Search

Existing data in the United States are insufficient for estimating pesticide-treated crop areas at the watershed scale. The objective of this research was to evaluate an approach for estimating simazine usage on corn (Zea mays L.) based on its transport to streams of the Salt River Basin (SRB) of Missouri, USA. Annual loads of total simazine and atrazine (parent + metabolites) were quantified for seven SRB watersheds from 2005 to 2017. Simazine-treated corn area was computed as the total simazine load (g) divided by total atrazine load (g ha-1 ) on a treated area basis; atrazine was used as surrogate in the absence of treated area simazine load data. From 2005 to 2010, an estimated 3.8-31% of the corn area within SRB watersheds was treated with simazine, and four of six watersheds had

The dry-hot valley region in China is one of the most severely affected soil erosion areas in the world; however, little research has been conducted on sediment source contributions for various land uses during rainfall events. In this work, we collected sediment samples during a rainstorm in four types of land-use areas in the Yuanjiang dry-hot valley region of China. Results showed that gullies are the primary source of sediments in all catchment areas, and the contributions varied between 43.6% and 93.9%, with an average of 64.9%. This was followed by farmlands (21.3% to 30.4% with an average of 25.9%) and then fruit forests (6.1% to 36.5% with an average of 20.5%). Natural forests had the lowest sediment contribution as their contribution varied between 0.6% and 6.1%, with an average of only 3.3%. During runoff-induced erosion and sedimentation, the sediment contributions of gullies decreased initially and then increased. The sediment contribution of potential sediment sources located on slopes (i.e., fruit forests, natural forests, and farmlands) initially increased over time, and then declines were detected after a certain point

Satellite precipitation products are widely used in different domain, in area where there is a lack in observation. These have different spatio-temporal resolutions consequently resulting in different precipitation amounts depending on the product. The present study validates three satellite products, namely the Climate Hazard group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS), the Climate Research Unit (CRU) and the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) over Bandama and Mono river basins for 1981-2005 and 1981-2016 respectively by comparing them to the observation precipitation of the basin. The available studies are focused on the regional scale but not on a watershed scale for hydrological studies. The analysis reveals that all the products are strongly correlated to each other as well as to the observed data at basin level. The Lamb coefficient test shows that most all the chosen basin namely Bandama and Mono presents the same climatic indices. All the products present the same variability and trend as the observation at basins scale. By comparing those products to observation, CHIRPS product following by GPCP give the lowest mean absolute error (MAE) at annual and seasonal time scales while CHIRPS is followed by CRU at monthly scale. Overall, all products overestimate the precipitation at Bandama basin while they underestimate it over Mono river basin. The comparison over 1981-2017 period of the total annual precipitation increasing southern ward (from Sahel to the coastal zone) for all the three studied products which varies from 300 mm to 2400 mm/year. All the three products are not significantly different from one another and they all highlight the same areas of hotspot rainfall in the region. The same conclusion is made at monthly and seasonal scales. Therefore, any of these products especially CHIRPS can be used for study in this region due to its lowest bias and MAE.

In the Upper Mississippi River basin, after spring fertilizer application, total nitrogen concentration [TN] in streams drops by ~73% from June to September, consistent with effects of seasonal nutrient loading. We hypothesized that this seasonal variability might be affected by land cover (e.g. wetland, cultivated area extent). To test this hypothesis, we adopted a linear mixed-effects modeling approach including periodic functions. However, inclusion of wetland area was not indicated, suggesting that increased model complexity associated with inclusion of contemporary wetland extent was unjustified. While consideration of cultivated extent in relation to mean annual [TN] was shown to improve performance, no evidence was observed that cultivated extent could enhance explanation of intra-annual [TN]. Improved understanding of cause and effect will require improved spatiotemporal data on nitrogen sources and additional critical field experimentation, which in turn is expected to set the stage for advancement in physically- or process-based modeling of nutrient concentrations.

Worldwide, people are becoming aware of the degraded condition of many rivers, and they are increasingly turning to river restoration to help river systems return to a more natural state. As a result, restoration ecology is becoming an important science in the management of the rivers worldwide. In this article, we discuss the present state of restoration ecology. We begin with a synopsis of some common causes of river degradation and the motivation for attempting river restoration. We then discuss the ideal goals for ecological restoration of rivers and how this process is necessarily constrained in human-dominated systems. River restoration in human-dominated systems is presented as a three-step process: planning, implementation, and monitoring. We conclude with an overview of future challenges for restoration ecology and some possible innovations to help address those challenges.

Sediment yield is affected by many factors, such as climate, geology, geomorphology, land use and human activities. Sediment signatures are the statistic indices or curves that are able to effectively describe the temporal and spatial characteristics of sediment transport and evaluate the ability of the streamflow to deliver the sediment. In this study, the sediment signatures of Upper Sangamon River Basin, which is an intensively managed watershed for agriculture development, are analyzed. Firstly, a semi-distributed model of sediment transport is built up based on the Tsinghua Representative Elementary Watershed (THREW) model, and it is applied to Upper Sangamon River Basin. The result of sediment simulation is analyzed by four sediment signatures, i.e. specific sediment yield, sediment delivery ratio, cumulative sediment curve and effective discharge. The sediment signatures are consistent with each other and accord with the fact of the agricultural production in Upper Sangamon River Basin.

