its downslope transport to the river system, which corresponded to a net loss of 5.10 g C m² y^?1, or 97% of the catchment DOC losses. These results on DOC sources and potential fate in headwaters are expected to improve our understanding of the impact of hydrology on the global C‐cycle. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Groundwater recharge and agricultural contamination

Agriculture has had direct and indirect effects on the rates and compositions of groundwater recharge and aquifer biogeochemistry. Direct effects include dissolution and transport of excess quantities of fertilizers and associated materials and hydrologic alterations related to irrigation and drainage. Some indirect effects include changes in water–rock reactions in soils and aquifers caused by increased concentrations of dissolved oxidants, protons, and major ions. Agricultural activities have directly or indirectly affected the concentrations of a large number of inorganic chemicals in groundwater, for example NO₃ ^–, N₂, Cl, SO₄ ^2–, H⁺, P, C, K, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra, and As, as well as a wide variety of pesticides and other organic compounds. For reactive contaminants like NO₃ ^–, a combination of chemical, isotopic, and environmental-tracer analytical approaches might be required to resolve changing inputs from subsequent alterations as causes of concentration gradients in groundwater. Groundwater records derived from multi-component hydrostratigraphic data can be used to quantify recharge rates and residence times of water and dissolved contaminants, document past variations in recharging contaminant loads, and identify natural contaminant-remediation processes. These data indicate that many of the world's surficial aquifers contain transient records of changing agricultural contamination from the last half of the 20th century. The transient agricultural groundwater signal has important implications for long-term trends and spatial heterogeneity in discharge. Electronic Publication     

独立周跳和非独立周跳在高次差法中的分析

GPS信号在传送过程中,载波相位由于受到信号的遮挡、干扰、接收机故障等原因的影响,引起整周计数部分突变,从而产生周跳。周跳会造成观测数据不准确,直接影响到GPS测量的精度。针对GPS周跳中存在独立周跳和非独立周跳的问题,依据高次差法的特征子序列对非差载波相位进行模拟分析,通过实验研究结果表明:高次差法能有效地探测出间隔2个历元的非独立周跳,但对于间隔3个以上的历元无能为力;连续周跳的情况对高次差法探测周跳的能力没有影响。     

山西省近期地下水动态基本特性的初步分析

本文在简要介绍山西省地下水动态观测历史及现状的基础上,分析了省内地下水流向、动态变化特性,归纳了山西省地下水动态的基本特点,最后提出了加强地下水动态观测工作的四点结论及建议.     

Impact of desalination plants brine injection wells on coastal aquifers

A new methodology is developed in assessing environmental impacts of desalination plants discharging brine into the ground. The main environmental problem of the desalination of seawater is the brine disposal. The brine is commonly discharged into the sea or injected into a saline aquifer. In the case of injection into the ground, it is necessary to design a disposal system in a way that respects the environment and is sustainable. Laboratory and computational methods have been utilized to simulate the unsteady three-dimensional (3D) phenomena of subsurface brine disposal. The computational software used is SEAWAT, which is a 3D unsteady variable-density flow simulation model. The model is first used to simulate the laboratory results, and good agreement is achieved. Then, hypothetical problems are designed and simulated of groundwater extraction and brine disposal by desalination stations. The major purpose of these hypothetical problems is to delineate a methodology and to create design charts for design and management of production and injection well fields for coastal desalination plants. Several design charts have been developed with 36 scenarios for two well configurations created by four design parameters: relative salt concentration (RSC), production and injection rates (Q _d , Q _r ), well spacing (S), and simulation period (T).     

Determining the groundwater basin and surface watershed boundary of Dalinuoer Lake in the middle of Inner Mongolian Plateau,China and its impacts on the ecological environment

The surface watershed and groundwater basin have fixed recharge scale, which are not only the basic unit for hydrologic cycle research but also control the water resources formation and evolution and its corresponding eco-geological environment pattern. To accurately identify the boundary of the surface watershed and groundwater basin is the basis for properly understanding hydrologic cycle and conducting the water balance analysis at watershed scale in complicated geologic structure area, especially when the boundary are inconsistent. In this study, the Dalinuoer Lake located in the middle of the Inner Mongolian Plateau which has complicated geologic structure was selected as the representative case. Based on the multidisciplinary comprehensive analysis of topography, tectonics, hydrogeology, groundwater dynamics and stable isotopes, the results suggest the following: (1) The surface watershed ridge and groundwater basin divide of Dalinuoer Lake are inconsistent. The surface watershed was divided into two separate groundwater systems almost having no groundwater exchange by the SW-NE Haoluku Anticlinorium Fault which has obvious water-blocking effect. The surface drainage area of Dalinuoer Lake is 6139 km². The northern regional A is the Dalinuoer Lake groundwater system with an area of 4838 km², and the southern regional B is the Xilamulun Riverhead groundwater system with an area of 1301 km². (2) The groundwater in the southern of regional A and the spring-feeding river are the important recharge sources for the Dalinuoer Lake, and it has greater recharge effects than the northern Gonggeer River system. (3) It is speculated that the trend of Haoluku Anticlinorium Fault is the boundary of the westerlies and the East Asian summer Monsoon (EASM) climate systems, which further pinpoints the predecessor’s understanding of this boundary line. At present, the Dalinuoer Lake watershed is proved to have gone through a prominent warming-drying trend periods, which leads to the precipitation reduction, temperature rise, human activities water usage increasement. So the hydrological cycle and lake eco-environment at watershed scale will still bound to be change, which may pose the potential deterioration risk on the suitability of fish habitat. The results can provide basic support for better understanding water balance evolution and lake area shrinkage cause as well as the ecological protection and restoration implementation of Dalinuoer Lake watershed.© 2021 China Geology Editorial Office.     

From fluvial dynamics to eco-fluvial dynamics

Sediment plays a very important role in the functioning of river ecosystems. It is the basic substance for the survival of benthic animals and aquatic plants. On the other hand, the growth of biofilms and bio-disturbance of benthos affect the sediment transport characteristics. With the increasing attention to protect aquatic ecosystems, the importance of habitats has become increasingly researched. The need to study the interactions among sediment, flow, riverbed deformation, and aquatic ecosystems naturally leads to the proposed discipline of eco-fluvial dynamics. In this paper, the basic concept and main research content of eco-fluvial dynamics is introduced with the Yarlung Tsangpo River as the research example. This case study is an example of an aquatic ecosystem in an ever-changing environment because of the effects of climate change. The results of analysis of eco-fluvial dynamics will provide a scientific basis for decision support for the government.     

福建敖江流域水域生态系统健康评估

以敖江流域为研究区,通过采集底栖动物、鱼类等样品,结合监测数据分析流域水域生态系统健康状况,并采用指标体系评估方法对水域生态系统进行评估.结果表明:敖江流域水质总体良好,但山仔水库总氮、总磷浓度长期超标,水体存在富营养化和藻类水华暴发生态环境问题;底栖动物种类呈现支流多于干流、河流多于水库的规律;鱼类种类上、中、下游各科物种组成差异不显著,鱼类区系特点具有较明显的热带、亚热带区系特点;流域上游、中游水域生态健康良好,下游水域生态健康一般.