The spring freshet is the dominant annual hydrologic event occurring on largely nival Arctic river systems. It provides the greatest proportion of freshwater influx to the Arctic Ocean, amongst all other atmospheric input sources. To assess whether any shift in the seasonality of spring freshets has occurred, and how climatic drivers and flow regulation govern trends in sub-basin freshets and their contribution to outlet flow, a temporal and spatial analysis of 106 hydrometric stations located across four major Arctic-draining river systems is performed to extract information regarding the timing, magnitude and volume of the spring freshet of the four largest Arctic-draining rivers; namely, the Mackenzie River in Canada, and the Ob, Yenisei and Lena rivers in Eurasia. Total annual freshwater influx to the Arctic Ocean from these basins increased by 14% during 1980-2009. Despite freshet volume displaying a net increase, its proportional contribution to annual flow has decreased. In fact, rising winter, spring and fall discharge proportions, combined with lower peak freshet magnitudes, potentially increased freshet durations, and lower summer proportions indicate a shift towards flatter, more gradual annual hydrographs with earlier pulse onsets. Discharge assessed on a sub-basin level during 1962-2000 and 1980-2000 reveals regional differences in trends, with higher-relief drainage areas displaying the strongest trends. Sub-basin trends generally agree with those at the outlets, particularly in sub-basins without upstream flow regulation. Flow regulation has had a greater impact on observed trends in freshet volume compared to peak freshet magnitude. Timing measures are found to be strongly linked to spring temperatures. Volume relationships are also apparent with winter precipitation, however, these are less distinct. Moreover, flow regulation appears to suppress climatic drivers of freshet volume but has a lesser effect on timing measures. Significant relationships are found with several major atmospheric and oceanic teleconnections indices. This study provides valuable information regarding the dominant controls of freshet generation, whilst highlighting potential impacts of freshet variability on the freshwater balance of the Arctic Ocean. / Graduate / 0388 / 0368 / roxannea@uvic.ca

Research Project (M.B.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (Faculty of Business Administration) / Simon Fraser University. MBA-MOT Program. Senior supervisor : Dr. Sudheer Gupta. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-83).

Meandering rivers provide fresh water and important aquatic ecosystem services, yet at the same time induce flood and erosion hazards. In the face of ongoing development pressure and changing climate, growing concern for meandering rivers has increased the demand to model accurately the flow and predict the sediment transport in a meandering river channel. Calibration and validation of these models based on comparable field-based data, as opposed to laboratory-scale experimental data, may decrease uncertainty and improve understanding of complex flow structures in natural meandering rivers. In this thesis, spatially intensive field data are utilized to develop appropriate calibration and validation methods for 3D meandering river models. Validated models are then applied to the study of morphodynamic processes and the influence of channel change on fish habitat availability in meandering rivers. This study presents a novel methodology for use of three-dimensional (3D) velocity for improved calibration of a 3D hydro-morphodynamic model. A natural tortuously meandering river was simulated using the Delft3D hydrodynamic model. A spatially intensive acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) survey was conducted throughout the study river, providing fully 3D distributed velocities for model calibration. For accurate and realistic comparison of the fully 3D predicted and measured velocities, an algorithm was developed to match the location of each ADCP bin with 3D model grid points. The results suggest that different calibration approaches can result in different calibration parameterizations whose simulated results can differ significantly. It is shown that the model which was calibrated based on the proposed 3D calibration approach had the best model performance. Depending upon the nature and objectives of the numerical modelling exercise, the results demonstrate the importance of model calibration with spatially intensive field data. Given the importance of pressure gradients in driving secondary flow, it is worth studying how the modelled flow structures in a natural river bend can be impacted by the assumption of hydrodynamic pressure. Accordingly, the performance of hydrostatic versus non-hydrostatic pressure assumption in the Delft3D hydrodynamic modelling of a tortuously meandering river was studied. An Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) was employed to measure the 3D flow field at a section in a sharp bend of the simulated river at two different flow stages. The field-based ADV data were employed to validate the simulated