Investigating the suspended sediment dynamic is useful for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of runoff and sediment yield process. The study analyzes the sediment flow behavior in relation to the flood patterns in the Xichuan River catchment on the Loess Plateau. Based on 23-year hydrological data collected from Zaoyuan hydrological station and K-medoids clustering method, one hundred and twelve flood events data were classified into four flood patterns. The hydrologic features of different flood patterns exhibit significant differences. The values of the mean runoff depth, the mean flood duration, and the mean flood peak discharge decreased as the following order: Pattern A > Pattern C > Pattern D > Pattern B. Each flood pattern results in differing levels of the event sediment yield (SY), the SY of Pattern A (10,275.33 t·km−2) and Pattern C (1196.39 t·km−2) were larger than those from Pattern B (218.84 t·km−2) and Pattern D (693.84 t·km−2). These results indicated that greater attention should be paid to Pattern A and Pattern C because of the largest sediment delivery effect. Multiple stepwise regressions analysis suggested that the contribution of main runoff-related factors to event sediment yield varied with different flood patterns. In addition, hysteretic analysis between suspended sediment concentration and runoff suggested that counter-clockwise and figure-eight loops were the dominant loops. The results provided a useful information to flood pattern classifications and suspended sediment dynamics research, and enriched the sediment control theory at the watershed scale.

Water clarity, denoted by the Secchi disk depth (SDD), is one of the most important indicators for monitoring water quality. In the Songhua River basin (SHRB), few studies have used Landsat to monitor long-term (3-4 decades) changes in lake SDD and explore the impact of natural and human factors on SDD interannual variation at the watershed scale. Lakes in the SHRB are of great significance to local populations. Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of SDD could help policymakers manage, protect, and predict lake water quality. We utilized the Landsat red/blue band ratio in the Google Earth Engine to estimate the SDD of 77 lakes and generated annual mean SDD maps from 1990 to 2018. The results of the SDD interannual changes showed that the water quality in the SHRB has improved since 2005. Specifically, the SDD in the SHRB displayed a significant increasing trend (p 0.05) from 0.29 m in 2005 to 0.37 m in 2018. Moreover, the number of lakes displaying a significant increasing trend for SDD increased from 18 between 1990 and 2005 to 31 between 2005 and 2018. We also found that use of chemical fertilizer significantly impacted lakes, followed by wastewater discharge and normalized difference vegetation index. Improvements in the quantity and ability of wastewater discharge treatment and increased vegetation cover have alleviated water pollution; however, the non-point pollution of agriculture still poses a threat to some lakes in the SHRB. Therefore, more efforts should be made to further improve the aquatic ecological environment of SHRBs.

Natural and anthropogenic complex processes release salts into the environment. These change the balances of natural systems in the watersheds. Models can assist study of salinity processes throughout watersheds. This study proposes a flexible water and soil salinity module for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) that can profitably incorporate expert scientific judgments into a deterministic salinity framework to adapt predicted salinity processes to actual salinity processes watershed-scale. The proposed flexible salinity model (SWAT-SF) was developed using new equations for salinity assessment and then successfully applied to the Dehram River Basin located south of Iran that endangers natural and anthropogenic salinity problems. The SWAT-SF model uses a general framework that can be utilized with/without the direct guidance of experts for the determination of salinity processes, the extent of the salinity, identification and investigation of the saline site, assessment and management of the salinity, and evaluation of salinity economics throughout the world.

Presently, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is regarded as an emerging environmental issue, and many studies have illuminated biogeographical patterns of the antibiotic resistome. However, few studies have investigated elevational biogeography and associated assembly mechanisms of ARGs in natural river systems. Accordingly, in the present study, we used metagenomics approaches to analyze the biogeographical pattern of ARGs along the pristine Yarlung Tsangpo River on the Tibetan Plateau. Our study retrieved the baseline profiles of ARGs in the pristine river and showed that the ARGs were dominated by bacA, which was resistant to bacitracin and represented more than 91% of total ARGs. The diversity and abundance of ARGs in the pristine river were lower than those in the human-impacted area, suggesting that the antibiotic resistome evolved and was promoted in a human-impacted environment. Furthermore, an elevational distance-decay relationship of ARGs was observed along the pristine Yarlung Tsangpo River, which provided strong evidence of ARG dissimilarity under the elevational variation. Elevational gradients could lead to changes in environmental variables and spatial factors, and consequently alter ARG composition. Elevational gradients could influence the assembly processes of ARGs. The deterministic and stochastic assembly processes both played critical roles and equally participated in shaping ARG composition at the watershed scale along the Yarlung Tsangpo River, and with increasing elevational variation along the river, the ecological processes of ARG assembly shifted from deterministic to stochastic. Moreover, abundant and rare ARGs were tentatively separated to investigate the difference and similarity in their distributions. Although abundant and rare ARGs presented similar distance-decay relationships, rare ARGs were more diverse and vulnerable to the dispersal process and mutation. Overall, our study provides valuable ecological insights to profile the large-scale elevational patterns of ARGs in a pristine river system, thereby providing important information for public health and environmental management.

