No description available.

Stormwater management necessitates a regional plan based on the best practical methods. "Storm", a mathematical model, is employed to simulate runoff conditions in the Shingle Creek Basin. The computed runoff quantity is calibrated directly with the streams hydrograph. Runoff quality is predicted with two sets of pollutant loading rates. The scope of the model is expanded by development of parametric curves that can be used to convert measured quality data to input land use loadings. A parametric study is also performed to fabricate the effects of urbanization on the Shingle Creek Basin.

No description available.

China has a long history of hydrological development. According to Chinese legends, famous projects of flood water diversion were developed by the Great Yu as early as the year two thousand B.C. The earliest hydrological record appeared in 256 B.C., when Mr. Lipin and his son constructed the Dujiangyan irrigation system in the upper reach of the Mingjiang River in Sichuan Province. At Baopingkao, the water intake point of the Dujiangyan irrigation system, a water staff gage was carved on a stone for the measurement of water levels. Although hydrological studies in China started early, hydrology and water resources as modern sciences have been developed only in the last several decades, particularly rapidly in the last 30 years. For instance, the number of hydrological stations has increased 45 times, from about 350 to more than 16,000. Of these, about 3300 stations also take flow velocity measurements. The average density of the hydrological stations is about one per 530 km2 and that of discharge measurement stations about one in 3,000 km2. These stations are highly concentrated in eastern China. The longest records of precipitation are maintained in the large cities in eastern China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjing. Beijing has 140 years of precipitation records. The Hankao hydrological station on the Changjiang (Yangtze) River has the longest discharge record spanning 117 years (1865- 1982).

This study focuses on the design of water resources systems in developing nations with particular reference to the development of water resources in the Lower Mekong Basin (Khmer Republic, Laos, Thailand, and Republic of South Viet -Nam). The determination of the "best" system in terms of social goals reflecting the economic and social environment of the Mekong countries is the main issue of this dissertation. The imperfection of the usual technique for planning water resources systems, namely, cost -benefit analysis, leads to the use of the standardized cost -effectiveness methodology. To illustrate how the design is accomplished, two distinctly different structural alternatives of possible development in the Lower Mekong Basin are defined. The design process starts from the statements of goals or objectives of water resources development, which are then mapped onto specifications sets in which social needs are represented. Next, the capabilities of alternative systems are determined through simulation in which three 50 -year sequences of synthetic streamflow are generated by a first order autoregressive scheme. The two alternatives are then compared using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. To illustrate how a decision in selecting an alternative system could be reached, ranking of criteria by order of preference is demonstrated. With the choice of either a fixed -cost or fixed- effectiveness approach, the decision to select the best alternative system could be made. At this point, the use of a weighting technique, which is a common fallacy of systems analysis, will be automatically eliminated. The study emphasizes that a systematic design procedure of water resources systems is provided by the standardized cost- effectiveness approach, which possesses several advantages. The approach will suggest and help identify the system closest to meeting the desired economic and social goals of the developing countries in the Lower Mekong Basin. In this connection, the approach will help governments in the preparation of programming and budgeting of capital for further investigations and investments. It is believed that the approach will eliminate unnecessary expenses in projects that are planned on an individual basis or by methods used at present. Further, the approach provides an appropriate mechanism for generating essential information in the decision process. Both quantifiable and non -quantifiable criteria are fully considered. The choice of a fixed -cost or fixed -effectiveness approach will determine the trade -off between these criteria. The study recognizes that research to determine appropriate hydrologic models for monthly streamfiow generation for tributary projects in the Basin is necessary. This leads to another important area of research which is to find the appropriate number of monthly sequences of streamflow to be generated in relation to number of states and decision variables. Research on the design of computer experiments is necessary to improve simulation as a tool to estimate the quantitative effects of a given project.

