Matching Items (43)
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Description
Population growth within drylands is occurring faster than growth in any other ecologic zone, putting pressure on already stressed water resources. Because the availability of surface water supplies in drylands tends to be highly variable, many of these populations rely on groundwater. A critical process contributing to groundwater recharge is

Population growth within drylands is occurring faster than growth in any other ecologic zone, putting pressure on already stressed water resources. Because the availability of surface water supplies in drylands tends to be highly variable, many of these populations rely on groundwater. A critical process contributing to groundwater recharge is the interaction between ephemeral channels and groundwater aquifers. Generally, it has been found that ephemeral channels contribute to groundwater recharge when streamflow infiltrates into the sandy bottoms of channels. This process has traditionally been studied in channels that drain large areas (10s to 100s km2). In this dissertation, I study the interactions between surface water and groundwater via ephemeral channels in a first-order watershed located on an arid piedmont slope within the Jornada Experimental Range (JER) in the Chihuahuan Desert. To achieve this, I utilize a combination of high-resolution observations and computer simulations using a modified hydrologic model to quantify groundwater recharge and shed light on the geomorphic and ecologic processes that affect the rate of recharge. Observational results indicate that runoff generated within the piedmont slope contributes significantly to deep percolation. During the short-term (6 yr) study period, we estimated 385 mm of total percolation, 62 mm/year, or a ratio of percolation to rainfall of 0.25. Based on the instrument network, we identified that percolation occurs inside channel areas when these receive overland sheetflow from hillslopes. By utilizing a modified version of the hydrologic model, TIN-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS), that was calibrated and validated using the observational dataset, I quantified the effects of changing watershed properties on groundwater recharge. Distributed model simulations quantify how deep percolation is produced during the streamflow generation process, and indicate that it plays a significant role in moderating the production of streamflow. Sensitivity analyses reveal that hillslope properties control the amount of rainfall necessary to initiate percolation while channel properties control the partitioning of hillslope runoff into streamflow and deep percolation. Synthetic vegetation experiments show that woody plant encroachment leads to increases in both deep percolation and streamflow. Further woody plant encroachment may result in the unexpected enhancement of dryland aquifer sustainability.
ContributorsSchreiner-McGraw, Adam P (Author) / Vivoni, Enrique R. (Thesis advisor) / Whipple, Kelin X. (Committee member) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Throop, Heather L. (Committee member) / Sala, Osvaldo E. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
The energy consumption by public drinking water and wastewater utilities represent up to 30%-40% of a municipality energy bill. The largest energy consumption is used to operate motors for pumping. As a result, the engineering and control community develop the Variable Speed Pumps (VSPs) which allow for regulating valves in

The energy consumption by public drinking water and wastewater utilities represent up to 30%-40% of a municipality energy bill. The largest energy consumption is used to operate motors for pumping. As a result, the engineering and control community develop the Variable Speed Pumps (VSPs) which allow for regulating valves in the network instead of the traditional binary ON/OFF pumps. Potentially, VSPs save up to 90% of annual energy cost compared to the binary pump. The control problem has been tackled in the literature as “Pump Scheduling Optimization” (PSO) with a main focus on the cost minimization. Nonetheless, engineering literature is mostly concerned with the problem of understanding “healthy working conditions” (e.g., leakages, breakages) for a water infrastructure rather than the costs. This is very critical because if we operate a network under stress, it may satisfy the demand at present but will likely hinder network functionality in the future.

This research addresses the problem of analyzing working conditions of large water systems by means of a detailed hydraulic simulation model (e.g., EPANet) to gain insights into feasibility with respect to pressure, tank level, etc. This work presents a new framework called Feasible Set Approximation – Probabilistic Branch and Bound (FSA-PBnB) for the definition and determination of feasible solutions in terms of pumps regulation. We propose the concept of feasibility distance, which is measured as the distance of the current solution from the feasibility frontier to estimate the distribution of the feasibility values across the solution space. Based on this estimate, pruning the infeasible regions and maintaining the feasible regions are proposed to identify the desired feasible solutions. We test the proposed algorithm with both theoretical and real water networks. The results demonstrate that FSA-PBnB has the capability to identify the feasibility profile in an efficient way. Additionally, with the feasibility distance, we can understand the quality of sub-region in terms of feasibility.