Satellite rainfall estimates (SRFE) are a promising alternative for the lack of reliable, densely distributed, precipitation data common in developing countries and remote locations. SRFE may be significantly improved when corrected based on rain gauge data. In the present study the first complete validation of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42-based MERGE product is performed by means of ground truthing and hydrological modeling-based applications. Four distinct, highly anthropogenic watersheds were selected in the Upper Para&iacute, ba do Sul River Basin (UPSRB)&mdash, Brazil. The results show that when compared to TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) 3B42V7 at the watershed scale, MERGE has a higher correlation with observed data. Likewise, root mean square errors and bias are significantly lower for MERGE products. When hydrologically validated, MERGE-based streamflow simulations have shown the capacity of reproducing the overall hydrological regime with &ldquo, good&rdquo, to &ldquo, very good&rdquo, results for the downstream lowland sections. Limitations were observed in the hydrological modeling of the upstream, highly anthropogenic, dammed watersheds. However, such limitations may not be attributed to MERGE precipitation since they were also obtained for the individually calibrated rain gauge-based simulations. The results indicate that the used MERGE dataset as a hydrological model input is better suited for application in the UPSRB than the TMPA 3B42V7.

La generalisation du ravinement et la baisse de la productivite des terres sont quelques-unes des principales contraintes qui assaillent l’utilisation des sols au Sahel. Pour gerer efficacement ces sols, une evaluation des processus hydro-erosifs est necessaire. Ce travail a ainsi pour objectif d’analyser la dynamique hydro-erosive sur un site experimental installe depuis 2004 dans la region de Niamey (Niger). Sur ce site, le dispositif de mesure est compose de huit parcelles de mesures de ruissellement et d’erosion, des stations hydrometriques a l’exutoire des deux bassins versants endoreiques et de plusieurs piquets destines aux suivis morpho-dynamiques des ravines. Apres une decennie d’observation, les ruissellements mesures sur les parcelles se caracterisent par une dynamique saisonniere croissante sur les surfaces encroutees (croutes biologique et d’erosion) et decroissante sur les surfaces cultivees. Le coefficient de ruissellement varie de 5 % sur la surface cultivee a 58 % sur la croute d’erosion. Au cours des 10 annees de mesure, ce coefficient a connu une forte croissance en particulier sur la jachere (+ 80 %) et sur la surface cultivee (+ 300 %), traduisant ainsi la degradation des sols. A l’echelle des bassins versants, l’augmentation du coefficient de ruissellement s’accompagne d’une erosion areolaire qui decape le sol a une vitesse moyenne de 5 mm/an et d’une erosion lineaire active, de l’ordre de 4 m3/an au niveau des ravines suivies. Les transferts sedimentaires qui en resultent agissent sur le fonctionnement morpho-sedimentaire des cours d’eau. Des amenagements antierosifs sont necessaires pour dissiper les processus hydro-erosifs et preserver les services ecosystemiques des sols des bassins. Widespread gullying and the declining land productivity are some of the main constraints plaguing land use in the Sahel. In order to effectively manage these soils, it has become necessary to assess the hydro-erosive processes. The current study, thus, aims at analyzing the hydro-erosion dynamics on an experimental site installed since 2004 in the Niamey region (Niger Republic). On this site, the measurement device is made up of eight runoff and erosion measurement plots, hydrometric stations at the outlet of the two endorheic watersheds and several stakes intended for morpho-dynamic monitoring of the gullies. After a decade of observation, the runoff measured on the plots is characterized by an increasing seasonal dynamic on encrusted surfaces (biological and erosion crusts) and a decreasing one on cultivated surfaces. The runoff coefficient varies from 5% on the cultivated area to 58% on the erosion crust. Over the 10 years of measurement, this coefficient has greatly increased, especially on the fallow (+ 80%) and on cultivated area (+ 300%); this increase consequently reflects soil degradation. At the watershed scale, the increase in the runoff coefficient is accompanied by area erosion (or the erosion of the area out of the basin) which strikes the soil at an average speed of 5 mm/year and active linear erosion measuring 4 m3/year as observed at the monitored (the ongoing investigated) gullies. The resulting sediment transfers act on the morpho-sedimentary functioning of rivers. Anti-erosion facilities are necessary to dissipate the hydro-erosive processes and preserve the ecosystem services of the soil in the basins

We are very much dependent on nature's services for life on this planet. We would not exist without these services. Nature provides the infrastructure for life. But when we think of the infrastructure, we need to make this planet livable, we focus on gray infrastructure—the streets, sewers, water purification plants, etc. We are a long way off from dispensing with gray infrastructure, but there is much more we could be doing to harness nature's services. In this chapter, we review some of the ways we can incorporate natural or green infrastructure into water supply and treatment. We examine green infrastructure at the macroscale of prairies and forests, the meso- or midscale green infrastructure practices such as stormwater treatment wetlands, and the microscale practices most often equated with green stormwater infrastructure or low-impact development. Finally, we explore issues of context and scale in the light of resilient urban development at the watershed scale. Walkable, compact development is the best ally of preserving very large natural areas, which in the final analysis are the best and most effective green infrastructure available to us.

The concentration and fluxes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were investigated in a karst underground river system in southwest China. Groundwater, particles, and sediments from underground river, topsoil, and surface water were monitored, allowing establishment of a conceptual model of PAH transport at the watershed scale. The results showed that PAHs could be transported from the surface to the subsurface through two migration pathways, which were slow-flowing water in the karst fissure and fast-flowing water in conduits. During rainfall events, increasing PAH levels (concentrations and fluxes) at the underground river exit indicated that hydrodynamic force could facilitate PAH transport. The PAHs in water were dominated by dissolved PAHs, accounting for 58.7% of total, especially in the freely dissolved phase, in which SPM-associated PAHs accounted for 41.3% of the total PAHs. Low molecular weight PAHs dominated transport and were mainly transported in dissolved form, whereas high molecular weight PAHs were dominated by SPM-associated transport during the rainfall events. A significantly positive correlation was observed between two-ring and three-ring freely dissolved PAHs and dissolved organic carbon (p