hydrodynamic models. The results indicate the surprisingly superior performance of the hydrostatic over non-hydrostatic Delft3D modelling of the secondary flow. It was determined that the non-hydrostatic routine employed in Delft3D was not mass conservative, which diminished model accuracy. Despite several decades of intensive study of the morphological changes in meandering rivers, less attention has been paid to confined meanders. This thesis includes a study of the meandering behavior of a semi-alluvial cohesive bed river over a 10-year period. We employed a paired sub-reach study approach, wherein one sub-reach is freely meandering and the second adjacent sub-reach is confined by a railway embankment. Channel migration and morphological changes of the channel banks along each of these sub-reaches were analyzed by comparing the historical aerial photography, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data, bathymetric data obtained from a total station survey, and field examination. Moreover, two different spatially intensive ADCP surveys were conducted in the study area to find the linkage between the hydrodynamics and morphological changes in the two different sub-reaches. The unconfined sub-reach displayed a typical channel migration pattern with deposition on the inner bank and erosion on the outer bank of the meander bend. On the other hand, the confined sub-reach showed greater bank instabilities than the unconfined sub-reach. In the confined sub-reach, an irregular meandering pattern occurred by the evolution of a concave-bank bench, which was caused by reverse flow eddies. The results of this study could shed light on the potential impacts of channel confinement on bank retreat and river migration in comparable case studies. It is reasonable to expect that hydro-morphodynamic processes in rivers can affect fish habitat availability and quality, but the impact of river morphological changes on fish habitat is not well studied. Herein, we investigate the impact of morphological development of a cohesive meandering creek on the quality of fish habitat available for juvenile yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and white sucker (Catostomus commersonii). A 3D morphodynamic model was first developed to simulate the hydro-morphodynamics of the study creek over a 1-year period. Total station topographic surveys were conducted to provide bathymetric change data for calibration of the morphodynamic module. Successful calibration efforts indicated that the developed model could be reasonably employed to predict the hydro-morphodynamics of the study creek. Two fish sampling surveys were carried out at the beginning and the end of the study period to determine habitat utilization of each fish species in the study reach. ANOVA multiple comparison tests indicate that morphological development of the river was a significant factor for the habitat utilization of juvenile yellow perch, whereas juvenile white sucker habitat utilization was not significantly impacted by the changes in the creek morphology. It is shown that flow depth, depth-averaged velocity, and suspended sediment transport also significantly influenced presence of the juvenile yellow perch at the 5% significant level. As for the juvenile white sucker, the only significant factor was the depth-averaged velocity. The results of the developed 3D hydro-morphodynamic model were fed into a fish habitat model. Comparison of the predicted fish habitat map of the juvenile yellow perch with the results of fish sampling surveys confirms that the habitat quality was better predicted when the impact of morphological changes was taken into account in the fish habitat modelling. The results of the proposed methodology could provide some insights into the impact of sediment transport processes on the fish community. This has important implications for effective river management.

To ensure secure geological storage of carbon dioxide it is necessary to establish the integrity of the overlying sealing rock. Seal rock fractures are key potential leakage pathways for storage systems; understanding their behaviour in the presence of CO2 under reservoir conditions is therefore of great importance. This thesis presents experimental investigations into the hydraulic behaviour of discrete fractures within low permeability seal rocks during single phase supercritical CO2 flow, under varying mechanical and thermal conditions representative of in-situ conditions. An experimental rig was designed and built to enable the controlled study of supercritical CO2 flow through 38 mm diameter samples under high pressures and temperatures. Samples are placed within a Hassler-type uniaxial pressure cell and CO2 flow is controlled via high precision syringe pumps. Flow experiments with supercritical CO2 within the pressure range 10-50 MPa were undertaken at temperatures of 38°C and 58°C with confining pressures of 35-55 MPa. The effects of stress loading and temperature change on the hydraulic properties of the fractured sample were studied; continuous differential pressure measurement enabled analysis of hydraulic response. Experiments