Abstract: This paper presents a simplified dynamic method based on the definition of field capacity. Two soil hydraulic characteristics models, the Brooks-Corey (BC) model and the van Genuchten (vG) model, and four soil data groups were used in this study. The relative drainage rate, which is a unique parameter and independent of the soil type in the simplified dynamic method, was analyzed using the pressure-based method with a matric potential of −1/3 bar and the flux-based method with a drainage flux of 0.005 cm/d. As a result, the relative drainage rate of the simplified dynamic method was determined to be 3% per day. This was verified by the similar field capacity results estimated with the three methods for most soils suitable for cultivating plants. In addition, the drainage time calculated with the simplified dynamic method was two to three days, which agrees with the classical definition of field capacity. We recommend the simplified dynamic method with a relative drainage rate of 3% per day due to its simple application and clearly physically-based concept.
Abstract: The Irtysh River is an international river partially joining the territories of China, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Cascade reservoirs have been constructed in the upper reaches of the river and their effects on the seasonal discharge of the middle and lower reaches were analyzed considering the mean and dispersion of the seasonal discharge. The Lepage test, which is a nonparametric, two-sample test for detecting location and dispersion, was used to measure the significance of difference between the pre-dam and post-dam seasonal discharge. The results show that the reservoirs’ effects on the seasonal discharge varied with the season. In the middle reaches of the river, the summer and autumn discharge decreased significantly and their inter-annual variabilities also decreased significantly. The summer and autumn precipitation over the Irtysh River Basin changed little before and after the operation of the reservoir, which indicates that the discharge changes mainly due to water storage of the reservoirs. The reservoirs store water in summer and autumn and store more water in a wet year, which leads to the reduction of the mean and dispersion of the summer and autumn discharge. The winter discharge increased significantly because the reservoirs released water for power generation. The spring discharge changed slightly. In the lower reaches, only the winter discharge increased significantly, and the other seasonal discharge changed slightly. The reservoirs’ effects on the seasonal discharge are more significant in the middle reaches than in the lower reaches.
Abstract: The water quality of Dianshan Lake in Shanghai Municipality, China, is impacted by nutrient losses from agricultural lands around the lake. In this study, nine types of agricultural land use were monitored in 2010 and 2011, and a correlation analysis between nutrient losses from agricultural non-point sources (NPS) and nutrient stocks in the lake was conducted over monthly and seasonal time periods. The results indicate that the monthly average concentration of total nitrogen (TN) ranged from 1.41 to 7.34 mg/L in 2010 and from 1.52 to 5.90 mg/L in 2011, while the monthly average concentration of total phosphorous (TP) ranged from 0.11 to 0.26 mg/L in 2010 and from 0.13 to 0.30 mg/L in 2011. The annual loss of TN from agricultural NPS was 195.55 tons in 2010 and 208.40 tons in 2011. The cultivation of water oat made the largest contribution to the loss of TN. The annual loss of TP was 44.58 tons in 2010 and 48.12 tons in 2011, and multi-vegetable cultivation made the largest contribution to the loss of TP. The results of correlation analysis show that the monthly stocks of TN and TP in the lake have a positive correlation with the monthly losses of TN and TP from agricultural NPS. According to the seasonal data, the stocks of TN and TP in the lake both have a much stronger correlation with the losses of TN and TP from agricultural NPS in summer than in other seasons. Agricultural NPS pollution control should be the main focus for the water resource conservation in this area.
Abstract: With variation of drainage basin environments, desorption of soluble matter has become one of the significant erosion processes in rivers. It has a considerable impact on flow and sediment transport, as well as processes of river bed deformation and landform evolution throughout a watershed. In this study, considering influences on sediment movement, especially on cohesive sediment transport, Ca2+ and H+ were chosen as characteristic ions of soluble matter, and the total desorption quantity of Ca2+ and pH value when the desorption equilibrium is reached were employed as two indexes representing the desorption of soluble matter. By means of an indoor experiment, desorption of soluble matter as influenced by cations in static water was investigated. The results show that the total desorption quantity of soluble matter increases with the initial cation concentration until a maximum desorption quantity value is obtained and maintained. The total desorption quantity of soluble matter depends on properties of the specific cations in static water, and the stronger the affinity is between the cation and sediment surface, the higher the total desorption quantity will be. Finally, a strong approximate linear relationship between desorption quantities for different kinds of soluble matters was obtained, which means that variation of pH values can accurately reflect the desorption results of soluble matter.
Abstract: Based on the experiments of utilization of garlic processing wastewater in a lotus pond, this study demonstrates that lotus pond wetlands have a remarkable ability to remove organic pollutants and decrease chemical oxygen demand (CODCr), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), and suspended substances (SS) in garlic processing wastewater. Results also show evident effects of lotus roots on absorption of NH3-N. The pH value in a lotus pond with wastewater discharged was relatively stable. The water quality in the lotus pond reached the class Ⅱ emission standard, according to the Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB8978-1996), seven days after pretreated garlic processing wastewater had been discharged into the lotus pond. Garlic processing wastewater irrigation does not produce pollution in the pond sediment and has no negative effect on the growth of lotus roots. Due to utilization of garlic processing wastewater, the output of lotus roots increased by 3.0% to 8.3%, and the quality of lotus roots was improved. Therefore, better purification and utilization results can be achieved.