The present work provides a basic feasibility determination framework on the low dimension problems. When FSA-PBnB extends to large scale constraint optimization problems, a more intelligent sampling method may be developed to further reduce the computational effort.
ContributorsTsai, Yi-An (Author) / Pedrielli, Giulia (Thesis advisor) / Mirchandani, Pitu (Committee member) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Zabinsky, Zelda (Committee member) / Candelieri, Antonio (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The Colorado River Basin (CRB) is the primary source of water in the

southwestern United States. A key step to reduce the uncertainty of future streamflow

projections in the CRB is to evaluate the performance of historical simulations of General

Circulation Models (GCMs). In this study, this challenge is addressed by evaluating the

ability

The Colorado River Basin (CRB) is the primary source of water in the

southwestern United States. A key step to reduce the uncertainty of future streamflow

projections in the CRB is to evaluate the performance of historical simulations of General

Circulation Models (GCMs). In this study, this challenge is addressed by evaluating the

ability of nineteen GCMs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase Five

(CMIP5) and four nested Regional Climate Models (RCMs) in reproducing the statistical

properties of the hydrologic cycle and temperature in the CRB. To capture the transition

from snow-dominated to semiarid regions, analyses are conducted by spatially averaging

the climate variables in four nested sub-basins. Most models overestimate the mean

annual precipitation (P) and underestimate the mean annual temperature (T) at all

locations. While a group of models capture the mean annual runoff at all sub-basins with

different strengths of the hydrological cycle, another set of models overestimate the mean

annual runoff, due to a weak cycle in the evaporation channel. An abrupt increase in the

mean annual T in observed and most of the simulated time series (~0.8 °C) is detected at

all locations despite the lack of any statistically significant monotonic trends for both P

and T. While all models simulate the seasonality of T quite well, the phasing of the

seasonal cycle of P is fairly reproduced in just the upper, snow-dominated sub-basin.

Model performances degrade in the larger sub-basins that include semiarid areas, because

several GCMs are not able to capture the effect of the North American monsoon. Finally,

the relative performances of the climate models in reproducing the climatologies of P and

T are quantified to support future impact studies in the basin.
ContributorsGautam, Jenita (Author) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Thesis advisor) / Vivoni, Enrique (Committee member) / Wang, Zhihua (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
This dissertation focuses on the application of urban metabolism metrology (UMM) to process streams of the natural and built water environment to gauge public health concerning exposure to carcinogenic N-nitrosamines and abuse of narcotics. A survey of sources of exposure to N-nitrosamines in the U.S. population identified contaminated food products

This dissertation focuses on the application of urban metabolism metrology (UMM) to process streams of the natural and built water environment to gauge public health concerning exposure to carcinogenic N-nitrosamines and abuse of narcotics. A survey of sources of exposure to N-nitrosamines in the U.S. population identified contaminated food products (1,900 ± 380 ng/day) as important drivers of attributable cancer risk (Chapter 2). Freshwater sediments in the proximity of U.S. municipal wastewater treatment plants were shown for the first time to harbor carcinogenic N-nitrosamine congeners, including N-nitrosodibutylamine (0.2-3.3 ng/g dw), N-nitrosodiphenylamine (0.2-4.7 ng/g dw), and N-nitrosopyrrolidine (3.4-19.6 ng/g dw) were, with treated wastewater discharge representing one potential factor contributing to the observed contamination (p=0.42) (Chapter 3). Opioid abuse rates in two small midwestern communities were estimated through the application of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Average concentrations of opioids (City 1; City 2) were highest for morphine (713 ± 38, 306 ± 29 ng/L) and varied by for the remainder of the screened analytes. Furthermore, concentrations of the powerful opioid fentanyl (1.7 ± 0.2, 1.0 ± 0.5 ng/L) in wastewater were reported for the first time in the literature for the U.S. (Chapter 4). To gauge narcotic consumption within college-aged adults the WBE process used in Chapter 4 was applied to wastewater collected from a large university in the Southwestern U.S. Estimated narcotics consumption, in units of mg/day/1,000 persons showed the following rank order: cocaine (470 ± 42), heroin (474 ± 32), amphetamine (302 ± 14) and methylphenidate (236 ± 28). Most parental drugs and their respective metabolites showed detection frequencies in campus wastewater of 80% or more, with the notable exception of fentanyl, norfentanyl, buprenorphine, and norbuprenorphine. Estimated consumption of all narcotics, aside from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medication, were higher than values reported in previous U.S. WBE studies for U.S. campuses (Chapter 5). The analyses presented here have identified variation in narcotic consumption habits across different U.S. communities, which can be gauged through UMM. Application of these techniques should be implemented throughout U.S. communities to provide insight into ongoing substance abuse and health issues within a community.
ContributorsGushgari, Adam Jon (Author) / Halden, Rolf U. (Thesis advisor) / Kavazanjian, Edward (Committee member) / Fraser, Matthew (Committee member) / Venkatesan, Arjun (Committee member) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Flooding is a critical issue around the world, and the absence of comprehension of watershed hydrologic reaction results in lack of lead-time for flood forecasting and expensive harm to property and life. It happens when water flows due to extreme rainfall storm, dam breach or snowmelt exceeds the capacity of

