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Arsenic in groundwater above 0.05 mg/l was found in 61 out of the total of 64 districts, and 433 out of the total of the 496 thanas in Bangladesh. Groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh is reported to be the biggest arsenic calamity in the world in terms of affected population. Water in around 65% of the areas of Bangladesh contain iron in excess of 2 mg/l, and arsenic has been found to co-exist with iron in many situations. Thus the presently used iron removal plants that operate on the principle of aerating ferrous iron to convert it into ferric iron for precipitation can be a cost-effective solution for treating both iron and arsenic together in the context of Bangladesh. This study investigates the efficiency of 60 arsenic and iron removal plants (AIRPS) presently operating in different geo-hydrological conditions of Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nemunas River basin falls within the territories of five different countries - Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Poland and Latvia. In general, the beginning of spring floods highly depends on rapid rise of air temperature, heavy precipitation and sudden snow melting in the analysed basin. In this paper, the conditions of formation and consequences of two catastrophic floods in 1958 and 1979 in the Nemunas River basin were studied regarding the hydrometeorological parameters (maximum snow water equivalent before the beginning of flood and precipitation amount during the flood) as well as runoff coefficients for each selected catastrophic flood. Differences between the main drivers and evolution of these floods were analysed. Spatial distribution of maximum snow water equivalent and precipitation, as well as runoff coefficient in different parts of the river basin, were identified as having the most significant impact on the formation of the studied catastrophic floods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of rainfall has a long history, but despite its apparent simplicity it is difficult to quantify accurately. The common installation of raingauges with rims above the ground surface results in a difference between the rainfall caught and the amount reaching ground level, termed undercatch. The UK standard installation of raingauges is for their rim to be sited at 0.305 m above the ground; however, the use of weighing gauges installed at a minimum rim height of 1 m has increased in recent years. The installation of these weighing raingauges raises complex questions of homogeneity in rainfall data across space and time. Here, we investigate the impact of these changes using field trials of commonly deployed UK raingauges at a site in south-east England. This paper discusses the results of the trial, exploring the variation in and potential drivers of undercatch with differing gauge sitings. With varying standards for gauge heights around the world and new rainfall measurement technologies coming to the market all the time, improved understanding of undercatch is needed to inform evolving operational practices and explore the possibility of developing catch correction algorithms to remove arising inhomogeneity in precipitation datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the problem of automatic control of pollutant on a shallow river using surface water systems is addressed using a benchmark test case based in the Ebro River. The Ebro River presents flooding episodes in the city of Zaragoza in Spring when snow melts in the Pyrenees. To avoid flooding and high pollutant levels in living areas, some lands outside the city are prepared to be flooded. Going one step further, this paper is focused on the pollutant level control at a certain point downstream of the river under flooding episodes, and several control strategies for that purpose are presented and tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green roofs reduce runoff from impervious surfaces in urban development. This paper reviews the technical literature on green roof hydrology. Laboratory experiments and field measurements have shown that green roofs can reduce stormwater runoff volume by 30 to 86%, reduce peak flow rate by 22 to 93% and delay the peak flow by 0 to 30 min and thereby decrease pollution, flooding and erosion during precipitation events. However, the effectiveness can vary substantially due to design characteristics making performance predictions difficult. Evaluation of the most recently published study findings indicates that the major factors affecting green roof hydrology are precipitation volume, precipitation dynamics, antecedent conditions, growth medium, plant species, and roof slope. This paper also evaluates the computer models commonly used to simulate hydrologic processes for green roofs, including stormwater management model, soil water atmosphere and plant, SWMS-2D, HYDRUS, and other models that are shown to be effective for predicting precipitation response and economic benefits. The review findings indicate that green roofs are effective for reduction of runoff volume and peak flow, and delay of peak flow, however, no tool or model is available to predict expected performance for any given anticipated system based on design parameters that directly affect green roof hydrology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accurate grasp of the influence of precipitation and temperature changes on the variation in both the magnitude and temporal patterns of runoff is crucial to the prevention of floods and droughts. However, there is a general lack of understanding of the ways in which runoff sensitivities to precipitation and temperature changes are associated with the CMIP5 scenarios. This paper investigates the hydrological response to future climate change under CMIP5 RCP scenarios by using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model and then quantitatively assesses runoff sensitivities to precipitation and temperature changes under different scenarios by using a set of