scholarly journals Assessment of surface-water quantity and quality, Eagle River watershed, Colorado, 1947-2007

Author(s):  
Cory A. Williams ◽  
Jennifer L. Moore ◽  
Rodney J. Richards
Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Liang ◽  
Wenzhe Li ◽  
Scott Bradford ◽  
Jiří Šimůnek

Contaminants can be rapidly transported at the soil surface by runoff to surface water bodies. Physically-based models (PBMs), which are based on the mathematical description of main hydrological processes, are key tools for predicting surface water impairment. Along with PBMs, data-driven models are becoming increasingly popular for describing the behavior of hydrological and water resources systems since these models can be used to complement or even replace physically based-models. Here we propose a new data-driven model as an alternative to a physically-based overland flow and transport model. First, we have developed a physically-based numerical model to simulate overland flow and contaminant transport. A large number of numerical simulations was then carried out to develop a database containing information about the impact of various relevant factors on surface runoff quantity and quality, such as different weather patterns, surface topography, vegetation, soil conditions, contaminants, and best management practices. Finally, the resulting database was used to train data-driven models. Several Machine Learning techniques were explored to find input-output functional relations. The results indicate that the Neural Network model with two hidden layers performed the best among selected data-driven models, accurately predicting runoff water quantity and quality over a wide range of parameters.


Author(s):  
Baba-Serges Zango ◽  
Ousmane Seidou ◽  
Majid Sartaj ◽  
Nader Nakhaei ◽  
Kelly Stiles

Abstract Pressure on water resources has reached unprecedented levels during the last decades because of climate change, industrialization, and population growth. As a result, vulnerability to inappropriate water availability and/or quality is increasing worldwide. In this paper, a Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model of the Carp river watershed located in the city of Ottawa, Ontario was calibrated and validated. The model was then used to evaluate the individual and coupled impacts of urbanization and climate change on water quantity (discharge) and quality (nitrogen and phosphorus loads). While most of the watershed is currently rural, the headwaters will undergo rapid urbanization in the future, and there are concerns about possible negative impacts on water quantity and quality. Seven scenarios were developed to represent various watershed configurations in terms of land use and climate regime. Future climate time series were obtained by statistically downscaling the outputs of nine regional climate models, ran under representative concentration pathways (RCP)4.5 and RCP8.5. The impacts were evaluated at the main outlet and at the outlet of an upstream sub-watershed that would be most affected by urbanization. Results show that climate change and urbanization's impacts vary greatly depending on the spatial scale and geographic location. Globally, the annual average discharge will increase between 6.75 and 9.34% by 2050, while changes in annual average nitrogen and phosphorus loads will vary between −1.20 and 24.84%, and 19.15 and 23.81%, respectively. Local impacts in sub-watersheds undergoing rapid urbanization would be often much larger than watershed-scale impacts.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document