Characterisation of hydroclimatological trends and variability in the Lake Naivasha basin,Kenya

Recent hydro‐climatological trends and variability characteristics were investigated for the Lake Naivasha basin with the aim of understanding the changes in water balance components and their evolution over the past 50 years. Using a Bayesian change point analysis and modified Mann–Kendall tests, time series of annual mean, maximum, minimum, and seasonal precipitation and flow, as well as annual mean lake volumes, were analysed for the period 1960–2010 to uncover possible abrupt shifts and gradual trends. Double cumulative curve analysis was used to investigate the changes in hydrological response attributable to either human influence or climatic variability. The results indicate a significant decline in lake volumes at a mean rate of 9.35 × 10⁶ m³ year^?1. Most of the river gauging stations showed no evidence of trends in the annual mean and maximum flows as well as seasonal flows. Annual minimum flows, however, showed abrupt shifts and significant (upward/downward) trends at the main outlet stations. Precipitation in the basin showed no evidence of abrupt shifts, but a few stations showed gradual decline. The observed changes in precipitation could not explain the decline in both minimum flows and lake volumes. The findings show no evidence of any impact of climate change for the Lake Naivasha basin over the past 50 years. This implies that other factors, such as changes in land cover and infrastructure development, have been responsible for the observed changes in streamflow and lake volumes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于外弹道计算的人影高炮作业安全评估方法

随着经济的高速发展,各个高炮作业点所在地的周边环境已经发生了很大变化,为了进一步提高人工影响天气作业的安全性,针对高炮作业特点提出了一套安全论证方法。推导了弹道计算的方法,在此基础上结合安全射界法和地理信息系统对作业安全性进行了更精确的评估,并给出实例说明。提出用危险系数的方法进行安全性评估,给出了具体的危险系数定义方法,通过评估系统的一次实际作业评估证明了危险系数进行安全性评估的可行性。以该方法进行安全性评估可有效保障人影作业的安全性,为人影作业提供重要的参考。     

基于GPU加速的Boussinesq类波浪传播变形数值模型

Boussinesq波浪模型是一类相位解析模型,在时域内求解需要较高的空间和时间分辨率以保证计算精度。为提高计算效率,有必要针对该类模型开展并行算法的研究。与传统的中央处理器(CPU)相比,图形处理器(GPU)有大量的运算器,可显著提高计算效率。基于统一计算设备架构CUDA C语言和图形处理器,实现了Boussinesq模型的并行运算。将本模型的计算结果同CPU数值模拟结果和解析解相比较,发现得到的结果基本一致。同时也比较了CPU端与GPU端的计算效率,结果表明,GPU数值模型的计算效率有明显提升,并且伴随数值网格的增多,提升效果更为明显。     

Long‐term effects of revegetation on soil hydrological processes in vegetation‐stabilized desert ecosystems

Planting of sand‐binding vegetation in the Shapotou region on the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert began in 1956. The revegetation programme successfully stabilized formerly mobile dunes in northern China, permitting the operation of the Baotou‐Lanzhou railway. Long‐term monitoring has shown that the revegetation programme produced various ecological changes, including the formation of biological soil crusts (BSCs). To gain insight into the role of BSCs in both past ecological change and current ecological evolution at the revegetation sites, we used field measurements and HYDRUS‐1D model simulations to investigate the effects of BSCs on soil hydrological processes at revegetated sites planted in 1956 and 1964 and at an unplanted mobile dune site. The results demonstrate that the formation of BSCs has altered patterns of soil water storage, increasing the moisture content near the surface (0–5 cm) while decreasing the moisture content in deeper layers (5–120 cm). Soil evaporation at BSC sites is elevated relative to unplanted sites during periods when canopy coverage is low. Rainfall infiltration was not affected by BSCs during the very dry period that was studied (30 April to 30 September 2005); during periods with higher rainfall intensity, differences in infiltration may be expected due to runoff at BSC sites. The simulated changes in soil moisture storage and hydrological processes are consistent with ongoing plant community succession at the revegetated sites, from deep‐rooted shrubs to more shallow‐rooted herbaceous species. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using a H∞ filter assimilation procedure to estimate root zone soil water content

