Hydrogeologic uncertainties and policy implications: The Water Consumer Protection Act of Tucson, Arizona, USA

 The 1995 Water Consumer Protection Act of Tucson, Arizona, USA (hereafter known as the Act) was passed following complaints from Tucson Water customers receiving treated Central Arizona Project (CAP) water. Consequences of the Act demonstrate the uncertainties and difficulties that arise when the public is asked to vote on a highly technical issue. The recharge requirements of the Act neglect hydrogeological uncertainties because of confusion between "infiltration" and "recharge." Thus, the Act implies that infiltration in stream channels along the Central Wellfield will promote recharge in the Central Wellfield. In fact, permeability differences between channel alluvium and underlying basin-fill deposits may lead to subjacent outflow. Additionally, even if recharge of Colorado River water occurs in the Central Wellfield, groundwater will become gradually salinized. The Act's restrictions on the use of CAP water affect the four regulatory mechanisms in Arizona's 1980 Groundwater Code as they relate to the Tucson Active Management Area: (a) supply augmentation; (b) requirements for groundwater withdrawals and permitting; (c) Management Plan requirements, particularly mandatory conservation and water-quality issues; and (d) the requirement that all new subdivisions use renewable water supplies in lieu of groundwater. Political fallout includes disruption of normal governmental activities because of the demands in implementing the Act. Received, December 1996 · Revised, October 1997 · Accepted, October 1997     

The role of channel and floodplain storage in the suspended sediment budget of the River Ouse, Yorkshire, UK

This study attempts to quantify the amount of fine-grained (ca. < 150 μm) sediment stored on the floodplains and on the channel bed of the non-tidal sections of the main channels in the catchment of the River Ouse (3315 km²) and of one of its tributaries, the River Waarfe (818 km²), in Yorkshire, UK. Caesium-137 analyses of floodplain sediment cores were used to quantify the amount of Iloodplain deposition as a result of overbank flooding during the last ca. 40 years. A combination of bulk and sectioned cores were collected along transects perpendicular to the channel at 26 sites throughout the study basins. In general, rates of overbank sedimentation decrease with distance from the channel. The average values for individual transects range between 0.010 and 0.554 g cm⁻² year⁻¹. Floodplain storage along the main channels of the Ouse and Wharfe basins accounts for 60645 and 10325 t year⁻¹, respectively, and represents a net loss from the system. The amount of fine-grained sediment stored on the channel bed was estimated by a survey undertaken in August 1996, during which the fine material deposited on the bed was resuspended and its mass estimated at 16 locations. The average values for the individual locations range between 0.017 and 0.924 g cm⁻² and tend to increase downstream. The total channel bed storage at the time of sampling in 1996 was estimated to be 16076 and 1866 t for the Ouse and Wharfe basins, respectively. It is assumed that channel bed storage is seasonal and that no net loss to the system occurs at the annual timescale. Floodplain storage for the Ouse and Wharfe basins represents 39 and 49%, and channel bed storage equals 10 and 9%, respectively, of the annual suspended sediment load (1995–1996) delivered to the channel system. These results have important implications for the routing of fine-grained sediment and sediment-associated contaminants in drainage basins, and for the interpretation of downstream sediment yields in terms of upstream sediment mobilisation.     

Modern and historic accumulation rates of phosphorus in Lake Okeechobee, Florida

Phosphorus accumulation rates in depositional zone sediments of Lake Okeechobee were determined in 11 mud-zone cores and two peat-zone cores dated by ²¹⁰Pb. Although difficulties were encountered in interpreting ²¹⁰Pb data from some sites, reliable dating of sediments from the mud zone of this shallow lake is possible. Sediment accumulation rates in this zone have increased during the present century by an average of about twofold, and accumulation of organic sediments in the lake during pre-settlement times apparently was much slower than during the past century. Concentrations of all forms of sedimentary P but especially nonapatite inorganic-P and organic-P also have increased since pre-settlement times and especially since about 1940. Annual P accumulation rates in the lake's sediments have increased about fourfold during the 1900s, with most of the increase occurring in the past 40–50 years. The recent accumulation rate of sedimentary P (past ~ 10 years) agrees within a factor of 1.5 with the net retention of P in the lake calculated from published input-output mass balances.     

