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Growing legumes in the southern Great Plains (SGP) during fallow periods between wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crops can protect soil, add N to soil, and supply high-quality summer forage. This study determined the water used, water use efficiency (WUE), and soil water depletion of forage (n = 3) and grain (n = 1) soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivars on silt loam soils following winter wheat harvest during the 2003 to 2005 summer growing seasons. Interactions (P < 0.01) in soil water content occurred between sampling date, cultivars, and years. More soil water was recorded under soybean in 2003 than 2004 or 2005, but was lower than in fallow plots. Year effects (P < 0.05) were recorded for standing crop, water used, and WUE. While cultivar effects were not significant P > 0.10). All cultivars used 2.0 to 2.5 times more water in 2004 and 2005 than 2003 (driest year). Forage production in 2003 (3034 kg [ha.sup.-1]) was 55% lower than in 2004 and 2005. Higher WUE (kg [ha.sup.-1] [mm.sup.-1]) was recorded in 2004 (16.0) than 2003 (13.2) or 2005 (10.9). Incorporating soybean into fallow periods following wheat generally limits the amount of soil water available for fall production of wheat forage in the SGP.

Automatic inground irrigation is a common option for residential homeowners desiring high-quality landscapes in Florida. However, rapid growth is straining water supplies in some areas of the state. The first objective of this study was to document residential irrigation water use in the Central Florida ridge region on typical residential landscapes (T1). The second objective was to determine if scheduling irrigation by setting controllers based on historical evapotranspiration (ET) (T2) and reducing the percentage of turf area combined with setting the controllers based on historical ET (T3) would lead to reductions in irrigation water use. The time frame of this study was 30 months beginning in January 2003. Irrigation accounted for 64% of the residential water use volume over all homes monitored during this project. The T1 homes had an average monthly water use of 149 mm/month. Compared to the T1 homes, T2 resulted in a 30% reduction (105 mm/month), and T3 had a 50% reduction (74 mm/month) in average monthly water use. Average monthly water use was significantly different (p < 0.001) across the three irrigation treatments. Setting the irrigation controllers to apply water according to seasonal demand resulted in significantly less irrigation water applied. In addition, increasing the proportion of landscape area from 23% (T1 and T2) ornamental plants irrigated with sprinklers to 62% and irrigated with micro-irrigation (T3) resulted in the largest reduction in irrigation water applied. Compared to T2 where only the irrigation controllers were adjusted, this additional decrease in irrigation water applied was a result of low volume application on only a portion of the landscaped beds where irrigation is only applied to the root zone of plants. CE Database subject headings: Residential location; Irrigation; Water use; Landscaping; Irrigation scheduling; Florida.

A large thermal-power station drawing water from a small alluvial river had a chronic problem with alluvial-bed sediment buildup at the station's river-water intake structure. The problem required expensive corrective dredging and adversely affected the station's fuel-consumption efficiency. This case-study paper describes how the sediment problem was successfully controlled by means of modifications to the area in front of the intake and the upstream riverbank. The modifications comprised erosion-promoting vanes and a skimming wall, together with realignment of the riverbank upstream of the intake. A hydraulic model was used to aid the design of the modifications. Installation of the modifications required construction techniques that enabled the intake and power station to continue operating while the modifications were being installed. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9429(2006)132:5(440) CE Database subject headings: Sediment; Case reports; Intakes; Rivers; Thermal powerplants.

This paper presents the hydrological component of the Submesoscale Soil Model, urbanized version (SM2-U). This model is an extension of the rural Interactions between Soil, Biosphere, and Atmosphere (ISBA) soil model to urban surfaces. It considers in detail both rural and urban surfaces. Its purpose is to compute the sensible heat and humidity fluxes at the canopy-atmosphere interface for the computational domain lower boundary condition of atmospheric mesoscale models in order to simulate the urban boundary layer in any weather conditions. Because it computes separately the surface temperature of each land use cover mode while the original model computes a unique temperature for the soil and vegetation system, the new version is first validated for rural grounds by comparison with experimental data from the Hydrological Atmospheric Pilot Experiment-Modelisation du Bilan Hydrique (HAPEX-MOBILHY) and the European Field Experiment in a Desertification Threatened Area (EFEDA). The SM2-U water budget is then evaluated on the experimental data obtained at a suburban site in the Nantes urban area (Reze, France), both on an annual scale and for two stormy events. SM2-U evaluates correctly the water flow measured in the drainage network (DN) at the annual scale and for the summer storm. As for the winter storm, when the soil is saturated, the simulation shows that water infiltration from the soil to the DN must be taken care of to evaluate correctly the DN flow. Yet, the addition of this soil water infiltration to the DN does not make any difference in the simulated surface fluxes that are the model outputs for simulating the urban boundary layer. Urban hydrological parameters are shown to largely influence the available water on artificial surfaces for evaporation and to influence less the evapotranspiration from natural surfaces. The influence of the water budget and surface structure on the suburban site local climatology is demonstrated.

The use of water in Roman private houses has been identified as a highly visible status symbol. The detailed study of the House of the Vestals at Pompeii reveals how water features were central to the house's structural changes from the late first century B.C. The owners of the house invested heavily in fountains and pools as key elements in the display of their wealth to visitors and passers-by alike. This article relates the structural development of the House of the Vestals to the social history of decorative water usage, from an initial investment exploiting the pressurized water provided by the new aque-duct early in the Augustan period to the responses to crises following the earthquake of A.D. 62.