Study region: Santa Ynez River Basin, Santa Barbara County, California. Study focus: Lake Cachuma, a reservoir on the Santa Ynez River, provides water for over 280,000 residents and agricultural lands of Santa Barbara County, California. This area experiences high inter-annual precipitation variability, which we hypothesize is driven by the presence or absence of a few large precipitation events each year. We use daily precipitation observations from 1965 to 2017 to identify extreme precipitation events, defined as those exceeding the 90th percentile. We examine the role of these events, their associated synoptic patterns, and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in driving inter-annual precipitation variability in this basin. New hydrological insights for the region: On average, a wet year features three or more extreme events, a normal year 1–2 events, and a dry year 0–1 events. We identify four distinct synoptic-scale weather patterns associated with extreme events and find that 74% of events are associated with atmospheric rivers. El Niño years tend to have a greater number of extreme events, though this relationship is not dependable. The reliance on just a few extreme precipitation events and diversity among these events highlights the challenges of seasonal prediction and resource management in this area. This novel approach to defining variability on a watershed scale can support ecological, geological, and hydrological studies as well as regional water resource management. Keywords: Lake Cachuma, Southern California, Precipitation extremes, Precipitation variability, Drought, Water resources

The atmospheric water supply and demand dynamics determine a region’s potential water resources. The hydrologic ratios, such as, aridity index, evaporation ratio and runoff coefficients are useful indicators to quantify the atmospheric water dynamics at watershed to regional scales. In this study, we developed a modeling framework using a machine learning approach to predict hydrologic ratios for watersheds located in contiguous United States (CONUS) by utilizing a set of climate, soil, vegetation, and topographic variables. Overall, the proposed modeling framework is able to simulate the hydrologic ratios at watershed scale with a considerable accuracy. The concept of non-parametric elasticity was applied to study the potential influence of the estimated hydrologic ratios on various drought characteristics (resilience, vulnerability, and exposure) for river basins located in CONUS. Spatial sensitivity of drought indicators to hydrologic ratios suggests that an increase in hydrologic ratios may result in augmentation of magnitude of drought indicators in majority of the river basins. Aridity index seems to have higher influence on drought characteristics in comparison to other hydrologic ratios. It was observed that the machine learning approach based on random forests algorithm can efficiently estimate the spatial distribution of hydrologic ratios provided sufficient data is available. In addition to that, the non-parametric based elasticity approach can identify the potential influence of hydrologic ratios on spatial drought characteristics.

The Danjiangkou Reservoir in China is characterized by significantly high concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), and the sources are not clear. Recently, research on this reservoir has focused on the N cycle, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of N, and the factors influencing N concentration. Significant temporal and spatial differences in TN concentrations exist, both in the reservoir area and the tributaries. N concentration in the area is affected by numerous factors, including N transported by tributaries, nonpoint source pollution around the reservoir, internal N release, and atmospheric N deposition. Moreover, a dam heightening project led to a larger water-fluctuation zone and more bays in the reservoir, directly affecting its N cycle. However, further research is required to explore the N cycle on a large watershed scale in the Danjiangkou Reservoir and upper stream areas, determine N pollution sources using satellite remote sensing, and conduct simulations of a water body N cycle model based on data fusion. Although the issue of excessive TN has been alleviated to some extent by the South-North Water Diversion Project, the excessively high TN concentrations require more research to aid the implementation of N-reducing strategies.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are ubiquitous in the environment, with previous studies mainly focusing on the terrestrial ecosystem, which is prone to higher antibiotic application. However, the characteristics, distribution pattern, and driving factors of soil ARGs at the macro scale are still unclear. In this study, the soil ARGs, antibiotics, mobile genetic elements (MGEs), soil properties, toxic metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and bacterial community in the Taipu River Basin were analyzed to investigate the distribution and dissemination of ARGs at a watershed scale. The results revealed that ARGs were widespread in the soils along the Taipu River, and that ARG profiles varied greatly with different types of land use, but showed regional similarities. The characteristics were mainly determined by antibiotic input and the ARG transmission mediated by MGEs. The order of the contribution of environmental factors to ARG distribution was toxic metals &gt, PAHs &gt, soil properties. Toxic metal pollution was coupled with ARGs through MGE mediation, while PAHs and soil properties were most likely to affect the ARG distribution by shifting the bacterial community. The microbial–ecological relationship changed significantly with the enrichment of ARGs, and its impact may extend to the watershed scale. Transposon IS1247 can be used as an indicator of the ARGs impact on the microbial ecological relationship in the soils of the Taipu River Basin.

Spatial scale is a crucial factor in drought propagation and characterization. To investigate the response behavior of the meteorological drought-hydrological drought propagation to different watershed scales, three nested subbasins in the upper Huaihe River basin were selected as case study sites. The Standardized Precipitation Index and the Standardized Streamflow Index were adopted to characterize the meteorological drought and hydrological drought respectively. The relationship between meteorological drought and hydrological drought was then examined by wavelet coherency analysis and linear/nonlinear regression models. Results showed that (1) linear regression model captured drought propagation best in all subbasins, and the correlation strengthened as the watershed area increased with drought duration being highest correlated among the five drought characteristics; (2) with the watershed area growth, the coherence between hydrological and meteorological drought reduced, the lagging effect of hydrological drought attenuated, and the hydrological one tended to be more synchronized with meteorological one over the long period; and (3) the larger the watershed scale, the later (earlier) occurrence of the hydrological drought onset (termination), while the longer drought duration and larger magnitude for triggering hydrological drought.