were undertaken on a pre-existing Wissey field Zechstein Dolomite fracture and three artificial fractures (two East Brae field Kimmeridge Clay samples and one Cambrian shale quarry sample). Fracture permeabilities ranged from 8 X 10-14 m2 to 6 X 10-11 m2 with higher permeabilities observed within the harder rock samples. A broadly linear flow regime, consistent with Darcy's law, was observed in the lowest permeability sample (East Brae). A Forchheimer-type non-linear flow regime was observed in the other samples. Transmissivity variations during experiments were used to infer the mechanical impact of stress and temperature changes. An increase in effective stress resulted in transmissivity reduction, suggesting fracture aperture closure. During initial stress loading cycles, and subsequent higher temperature stress loading, a component of this transmissivity reduction was found to be inelastic, suggesting permanent modification of fracture geometry during closure. Pre- and post-experiment fracture surface characterisation provides further evidence for the occurrence of plastic deformation. Transmissivity-stress relationships were elastic during subsequent external stress-loading cycles, suggesting elastic closure and opening of fractures without additional permanent fracture geometry changes. The impact of fluid property variations on fracture hydraulic conductivity, Kfrac, was also analysed. Under constant effective stress Kfrac was found to be higher within high temperature and low fluid pressure scenarios, due to higher density/viscosity ratios. However, under constant confining pressure, fluid pressure changes are coupled both to mechanical effects (from effective stress alteration) and hydraulic effects (from viscosity variation), with opposing impacts on fracture hydraulic conductivity. At lower effective stresses mechanical effects were found to be dominant, with fluid pressure increase resulting in a notable increase to Kfrac due to aperture opening. At higher effective stresses, mechanical changes are much smaller due to increased contact area between fracture surfaces, and thus increased stiffness of fractures. Under such conditions hydraulic effects may be dominant and result in a small Kfrac reduction as fluid pressure increases, due to a reduction in the density/viscosity ratio. These results highlight that CO2 fluid property variation can have a notable influence on hydraulic conductivity under certain in-situ conditions. The single phase CO2 fracture flow experiments undertaken during this study were designed to enable a study of hydraulic and mechanical processes in isolation, without the influence of chemical processes. In-situ, the additional presence of brine and thus multiphase fluid behaviour and associated chemical processes makes the hydraulic behaviour of fractures considerably more complex. Coupled process modelling enables the relative influence of these processes to be simulated, but relies on experiments for validation. These unique experimental findings are of great value for enabling validation of such models as well as for informing analyses of geological and field studies.

No description available.

Reservoir level and discharge data were collected for three Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dams (Chickamauga, Watts Bar and Douglas) on the Tennessee river in the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone (ETSZ). Earthquake catalog data was also collected for the ETSZ from 1980-2018. Well levels from 2 U.S. Geological Survey groundwater monitoring wells were also collected. Rainfall data were collected for the ETSZ. Reservoir, well and rainfall data were examined for correlation with earthquake occurrence rates. High Pearson correlation and anti-correlation coefficients (.7-.9) were obtained for the reservoir level and dam discharge volume rates vs monthly earthquake counts. Pearson correlation coefficients for rainfall and well level vs. monthly earthquake counts were small (.0-.2). A large difference in earthquake rates between the months of February (low rate) and April (high rate) over the 39 year study period was observed. The difference in earthquakes rates for February and April are statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval using the two sample Poisson rate test. The high correlations for the reservoir level and flow discharge vs. earthquake counts provides strong evidence of hydro-seismicity occurring in the ETSZ from seasonal fluctuations in reservoir level and discharge flow. / Master of Science / Reservoir level and discharge data were collected for three Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dams (Chickamauga, Watts Bar and Douglas) on the Tennessee river in the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone (ETSZ). Reservoir discharge and level data was collected for the three reservoirs. Also collected were rainfall data for the study area. This was provided by the TVA. Earthquake and well level data was collected from the USGS. High Pearson correlations for dam discharge and reservoir level vs. earthquake counts provided strong evidence of hydro-seismicity in the ETSZ.