simulations with the control variable method. The source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) is an ideal area to study this problem. The results demonstrated that the precipitation effect was the dominant element influencing runoff change (the degree of influence approaching 23%), followed by maximum temperature (approaching 12%). The weakest element was minimum temperature (approaching 3%), despite the fact that the increases in minimum temperature were higher than the increases in maximum temperature. The results also indicated that the degree of runoff sensitivity to precipitation and temperature changes was subject to changing external climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the potential of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) System 4 forecasts and investigates the post-processing precipitation to enhance the skill of streamflow forecasts. The investigation is based on hydrological modelling and is conducted through the case study of the Upper Hanjiang River Basin (UHRB). A semi-distributed hydrological model, TsingHua Representative Elementary Watershed (THREW), is implemented to simulate the rainfall-runoff processes, with the help of hydrological ensemble prediction system (HEPS) approach. A post-processing method, quantile mapping method, is applied to bias correct the raw precipitation forecasts. Then we evaluate the performance of raw and post-processed streamflow forecasts for the four hydrological stations along the mainstream of Hanjiang River from 2001 to 2008. The results show that the performance of the streamflow forecasts is greatly enhanced with post-processing precipitation forecasts, especially in pre-dry season (November and December), thus providing useful information for water supply management of the central route of South to North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP). The raw streamflow forecasts tend to overpredict and present similarly to forecast accuracy with the extended streamflow prediction (ESP) approach. Streamflow forecast skill is considerably improved when applying post-processing method to bias correct the ECMWF System 4 precipitation forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between maximum precipitation in Krakow and types of atmospheric circulation in southern Poland, as classified by Niedźwiedź. Three characteristics were used to define this relationship: maximum precipitation (Pmax), its duration (d) and probability of exceedance (p). The input data came from Kraków's uniquely long and homogenous pluviographic record spanning the period 1886-2007. Hourly precipitation values for the maximum precipitation events were identified and arranged in 1-24 hour intervals. They were then processed using the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution to produce quantiles of maximum precipitation totals in each of the intervals and broken down by the corresponding circulation type. Differences between the development mechanisms are manifested in relationships between precipitation characteristics and their measure of randomness, i.e. exceedance probability. This paper demonstrates that maximum precipitation events depend on their duration d and atmospheric circulation. The maximum short-duration (one-hour) events occur primarily in either of two circulation types: (i) cyclonic with advection from the east and from the southeast or (ii) low-pressure centre and cyclonic trough. Maximum long-duration precipitation events (24 hour), on the other hand, occur in the cyclonic type of circulation with advection from the north and from the northeast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the potential of waste stabilisation ponds to provide water for reuse in extreme continental climates such as those of central Asia, where precipitation is low and summer evaporation rates are high. A simple model is used to predict water availability, BOD and faecal coliform removal for different configurations and operating regimes. The results show a significant proportion of flows could be saved for irrigation or river and aquifer replenishment: if current standard designs can be modified for these climates, the outcome is likely to be both more robust and more flexible in terms of types of reuse. The paper concludes with three case studies of evaporation pond systems in Kazakhstan, assessing their potential for conversion to full biological treatment systems for water conservation and reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcome of data analysis depends on the quality and completeness of data. This paper considers various techniques for filling in missing precipitation data. To assess suitability of the different methods for filling in missing data, monthly precipitation data collected at six different stations was considered. The complete sets (with no missing values) are used to predict monthly precipitation. The arithmetic averaging method, the multiple linear regression method, and the non-linear iterative partial least squares algorithm perform best. The multiple regression method provided a successful estimation of the missing precipitation data, which is supported by the results published in the literature. The multiple imputation method produced the most accurate results for precipitation data from five dependent stations. The decision-tree algorithm is explicit, and therefore it is used when insights into the decision making are needed. Comprehensive error analysis is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has suffered from increasingly severe flood events in recent years, most of which are caused by heavy rains. The substantial casualties and damage caused by flooding necessitates a better understanding of precipitation extremes, especially in heavily populated urban areas. Based on L-moments from a regional perspective, this paper analyzes precipitation extremes in the Taihu Basin, utilizing annual maximum daily precipitation and partial duration series at 96 rain gages. The comparison of regional and at-site analysis