The role of baseflow in dissolved solids delivery to streams in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Salinity has a major effect on water users in the Colorado River Basin, estimated to cause almost $300 million per year in economic damages. The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program implements and manages projects to reduce salinity loads, investing millions of dollars per year in irrigation upgrades, canal projects, and other mitigation strategies. To inform and improve mitigation efforts, there is a need to better understand sources of salinity to streams and how salinity has changed over time. This study explores salinity in the baseflow fraction of streamflow, assessing whether groundwater is a significant contributor of dissolved solids to streams in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). Chemical hydrograph separation was used to estimate baseflow discharge and baseflow dissolved solids loads at stream gages (n = 69) across the UCRB. On average, it is estimated that 89% of dissolved solids loads originate from the baseflow fraction of streamflow, indicating that subsurface transport processes play a dominant role in delivering dissolved solids to streams in the UCRB. A statistical trend analysis using weighted regressions on time, discharge, and season was used to evaluate changes in baseflow dissolved solids loads in streams (n = 27) from 1986 to 2011. Decreasing trends in baseflow dissolved solids loads were observed at 63% of streams. At the three most downstream sites, Green River at Green River, UT, Colorado River at Cisco, UT, and the San Juan River near Bluff, UT, baseflow dissolved solids loads decreased by a combined 823,000 metric tons (mT), which is approximately 69% of projected basin‐scale decreases in total dissolved solids loads as a result of salinity control efforts. Decreasing trends in baseflow dissolved solids loads suggest that salinity mitigation projects, landscape changes, and/or climate are reducing dissolved solids transported to streams through the subsurface. Notably, the pace and extent of decreases in baseflow dissolved solids loads declined during the most recent decade; average decreasing loads during the 2000s (28,200 mT) were only 54% of average decreasing loads in the 1990s (51,700 mT).     

The effect of expansion ratio on the critical Reynolds number in single fracture flow with sudden expansion

Flow in a single fracture (SF) is an important research subject in groundwater hydrology, hydraulic engineering, radioactive nuclear waste repository and geotechnical engineering. An abruptly changing aperture is a unique type of SF. This study discusses the relation between the values of the critical Reynolds number (Re_c) for the onset of symmetry breaking of flow and the expansion ratio (E) of SF, which is defined as the ratio between the outlet (D) and inlet (d) apertures. This study also investigates the effect of inlet aperture d on Re_c for flow in an SF with abruptly changing apertures (SF‐ACA) using the finite volume method. Earlier numerical and experimental results showed that flow is symmetric in respect to the central plane of the SF‐ACA at small Reynolds number (Re) but becomes asymmetric when Re is sufficiently large. Our simulations show that the value of Re_c decreases with the increasing E, and the relationship between the logarithm of Re_c and E can be described accurately using either a quadratic polynomial function or a logarithmic function. However, the relationship of Re_c and d for a given E value is vague, and Re_c becomes even less sensitive to d when E increases. This study also reveals that the hydraulic gradient (J) and flow velocity (v) follow a super‐linear relationship that can be fitted almost perfectly by the Forchheimer equation. The inertial component (J_i) of J increases monotonically with Re, whereas the viscous component (J_v) of J decreases monotonically with Re. The Re value corresponding to equal inertial and viscous components of J (named as the transitional point Re) decreases when E increases, and such a transitional point Re should be closely related to the critical Reynolds number Re_c, although a rigorous theoretical proof is not yet available. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new approach to estimate canopy evaporation and canopy interception capacity from evapotranspiration and sap flow measurements during and following wetting

Canopy interception and its evaporation into the atmosphere during irrigation or a rainfall event are important in irrigation scheduling, but are challenging to estimate using conventional methods. This study introduces a new approach to estimate the canopy interception from measurements of actual total evapotranspiration (ET) using eddy covariance and estimation of the transpiration from measurements of sap flow. The measurements were conducted over a small‐scale sprinkler‐irrigated cotton field before, during and after sprinkler irrigation. Evaporation and sap flow dynamics during irrigation show that the total ET during irrigation increased significantly because of the evaporation of free intercepted water while transpiration was suppressed almost completely. The difference between actual ET and transpiration (sap flow) during and immediately following irrigation (post irrigation) represents the total canopy evaporation while the canopy interception capacity was calculated as the difference between actual ET and transpiration (sap flow) during drying (post irrigation) following cessation of the irrigation. The canopy evaporation of cotton canopy was calculated as 0.8 mm, and the interception capacity was estimated to be 0.31 mm of water. The measurement uncertainty in both the non‐dimensional ET and non‐dimensional sap flow was shown to be very low. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parallelized combined finite-discrete element (FDEM) procedure using multi-GPU with CUDA

This paper focuses on the efficiency of finite discrete element method (FDEM) algorithmic procedures in massive computers and analyzes the time-consuming part of contact detection and interaction computations in the numerical solution. A detailed operable GPU parallel procedure was designed for the element node force calculation, contact detection, and contact interaction with thread allocation and data access based on the CUDA computing. The emphasis is on the parallel optimization of time-consuming contact detection based on load balance and GPU architecture. A CUDA FDEM parallel program was developed with the overall speedup ratio over 53 times after the fracture from the efficiency and fidelity performance test of models of in situ stress, UCS, and BD simulations in Intel i7-7700K CPU and the NVIDIA TITAN Z GPU. The CUDA FDEM parallel computing improves the computational efficiency significantly compared with the CPU-based ones with the same reliability, providing conditions for achieving larger-scale simulations of fracture.     