This study focuses on the design of water resources systems in developing nations with particular reference to the development of water resources in the Lower Mekong Basin (Khmer Republic, Laos, Thailand, and Republic of South Viet-Nam). The determination of the "best" system in terms of social goals reflecting the economic and social environment of the Mekong countries is the main issue of this dissertation. The imperfection of the usual technique for planning water resources systems, namely, cost-benefit analysis, leads to the use of the standardized cost-effectiveness methodology. To illustrate how the design is accomplished, two distinctly different structural alternatives of possible development in the Lower Mekong Basin are defined. The design process starts from the statements of goals or objectives of water resources development, which are then mapped onto specifications sets in which social needs are represented. Next, the capabilities of alternative systems are determined through simulation in which three 50-year sequences of synthetic streamflow are generated by a first order autoregressive scheme. The two alternatives are then compared using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. To illustrate how a decision in selecting an alternative system could be reached, ranking of criteria by order of preference is demonstrated. With the choice of either a fixed-cost or fixed-effectiveness approach, the decision to select the best alternative system could be made. At this point, the use of a weighting technique, which is a common fallacy of systems analysis, will be automatically eliminated. The study emphasizes that a systematic design procedure of water resources systems is provided by the standardized cost-effectiveness approach, which possesses several advantages. The approach will suggest and help identify the system closest to meeting the desired economic and social goals of the developing countries in the Lower Mekong Basin. In this connection, the approach will help governments in the preparation of programming and budgeting of capital for further investigations and investments. It is believed that the approach will eliminate unnecessary expenses in projects that are planned on an individual basis or by methods used at present. Further, the approach provides an appropriate mechanism for generating essential information in the decision process. Both quantifiable and non-quantifiable criteria are fully considered. The choice of a fixed-cost or fixed-effectiveness approach will determine the trade-off between these criteria. The study recognizes that research to determine appropriate hydrologic models for monthly streamflow generation for tributary projects in the Basin is necessary. This leads to another important area of research which is to find the appropriate number of monthly sequences of streamflow to be generated in relation to number of states and decision variables. Research on the design of computer experiments is necessary to improve simulation as a tool to estimate the quantitative effects of a given project.

Lack of adequate hydrologic information has been one of the major reasons for postponement of many water resource developments in developing countries. Many of these decisions to postpone developments that have been reviewed by the author have been found to be arbitrary and not based on the extent of benefit that the additional information would contribute. Due to lack of understanding of the implications and natural tendency towards risk aversion, the beneficiaries are deprived of goods and services which the development would have produced. In this dissertation a decision strategy which can guide decision makers to determine if the additional information is essential, is developed. The strategy is derived from the concepts of the three currently used decision methodologies in water resources: namely, the cost-effectiveness, benefit-cost and the Bayesian decision methodologies. The concepts of these methodologies have been selected and combined for their appropriateness to particular phases of the decision process. Description of the analytical procedure in the use of the strategy is given, and some analytical methods that can be used in the procedure have also been suggested and discussed. The applicability of the strategy is demonstrated by applying it to a case study involving a decision that was taken to postpone a simple irrigation project in Ghana. Three alternative plans for the irrigation project were evaluated, based on selected decision criteria. The results of the study indicated that the local hydrologic factors in the project analyzed were not critical to the design decision, and errors due to hydrologic uncertainties would be damped out in the evaluation of the economic feasibility. The design decision proved to be more sensitive to the economic and technological factors. The insensitivity of the design decision to the hydrologic factors was attributed to a combination of climatic and topographical conditions existing in the river basin. Based on the results of the study, a rule was suggested to aid decision makers to determine when a greater hydrologic base may be needed for design and project viability decisions.

Permanent riparian photopoints (repeat photography of streamside points) are a widely used monitoring method for situations where there are many streams to monitor, and little time to do it. They often display dramatic changes in these dynamic ecosystems – changes that are brought about by management of permitted and non-permitted activities, flood, drought, and fire. Most of all, they help us to learn more about the relationship of riparian areas to uplands, and how riparian ecosystems function.