Antibiotic resistance (AR) is widely associated with intensive agricultural systems, pharmaceutical production, wastewater, and health facilities. However, little research has been conducted on AR gene (ARG) dynamics in natural environments lacking large-scale human inputs. In particular, we have a limited understanding of the complex dynamics influencing environmental AR in resource-limited dryland systems threatened by climate change. In northern Botswana, Escherichia coli isolates were obtained from river surface water (n = 426 samples; September 2017 – May 2018), sediments (n = 194; November 2017 – May 2018), and human fecal samples (n = 43 September 2017 and April 2018). A multiplex PCR assay was used to assess gene frequencies for sulfonamide (sul1 and sul2), tetracycline (tetA and tetB), and class 1 integron (intl1) resistance genes. The weighted frequency of sul1 in sediment E. coli isolates (µ= 0.07; SD = 0.39) was significantly higher than that observed in isolates obtained from surface water (µ= 0.03; SD = 0.15; p = 0.01). Weighted gene frequencies for sul1 and sul2 in human E. coli isolates from April 2018 were significantly higher than those in water (sul1 p = 0.01; sul2 p = 0.00) and sediment isolates (sul1 p = 0.01; sul2 p = 0.00) from the same time period. Significant differences for the five genes' weighted frequencies were observed between sampling months in water isolates (intl1 p = 3.318e-05; sul1 p = 3.217e-06; sul2 p = 4.392e-06; and tetA p = 2.477e-05), while only intl1 frequency differed significantly between months in sediment isolates (p = 0.05). While no significant spatial patterns of ARG frequencies were observed in E. coli isolates from water samples (p = 0.16), higher ARGs were observed in E. coli isolated from human-dominated land areas for intl1 (µ = 0.10; SD = 0.31) than in protected landscapes intl1 (µ = 0.03; SD = 0.13; p = 0.02). Land use also was associated with higher weighted frequencies for tetA in E. coli isolates from water in human-dominated land areas (µ = 0.10; SD = 0.30) compared to protected areas (µ = 0.04; SD = 0.23, p = 0.03). These results indicate that the interactions between land use and season-dependent hydrometeorological factors drive frequencies of some ARGs across this system, but do not fully explain the complexities observed. However, the lack of higher weighted gene frequencies for riverbed sediments suggests that they do not act as a reservoir for ARGs in the system, implicating humans as significant contributors to ARG persistence in the aquatic system. / Master of Science / Microbial antibiotic resistance (AR) is widespread and an increasingly important public and animal health threat, especially in developing nations. Our understanding of the influence of environmental factors, such as seasonality and river flow characteristics, and landscape features on AR distributions is limited. For this project, I analyzed the presence of genes associated with resistance to five different types of antibiotics, called antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), in Escherichia coli isolates obtained from Chobe River surface water and sediment samples across varying land uses (park, town, and mixed) and from feces of humans living in the region. The differences in land use are such that the park acts as a protected management area for a large variety of wildlife species with little human development and is therefore 'pristine', while the town and mixed land uses have varying degrees of human modification. Land use and month were both significantly associated with differences in AR gene frequencies in isolates from both water and sediment samples. For some genes, most detections were in sediment isolates and only infrequently in water isolates. However, with the onset of the rainy season, frequencies of some genes were higher in water isolates than in sediment isolates, indicating the role of rainfall and river flow dynamics in ARG dissemination. As was expected, AR genes were more frequently detected in human fecal sample isolates than in water and sediment isolates, which was consistent with views that humans are the primary source of environmental ARG contaminants. I discuss these results and explore the implications to management of antibiotic resistance across the human-environmental interface.

Given the unstable state of the environment, there is an undeniable need for the development of sustainable technologies. This need affects all areas of everyday life, even the shower. Modern shower systems result in energy waste in the form of heat, which can be minimized through the implementation of a heat exchanger. In cooperation with Consat SES this project developed a system to implement a heat exchanger using an in-shower water transportation pipe. A fitting non-electrical pump and motor were also chosen. To develop these elements a general design methodology of defining the problem, identifying the solution space, developing concepts, testing concepts and proposing a design, was used with adaptations for the component at hand. By following this strategy for each component and then reviewing the system as a whole, a new shower system was developed with a trapezoidal water transport pipe, a wing pump, and a turgo turbine.

