WaterWired

Water, Volume 10, Issue 11 (November 2018): Water Quality and Ecosystems, Hydraulics, Hydrology, Water and Wastewater Treatment, and More!

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Cover Story

Robust Assessment of Uncertain Freshwater Changes: The Case of Greece with Large Irrigation—and Climate-Driven Runoff Decrease

Georgia Destouni and Carmen Prieto

Water 2018, 10(11), 1645; doi:10.3390/w10111645

 

Featured Papers

Modeling Water Yield: Assessing the Role of Site and Region-Specific Attributes in Determining Model Performance of the InVEST Seasonal Water Yield Model

Facundo Scordo, Thomas Michael Lavender, Carina Seitz, Vanesa L. Perillo, James A. Rusak, M. Cintia Piccolo and Gerardo M. E. Perillo

Water 2018, 10(11), 1496; doi:10.3390/w10111496

Unraveling the Dynamics of a Creeping Slope in Northwestern Colombia: Hydrological Variables, and Geoelectrical and Seismic Signatures

Juan C. Loaiza-Usuga, Gaspar Monsalve, Aleen Pertuz-Paz, Laura Arce-Monsalve, Mateo Sanín, León F. Ramírez-Hoyos and Roy C. Sidle

Water 2018, 10(11), 1498; doi:10.3390/w10111498

“E = mc²” of Environmental Flows: A Conceptual Framework for Establishing a Fish-Biological Foundation for a Regionally Applicable Environmental Low-Flow Formula

Piotr Parasiewicz, Paweł Prus, Katarzyna Suska and Paweł Marcinkowski

Water 2018, 10(11), 1501; doi:10.3390/w10111501

Advances in Water Distribution Networks

Enrico Creaco and Giuseppe Pezzinga

Water 2018, 10(11), 1546; doi:10.3390/w10111546

Upscaling the Zeolite-Anammox Process: Treatment of Anaerobic Digester Filtrate

Robert S. Collison and Mark E. Grismer

Water 2018, 10(11), 1553; doi:10.3390/w10111553

Urban Irrigation Suppresses Land Surface Temperature and Changes the Hydrologic Regime in Semi-Arid Regions

Bryant Reyes, Terri Hogue and Reed Maxwell

Water 2018, 10(11), 1563; doi:10.3390/w10111563

Permeable Pavements Life Cycle Assessment: A Literature Review

Lucas Niehuns Antunes, Enedir Ghisi and Liseane Padilha Thives

Water 2018, 10(11), 1575; doi:10.3390/w10111575

Governance Strategies for Improving Flood Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

Peter P. J. Driessen, Dries L. T. Hegger, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Helena F. M. W. van Rijswick, Ann Crabbé, Corinne Larrue, Piotr Matczak, Maria Pettersson, Sally Priest, Cathy Suykens, Gerrit Thomas Raadgever and Mark Wiering

Water 2018, 10(11), 1595; doi:10.3390/w10111595

 

Review

Urban Water Management

Promoting Water Conservation: Where to from here?

Magnus Moglia, Stephen Cook and Sorada Tapsuwan

Water 2018, 10(11), 1510; doi:10.3390/w10111510

A Comprehensive Review of Low Impact Development Models for Research, Conceptual, Preliminary and Detailed Design Applications

Sahereh Kaykhosravi, Usman T. Khan and Amaneh Jadidi

Water 2018, 10(11), 1541; doi:10.3390/w10111541

Hydrology

Flood Prediction Using Machine Learning Models: Literature Review

Amir Mosavi, Pinar Ozturk and Kwok-wing Chau

Water 2018, 10(11), 1536; doi:10.3390/w10111536

Uncertainty Estimation Using the Glue and Bayesian Approaches in Flood Estimation: A case Study—Ba River, Vietnam

Phuong Cu Thi, James E Ball and Ngoc Hung Dao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1641; doi:10.3390/w10111641

Water Quality and Ecosystems

Spatial and Temporal Variability of the Impacts of Pinyon and Juniper Reduction on Hydrologic and Erosion Processes Across Climatic Gradients in the Western US: A Regional Synthesis

C. Jason Williams, Keirith A. Snyder and Frederick B. Pierson

Water 2018, 10(11), 1607; doi:10.3390/w10111607

Water Resources Management and Governance

Indigenous Water Governance in Australia: Comparisons with the United States and Canada

Julie H. Tsatsaros, Jennifer L. Wellman, Iris C. Bohnet, Jon E. Brodie and Peter Valentine

Water 2018, 10(11), 1639; doi:10.3390/w10111639

Water–Food–Energy Nexus

Irrigation in the Ili River Basin of Central Asia: From Ditches to Dams and Diversion