The accidental leakage of industrial wastewater containing heavy metals from enterprises poses great risks to resident health, social instability, and ecological safety. During 2005-2018, heavy metal mixed pollution accidents comprised approximately 33% of the major environmental ones in China. A Bayesian Networks-based probabilistic approach is developed to quantitatively predict ecological and human health risks for heavy metal mixed pollution accidents at the watershed scale. To estimate the probability distributions of joint ecological exposure once a heavy metal mixed pollution accident occurs, a Copula-based joint exposure calculation method, comprised of a hydro-dynamic model, emergent heavy metal pollution transport model, and the Copula functions, is embedded. This approach was applied to the risk assessment of acute Cr6+-Hg2+ mixed pollution accidents at 76 electroplating enterprises in 24 risk sub-watersheds of the Dongjiang River downstream watershed. The results indicated that nine sub-watersheds created high ecological risks, while only five created high human health risks. In addition, the ecological and human health risk levels were highest in the tributary (the Xizhijiang River), while the ecological risk was more critical in the river network, and the human health risk was more serious in the mainstream of the Dongjiang River. The quantitative risk assessment provides a substantial support to incident prevention and control, risk management, as well as regulatory decision making for electroplating enterprises. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Most heavy metal exposure and pollution results from multiple industrial activities, including metal processing in refineries, and microelectronics. These issues pose a great threat to human health, ecological balance, and even societal stability. During 2012–2017, China, in particular, faced the challenge of 23 heavy metals accidents, six of which were extraordinarily serious accidents. Accidental environmental pollution is rarely caused by a single heavy metal, but rather by heavy metal mixtures. To address the need for a joint exposure risk assessment for heavy metal mixed pollution accidents at the watershed scale, a Copula-based exposure risk dynamic simulation model was proposed. A coupled hydrodynamic and accidental heavy metal exposure model is constructed for an hourly simulation of the exposure fate of heavy metals from each risk source once accidental leakage has occurred. The Copula analysis was introduced to calculate the dual heavy metal joint exposure probability in real time. This method was applied to an acute Cr6+-Hg2+ joint exposure risk assessment for 43 electroplating plants in nine sub-watersheds within the Dongjiang River downstream basin. The results indicated seven risk sources (i.e., S1, S4, H18, H23, H27–H28, and H34) that presented relatively high exposure risk to their surrounding sub-watersheds. Spatially, the acute exposure risk level was highest in the tributary basin (sub-watershed XW) than in the mainstream (sub-watershed DW2) and the river network (sub-watershed RW) of the lower reaches of the Dongjiang River. This research highlights an effective probabilistic approach for performing a joint exposure risk analysis of heavy metal mixed pollution accidents at the watershed scale.

Freshwater fishes living in streams and rivers can be affected strongly by isolation, which causes a disproportionate degree of fragmentation in such dendritic systems. Isolation disrupts important ecological and migratory processes as well as the ability to access refuge habitats during disturbances. The restoration of habitat connectivity, then, should be a productive strategy for improving the resiliency of freshwater fish populations, but the local and broader ecological benefits of barrier removal are still poorly understood. We report on a long-term, spatially intensive effort to monitor the responses of inland trout to stream habitat reconnection at a watershed scale, using both demographic and genetic techniques. Individual-based genetic assignment uncovered clear evidence of movement into the primary tributary of interest, which had been blocked by an assumedly complete barrier, but the source population generating this movement varied over time. A linear mixed-effect model suggested trou...

Two typical polycyclic musks (PCMs), namely 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-hexamethylcyclopenta-(g)-2-benzopyran (HHCB) and 7-acetyl-1,1,3,4,4,6-hexamethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene (AHTN), were determined in 63 surface water and 42 sediment samples collected from the North Canal River watershed, an urban catchment located in the megacity Beijing, China. Concentrations of HHCB and AHTN were 13.2 ng/L-395 ng/L and 2.98 ng/L-232 ng/L in surface water, while 4.10 ng/g-818 ng/g and 1.21 ng/g-731 ng/g in sediments. The results showed that PCM concentrations in the North Canal River watershed were at the high end when compared to that in other regions in China and worldwide. A watershed-wide annual mass budget showed that HHCB (∼150 kg/year) and AHTN (∼80 kg/year) mainly originated from urban wastewaters. Both PCMs were eliminated primarily by outflowing water (72 kg/year and 43 kg/year for HHCB and AHTN, respectively) and due to losses to the atmosphere (40 kg/year and 26 kg/year for HHCB and AHTN, respectively). An assessment of ecological risks posed by HHCB and AHTN to aquatic organisms in the North Canal River watershed was performed by using a tiered ecological risk assessment. The results showed that PCMs were unlikely to pose an ecological risk at the watershed scale (the probability of the incidence of adverse effect was3.5% at the 99% protection level). However, according to the results from the risk quotient method, the tributaries draining wastewater effluents should be hotspots that warrant further research in future.