results shows that the former provides more robust estimates, especially in the upper tail of a distribution (higher quantiles). Also, the use of partial duration series, which captures more information about extreme events, was found to be preferable to describe the extreme precipitation events in the Taihu Basin. Given the recently observed more frequent occurrence and greater magnitude of precipitation extremes, it is suggested that the food design standard used in the basin should be updated, especially for the urbanizing zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall data are an essential input for many simulation models. In fact, these latter have a decisive role in the development and application of rational water policies. Since the accuracy of the simulation depends strongly on the available data, the task of optimizing the monitoring network is of great importance. In this paper, an application is presented aiming at the evaluation of a precipitation monitoring network by predicting monthly, seasonal, and interannual average rainfall. The method given here is based on the theory of the regionalized variables using the well-known geostatistical variance reduction method. The procedure, which involves different analysis methods of the available data, such as estimation of the interpolation uncertainty and data cross validation, is applied to a case study data set in Tunisia in order to demonstrate the potential for improvement of the observation network quality. Root mean square error values are the criteria for evaluating rainfall estimation, and network performance is discussed based on kriging variance reduction. Based on this study, it was concluded that some sites should be dropped to eliminate redundancy and some others need to be added to the existing network, essentially in the center and the south, to have a more informative network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Wyke Farm Platform for sustainable grassland research in south-west England contains infrastructure measuring soil moisture and field runoff. Its time series of sensor data is used to validate the parsimonious SH2O-NW model for soil water at field-scale. Thirty-four years of daily soil moisture and runoff is simulated, and used to detect long-term trends and produce a risk analysis. The model accounts for wetter periods of soil moisture and the main summer soil deficit and autumn re-wetting; limitations involve short-term, rapid changes in drying and re-wetting. The soil moisture sensor observations however do not reflect field variability. Analysis of more than one field allows an assessment of unexpected sensor anomalies. The paper recommends that soil moisture sensor confidence levels be provided, for comparison against modelled data. The simulations show a historic reduction in the occurrence of summer soil moisture deficits above a third of water capacity, while the winter precipitation and runoff simulation shows a stable long-term trend, matching the direction and magnitude of the North Atlantic Oscillation Index. A large runoff of 400 m3/day from a 1.75 ha pasture has a 0.07% probability, having a return period of once in 4 years during the 34-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding produced by high-intensive local rainfall and drainage system capacity exceedance can have severe impacts in cities. In order to prepare cities for these types of flood events – especially in the future climate – it is valuable to be able to simulate these events numerically, both historically and in real-time. There is a rather untested potential in real-time prediction of urban floods. In this paper, radar data observations with different spatial and temporal resolution, radar nowcasts of 0-2 h leadtime, and numerical weather models with leadtimes up to 24 h are used as inputs to an integrated flood and drainage systems model in order to investigate the relative difference between different inputs in predicting future floods. The system is tested on the small town of Lystrup in Denmark, which was flooded in 2012 and 2014. Results show it is possible to generate detailed flood maps in real-time with high resolution radar rainfall data, but rather limited forecast performance in predicting floods with leadtimes more than half an hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the uncertainty ranges of high flows under climate change in Jinhua River basin, eastern China. Four representative concentration pathways (RCPs), three global climate models (GCMs), 10 downscaling parameter sets and three hydrologic models are applied to simulate future discharges. Changes of annual maximum discharges are assessed for the baseline period (1961-1990) and future period (2011-2040). The uncertainties of annual maximum discharges are calculated for each uncertainty source and compared with different combinations of them. The minimum temperature will probably increase all year round in the future period and maximum temperature would increase in most cases. The changes of precipitation showed different directions by different models and emission scenarios. The annual maximum discharges would decrease for all RCPs. The order of uncertainty ranges of high flows due to different uncertainty sources from high to low is: hydrologic models, GCMs, parameter sets in the downscaling method and emission scenarios. It must be noted that the small uncertainty contribution from different emission scenarios is due to the study period when the differences in increase of radiative forcing and greenhouse gas concentration are less obvious between different RCPs compared to the second half of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a close quality relationship between the harmful levels of all three drought indicator groups (meteorological, hydrological and agricultural). However, the numerical scale of the relationships between them is unclear and the conversion of indicators is unsolved. Different areas or an area with different forms of drought cannot be compared. For