Flooding is a critical issue around the world, and the absence of comprehension of watershed hydrologic reaction results in lack of lead-time for flood forecasting and expensive harm to property and life. It happens when water flows due to extreme rainfall storm, dam breach or snowmelt exceeds the capacity of river system reservoirs and channels. The objective of this research was to develop a methodology for determining a time series operation for releases through control gates of river-reservoir systems during flooding events in a real-time using one- and/or two-dimensional modeling of flows through river-reservoir systems.

The optimization-simulation methodology interfaces several simulation-software coupled together with an optimization model solved by genetic algorithm coded in MATLAB. These software include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers HEC-RAS linked the genetic algorithm in MATLAB to come up with an optimization-simulation model for time series gate openings to control downstream elevations. The model involves using the one- and two-dimensional ability in HEC-RAS to perform hydrodynamic routing with high-resolution raster Digital Elevation Models. Also, the model uses both real-time gridded- and gaged-rainfall data in addition to a model for forecasting future rainfall-data.

This new model has been developed to manage reservoir release schedules before, during, and after an extraordinary rainfall event that could cause extreme flooding. Further to observe and control downstream water surface elevations to avoid exceedance of threshold of flood levels in target cells in the downstream area of study, and to minimize the damage and direct effects in both the up and downstream.

The application of the complete optimization-simulation model was applied to a portion of the Cumberland River System in Nashville, Tennessee for the flooding event of May 2010. The objective of this application is to demonstrate the applicability of the model for minimizing flood damages for an actual flood event in real-time on an actual river basin. The purpose of the application in a real-time framework would be to minimize the flood damages at Nashville, Tennessee by keeping the flood stages under the 100-year flood stage. This application also compared the three unsteady flow simulation scenarios: one-dimensional, two-dimensional and combined one- and two-dimensional unsteady flow.
ContributorsAlbo-Salih, Hasan Hadi Kraidi (Author) / Mays, Larry W. (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
The occurrence of micro-and nanoplastic (MNP) debris in the environment is a research area of considerable public health concern. Various combinations of methods for extraction, isolation, and quantification of MNP have been applied but literature studies evaluating the appropriateness and efficacy of these protocols are lacking. A meta-analysis of the

The occurrence of micro-and nanoplastic (MNP) debris in the environment is a research area of considerable public health concern. Various combinations of methods for extraction, isolation, and quantification of MNP have been applied but literature studies evaluating the appropriateness and efficacy of these protocols are lacking. A meta-analysis of the literature (n=134; years 2010-2017) was conducted to inventory and assess the appropriateness of methodologies employed. Some 30.6% of studies employed visual identification only, which carried a calculated misidentification error of 25.8-74.2%. An additional 6.7% of studies reported counts for particles smaller than the cutoff value of the selected collection pore size, and 9.7% of studies utilized extraction solution densities which exclude some of the polymers commonly occurring in the environments investigated. A composite value of data vulnerability of 43.3% was determined for the sample, indicating considerable weaknesses in the robustness of information available on MNP occurrence and type. Additionally, the oxidizing solutions documented in the literature frequently were deemed unsuccessful in removing interfering organic matter. Whereas nanoplastics measuring <1 µm in diameter are likely principal drivers of health risk, polymer fragments reported on in the literature are much larger, measuring 10+ µm in diameter due to lack of standardized methods. Thus, current inventories of MNP in the environmental MNP feature data quality concerns that should be addressed moving forward by using more robust and standardized techniques for sampling, processing and polymer identification to improve data quality and avoid the risk of misclassification.
ContributorsCook, Cayla R (Author) / Halden, Rolf U. (Thesis advisor) / Hamilton, Kerry (Committee member) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
In the recent past, Iraq was considered relatively rich considering its water resources compared to its surroundings. Currently, the magnitude of water resource shortages in Iraq represents an important factor in the stability of the country and in protecting sustained economic development. The need for a practical, applicable, and sustainable