Variability of diatom-inferred phosphorus profiles in a small lake basin and its implications for histories of lake eutrophication

Diatom analyses were undertaken of sediment cores covering a range of water depths in a small eutrophic lake (Lough Augher, Co. Tyrone, N. Ireland). The significance of between-core variability in diatom relative frequency stratigraphy was assessed by Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) where the ordination axes were constrained to external environmental variables (sediment depth, core location coordinates, water depth, effective fetch, distance-from-shore and distance-from-inflow). After the removal of the effect of sediment age by partialling it out, the resultant first two axes from the partial-CCA were significantly correlated with water depth and distance-from-shore, indicating non-uniform diatom stratigraphies across the lake. Despite this variability, all cores show the same succession of species and, therefore, record the eutrophication of the lake. Diatom-inferred total phosphorus (DI-TP) was inferred for six cores using weighted averaging regression and calibration. Apart from considerable differences of DI-TP in surficial sediment samples, there was good between-core repeatability of DI-TP profiles. These data support the use of DI-TP for establishing background nutrient concentrations for lakes, and associated implications for lake restoration schemes using single cores. Comparisons of DI-TP profiles and total diatom accumulation rate data for the individual cores indicate that diatom production peaked prior to the maximum TP concentrations in the lake.     

“6·30”川渝特大暴雨过程中西南低涡发展机制模拟分析

利用地面加密自动站、NCEP(1°×1°)再分析及WRF-ARW数值模拟资料,对造成2013年6月29日至7月1日川渝地区特大暴雨过程的西南低涡的演变特征及热动力机制进行了诊断分析。此次特大暴雨过程分为三个阶段,其中与西南低涡发展相关的第二阶段为主要降雨时段。结果表明:(1)西南低涡生成后,呈现增强-减弱-再次增强的波动性演变特征,在6月30日上午和夜间分别经历了两次显著的涡度发展过程,并在第二次发展过程中达到最强。(2)低空辐合是西南低涡最主要的涡源,由低空辐合导致的正涡度增加近乎贯穿于整个西南低涡的生命史。在西南低涡的第二次发展过程中,中层辐合和涡度的垂直输送显著增强,也是西南低涡的重要涡源。(3)负值非平衡动力强迫激发了低空辐合的增长,在非平衡动力强迫的各项中,位势高度的拉普拉斯项为非平衡动力强迫提供了主要的负贡献来源。(4)非绝热加热先于西南低涡而增强,两者间的正反馈作用可能是西南低涡波动性发展的重要机制。在关闭了微物理过程中的潜热和地面潜热及感热通量的敏感性试验中,西南低涡及降雨的模拟均有不同程度的减弱。     

Dissipation process of summer tropical easterly waves in Western North Pacific

Tropical easterly waves are common features in the trade wind zones and they are important sources of tropical cyclogenesis. Despite numerous studies have analyzed the genesis and maintenance of easterly waves in the Western North Pacific, few had examined their dissipation processes. Focusing on tropical easterly waves during May-September of 1979–2017, this study shows that most of the easterly waves (∼70 %) eventually dissipate when encountering the monsoon trough and associated westerlies, while 22 % were carried northward by the monsoonal southwesterly flows and became recurving disturbances. Less than 10 % of easterly waves propagate across the South China Sea against the prevailing monsoon westerlies and into the Indochina peninsula. The vorticity budget analysis illustrates that total vortex stretching in the lower troposphere is the key factor in propelling the small number of easterly waves westward, suggesting that stronger and more convectively active easterly waves tend to move further into the developed monsoon trough. This echoes the previous observation that tropical disturbances alone have a limited probability in developing into a typhoon, for those disturbances or easterly waves almost always need to interact with the monsoon trough or a monsoon gyre, as well as other intraseasonal features to sustain the organized convection and rotation.     

Bioavailability of dissolved organic phosphorus compounds to typical harmful dinoflagellate Prorocentrum donghaiense Lu

The bioavailability of dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) compounds to harmful alga Prorocentrum donghaiense Lu and its alkaline phosphatase activity (APA) were studied. Results showed that P. donghaiense could utilize the test DOP compounds such as glucose-6-phosphate (G-6-P), adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) to sustain its growth. Nutrition between the test DOP compounds and orthophosphate was comparable. P. donghaiense could utilize intracellular phosphorus to sustain growth under depletion of dissolved phosphorus. Variation of APA in different test DOP compounds was addressed; the controlling mechanism of APA in different DOP media was discussed.     