example, from the evaluation of meteorological drought using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) values of a river basin, it cannot be stated how many tonnes of maize will be lost during a given drought period. A reliable estimated rate of yield loss would be very important information for the planned interventions (i.e. by farmers or river basin management organisations) in terms of time and cost. The aim of our research project was to develop a process which could provide information for estimating relevant drought indexes and drought related yield losses more effectively from remotely sensed spectral data and to determine the congruency of data derived from spectral data and from field measurements. The paper discusses a new calculation method, which provides early information on physical implementation of drought risk levels. The elaborated method provides improvement in setting up a complex drought monitoring system, which could assist hydrologists, meteorologists and farmers to predict and more precisely quantify the yield loss and the role of vegetation in the hydrological cycle. The results also allow the conversion of different-purpose drought indices, such as meteorological, agricultural and hydrological ones, as well as allow more water-saving agricultural land use alternatives to be planned in the river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the spatio-temporal variability of precipitation in western Iran by means of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), calculated in annual and seasonal aggregations for wet and dry conditions over 46 synoptic stations with monthly data from 1957 to 2008. Regions of homogeneous SPI realizations were delimited using principal components analysis (PCA) to highlight major variation modes distinguishable in the basin and singular spectrum analysis (SSA) was performed over the reconstructed values of SPI to identify their oscillation modes. Extreme SPI values associated with El Niño--Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) were also evaluated. Results show two significant oscillations around 4 and 8 years on the SPI with an increase in precipitation variability since 1990 and a tendency to have less rain during the cold season and more rain during the warm season. We calculated standardized products among SPI, ENSO, and PDO to determine years in which the indices reinforce each other, 1986, 1992, 1999, and 2008 being particularly significant in the associations. These results are important for water managers in western Iran because they indicate significant changes in precipitation regimes associated with ENSO and PDO signals that will help to assess the occurrence of droughts and floods in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high spatial resolution of precipitation distribution is a major concern for experts in environmental research and planning. This paper establishes a combination of multivariate regression algorithm and spatial analysis to predict distribution of precipitation, considering the four topographical factors of altitude, slope, aspect and location. Annual average and seasonal rainfall data were collected in nine rain gauges in Ulu Kinta Catchment in East Malaysia from 1974 to 2010. To examine records and fill gaps from long-term rain gauges, homogeneity analysis was performed using the double-mass curve method. Estimated missing rainfall data were also tested using index gauges from network rainfall stations. Multivariate regression analysis was conducted to propose an empirical equation for the study area. Topographical factors were considered from a 90 m resolution digital elevation model. The multivariate regression model was found to clarify 74% of spatial variability of precipitation on annual average and 78% during wet season. However, the correlation coefficient for the dry season decreased sharply to 63%. By using the kriging interpolation method, the estimated annual average improved to 78.4%; the average improved to 65.2 and 80.3% in the dry and wet seasons, respectively. This confirms the efficiency and significance of the model and its potential for use in other tropical catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the change trends of the annual and seasonal runoff series of the hydrological station Batang on the headstream of the Yangtze River over the period 1960-2007. The relations between runoff series and precipitation and temperature conditions are investigated, and the influence of the refreezing process of meltwater of the glaciers on the Yangtze River flow is examined with the proposed accumulated temperature deficit (ATD) index. It is found that annual runoff at the Batang station is not stable during the period 1960-2007. From 1960 to 1980, there was a rather strong decrease of 14.4 m³ s-1 year-1 on average in spite of the statistically significant increase in air temperature and rather stable precipitation. It is argued that the annual rate of glacier runoff generation is possibly controlled by the ATD rather than by the direct air temperature. Seasonal analysis indicates that ATD might be of greater influence in autumn and winter in affecting runoff than in spring and summer. The research in this paper may be helpful in understanding how the hydro-climatic conditions affect runoff generation in the cold regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes 12 years of snow water equivalent (SWE) observations collected in the data-sparse region of Arctic Alaska, United States. The In situ observations are distributed across a 200 x 300 km domain that includes the Kuparuk River watershed from the Brooks Range to the Beaufort Sea coast. Data collection methods and analyses were classified to distinguish between snow observation sites representing regional- and local-scale variability. Average SWE for the entire domain ranges from 92 mm in 2008 to 148 mm in 2011. Regional end-of-winter SWE indicates that both the extreme high SWE in 2009 and 2011 and the extreme low SWE in 2008 occurred during recent and