Watershed scale models have become important tools to assess the effectiveness of regional and farm level remediation strategies for ecological restoration. The Everglades is an ecologically unique and complex system posing numerous challenges to water managers in South Florida. The Feeder Canal Basin (FCB) in Hendry County, Florida, drains 277 km2 of land into the central Everglades. During 2008–2017, the average annual total phosphorus (TP) concentration at the FCB outflow was approximately 89 μg/L, almost an order of magnitude higher than the restoration target for the Everglades marshes. This study aimed at evaluating remediation strategies - Best Management Practices (BMPs) and Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) to achieve TP targets for ecosystem restoration using an integrated modeling framework with a top-down approach. The baseline regime was modeled using the Watershed Assessment Model with multi-gage calibration (2000−2003) and validation (2004–2010). With the model performing satisfactory to very good for all gage locations, results indicated that row crops, groves & orchards, and improved pastures were largely responsible for TP concentrations and/or loads. BMP scenario results showed that TP loads could be reduced by 8% to 24% at the FCB outlet under minimal or very aggressive BMPs, respectively, indicating the need for additional water quality improvement projects to meet restoration targets. A preliminary design of two STAs, using the Dynamic Model for Stormwater Treatment Areas, estimated that a total of 52 km2 and 11.3 km2 of STAs will be required to achieve the TP concentration targets. The analysis framework employed in this study can be replicated in other watersheds to provide a holistic picture of remediation measures required to achieve water quality targets.

Based on the constructed SWAT model in the Qinhuai River Basin, the hydrological response of flooding under different scenarios of temperature and rainfall change is analyzed. The Copula function is then used to calculate and analyze the multivariate flood risk. The results show that the flood peaks increase with the increase of precipitation and decrease with the increase of temperature. The hydrological response of light floods to temperature changes is stronger than that of medium and heavy floods. Additionally, the temperature drop and the precipitation increase lead to a higher flood risk. The flood risk of flood peaks is more sensitive to changes in precipitation.

The grid-based water balance of watershed scale was assessed in the mountainous area of Pyosun catchment in Jeju Island after analyzing precipitation, evapotranspiration, and runoff from January 2008 to December 2013. The existing results of direct runoff, evapotranspirtion, and groundwater recharge comparing to precipitation were presented 22.0%, 25.6%, and 52.4%, respectively, in Pyosun catchment. However, this study indicated each component shows 14.5%, 24.2%, and 61.0%, respectively, in the mountainous area of Pyosun catchment. Therefore, groundwater recharge rate in the mountainous area appears higher than 10% comparing to the overall catchment. It would be analyzed that the amount of direct runoff is relatively small. Moreover, this difference could be generated because of the spatial discontinuities in the process of estimating the total amount of precipitation in the mountainous area. Therefore, the grid-based spatial analysis to maximize the spatial continuity would be useful for providing a more reasonable result when the total amount of water resources are evaluated in mountainous areas in the future.

Although billions of dollars have been spent restoring degraded watersheds worldwide, watershed-scale studies evaluating their effectiveness are rare. To mitigate damage from past logging activities, the floodplain of the upper Chilliwack River watershed (∼600 km2) was extensively restored from 1996 to 2000 through off-channel habitat restoration. The contribution of restored habitat to watershed-scale production of wild coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) smolts was estimated through an extensive mark–recapture program in 2002. 27%–34% of the production of the estimated 247 200 out-migrating coho smolts could be attributed to the 157 000 m2 of newly created habitat. Area-based habitat models from the literature performed reasonably well in predicting smolt production from restored habitat, providing an acceptable first-order approach for evaluating production benefits of restoration. The costs of smolt production integrated over 30 years ranged from US$0.69–US$10.05 per smolt, falling within the range of hatchery production costs reported elsewhere (typical cost of ∼US$1.00 per smolt) at the most cost-effective restoration sites. This study demonstrates that large-scale habitat restoration can effectively enhance fish production at a watershed scale, at a cost that may be comparable to hatchery smolt production.

Landscapes are sculpted by a variety of processes that weather and erode bedrock, converting it into soils and sediments that are moved downslope. Quantifying erosion rates provides important insights into a wide range of questions in disciplines from tectonics and landscape evolution to the impacts of land use. Cosmogenic nuclides contained in quartz sediment provide a robust tool for determining spatially averaged erosion rates across scales ranging from single hillslopes to continental river basins and are providing fundamental clues to how landscapes evolve. Cosmogenic nuclides in buried sediments contain unique information about paleo–erosion rates up to millions of years in the past. This article explores some of the basic ideas behind various methods used to infer catchment-wide erosion rates and highlights recent examples related to problems in tectonics, climate, and land use.

Planning for and monitoring human wellbeing (HWB) as a component of ecosystem recovery is a growing trend in environmental management. Within the Puget Sound specifically, organizations at the watershed and basin scale have been developing recovery action plans with placeholders for HWB or quality of life indicators. While the actual incorporation of HWB into policy has been limited, there is significant interest to receive guidance for developing indicators and begin addressing HWB in practice. This article describes the results of a pilot process to develop scientifically and practically relevant HWB indicators for the Hood Canal watershed of the Puget Sound. We gathered data on why residents and visitors value the Hood Canal from prior surveys, workshops, and nineteen open-ended interviews with diverse residents from the region. We coded these values into potential indicators of HWB for six domains: Psychological, Cultural, Social, Physical, Economic, and Governance. Three facilitated workshops with ex...

The purpose of this study is to develop an assessment framework of ecological security at the watershed scale to meet the need of watershed management, and to assess ecological security using this framework in the middle and lower reaches of Hanjiang River Basin (in Hubei Province, China). The states and their changes of ecological security in the study region are investigated with the support of ERDAS and ARC/INFO platform. The results show that the ecological security index (P) values in 1995 and 2000 were 0.685 and 0.699 respectively in the study region. While in 2005 and 2010, the P values were decreased to 0.657 and 0.624. In 1995, there were 5 counties with degree II state (the poor state) of ecological security, and 14 counties with degree III state (the common state). By 2000, the amount of counties with degree II decreased to 4 counties. And the number of counties with degree II is the same as 2000 in 2005. The result of 2010 shows there were 12 countries with degree III state as well as 7 counties with degree II state. The results of our case study of the Hanjiang River Basin reflect that the ES situation is very grim in the study area. The degree of ecological security developed in this study can be used as a useful tool for watershed managers and decision-makers.

