Of all the stories and articles written about Captain J.A. Sutter in recent years, not one of them has adequately covered the history of his famous Fort. To the layman the fort itself may seem unimportant, but when we stop to consider that it was an outpost of civilization penetrating the wilderness of Central California, offering shelter to those who pioneered before us; we must confess that its existence was necessary to protect and usher into full City-hood, the infant Sacramento, then known as New Helvetia.

The Modesto Irrigation District is located on the eastern side of the Great Valley about half way from North to South. The Great Valley is really two distinct river valleys further divided by lesser stream valleys. The Sacramento River Valley is about 500 miles long and forms the northern half; and the San Joaquin Valley is about 350 miles long and forms the southern half. For many practical purposes local residents of this great Valley call it the Sac-Joaquin Valley. There are no hills or mountains to separate these valleys so we may consider them as one. The Sac-Joaquin Valley is almost ideal as far as irrigation is concerned. It is almost as flat as a table, dropping about 2-3 feet per mile toward the middle of the valley from the beginning of the valley proper westward to the Sacramento or San Joaquin River. The summers are long, hot, and cloudless; ideally suited to the ripening of tropic fruits.4 All the valley lacked was sufficient water. And the mountains now furnish that. We shall consider the Modesto area as being the area north of the Tuolumne River to the Stanislaus River and from the San Joaquin River on the west to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. By the early settlers this area was called Paradise Valley.2 A town of Paradise existed for a few years, having been laid out by a Mr. Jon Mitchell about 1867-683 It gave up and moved a few miles east into the new town of Modesto soon after the latter was started in 1870.4<68/sup> The Modesto Irrigation District now inclueds about 81,000 acres in the weatern part of this Paradise Valley.2 The land is almost flat, consisting of soils that are, as a whole, "light, the largest part of the area consisting of sandy loams and sands".3 The soil ideal for diversified agriculture, and it has now been proven that the soil types of Modesto District are best adapted to the applicaton of irrigation.4

Studies of the hydrogeology of the southern Great Basin differ widely in their conclusions regarding the origin of major springs at Ash Meadows, in the Amargosa Desert, Nevada, and in the Furnace Creek- Nevares Spring area in Death Valley, California. The diversity of opinion reflects the following. First, ground water commonly moves between intermontane basins of the region via thick, highly fractured, and areally extensive Paleozoic carbonate rocks; the resulting lack of correspondence of topographic and ground-water divides precludes routine utilization of the water-budget method in the study of these basins. Second, subsurface hydraulic data for the regional carbonate aquifer are sparse and difficult to interpret because of the complex subsurface disposition of and hydraulic barriers within the aquifer. An analysis of hydrologic, geologic, geochemical, and isotopic data permits a first approximation of the subsurface watershed tributary to the cited spring groups. Water temperature, chemistry, isotope content, hydraulic head, and geologic relations indicate that the major springs at Ash Meadows and in the Furnace Creek-Nevares Spring area, though emerging from unconsolidated Quaternary strata, are fed by water moving directly from the underlying carbonate aquifer of Paleozoic age. Joint use of potentiometric, geologic, and isohyetal maps indicates that the subsurface watershed tributary to Ash Meadows is no smaller than 4,500 square miles. The Ash Meadows ground-water basin is bordered on the south and east by the Spring Mountains and Sheep Range, the principal recharge areas, and on the west by the Belted Range, Eleana Range, and Shoshone Mountain. A northern boundary was not definable, and some underflow from White River ground-water basin, 90 miles northeast of the springs, is probable. The hydrogeologic data do not support the conclusion of earlier studies that underflow from Pahrump Valley is the major source of the spring discharge at Ash Meadows; probably no more than a few percent of the total comes from that valley. Comparison of the size, climate, and discharge from the Ash Meadows basin with that of the surface watershed tributary to the Furnace Creek-Nevares Spring area indicates that most of the spring discharge in east-central Death Valley originates well beyond its confines. Disposition of the carbonate aquifer favors the movement of ground water into Death Valley from central Amargosa Desert. Water in the carbonate aquifer in the latter area may be derived from the Ash Meadows basin, from the overlying valley fill, or both. Five hydrochemical facies were distinguished by percentage of major cations and anions in ground water from 147 sources. The hydrochemical facies reflect both the mineralogy of strata within recharge areas and downward crossflow from a Tertiary tuff aquitard into the carbonate aquifer. The areal distribution of these facies provides evidence for a northeasterly source of the Ash Meadows discharge, absence of significant underflow from Pahrump Valley to Ash Meadows, and movement of water from the central Amargosa Desert to the Furnace Creek- Nevares Spring area. The data are also compatible with southwestward underflow into the Ash Meadows basin from the White River basin. The deuterium content of 53 water samples from 27 major valleylevel springs and selected wells falls into several areally distinct patterns which suggest that 35 percent of the Ash Meadows discharge is derived from the White River basin, that underflow from Pahrump Valley is unlikely, and that water discharging in the Furnace Creek-Nevares Spring area may be related to water in the carbonate aquifer within the Ash Meadows basin. However, other interpretations are possible indicating that unequivocal interpretations about the regional flow system cannot be made from isotopic data alone.