alternating years, suggesting the limitations of 12 years of data for detecting SWE trends. By assimilating the observational datasets into SnowModel, hourly 100 m gridded SWE distributions for the central Alaska Arctic were created to provide a best-fit to the observations where and when they occur. The model simulations highlight how observed SWE data can be used as a surrogate for the more problematic winter precipitation measurements. The resulting SWE distributions are readily available to support ecological and hydrologic studies in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, located in western North Carolina, USA, is a 2,185 ha basin wherein forest climate monitoring and watershed experimentation began in the early 1930s. An extensive climate and hydrologic network has facilitated research for over 75 years. Our objectives in this paper were to describe the monitoring network, present long-term air temperature and precipitation data, and analyze the temporal variation in the long-term temperature and precipitation record. We found that over the period of record: (1) air temperatures have been increasing significantly since the late 1970s, (2) drought severity and frequency have increased with time, and (3) the precipitation distribution has become more extreme over time. We discuss the implications of these trends within the context of regional and global climate change and forest health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban hydrological climate change impact assessment requires an assessment of how short-term local precipitation extremes, e.g. expressed as intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves, are expected to change in the future. This cannot be done on the basis of regional climate model (RCM) results directly, mainly because of the models' coarse spatial grid and resolution-dependent limitations in process descriptions. In this paper, a stochastic model for downscaling short-term precipitation from RCM grid scale to local (i.e. point) scale is formulated and tested using data from Stockholm, Sweden. In principle, additional RCM variables characterising the weather situation are used to convert from grid box average to local precipitation, and estimate the probability of occurrence in an arbitrary point. Finally, local time series are stochastically simulated and IDF curves derived. The results of the application in Stockholm suggest that: (1) observed IDF-curves may be effectively reproduced by the model; and (2) the future increase of local-scale short-term precipitation extremes may be higher than the predicted increase of short-term extremes on the RCM grid scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the experimental validation and the application to a real industrial catchment of a two-dimensional depth-averaged shallow water model used for the computation of rainfall-runoff transformation from direct precipitation data. Instead of using the common approach in flood inundation modelling, which consists in computing the water depth and velocity fields given the water discharge, in this study the rainfall intensity is imposed directly in the model, the surface runoff being generated automatically. The model considers infiltration losses simultaneously with flow simulation. Gullies are also included in the model, although the coupling between the surface runoff and the sewer network is not considered. Experimental validation of the model is presented in several simplified laboratory configurations of urban catchments, in which the surface runoff has been measured for different hyetographs. The application to a real industrial catchment includes a sewer network flow component, which is solved with the SWMM model. The numerical predictions of the discharge hydrograph generated by a 12 hours storm event are compared with field measurements, providing encouraging results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although most Australians receive their domestic supply from reticulated mains or town water, there are vast areas with very low population densities and few reticulated supplies. In many of these areas rainwater collected in tanks is the primary source of drinking water. Heavy metals have recently become a concern as their concentration in rain water tanks was found to exceed recommended levels suitable for human consumption. Rainwater storage tanks also accumulate contaminants and sediments that settle to the bottom. Although not widely acknowledged, small amounts of contaminants such as lead found in rain water (used as drinking water) may have a cumulative and poisonous effect on human health over a life time. This is true for certain factors that underlie many of the chronic illnesses that are becoming increasingly common in contemporary society. The paper reports on a study which is part of a project that aims to develop a cost effective in-line filtration system to improve water quality in rainwater tanks. To enable this, the characteristics of rainwater need to be known. One component of this characterization is to observe the effects of the first flush on a rainwater tank. Samples of the roof runoff collected from an urban residential roof located in the Sydney Metropolitan Area in the initial first few millimetres of rain were analysed. The results show that bypassing the first 2mm of rainfall gives water with most water quality parameters compliant with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG) standards. The parameters that did not comply were lead and turbidity, which required bypassing approximately the first 5mm of rainfall to meet ADWG standards. Molecular weight distribution (MWD) analysis showed that the concentration of rainwater organic matter (RWOM) decreased with increasing amount of roof runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowcasting of rainfall may be used additionally to online rain measurements to optimize the operation of urban drainage systems. Uncertainties quoted for the rain volume are in the range of 5% to 10% mean square