Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The United States Forest Service desires to build a 2,700 acre surface water reservoir by constructing a dam to impound water on Oakohay Creek in Smith County, Mississippi. A previous study from 2007 deemed the proposed location based on the hydrologic and geologic characteristics. The reinvestigation study objectives focused on the site’s hydrology and geology. The hydrologic study was accomplished by developing daily water storage models for the proposed reservoir. Archived data from the Southern Regional Climate Center were used in the models. The geologic study evaluated the Glendon Limestone through field surveying, ground penetrating radar, sonic rig drilling, surface water quantity measurements, and surface water quality analysis. A dedicated stream monitoring station was installed along the banks of Oakohay Creek. ArcGIS 9.3.1 and Microsoft Excel were used to support the objectives. Results from the study suggest that the proposed site location is suitable for reservoir development.

A stochastic benefit-cost analysis is used to analyze the profitability of irrigating from an Onarm water storage (OFWS) system using a center pivot irrigation system (CPIS) compared to a rained production system for corn and soybean in the Southeast while also incorporating risk in the form of stochastic prices, yields and weather. Findings indicate that producer’s decision to invest in an OFWS is dependent on the existing rate of returns and risk aversion levels. When costs are paid upront, net present values for irrigating from an OFWS are lower than that of rainfall when discount rates are just above 2%. Higher net present values for irrigation relative to rainfall production are realized when the cost of investment is financed rather than making an upront payment at higher discount rates. Investing in an OFWS on small farm sizes is not a good option for risk averse producers but, under extreme risk aversion levels, decision makers may prefer to irrigate and insure their revenue at higher coverage levels than depend on rainfall. Cost assistance opportunities for crop producers to prevent downstream flow of nutrients from production fields through the use OFWS should be more than 40% to make irrigation more desirable than dryland production at 8% and 10% discount rates.

Thesis (M.S. - Renewable Natural Resources)--University of Arizona, 1984. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 69).

Drought is one of the most widespread and least understood natural phenomena. Many indices using multiple data types have been created, and their success at identifying periods of extreme wetness and dryness has been well documented. In recent years, researchers have begun to assess the potential of total water storage (TWS) anomalies in drought monitoring method- ologies. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) provides temporally and spatially consistent TWS measurements across the globe, and studies have shown GRACE TWS anomalies are suited to identify drought. GRACE TWS is used with MODIS-derived normalized difference veg- etation index (NDVI) and NOAA/NWS precipitation data to create a new drought index, the Merged-dataset Drought Index (MDI). Each dataset corre- lates with a different type of drought, giving robustness to MDI. MDI is based on dataset deviations from a monthly climatology and is objective and easy to calculate. MDI is studied across Texas, which is broken into five dataset- defined sub-regions. Multiple drought events are identified from 2002 - 2014, with the most severe beginning in October 2010. A new drought severity clas- sification scheme is proposed based on MDI, and it is organized to match the current US Drought Monitor Classification Scheme. MDI shows strong correlation with existing drought indices, notably the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). MDI consistently identifies droughts in different sub-regions of Texas, but shows better performance in regions with large GRACE TWS signals. MDI performance is enhanced through a weighting scheme that relies more on GRACE TWS. Even with this scheme, MDI and PDSI exhibit occasional behavioral differences. Drought analysis using MDI shows for the first time that GRACE data provides information on a sub-regional scale in Texas, an area with low signal amplitudes. Past studies have shown TWS capable of identifying drought, but MDI is the first index to quantitatively use GRACE TWS in a manner consistent with current practices of identifying drought. MDI also establishes a framework for a future, completely remote-sensing based index that can enable temporally and spatially consistent drought identification across the globe. This study is useful as well for establishing a baseline for the necessary spatial resolution required from future geodetic space missions for use in drought identification at smaller scales. / text

No description available.