Root zone soil water content impacts plant water availability, land energy and water balances. Because of unknown hydrological model error, observation errors and the statistical characteristics of the errors, the widely used Kalman filter (KF) and its extensions are challenged to retrieve the root zone soil water content using the surface soil water content. If the soil hydraulic parameters are poorly estimated, the KF and its extensions fail to accurately estimate the root zone soil water. The H‐infinity filter (HF) represents a robust version of the KF. The HF is widely used in data assimilation and is superior to the KF, especially when the performance of the model is not well understood. The objective of this study is to study the impact of uncertain soil hydraulic parameters, initial soil moisture content and observation period on the ability of HF assimilation to predict in situ soil water content. In this article, we study seven cases. The results show that the soil hydraulic parameters hold a critical role in the course of assimilation. When the soil hydraulic parameters are poorly estimated, an accurate estimation of root soil water content cannot be retrieved by the HF assimilation approach. When the estimated soil hydraulic parameters are similar to actual values, the soil water content at various depths can be accurately retrieved by the HF assimilation. The HF assimilation is not very sensitive to the initial soil water content, and the impact of the initial soil water content on the assimilation scheme can be eliminated after about 5–7 days. The observation interval is important for soil water profile distribution retrieval with the HF, and the shorter the observation interval, the shorter the time required to achieve actual soil water content. However, the retrieval results are not very accurate at a depth of 100 cm. Also it is complex to determine the weighting coefficient and the error attenuation parameter in the HF assimilation. In this article, the trial‐and‐error method was used to determine the weighting coefficient and the error attenuation parameter. After the first establishment of limited range of the parameters, ‘the best parameter set’ was selected from the range of values. For the soil conditions investigated, the HF assimilation results are better than the open‐loop results. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Role of reservoir regulation and groundwater feedback in a simulated ground-soil-vegetation continuum: A long-term regional scale analysis

The regional terrestrial water cycle is strongly altered by human activities. Among them, reservoir regulation is a way to spatially and temporally allocate water resources in a basin for multi-purposes. However, it is still not sufficiently understood how reservoir regulation modifies the regional terrestrial- and subsequently, the atmospheric water cycle. To address this question, the representation of reservoir regulation into the terrestrial component of fully coupled regional Earth system models is required. In this study, an existing process-based reservoir network module is implemented into NOAH-HMS, that is, the terrestrial component of an atmospheric–hydrologic modelling system, namely, the WRF-HMS. It allows to quantitatively differentiate role of reservoir regulation and of groundwater feedback in a simulated ground-soil-vegetation continuum. Our study focuses on the Poyang Lake basin, where the largest freshwater lake of China and reservoirs of different sizes are located. As compared to streamflow observations, the newly extended NOAH-HMS slightly improves the streamflow and streamflow duration curves simulation for the Poyang Lake basin for the period 1979–1986. The inclusion of reservoir regulation leads to major changes in the simulated groundwater recharges and evaporation from reservoirs at local scale, but has minor effects on the simulated soil moisture and surface runoff at basin scale. The performed groundwater feedback sensitivity analysis shows that the strength of the groundwater feedback is not altered by the consideration of reservoir regulation. Furthermore, both reservoir regulation and groundwater feedback modify the partitioning of the simulated evapotranspiration, thus affecting the atmospheric water cycle in the Poyang Lake region. This finding motivates future research with our extended fully coupled atmospheric–hydrologic modelling system by the community.     