Analysis of base flow trends in urban streams, northeastern Illinois, USA

Statistical analysis shows that mean annual base flows in three unregulated urban streams in northeastern Illinois do not display significant trends during periods of substantial watershed urbanization. However, statistically-significant upward trends in median annual base flow (probably emblematic of overall changes in the time-distribution of the base flow), characterized by increases in lower base flow rates, affected the flows in all three streams. The analysis reveals no trends in annual and monthly precipitation during these periods. These results are in contrast to results from studies of other urban streams that have shown decreases in base flow, but these results may be partially explained by the low permeability of the near-surface materials in the watersheds investigated. This study employs formal hypothesis-testing of Kendall tau-a trend statistics computed for monthly and annual base flow and precipitation rates to assess the impact of urban development on base flow rates.

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Resumen El análisis estadístico muestra que el flujo base anual medio en tres arroyos urbanos no regulados en el noreste de Illinois no ostenta tendencias significativas durante los periodos de urbanización sustancial de la cuenca. Sin embargo, el flujo en los tres arroyos fue afectado por tendencias al incremento en el flujo base annual medio. Esto es probablemente emblemático en cambios globales en el tiempo-distribución del flujo base caracterizado por incrementos en las tasas de flujo base bajo y afecta a los tres arroyos. El análisis no revela ninguna tendencia en la precipitación annual y mensual durante estos periodos. Estos resultados contrastan con los resultados de estudios de otros arroyos urbanos que muestran un decrecimiento en el fujo base. Sin embargo, estos resultados pueden explicarse parcialmente por la baja permeabilidad de los materiales cercanos a la superficie en las cuencas investigadas. Este estudio emplea las estadísticas de tendencia tau-a de la hipótesis de prueba formal de Kendall - calculadas según los flujos base mensuales y anuales y las tasas de precipitación. El objetivo es evaluar los impactos del desarrollo urbano sobre las tasas de flujo base.

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Résumé Une analyse statistique démontre que la moyenne annuelle de lécoulement de base dans trois rivières urbaines non réglementées du nord est de lIllinois ne montre pas de tendance significative lors de périodes durbanisation massive du bassin versant. Par contre, une tendance statistiquement significative à la hausse de lécoulement de base médian, probablement représentatif de lensemble des changements dans la distribution temporelle de lécoulement de base caractérisé par une augmentation des faibles taux découlement de base, affecte lécoulement dans les trois rivières. Lanalyse ne révèle pas de tendance dans les précipitations annuelles et mensuelles lors de ces périodes. Ces résultats contrastent avec les résultats dautres études de rivières en milieu urbain qui ont montré une diminution de lécoulement de base. Les résultats obtenus lors de cette étude peuvent partiellement être expliqués par la faible perméabilité des dépôts de surface dans le bassin versant étudié. Cette étude utilise le test dhypothèse tau de Kandall, une tendance statistique calculée pour lécoulement de base annuel et mensuel et des taux de précipitation dans le but de déterminer limpact du développement urbain sur les taux découlement de base.

     

Regional-Scale Heat and Water Vapour Fluxes in an Agricultural Landscape: An Evaluation of CBL Budget Methods at OASIS

This paper evaluates convective boundary layer (CBL) budget methods as a tool for estimating regionally averaged sensible and latent heat fluxes for the study region used in OASIS (Observations at Several Interacting Scales). This is an agricultural region of mixed cropping and grazing extending about 100 km west of the town of Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia.The analysis proceeds in three stages: first, a simpleone-dimensional model of the well-mixed layer (the CBL slab model), forced with measurements of the surface heat and evaporation fluxes, is evaluated by comparing measured and modelled CBL temperature, humidity and depths. A comparison of several entrainment schemes shows that a simple model, where the entrainment kinetic energy is parameterised as a fraction (₃) of the surface sensible heat flux, works well if is set to 0.5. Second, the slab model is coupled to a Penman–Monteith model of surface evaporation to predict regional scale evaporation and thence heat fluxes. Finally, the integral CBL budget approach, which is an inverse method using theone-dimensional slab model, is used to infer regional heat and evaporation fluxes from measured time series of CBL temperature and humidity.We find that the simple CBL slab model works reasonably well for predicting CBL depth and very well for CBL temperature, especially if approximate estimates of subsidence velocity and warming due to advection are included. Regional sensible heat fluxes estimated from the integral CBL method match those measured, although the method is very sensitive to measurement errors. Measurement-model differences were larger for short integration times, because the well-mixed assumptions are violated at particular times of the day. The corollary is that `whole-day' (0530–1530 h) estimates are in reasonable agreement with measured values. Integral methods could not be used to infer the regional evaporation flux directly because CBL humidity profiles were complex and often not well mixed until mid-afternoon. We recommend that regional evaporation fluxes be predicted either from a coupled Penman–Monteith – CBL slab model, or inferred as a residual term from estimates of the regionally averaged available energy and sensible heat flux. Furthermore, we show that inferring fluxes via integral methods will always be difficult when the scalar concentrations have either a large surface source and free atmosphere sink (in the case of water vapour and methane), or a large surface sink and upper level source (in the case of CO₂).     