In the recent past, Iraq was considered relatively rich considering its water resources compared to its surroundings. Currently, the magnitude of water resource shortages in Iraq represents an important factor in the stability of the country and in protecting sustained economic development. The need for a practical, applicable, and sustainable river basin management for the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq is essential. Applicable water resources allocation scenarios are important to minimize the potential future water crises in connection with water quality and quantity. The allocation of the available fresh water resources in addition to reclaimed water to different users in a sustainable manner is of the urgent necessities to maintain good water quantity and quality.

In this dissertation, predictive water allocation optimization models were developed which can be used to easily identify good alternatives for water management that can then be discussed, debated, adjusted, and simulated in greater detail. This study provides guidance for decision makers in Iraq for potential future conditions, where water supplies are reduced, and demonstrates how it is feasible to adopt an efficient water allocation strategy with flexibility in providing equitable water resource allocation considering alternative resource. Using reclaimed water will help in reducing the potential negative environmental impacts of treated or/and partially treated wastewater discharges while increasing the potential uses of reclaimed water for agriculture and other applications. Using reclaimed water for irrigation is logical and efficient to enhance the economy of farmers and the environment while providing a diversity of crops, especially since most of Iraq’s built or under construction wastewater treatment plants are located in or adjacent to agricultural lands. Adopting an optimization modelling approach can assist decision makers, ensuring their decisions will benefit the economy by incorporating global experiences to control water allocations in Iraq especially considering diminished water supplies.
ContributorsAhmed, Ahmed Abdulrazzaq (Author) / Mays, Larry W. (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Peter (Thesis advisor) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Muenich, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
In recent years, the food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus has become a topic of considerable importance and has spurred research in many scientific and technical fields. This increased interest stems from the high level, and broad area, of impact that could occur in the long term if the interactions

In recent years, the food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus has become a topic of considerable importance and has spurred research in many scientific and technical fields. This increased interest stems from the high level, and broad area, of impact that could occur in the long term if the interactions between these complex FEW sectors are incorrectly or only partially defined. For this reason, a significant amount of interdisciplinary collaboration is needed to accurately define these interactions and produce viable solutions to help sustain and secure resources within these sectors. Providing tools that effectively promote interdisciplinary collaboration would allow for the development of a better understanding of FEW nexus interactions, support FEW policy-making under uncertainty, facilitate identification of critical design requirements for FEW visualizations, and encourage proactive FEW visualization design.

The goal of this research will be the completion of 3 primary objectives: (i) specify visualization design requirements relating to the FEW nexus; (ii) develop visualization approaches for the FEW nexus; and (iii) provide a comparison of current FEW visualization approaches against the proposed visualization approach. These objectives will be accomplished by reviewing graph-based visualization, network evolution, and visual analysis of volume data tasks, discussion with domain experts, examination of currently used visualization methods in FEW research, and conduction of a user study. This will provide a more thorough and representative depiction of the FEW nexus, as well as a basis for further research in the area of FEW visualization. This research will enhance collaboration between policymakers and domain experts in an attempt to encourage in-depth nexus research that will help support informed policy-making and promote future resource security.
ContributorsMathis, Brandon (Author) / Maciejewski, Ross (Thesis advisor) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Sarjoughian, Hessam S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
Soil moisture (θ) is a fundamental variable controlling the exchange of water and energy at the land surface. As a result, the characterization of the statistical properties of θ across multiple scales is essential for many applications including flood prediction, drought monitoring, and weather forecasting. Empirical evidences have demonstrated the