error (MSE), where for rain intensities 45% to 75% MSE are noted. For larger forecast periods up to 3 hours, the uncertainties will increase up to some hundred percents. Combined with the growing number of real time control concepts in sewer systems, rainfall forecast is used more and more in urban drainage systems. Therefore it is of interest how the uncertainties influence the final evaluation of a defined objective function. Uncertainty levels associated with the forecast itself are not necessarily transferable to resulting uncertainties in the catchment's flow dynamics. The aim of this paper is to analyse forecasts of rainfall and specific sewer output variables. For this study the combined sewer system of the city of Linz in the northern part of Austria located on the Danube has been selected. The city itself represents a total area of 96 km² with 39 municipalities connected. It was found that the available weather radar data leads to large deviations in the forecast for precipitation at forecast horizons larger than 90 minutes. The same is true for sewer variables such a CSO overflow for small sub-catchments. Although the results improve for larger spatial scales, acceptable levels at forecast horizons larger than 90 minutes are not reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results of analyses by parametric methods of annual means of temperature, precipitation and discharge, and of seasonal maximum precipitation at 17, 28 and 10 Icelandic stations, respectively, for the period 1961-2000. Trends in mean seasonal temperature and precipitation are in broad agreement with results found by other authors using other methods. A positive trend appears in both mean annual temperature and mean temperatures in most seasons. Annual mean precipitation trends are positive in most seasons except for negative trends in the September-November season in the south. Additionally, positive trends appear in maximum one-, three- and five-day precipitation, both during the spring and autumn, except at a group of stations in central Iceland. Some of the positive trends in mean annual and seasonal precipitation may, however, be attributed to the positive trend in temperature which may have influenced gauge catch. Trends in mean annual and seasonal discharge are small and statistically insignificant; the trends found in temperature and precipitation do not all relate directly to trends in discharge but suggest hypotheses for further study of the relationships between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a method is presented to estimate the reaction term of zinc sulphide precipitation and the zinc concentration in a CSTR, using the read-out signal of a sulphide selective electrode. The reaction between zinc and sulphide is described by a non-linear model and therefore classical observer theory cannot be applied directly, as this theory was initially developed for linear systems. However, by linear reparametrization of this non-linear system, the linear observer theory can be applied in an effective way. This is illustrated by a zinc sulphide example using real data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last century, much of the United States experienced warming temperatures and changes in amount and intensity of precipitation. Changes in future climate conditions present additional risk to water and watershed managers. The most recent release of U.S. EPA's BASINS watershed modeling system includes a Climate Assessment Tool (CAT) that provides new capabilities for assessing impacts of climate change on water resources. The BASINS CAT provides users with the ability to modify historical climate and conduct systematic sensitivity analyses of specific hydrologic and water quality endpoints to changes in climate using the BASINS models (Hydrologic Simulation Program -- FORTRAN (HSPF)). These capabilities are well suited for addressing questions about the potential impacts of climate change on key hydrologic and water quality goals using the watershed scale at which most important planning decisions are made. This paper discusses the concepts that motivated the CAT development effort; the resulting capabilities incorporated into BASINS CAT; and the opportunities that result from integrating climate assessment capabilities into a comprehensive watershed water quality modeling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of temporal rainfall distribution on soil moisture and runoff generation in the 5.9 km² Mutangi catchment in semi-arid Zimbabwe. Rainfall, soil moisture and runoff were measured during the 1999/00 and 2000/01 rainy seasons during which periods 755 mm and 615 mm of rainfall were received, respectively. The percentage of rainfall totals in these periods were 58% and 69%, respectively, in February. The total catchment runoff was 102 mm and 63 mm, of which 52% and 49% were recorded over 6 and 4 d in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Baseflow was negligible. Rainfall intensities were generally low. In the 1999/00 season there were 2 and 8 h with intensities >20 mm h-1 and 10 mm h-1, respectively. Some runoff appears to be generated by Hortonian overland flow (HOF), mainly in the early wet season before ploughing creates a rougher soil surface. The dominant process of runoff in this catchment was saturated overland flow (SOF), which occurs when the soils become saturated from below. The sodic soils along the stream channels appear to generate most of the runoff because of their small capacity to store water before saturation. The ridge soils are coarse sands, with a large capacity to store rainfall. The transitional (slope) soils have an intermediate capacity to store water. If there is a sequence of daily events that completely fills the storage available in both the sodic and transitional soils, and which begins to saturate the ridge soils, there could be very large amounts of runoff (>50% of the daily rainfall). The occurrence of such runoff events depends very heavily on the distribution of rainfall. Dry spells between rain