The availability of adequate and reliable water supplies has always been a critical concern in central Arizona since prehistoric times. The early European settlers in 1868 initially utilized the ancient Hohokam Indian canal system which drew water from the Salt River. However, the river fluctuated with periods of drought and periods of high flows which destroyed the diversion structures. The settlers proposed a dam to store water and to regulate flows. In 1903, the Salt River Water Users Association was formed and an agreement was reached with the U.S. Government for the construction of a dam on the Salt River at its junction with Tonto Creek. The Salt River drains more than 4,306 square miles (mi2) from the White Mountains of eastern Arizona to the confluence with Tonto Creek. Tonto Creek drains a 1,000-mi2 watershed above the confluence. The agreement was authorized under the Reclamation Act of 1902. The Theodore Roosevelt Dam was started in 1905, completed in 1911, and dedicated in 1911 (Salt River Project 2002). The dam has the capacity to store 2.9 million acre-feet (af) of water. However, between 1909 and 1925, 101,000 af of sediment were accumulated behind Roosevelt Dam (Rich 1961). Much of it came from erosion on the granitic soils from the chaparral lands above the reservoir, and much of the erosion was blamed on overgrazing by domestic livestock. Water users were concerned that accelerated sedimentation would eventually compromise the capacity of the dam to hold sufficient water for downstream demands. The Tonto National Forest was originally created to manage the watershed above Roosevelt Dam and to prevent siltation. The Summit Plots, located between Globe, Arizona, and Lake Roosevelt were established in 1925 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the effects of vegetation recovery, mechanical stabilization, and plant cover changes on stormflows and sediment yields from the lower chaparral zone (Rich 1961). The area initially was part of the Crook National Forest which was later added to the Tonto National Forest. The Summit Watersheds consisted of nine small watersheds ranging in size from 0.37 to 1.23 acres (ac). Elevations are between 3,636 and 3,905 feet (ft). The treatments included: exclusion of livestock and seeding grasses, winter grazing, hardware cloth check dams, grubbing brush, sloping gullies and grass seeding. Protection from grazing did not pro duce changes in runoff or sedimentation. Treatments that reduced surface runoff also reduced erosion. Hardware cloth check dams reduce total erosion, and mulch plus grass treatments checked erosion and sediment movement. Runoff was reduced by the combined treatments (Rich 1961). The Summit Watersheds were integrated into the Parker Creek Erosion-Streamflow Station in 1932.

The USDA Forest Service Southwestern Region (FS) manages over 20.5 million acres of forests and grasslands in Arizona, New Mexico and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. Water is one of the most beneficial natural resources used on and off these lands by humans, animals and plants. Water on forest and grasslands generally comes from precipitation which arrives in the form of snow or rain, depending on the location and season. On the ground, water infiltrates, ponds, runs off or evaporates, depending on the surface and climatic conditions. In general, precipitation that falls on these lands is free of pollutants. As water moves across and through soils, rocks and other materials it can become polluted by the surfaces it comes in contact with and by materials added to it. Materials added to flowing water in small amounts over time may have little to no harmful effects on the quality of the water. In large amounts and or concentrated, it can be extremely harmful to the quality of the water and users of the water. Common impacts to water quality include increases in temperature, turbidity, nutrient levels and hazardous chemicals. Sources of pollutants on forests and grasslands can be natural and human introduced. Natural sources and causes of pollution can include soil erosion, wildlife waste, concentrations of naturally occurring materials, drought, and flooding. Human sources and causes of pollution can include runoff from roads, trails, tree harvest areas, recreation sites, sewage facilities, livestock, pesticide applications and fuel and chemical spills (USDA Forest Service 2000). A plethora of methods exist to minimize harmful impacts to water quality on forests and grasslands. In 1990, the FS Southwestern Region developed a core set of practices and procedures, that when properly implemented, can be effective at minimizing and mitigating harmful impacts to water quality. The practices and procedures are both administrative and physical, and are collectively referred to as Soil and Water Conservation Practices, also known as Best Management Practices (BMPs) (USDA Forest Service 1990). Even though these BMPs were designed by FS and state resource specialists in the Southwest, they often require adjustments to make them fit site-specific conditions. The BMPs used by the FS Southwestern Region are acknowledged as being effective control measures by the environment departments of the states (Arizona and New Mexico) in which they were developed, as documented in Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) that exist between the FS and the states.