Orientador: Marcos Gomes Nogueira / Banca: Raoul Henry / Banca: Gilmar Perbiche-Neves / Banca: Claudia Bonecker / Banca: Virginia Sanches Uieda / Resumo: Não disponível / Abstract: Not Available / Doutor

Die Nutzung regenerativer Energiequellen stellt in vielen Systemen und Versorgungsnetzen wesentlich höhere Anforderungen an die Konstruktion, Auslegung und Betriebsführung von Wärmespeichern als konventionelle Energieträger. Aber auch das Potenzial eines Brennwertkessels kann mit einem optimierten Wasserwärmespeicher besser ausgeschöpft werden. Entscheidend für die Effizienzsteigerung von Wärmespeichern mit ausgeprägter thermischer Schichtung ist die Ausbildung und Aufrechterhaltung einer schmalen Mischzone zwischen dem wärmeren und kälteren Bereich des Speichers. Eine schmale Mischzone und eine niedrige Temperatur im unteren „entladenen“ Speicherbereich wirken sich positiv auf den Wirkungsgrad von Sonnenkollektoren und Brennwertkesseln aus. Beim Einsatz von Wärmepumpen verbessert sich deren Leistungszahl. Der Beitrag zeigt die Auswirkungen der Betriebsweise und der konstruktiven Details des Wärmespeichers, insbesondere der Be- und Entladevorrichtungen, auf, welche durch experimentelle und numerische Untersuchungen ermittelt wurden. / The spreading integration of renewable sources of energy into conventional heat supply systems places high demands on the designing, dimensioning and operation of hot water storage tanks. A pronounced thermal stratification is of positive influence for the efficiency of solar collectors, condensing boilers and the COP of heat pumps connected to the storage tank. The extent of the thermal mixing layer determines the volumetric efficiency of the tank and thus the economics of investment and operation. In this paper, a method is presented by which the losses of hot water storage tanks are correlated to the tank design and operating conditions.

Mining operations lead to considerable land disturbance and accumulation of large amounts of waste rock that may contain elevated concentrations of hazardous substances. Without proper capping, they may have considerable negative environmental impact on different spheres of the Earth. Capping of waste rock with a soil cover re-creates the water and nutrient regimes required for the growth of native plants and returns biological productivity and biodiversity of the land to a condition similar to that existing before site disturbance. In many cases the area of disturbance is composed of coarse-textured materials with low water retention properties, which are not desirable in semi-arid zones. This study was conducted to determine (1) whether a considerable increase of water storage is possible after separation of coarse-textured soil into size fractions and layering them in such a way that the finer fraction overlies the coarser fraction; and (2) whether such soil covers are susceptible to preferential flow under various initial and boundary conditions and what influence this type of flow has on residence time. Four types of soil covers were constructed in chambers: homogeneous covers composed of natural sand, two-layered covers with abrupt and gradual interlayer transitions, and four layered soil covers with abrupt transitions. Soil water storage was measured at field capacity (FC). Soil covers were tested under two types of lower boundary conditions: gravel layer and -25-cm matric potential. Flow stability was assessed during intermittent and constant ponded infiltrations. Water storage capacities (WSCs) for soil covers with -25-cm matric potential at the bottom of a cover were additionally simulated in HYDRUS-1D. Water storage capacities increased with the number of layers under both lower boundary conditions. Two-layered covers with a transition layer had slightly lower water storage than the same cover without the transition, due to a decreased hydraulic contrast at the layer interface. Simulated WSCs under -25-cm matric potential at the bottom were in satisfactory agreement with measured WSCs. The wetting front was stable in the homogeneous cover under both initially dry and FC conditions and in the two-layered cover with a gradual transition under initially dry water content during intermittent ponded infiltration. Unstable flow was observed only in the two-layered soil cover under both initial water contents. Other covers were partially unstable under initially air-dry and FC conditions. Generally, the wetting front was more diffuse at FC. Flow in all covers was stable under constant ponded infiltration. The residence time of water increased with the increase in the number of layers under both types of infiltration. Results of the study show that WSC and residence time do increase with increasing number of layers in soil covers, where layers are composed of different fractions of coarse-textured soil. In addition, tested soil covers have shown limited susceptibility to preferential flow even when layered into finer-over-coarser soil systems.

An Office of Arid Lands Studies Report to the City of Tucson, Real Estate Division, Contract No. 0255-83 / "This report represents one of two parts of the project "Evaluation, Monitoring and Operation of Existing City Water Harvesting System and Expansion Plan for Future Development of Rainfall Utilization," funded by the City of Tucson during the period November 1982 to June 1983." / Introduction: This report deals with the potential harvesting of rainfall and runoff in the Tucson urban area, as distinguished from the rural (farmland) setting that is discussed separately. The principal differences are that 1) rainfall catchment surfaces like rooftops and pavement already exist in the urban area, and 2) harvested rainwater in the urbanized area can be put to a variety of beneficial uses.