L’énergie hydraulique, où l’énergie cinétique de l’eau est transformée en énergie électrique, représente une contribution importante aux énergies renouvelables. L’eau qui passe par les turbines hydrauliques contient toujours une partie solide, par exemple du sable et de l’argile. Ces sédiments peuvent atteindre des niveaux de concentration élevés, ce qui nuit considérablement à la structure de la turbine par un mécanisme d’endommagement appelé érosion hydro-abrasive. Des types de turbine impliquant des vitesses d’écoulement très élevées, comme les turbines Pelton, sont particulièrement sensibles à l’érosion hydro-abrasive. Les simulations numériques présentent un moyen efficace d’étudier le sujet de l’érosion hydro-abrasive dans les turbines Pelton car elles permettent facilement la variation des nombreux paramètres. Ainsi, une réponse immédiate aux questions opérationnelles, de conception ou d’optimisation peut être obtenue. Cependant, il a été démontré que l’application des modèles d’érosion généraux et souvent utilisés ne fournit pas de résultats corrects en raison des propriétés particulières du matériel et de l’écoulement des turbines Pelton. Par conséquent, ce travail étudie le potentiel de la modélisation de l’érosion directe basée sur des principes fondamentaux. Cela implique que le mouvement des sédiments dans le fluide est simulé, leurs paramètres au moment de l’impact enregistrés et ensuite l’endommagement macroscopique global du matériel calculé sur la base des simulations de structure en microéchelle. Une formulation très appropriée pour les simulations fluides dans les turbines Pelton est une méthode sans maillage, plutôt nouvelle, qui s’appelle Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). Par conséquent, la première partie de ce travail aborde la mise en oeuvre et l’évaluation d’un modèle Lagrangien de transport des sédiments dans le cadre de cette méthode où les sédiments sont transportés par une équation de mouvement. L’effet du bruit inhérent à la méthode SPH sur le mouvement des sédiments est évalué par rapport à l’effet de la dispersion turbulente des sédiments, qui a été introduite par un modèle basé sur l’équation de Langevin. En outre, les termes liés aux différentes forces dans l’équation du mouvement sont étudiés dans le cadre de la méthode SPH. Une deuxième partie de ce travail développe une approche efficace et généralement applicable pour obtenir l’endommagement globale sans adopter des modèles d’érosion. Pour obtenir cet endommagement global en macroéchelle, l’endommagement causé par un seul impact de sédiment, qui est calculé par des simulations de structure en microéchelle, est combiné avec les statistiques d’impact des simulations du fluide. / Hydraulic energy represents one important contribution to the growing source of renewable energies where the kinetic energy of water is transformed into electric energy. The water flowing through the hydraulic turbines always contains a solid part, for example sand and clay. Those sediments can reach high concentrations, harming importantly the turbine structure by a mechanism called hydro-abrasive erosion. Turbine types implying very high flow velocities, like Pelton turbines, are in particular sensitive to hydro-abrasive erosion. Numerical simulations present an efficient way to study the topic of hydro-abrasive erosion in Pelton turbines as they allow the variation of numerous parameters. Thus an immediate response to operational, design or optimization questions can be obtained. However it has been shown that the application of general, widely used erosion models do not deliver physical correct results due to the particular material and flow properties of Pelton turbines. Consequently this work investigates the potential of erosion modeling based on first principals. That means the sediment movement in the fluid is simulated, their state at impact tracked and then the overall macroscopic material damage calculated based on microscale structural simulations. A convenient formulation for fluid simulations in Pelton turbines is the rather novel, meshless method Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). Therefore the first part of this work addresses the implementation and evaluation of a Lagrangian sediment transport model in the framework of this method where sediments are transported by a particle equation of motion. The effect of the SPH method inherent noise on the sediment movement is evaluated against the effect of the turbulent dispersion of the sediments, which has been introduced via an ad-hoc model based on the Langevin equation. Furthermore the different force terms in the particle equation of motion are investigated with respect to the SPH method. A second part develops an efficient and general applicable approach to obtain the overall erosion damage without adopting erosion models. Therefore the damage caused by a single sediment impact is calculated by structural simulations on the microscale in a first step. In a second step that isolated damage is combined with impact statistics from the fluid simulations and hence gives the overall damage profile on the macroscale.