Investigation of inner-basin variation: Impact of large reservoirs on water regimes of downstream water bodies

Large dams and reservoirs alter not only the natural flow regimes of streams and rivers but also their flooding cycles and flood magnitudes. Although the effect of dams and reservoirs has been reported for some vulnerable locations, the understanding of the inner-basin variation with respect to the effects remains limited. In this study, we analyse the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) built on the Changjiang mainstream (Yangtze River) to investigate the dam effect variations in the system of interconnected water bodies located downstream. We investigated the effect of flow alterations along the downstream river network using discharge time series at different gauging stations. The river–lake interactions (referring to the interactions between the Changjiang mainstream and its tributary lakes i.e. the Dongting and Poyang lakes) and their roles in modifying the TGD effect intensity were also investigated in the large-scale river–lake system. The results show that the water storage of the tributary lakes decreased after the activation of the TGD. Severe droughts occurred in the lakes, weakening their ability to recharge the Changjiang mainstream. As a consequence, the effect of the TGD on the Changjiang flow increase during the dry season diminished quickly downstream of the dam, whereas its impact on the flow decrease during the wet season gradually exacerbated along the mainstream, especially at sites located downstream of the lake outlets. Therefore, when assessing dam-induced hydrological changes, special attention should be paid to the changes in the storage of tributary lakes and the associated effects in the mainstream. This is of high importance for managing the water resource trade-offs between different water bodies in dam-affected riverine systems.     

Determining concentration fields of tracer plumes for layered porous media in flow-tank experiments

 In the laboratory, computer-assisted image analysis provides an accurate and efficient way to monitor tracer experiments. This paper describes the determination of detailed temporal concentration distributions of tracers in a flow-tank experiment by analyzing photographs of plumes of Rhodamine dye through the glass wall of the tank. The methodology developed for this purpose consists of four steps: (1) digitally scanning black and white negatives obtained from photographs of the flow–tank experiment; (2) calibrating and normalizing each digitized image to a standard optical-density scale by determining the relation between the optical density and pixel value for each image; (3) constructing standard curves relating the concentration in an optical density from five experimental runs with predetermined concentrations (2–97 mg/L); and (4) converting the optical density to concentration. The spatial distribution of concentration for two photographs was determined by applying these calibration and conversion procedures to all pixels of the digitized images. This approach provides an efficient way to study patterns of plume evolution and transport mechanisms. Received, March 1998 Revised, September 1998 Accepted, October 1998     

准噶尔盆地南缘头屯河地区砂岩型铀矿铀源区及其成矿构造背景分析——来自碎屑锆石U-Pb年龄及Hf同位素的证据

准噶尔盆地是我国重要的多能源矿产产出盆地之一,而准噶尔盆地南缘头屯河地区也是我国砂岩型铀矿找矿的优选区段,为了厘定头屯河地区砂岩型铀矿赋矿层位沉积期的源区位置、母岩岩性及时代,本文在野外地质调查的基础上,对头屯河地区砂岩型铀矿赋矿层中的碎屑锆石进行了LA-ICP-MS U-Pb定年和Hf同位素分析,建立了碎屑锆石的U-Pb年龄及Hf模式年龄谱系。通过与周缘岩浆活动时代对比,并结合古流向数据进一步分析赋矿层位沉积期的源区位置及母岩岩性,讨论砂岩型铀矿的铀源条件。对采自侏罗系和下白垩统的4个砂岩样品进行碎屑锆石年龄分析表明:碎屑锆石U-Pb年龄存在140～180 Ma、240～320 Ma、340～420 Ma、440～480 Ma四个主峰值年龄段,年龄较平均的分布在210～480 Ma宽泛的区间内。研究表明头屯河地区早侏罗世物源来自北天山;中侏罗世物源来自中、南天山;中侏罗晚期开始转变为以北天山为主;早白垩世物源大部分来自中、北天山,少量来自博格达山地区。砂岩型铀矿化层铀源主要来自南侧天山地区的古生代中酸性火成岩,其成矿作用应该发生在盆地处于较稳定的构造环境中。