Freshwater resources are vital for human and natural systems. However, anthropogenic activities, such as agricultural practices, have led to the degradation of the quality of these limited resources through pollutant loading. Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs), such as wetlands, are recommended as a valuable solution for pollutant removal. However, evaluation of their long-term impacts is difficult and requires modeling since performing in-situ monitoring is expensive and not feasible at the watershed scale. In this study, the impact of natural wetland implementation on total phosphorus reduction was evaluated both at the subwatershed and watershed levels. The study area is the Saginaw River Watershed, which is largest watershed in Michigan. The phosphorus reduction performances of four different wetland sizes (2, 4, 6, and 8 ha) were evaluated within this study area by implementing one wetland at a time in areas identified to have the highest potential for wetland restoration. The subwatershed level phosphorus loads were obtained from a calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. These loads were then incorporated into a wetland model (System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis IntegratioN-SUSTAIN) to evaluate phosphorus reduction at the subwatershed level and then the SWAT model was again used to route phosphorus transport to the watershed outlet. Statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the spatial impact of wetland size and placement on phosphorus reduction. Overall, the performance of 2 ha wetlands in total phosphorus reduction was significantly lower than the larger sizes at both the subwatershed and watershed levels. Regarding wetland implementation sites, wetlands located in headwaters and downstream had significantly higher phosphorus reduction than the ones located in the middle of the watershed. More specifically, wetlands implemented at distances ranging from 200 to 250 km and 50–100 km from the outlet had the highest impact on phosphorus reduction at the subwatershed and watershed levels, respectively. A multi criteria decision making (MCDM) method named VIKOR was successfully executed to identify the most suitable wetland size and location for each subwatershed considering the phosphorus reduction and economic cost associated with wetland implementation. The methods introduced in this study can be easily applied to other watersheds for selection and placement of wetlands while considering environmental benefits and economic costs.

Sediment connectivity at the landscape scale has gained interest in the last few decades. Distributed approaches, such as topographic indices, are widely used to evaluate this connectivity. However, most of the research efforts are concentrated in mountainous areas while little work has been done in lowland areas where evidence of high connectivity has been reported. The objectives of this study are as follows: (i) to integrate landscape infiltration/runoff properties in the assessment of connectivity to account for lowland processes and (ii) to apply this approach to a large territory with both mountainous and lowland areas. The topographic index of connectivity (IC) of Borselli et al. (2008) was computed for the Loire–Brittany River Basin (>105 km2). A distributed parameter (IDPR) that reflects landscape infiltration and saturation properties due to underlying geological formation characteristics is introduced. We integrated this parameter in a revised index (IC revised ) as an indicator of landscape hydrologic connectivity. Results at the pixel scale are aggregated at the watershed scale. Two maps of connectivity are produced, considering the initial IC and the revised form (IC revised ). As expected, the IC gives the highest connectivity in the steepest areas and does not reflect the existing connectivity in lowland areas. On the contrary, the IC revised computed in this study profoundly modifies the sediment connectivity values. These changes are evenly distributed over the entire territory and affected 51.5 % of the watersheds. As a result, we obtained a better correlation between calculated connectivity and the observed drainage density (which reflects the actual connections between hillslopes and rivers) in areas where slopes are gentle (

T he Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Dil- lon Field Of ce (DFO) manages more than 900,000 surface acres of public land in scenic, southwestern Montana. These lands vary from the snow-covered Lima Peaks, near the Idaho border, to the sagebrush-covered, rolling foothills near the rst Territorial capital of Bannack, Montana, to the grass-covered lowlands in the Madison Valley. Miles of high-mountain streams—in- habited by native, westslope cutthroat trout— ow down to the sagebrush-dominated grasslands that pygmy rabbits and sage-grouse call home. The sheer beauty and diversity of life within the DFO make managing these public lands for mul- tiple use a privilege and constant challenge. DOI: 10.2458/azu_rangelands_v34i4_martin

To analyze the effect of agricultural activity on nitrogen (N) budget at the watershed scale, a comparative study was conducted at two Japanese watersheds, the Shibetsu River watershed (SRW) and Upper-Naka River watershed (UNRW), and one Chinese watershed, the Jurong Reservoir watershed (JRW). The total area and the proportion of agricultural area (in parentheses) of the watersheds were 685 (51%), 1 299 (21%), and 46 km2 (55%) for SRW, UNRW, and JRW, respectively. The main agricultural land use in SRW was forage grassland, while paddy fields occupied the highest proportion of cropland in UNRW (11% of total area) and JRW (31% of total area). The farmland surplus N was 61, 48, and 205 kg N ha−1 year−1 for SRW, UNRW, and JRW, respectively. The total input and output for the whole watershed were 89 and 76, 83 and 61, and 353 and 176 kg N ha−1 year−1 for SRW, UNRW, and JRW, respectively. The proportion of discharged N to net anthropogenic N input was 31%, 37%, and 1.7% for SRW, UNRW, and JRW, respectively. The two watersheds in Japan showed similar proportions of discharged N to those of previous reports, while the watershed in China (JRW) showed a totally different characteristic compared to previous studies. The high N input in JRW did not increase the amount of discharged N at the outlet of the watershed due to high proportions of paddy fields and water bodies, which was an underestimated N sink at the landscape scale.