events create storage, thereby reducing the risk of runoff from the next events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitation gauge measurements suffer from several sources of errors which can strongly influence their accuracy. The method proposed in the paper is based on the correction of annual precipitation records for a given river basin using the water balance equation. The main advantage of the approach is in using the annual runoff records and air temperature data, which are measured more accurately than the annual precipitation amount. Two versions of the computation scheme (for a multi-year period and for an annual interval) are presented and discussed. The water balance equation taken into account in this study combines the area averaged annual measured precipitation, runoff, evapotransporation and, over an annual time scale, the change in moisture in surface and undersurface storages. The Ol'decop formula for calculation of evapotranspiration together with the improved regional formula for potential evaporation as a function of annual air temperature is used in this study. It has been determined for the annual time interval that the storage of water in a basin is strongly dependent on annual air temperature and, to a lesser extent, on precipitation. An example of the method application for two catchments situated in Northwest Russia is presented, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a part of a Nordic co-operative research project, Climate and Energy, funded by Nordic Energy Research and the Nordic energy sector. The project has the objective of a comprehensive assessment of the impact of climate change on Nordic renewable energy resources including hydropower, wind power, biofuels and solar energy. In this paper, the long term variability of precipitation, temperature and discharge of Icelandic rivers is analyzed with respect to trends. Trend is tested for two periods: 1941-2002, since the longest Icelandic discharge records reach 60 years back in time, and 1961-2000, so that a larger set of discharge records could be included, as only a few Icelandic discharge records extend more than 40 years back in time. An eventual trend in the time series is analyzed using the Mann-Kendall test. The test is applied to the time series of both annual and seasonal values, and also to the timing and volume of the maximum daily discharge in spring and autumn, respectively. The main conclusions from the study are that, despite significant increase in measured precipitation, discharge in non-glacial rivers has not increased. Meanwhile, spring temperatures have a negative trend and spring floods, therefore, are larger and delayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up until today extreme rainfall properties are frequently applied in sewer design guidelines. Uncertainty in the estimation of such properties will hence directly influence the dimensions of sewers, structures and pumps. In this paper the issue of potential trend and noise in the estimation is investigated for 6 rain series ranging from to 55 years in duration. Different to recent research that predicts a—climate induced—increase in heavy precipitation no clear indication for such trend was found in the investigated historical rain series. Another important aspect is the length of the rain series that is required for the estimation of extreme rainfall properties and the associated uncertainty. The analysis indicates that at least a period of 10 years should be used for the estimation. But even so the possible deviation expressed in terms of the go percentile is in the order of 5 to 10% of the ‘true value’, defined as the value derived when the whole given series is used for the estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the spring landscape of arctic regions is dominated by a patchy snow cover with implications for both spring melt runoff and atmospheric fluxes. In addition to a variable end-of-winter snowpack, spatial differences in anowmelt energy terms play an important role in the development of this patchy snow cover. This paper focuses specifically on the influence of solar radiation on snowmelt by using a model to simulate the small-scale variability of solar radiation incident on the ground surface due to topographic influences over a small arctic catchment. The model only requires a digital elevation model (DEM) and measured global radiation. Despite the relatively low relief (average slope 3°) of the study area, the results showed solar radiation differences of up to 10% of the area-wide mean over the melt period. This would result in differences in snowmelt amounts of up to 50 mm, a value similar in magnitude to the overall mean end-of-winter snow water equivalent in the study region. An analysis of the effects of changing model scale showed that the simulated variability decreased substantially for larger grid sizes. The results show that the small-scale variability of solar radiation contributes greatly to the mosaic patterns in melting snow covers of arctic regions, affects the timing and amount of meltwater release and influences the surface energy balance of these areas considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though Japan has mean annual precipitation of 1,714 mm and hundreds of dams and reservoirs constructed, frequent and severe droughts have occurred in wide regions of the country. Because of rapid economic growth and concentrations of population in urban areas, water demands in large cities have stressed reliability of water supply systems and necessitated the development of new water resources with considerable economic and environmental costs. To alleviate these situations, wastewater reclamation and reuse have been implemented widely in major cities. This paper summarizes the current status of water reuse in Japan and discusses dominant uses of reclaimed water, emphasizing non-potable urban applications such as toilet flushing, industrial reuse, and environmental water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]