Soil moisture (θ) is a fundamental variable controlling the exchange of water and energy at the land surface. As a result, the characterization of the statistical properties of θ across multiple scales is essential for many applications including flood prediction, drought monitoring, and weather forecasting. Empirical evidences have demonstrated the existence of emergent relationships and scale invariance properties in θ fields collected from the ground and airborne sensors during intensive field campaigns, mostly in natural landscapes. This dissertation advances the characterization of these relations and statistical properties of θ by (1) analyzing the role of irrigation, and (2) investigating how these properties change in time and across different landscape conditions through θ outputs of a distributed hydrologic model. First, θ observations from two field campaigns in Australia are used to explore how the presence of irrigated fields modifies the spatial distribution of θ and the associated scale invariance properties. Results reveal that the impact of irrigation is larger in drier regions or conditions, where irrigation creates a drastic contrast with the surrounding areas. Second, a physically-based distributed hydrologic model is applied in a regional basin in northern Mexico to generate hyperresolution θ fields, which are useful to conduct analyses in regions and times where θ has not been monitored. For this aim, strategies are proposed to address data, model validation, and computational challenges associated with hyperresolution hydrologic simulations. Third, analyses are carried out to investigate whether the hyperresolution simulated θ fields reproduce the statistical and scaling properties observed from the ground or remote sensors. Results confirm that (i) the relations between spatial mean and standard deviation of θ derived from the model outputs are very similar to those observed in other areas, and (ii) simulated θ fields exhibit the scale invariance properties that are consistent with those analyzed from aircraft-derived estimates. The simulated θ fields are then used to explore the influence of physical controls on the statistical properties, finding that soil properties significantly affect spatial variability and multifractality. The knowledge acquired through this dissertation provides insights on θ statistical properties in regions and landscape conditions that were never investigated before; supports the refinement of the calibration of multifractal downscaling models; and contributes to the improvement of hyperresolution hydrologic modeling.
ContributorsKo, Ara (Author) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Thesis advisor) / Vivoni, Enrique R. (Thesis advisor) / Myint, Soe (Committee member) / Wang, Zhihua (Committee member) / Muenich, Rebecca (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The phrase water-energy nexus is commonly used to describe the inherent and critical interdependencies between the electric power system and the water supply systems (WSS). The key interdependencies between the two systems are the power plant’s requirement of water for the cooling cycle and the water system’s need of electricity

The phrase water-energy nexus is commonly used to describe the inherent and critical interdependencies between the electric power system and the water supply systems (WSS). The key interdependencies between the two systems are the power plant’s requirement of water for the cooling cycle and the water system’s need of electricity for pumping for water supply. While previous work has considered the dependency of WSS on the electrical power, this work incorporates into an optimization-simulation framework, consideration of the impact of short and long-term limited availability of water and/or electrical energy.

This research focuses on the water supply system (WSS) facet of the multi-faceted optimization and control mechanism developed for an integrated water – energy nexus system under U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) project 029013-0010 CRISP Type 2 – Resilient cyber-enabled electric energy and water infrastructures modeling and control under extreme mega drought scenarios. A water supply system (WSS) conveys water from sources (such as lakes, rivers, dams etc.) to the treatment plants and then to users via the water distribution systems (WDS) and/or water supply canal systems (WSCS). Optimization-simulation methodologies are developed for the real-time operation of water supply systems (WSS) under critical conditions of limited electrical energy and/or water availability due to emergencies such as extreme drought conditions, electric grid failure, and other severe conditions including natural and manmade disasters. The coupling between WSS and the power system was done through alternatively exchanging data between the power system and WSS simulations via a program control overlay developed in python.

A new methodology for WDS infrastructural-operational resilience (IOR) computation was developed as a part of this research to assess the real-time performance of the WDS under emergency conditions. The methodology combines operational resilience and component level infrastructural robustness to provide a comprehensive performance assessment tool.

The optimization-simulation and resilience computation methodologies developed were tested for both hypothetical and real example WDS and WSCS, with results depicting improved resilience for operations of the WSS under normal and emergency conditions.
ContributorsKhatavkar, Puneet (Author) / Mays, Larry W. (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Zhang, Junshan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019