No description available.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 15, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Peter Nabelek. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 342-367).

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The line mapping method of Piteau and Martin (1977) was tested on two different rock type road cuts in the Siskiyou National Forest, and was found to be an efficient means of collecting geological data for rock slope stability analysis. The unbiased approach of this method calls for close scrutiny of the outcrops in question, covering more ground than other methods in less time. In turn, this close attention to every crack in the outcrop reveals more about the stability of the slope, and can reveal hidden hazards of rock fall. The supportive systems for analyzing the data - stereonets and computer program packages of Watts (1986) - led to the discoveries of several potential plane and wedge failures which were not initially visible. Also revealed was the fairly stable condition of the massive wedge at Elk River, which appeared to be extremely hazardous. Each potential failure was analyzed for its Factor of Safety under dry and water saturated conditions, and the cohesion necessary to maintain stability was reported.

Pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), when a water body has been listed as impaired, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for the water quality constituents causing the impairment must be developed. A TMDL is the maximum daily mass flux of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still safely meet water quality standards. The development of a TMDL and demonstrating compliance with a TMDL requires pollutant load estimation. By definition, a pollutant load is the time integral product of flows and concentrations. Consequently, the accuracy of pollutant load estimation is highly dependent on the accuracy of runoff volume estimation. Runoff volume estimation requires the development of reasonable transfer functions to convert precipitation into runoff. In cold climates where a large proportion of precipitation falls as snow, the accumulation and ablation of snowpack must also be estimated. Sequential data assimilation techniques that stochastically combine field measurements and model results can significantly improve the prediction skill of snowmelt and runoff models while also providing estimates of prediction uncertainty. Using the National Weather Service's SNOW-17 and the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC-SMA) models, this study evaluates particle filter based data assimilation algorithms to predict seasonal snow water equivalent (SWE) and runoff within a small watershed in the Lake Tahoe Basin located in California. A non-linear regression model is then used that predicts suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) based on runoff rate and time of year. Runoff volumes and SSC are finally combined to provide an estimate of the average annual sediment load from the watershed with estimates of prediction uncertainty. For the period of simulation (10/1/1991 to 10/1/1996), the mean annual suspended sediment load is estimated to be 753 tonnes/yr with a 95% confidence interval about the mean of 626 to 956 tonnes/yr. The 95% prediction interval for any given year is estimated to range from approximately 86 to 2,940 tonnes/yr.

This study examines how well California's Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) evaluates land use redesignations on transit projects, in particular light rail. A case study of the Natomas Village Center, a proposed project in Sacramento, California, is analyzed in relation to its Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the CEQA process.Specifically, the focus of the investigation is on assessing the impacts of land use changes on the Downtown-Natomas-Airport light rail alignment. The CEQA methodology and how it is employed are critiqued for their effectiveness in documenting and mitigating the environmental impacts on light rail transit adjacent to the Natomas Village Center. / Department of Urban Planning