The anthropogenic practices are getting common these days and many catchments experience water managements e.g., drainage, which has huge impacts on both discharge and water quality dynamics.
So what can we do to improve the model performance when modelling in these water-management-affected catchments with long time series?
Thanks in advance
andrewEnlightened
How can we deal with the impacts of water management (e.g. drainage) when doing long-term hydrology and water quality modelling?
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avery
This is a very interesting question. This may or may not be helpful: My initial reaction is to think of this as a regulatory question. That is, in at least some places in the U.S., often we use “blue line” streams for regulatory purposes. That is, if it’s officially identified as blue line stream, it’s a stream. If not, then not. But I haven’t been able to dig up any clear information for New Jersey or for the U.S. (Army Corps of Engineers) about how they determine blue line streams. (I’m sure it’s somewhere.). I wonder if in humid climates, we would call only perennial streams, blue line streams. … I don’t know, tho, if stream order is used in any meaningful way, in say, New Jersey…
John Wick
Every catchment contributes uniquely to conformity with its prevalent anthropologic activities. The naturally existing hydrologic cycle will remain unaltered safe the impact of human activities. Taking precipitation as the fuel that initiates the cycle, percolation and deep percolation inject a large amount of water into the subsurface with the naturally existing terrain. However the appearance of paved surfaces; roads, runways, rooftops has immensely contributed to increased runoff, overtopping of drainage channels, flooding, which in turn affects the quality of water and it’s availability. Modelling is capable of solving/ameliorating the aforementioned challenges when policy formulators are ready and willing to imbibe the culture of sustainable development by involving Water Resources Professionals in the development of our environment
aron
There are several factors to consider when determining the opportunities for and constraints on the safe use, treatment and disposal of agricultural drainage water. Information and data desired at the site of drainage water production include: rate of drainage water production per unit area, chemical concentration of constituents of concern, and the rates of mass emission. Drainage water management requires additional information and data on drainage water quality and its suitability for the intended water uses as well as an understanding of environmental and health concerns. Upstream drainage water management affects the needs and water quality requirements of downstream water users. As reliable references are already available on estimating drainage water production volumes.
The geology of the region plays an important role in drainage water quality. Through weathering processes, the types of rocks (both primary and sedimentary) in the upper and lower strata define the types and quantities of soluble constituents found in the irrigated area. The oceans have submerged many parts of the continents during a period in their geological history. The uplift of these submerged geological formations and receding seas have left marine evaporites and sedimentary rocks behind, high in sea salts including sodium, chloride, magnesium, sulphate and boron. These geological formations exist in varying thicknesses, depths and extents on the continents. Through hydrological processes, solutes can enter the upper stratum by irrigation or floodwater, upward groundwater flow in seepage zones, with rising groundwater levels, or capillary rise. Once the solutes are in the upper strata, they influence the quality of agricultural drainage water through farmers’ irrigation and drainage water management. The following example shows how the geology and hydrology of an area influence the quality of agricultural drainage water. It also illustrates the relationship between geomorphology, waterlogging and salinization.
Andrew Pel
As urban space continues to expand to accommodate a growing global population, there remains a real need to quantify and qualify the impacts of urban space on natural processes. The expansion of global urban areas has resulted in marked alterations to natural processes, environmental quality and natural resource consumption. The urban landscape influences infiltration and evapotranspiration, complicating our capacity to quantify their dynamics across a heterogeneous landscape at contrasting scales. Impervious surfaces exacerbate runoff processes, whereas runoff from pervious areas remains uncertain owing to variable infiltration dynamics. Increasingly, the link between the natural hydrological cycle and engineered water cycle has been made, realising the contributions from leaky infrastructure to recharge and runoff rates. Urban landscapes are host to a suite of contaminants that impact on water quality, where novel contaminants continue to pose new challenges to monitoring and treatment regimes.
Upgrading of large infrastructure is both expensive and disruptive, requiring large-scale excavation of surface areas including main road networks, so implementation of increasingly sustainable methods that capture stormwater runoff are favourite