The risk of failure of transportation embankments due to seepage induced by temporary and occasional impoundments taking place on the upstream side as a consequence of exceptional rainfalls is frequently underestimated. These failure events result from a combination of three main factors, i.e. the flooding event, the hydraulic weakness and the geotechnical weakness of the embankment. Based on the case study of a railway embankment in Southern Italy that collapsed in 2005 due to an upstream impoundment that occurred after few hours of a very intense rainfall, the paper describes a methodological approach aimed at assessing hazard of failure of transportation embankments induced by flooding and seepage. In particular, according to hydrological, hydraulic and geotechnical studies performed to define the factors affecting the process of the embankment failure, three subsequent activities are proposed: the historical analysis of flood damages at the watershed scale; and the assessment of the upstream peak impoundment based on hydrological analysis and the embankment stability analysis, these latter to be carried out at the site specific scale. The approach here proposed is planned to be further validated and improved by means of the application to other case studies, characterised by different contexts and embankment structures.

Water quality–landscape interaction were explored using multiple line regression in watershed, total stream corridor (200-m riparian buffer extending the entire stream length upstream of the site) and the local stream corridor (200-m riparian buffer extending 1000 m upstream of the site).The results showed that the catchment landscape characteristics appeared to have slightly greater influence on water quality than the total stream corridor and local stream corridor. The edge density of construction land and percent cultivated land had the greatest influence on water quality in watershed scale. The edge density of forest land and percent forest had the greatest influence on water quality in total stream corridor scale, but percent forest and PD had the greatest influence on water quality in the local stream corridor scale.

This study attempts to predict future landslide occurrence at watershed scale and calculate the potency of landslide for each sub-watershed at Lompobatang Mountain. In order to produce landslide susceptibility map (LSM) using the statistical model on the watershed scale, we identified the landslide with landslide inventories that occurred in the past, and predict the prospective future landslide occurrence by correlating it with landslide causal factors. In this study, six parameters were used namely, distance from fault, slope, aspect, curvature, distance from river and land use. This research proposed the weight of evidence (WoE) model to produce a landslide susceptibility map. Success and predictive rate were also used to evaluate the accuracy by using Area under curve (AUC) of Receiver operating characteristic (ROC). The result is useful for land use planner and decision makers, in order to devise a strategy for disaster mitigation.

A GIS-based fully-distributed model, IMWEBs-Wetland (Integrated Modelling for Watershed Evaluation of BMPs&mdash, Wetland), is developed to simulate hydrologic processes of site-specific wetlands in an agricultural watershed. This model, powered by the open-source GIS Whitebox Geospatial Analysis Tools (GAT) and advanced database technologies, allows users to simulate and assess water quantity and quality effects of individual wetlands at site and watershed scales. A case study of the modelling system is conducted in a subbasin of the Broughton&rsquo, s Creek Watershed in southern Manitoba of Canada. Modelling results show that the model is capable of simulating wetland processes in a complex watershed with various land management practices. The IMWEBs-Wetland model is unique in simulating the water quantity and quality effects of individual wetlands, which can be used to examine location-specific targeting of wetland retention and restoration at a watershed scale.

Previous reviews of wildfires where a fatal firefighter burnover occurred have found that the incidents usually share similar characteristics in terms of the fire environment, such as steep slopes and complex topography (e.g. box canyons). Despite these similarities, systematic identification and communication of the locations where these conditions prevail are rare. In this study we used a presence-only machine-learning algorithm (Maximum Entropy, MaxEnt) coupled with spatial location information from past fatal firefighter burnovers to identify and characterise the environmental variables that are likely to produce conditions suitable for a fatal burnover. Southern California was chosen to conduct the analysis as it has a well-documented history of past fatal firefighter burnovers and a complex fire environment. Steep, south-west-oriented slopes located in canyons with a shrub fuel type were found to be the most dangerous locations for firefighters. The relative danger to firefighters from a fatal burnover is described and summarised at both the 30-m pixel and local watershed scale.

A general catchment delineation method is proposed in this paper, which is suitable for either watershed or regional scales, and the method is successfully applied to two areas belonging to the Middle Route Project of China’s South-to-North Water Diversion. While traditional catchment delineation methods only function on a whole watershed scale, the new method introduces inlet points to ensure its suitability for regional simulations. Furthermore, in order to overcome uncertainties in producing long and narrow sub-catchments with traditional methods, a reach and subbasin refining method is proposed. This new method allows for the positions of hydrologic gauge stations and reservoirs to be accurately considered.

Suspended sediment at the watershed scale has played a critical role in sediment pollution, water-quality degradation, and the impairment of riparian ecosystems, and thus has been widely studied in many disciplines. This paper synthesizes a variety of methods adopted in suspended sediment monitoring, estimation and modelling for understanding sediment transport processes and determining the suspended sediment load. Methods for sediment monitoring are described in terms of direct and indirect approaches. Estimation of suspended sediment load is commonly achieved by establishing a sediment rating curve. Different approaches toward the establishment of a sediment rating curve are examined thoroughly. Techniques of sediment modelling are summarized via depiction of various hydrological and sediment models at the watershed scale. The paper ends with the discussion of future developments in suspended sediment studies at the watershed scale.