Abstract: Water levels in reservoirs are generally not allowed to exceed the flood-limited water level during the flood season, which means that huge amounts of water spill in order to provide adequate storage for flood prevention and that it is difficult to fill the reservoir fully at the end of year. Early reservoir refill is an effective method for addressing the contradiction between the needs of flood control and of comprehensive utilization. This study selected the Danjiangkou Reservoir, which is the water source for the middle route of the South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) in China, as a case study, and analyzed the necessity and operational feasibility of early reservoir refill. An early reservoir refill model is proposed based on the maximum average storage ratio, optimized by the progressive optimality algorithm, and the optimal scheduling schemes were obtained. Results show that the best time of refill operation for the Danjiangkou Reservoir is September 15, and the upper limit water level during September is 166 m. The proposed early refill scheme, in stages, can increase the annual average storage ratio from 77.51% to 81.99%, and decrease spilled water from 2.439 × 109 m3 to 1.692 × 109 m3, in comparison to the original design scheme. The suggested early reservoir refill scheme can be easily operated with significant comprehensive benefits, which may provide a good reference for scheduling decision-making.
Abstract: The hydro unit economic load dispatch (ELD) is of great importance in energy conservation and emission reduction. Dynamic programming (DP) and genetic algorithm (GA) are two representative algorithms for solving ELD problems. The goal of this study was to examine the performance of DP and GA while they were applied to ELD. We established numerical experiments to conduct performance comparisons between DP and GA with two given schemes. The schemes included comparing the CPU time of the algorithms when they had the same solution quality, and comparing the solution quality when they had the same CPU time. The numerical experiments were applied to the Three Gorges Reservoir in China, which is equipped with 26 hydro generation units. We found the relation between the performance of algorithms and the number of units through experiments. Results show that GA is adept at searching for optimal solutions in low-dimensional cases. In some cases, such as with a number of units of less than 10, GA’s performance is superior to that of a coarse-grid DP. However, GA loses its superiority in high-dimensional cases. DP is powerful in obtaining stable and high-quality solutions. Its performance can be maintained even while searching over a large solution space. Nevertheless, due to its exhaustive enumerating nature, it costs excess time in low-dimensional cases.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new storage allocation rule based on target storage curves. Joint operating rules are also proposed to solve the operation problems of a multi-reservoir system with joint demands and water transfer-supply projects. The joint operating rules include a water diversion rule to determine the amount of diverted water in a period, a hedging rule based on an aggregated reservoir to determine the total release from the system, and a storage allocation rule to specify the release from each reservoir. A simulation-optimization model was established to optimize the key points of the water diversion curves, the hedging rule curves, and the target storage curves using the improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm. The multi-reservoir water supply system located in Liaoning Province, China, including a water transfer-supply project, was employed as a case study to verify the effectiveness of the proposed join operating rules and target storage curves. The results indicate that the proposed operating rules are suitable for the complex system. The storage allocation rule based on target storage curves shows an improved performance with regard to system storage distribution.
Abstract: Because of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of anthropogenic sea level rise (SLR), it is very important to understand the processes leading to past and present SLRs towards more reliable future SLR projections. A regional ocean general circulation model (ROGCM), with a grid refinement in the Bohai, Yellow, and East China Seas (BYECSs), was set up to project SLR induced by the ocean dynamic change in the 21st century. The model does not consider the contributions from ice sheets and glacier melting. Data of all forcing terms required in the model came from the simulation of the Community Climate System Model version 3.0 (CCSM3) under the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)-A2 scenario. Simulation results show that at the end of the 21st century, the sea level in the BYECSs will rise about 0.12 to 0.20 m. The SLR in the BYECSs during the 21st century is mainly caused by the ocean mass redistribution due to the ocean dynamic change of the Pacific Ocean, which means that water in the Pacific Ocean tends to move to the continental shelves of the BYECSs, although the local steric sea level change is another factor.
Abstract: New empirical formulas of the transmission coefficient for permeable breakwaters were suggested based on available experimental data regarding the low-crest structure (LCS), including the permeable rubble mound breakwater and pile-type breakwater. The rationality of the present formulas was verified by their comparison with existing empirical and analytical formulas. Numerical flume results were obtained by solving the modified Boussinessq-type wave equations (MBEs), and a new expression relating the friction coefficient to the relative submerged depth was also derived. Comparative analysis shows that the results of the present formulas agree with the numerical flume results as well as available experimental data, and the present formulas are superior to the existing empirical and analytical expressions in estimating the transmission coefficient. The present formulas can provide references for estimation of the transmission coefficient in engineering practice.