Storm pulse chemographs of saturation index and carbon dioxide pressure: implications for shifting recharge sources during storm events in the karst aquifer at Fort Campbell,Kentucky/Tennessee,USA

Continuous records of discharge, specific conductance, and temperature were collected through a series of storm pulses on two limestone springs at Fort Campbell, western Kentucky/Tennessee, USA. Water samples, collected at short time intervals across the same storm pulses, were analyzed for calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, total organic carbon, and pH. Chemographs of calcium, calcite saturation index, and carbon dioxide partial pressure were superimposed on the storm hydrographs. Calcium concentration and specific conductance track together and dip to a minimum either coincident with the peak of the hydrograph or lag slightly behind it. The CO₂ pressure continues to rise on the recession limb of the hydrograph and, as a result, the saturation index decreases on the recession limb of the hydrograph. These results are interpreted as being due to dispersed infiltration through CO₂-rich soils lagging the arrival of quickflow from sinkhole recharge in the transport of storm flow to the springs. Karst spring hydrographs reflect not only the changing mix of base flow and storm flow but also a shift in source of recharge water over the course of the storm.

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Resumen Se ha registrado en continuo la descarga, conductancia específica y temperatura de una serie de episodios de tormenta en dos manantiales en calizas ubicados en Fort Campbell, en el oeste de Kentucky/Tennessee (Estados Unidos de América). Se ha analizado muestras de agua recogidas en breves intervalos de tiempo durante los episodios de tormenta, determinando el calcio, magnesio, bicarbonato, carbono orgánico total y pH. Se ha superpuesto quimiogramas de calcio, índice de saturación en calcita y presión parcial de dióxido de carbono en los hidrogramas de las tormentas. La concentración de calcio y la conductancia específica se comportan de forma similar y presentan un mínimo que coincide también con un pico del hidrograma o que se retrasa ligeramente con respecto a él. La presión de dióxido de carbono sigue aumentando en la rama de recesión del hidrograma y, como consecuencia, disminuye el índice de saturación de la rama de recesión del hidrograma. Se interpreta que estos resultados son debidos a la infiltración dispersa a través de suelos enriquecidos en dióxido de carbono que retrasan el flujo rápido desde la recarga en los sumideros hasta su afloramiento en los manantiales. Los hidrogramas en manantiales kársticos reflejan no sólo la mezcla cambiante del flujo de base y el de tormenta, sino también el cambio en el origen del agua de recarga durante el curso de la tormenta.

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Résumé Lenregistrement en continu du débit, de la conductivité et de la température de leau a été réalisé au cours dune série de crues à deux sources émergeant de calcaires, à Fort Campbell (Kentucky occidental, Tennessee, États-Unis). Des échantillons deau, prélevés à de courts pas de temps lors de ces crues, ont été analysés pour le calcium, le magnésium, les bicarbonates, le carbone organique total et le pH. Les chimiogrammes de calcium, dindice de saturation de la calcite et de la pression partielle en CO₂ ont été superposés aux hydrogrammes de crue. La concentration en calcium et la conductivité de leau se suivent bien et passent par un minimum correspondant au pic de lhydrogramme ou légèrement retardé. La pression partielle en CO₂ continue de croître au cours de la récession de lhydrogramme de même que lindice de saturation de la calcite décroît. Ces résultats sont interprétés comme étant dus à linfiltration dispersée au travers de sols riches en CO₂, décalée par rapport à larrivée de lécoulement rapide provenant de la recharge, à partir dune perte, de lécoulement de crue vers les sources. Les hydrogrammes de sources karstiques ne reflètent pas seulement le mélange variable de lécoulement de base et de lécoulement de crue, mais également un changement dorigine de leau de la recharge au cours de lépisode de crue.