Slope stability analysis using evolutionary optimization techniques

Slope stability optimization, in the presence of a band of a weak layer between two strong layers, is accounted for in complicated geotechnical problems. Classical optimization algorithms are not suitable for solving such problems as they need a proper preliminary solution to converge to a valid result. Therefore, it is necessary to find a proper algorithm which is capable of finding the best global solution. Recently a lot of metaheuristic algorithms have been proposed which are able to evade local minima effectively. In this study four evolutionary algorithms, including well‐known and recent ones, such as genetic algorithm, differential evolution, evolutionary strategy and biogeography‐based optimization (BBO), are applied in slope stability analysis and their efficiencies are explored by three benchmark case studies. Result show BBO is the most efficient among these evolutionary algorithms and other proposed algorithms applied to this problem. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Potential food deserts and food oases in a post-communist city: Access,quality, variability and price of food in Bratislava-Petržalka

Delimitation tools and definitions of food deserts have not been internationally unified so far. Such comprehension ambiguity may lead to variability in research methods as well as to terminology mismatch in the research. In general, assessment of accessibility of selected (large-scale) food stores network in a region is considered as a suitable tool to identify the food deserts, but this is certainly not the only approach. In our paper some other approaches (such as measuring quality, variability and food price) are assessed together with supermarkets and hypermarkets accessibility examination. Results gained by analyses based on various methodological approaches are then compared and confronted, which simultaneously allows us to compare the individual approaches. For our case study purposes, the largest housing estate in Slovakia's capital city was selected.     

运用ENVI实现SPOT-5卫星影像的RVI提取

运用ENVI软件处理长沙地区的SPOT-5影像,将全色影像和多波段影像进行融合,分析融合后的影像,再选择感兴趣区域进行影像裁剪;采用ENVI的波段运算(Band3/Band2)提取该地区比值植被指数并进行分析。结果表明:比值植被指数对植被覆盖率较高的区域有非常高的敏感度;在植被覆盖率小于50%的时候,其敏感度明显降低,在绿色植被覆盖区域的比值植被指数远大于1,在裸露地表、建筑物、水体等没有植被覆盖区域的比值植被指数则在1附近,而比值植被指数大于2的则出现在高覆盖健康绿色植被上。     

2000～2015年会理县地表覆盖变化监测

以LandSat多时相影像为数据源,采用基于规则的面向对象分类方法,监测会理县2000～ 2015年地表覆盖变化.结合1∶50 000 DEM数据,分析了会理县地表覆盖构成与转移、变化动态度及潜在退耕地情况.监测分析结论能为会理县加强空间管制、促进土地资源集约利用、指导生态文明建设等提供决策信息支撑.     

基于线要素动态化简的匹配算法比较与评价

矢量线要素数据来源多样,细节层次不一,限制了已有匹配算法正确率的提高,同时也给算法评价带来困难。化简可以减少线要素细节层次,提取其主要形态,据此提出一种基于线要素动态化简的匹配算法评价新方法。对不同匹配算法采用相同数据,在相同化简算法支撑下进行匹配,从而实现对不同匹配算法的评价。首先,阐述动态化简方法提取线要素主要形态的过程;其次,利用动态化简分别辅助4种已有匹配算法,获取每个匹配算法的最优匹配正确率;最后,将4种匹配算法的原始匹配结果与加入动态化简后的匹配结果进行对比,分析化简对匹配结果的影响,并把该影响运用到匹配算法的比较和评价中来。其中,1通过匹配正确率变化、误匹配等分析了匹配算法的数据适用性;2通过化简比例系数K变化时新增匹配数量的统计,评价了匹配算法对线要素局部细节的敏感程度并提出该指标的量化方法;3结合匹配算法采用的匹配相似度指标对其作出评价。     

Rights in places: An analytical extension of the right to the city

Following recent scholarship on place and place-making, we identify key challenges for contemporary empirical research using the “Right to the City” as an analytic. We seek to distinguish between the aspirational “right” articulated as a political and conceptual call to arms on one hand, and the “actually existing rights” that are carved out through both formal and informal mechanisms (including political protest) in the everyday city on the other. Actually existing rights are defined not through fiat or via momentary revolutionary acts, but through the durability of relationships between multiple actors, including residents, citizens, states, and corporate agents. We re-articulate urban rights as actually contingent and agonistic properties of the relationships that citizens have with places. This paper uses the historic conflict over community gardens in New York as an illustration of how thinking of rights regimes as multiple, overlapping, and placed helps better illuminate potential political interventions. Thinking of rights and places as plural, overlapping, and contingent is analytically productive because it highlights (rather than overwriting) conflicts between competing articulations of rights and privileges in cities.