Steven G. Pueppke, Qingling Zhang and Sabir T. Nurtazin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1650; doi:10.3390/w10111650

Water and Wastewater Treatment

Review of Constructed Wetlands for Acid Mine Drainage Treatment

Aurora M. Pat-Espadas, Rene Loredo Portales, Leonel E. Amabilis-Sosa, Gloria Gómez and Gladys Vidal

Water 2018, 10(11), 1685; doi:10.3390/w10111685

Other Paper in the issue

A Review of Cost Estimates for Flood Adaptation

Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts

Water 2018, 10(11), 1646; doi:10.3390/w10111646

 

 

Research

Urban Water Management

Monitoring and Modeling the Long-Term Rainfall-Runoff Response of the Jacob K. Javits Center Green Roof

Noura Abualfaraj, Joseph Cataldo, Yara Elborolosy, Daniel Fagan, Sloane Woerdeman, Tyler Carson and Franco A. Montalto

Water 2018, 10(11), 1494; doi:10.3390/w10111494

Research on Class-Based Storage Strategies for Flood Control Materials Based on Grey Clustering

Wei Wang, Li Huang, Weiwei Le, Yu Zhang, Peng Ji and David Proverbs

Water 2018, 10(11), 1506; doi:10.3390/w10111506

Configuring Green Infrastructure for Urban Runoff and Pollutant Reduction Using an Optimal Number of Units

Carlos Martínez, Arlex Sanchez, Roberto Galindo, Aelaf Mulugeta, Zoran Vojinovic and Alberto Galvis

Water 2018, 10(11), 1528; doi:10.3390/w10111528

Multi-Criteria Evaluation for China Low-Impact Development Based on Principal Component Analysis

Nan Li, Lina Xie, Pengfei Du and Xiaochan Huang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1547; doi:10.3390/w10111547

Measuring Inundation Depth in a Subway Station Using the Laser Image Analysis Method

Inhwan Park, Hoje Seong, Yonguk Ryu and Dong Sop Rhee

Water 2018, 10(11), 1558; doi:10.3390/w10111558

Improving Restorative Maintenance Practices for Mature Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavements

Kirti Sehgal, Jennifer Drake, Tim Van Seters and William Kyle Vander Linden

Water 2018, 10(11), 1588; doi:10.3390/w10111588

Effect of a Submerged Zone and Carbon Source on Nutrient and Metal Removal for Stormwater by Bioretention Cells

Mo Wang, Dongqing Zhang, Yong Li, Qinghe Hou, Yuying Yu, Jinda Qi, Weicong Fu, Jianwen Dong and Yuning Cheng

Water 2018, 10(11), 1629; doi:10.3390/w10111629

A Methodology for the Design of RTC Strategies for Combined Sewer Networks

Stefan Kroll, Marjoleine Weemaes, Jan Van Impe and Patrick Willems

Water 2018, 10(11), 1675; doi:10.3390/w10111675

Infiltration and Inflow (I/I) to Wastewater Systems in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland

Kristin Jenssen Sola, Jarle Tommy Bjerkholt, Oddvar Georg Lindholm and Harsha Ratnaweera

Water 2018, 10(11), 1696; doi:10.3390/w10111696

Water Resources Management and Governance

Effects of the Concept of the Dualist Division of Lakes in Polish Law on Shaping Lake Water Policy from the Hydrological Perspective

Włodzimierz Marszelewski and Michał Marszelewski

Water 2018, 10(11), 1495; doi:10.3390/w10111495

Future Climate Change and Its Impact on Runoff Generation from the Debris-Covered Inylchek Glaciers, Central Tian Shan, Kyrgyzstan

Wilfried Hagg, Elisabeth Mayr, Birgit Mannig, Mark Reyers, David Schubert, Joaquim G. Pinto, Juliane Peters, Tino Pieczonka, Martin Juen, Tobias Bolch, Heiko Paeth and Christoph Mayer

Water 2018, 10(11), 1513; doi:10.3390/w10111513

Is the Groundwater in the Hunshandake Desert (Northern China) of Fossil or Meteoric Water Origin? Isotopic and Hydrogeochemical Evidence

Bing-Qi Zhu, Xiao-Zong Ren and Patrick Rioual

Water 2018, 10(11), 1515; doi:10.3390/w10111515

Assessment of Precipitation Simulations in Central Asia by CMIP5 Climate Models

Zhijie Ta, Yang Yu, Lingxiao Sun, Xi Chen, Guijin Mu and Ruide Yu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1516; doi:10.3390/w10111516

Estimation of River Management Flow Considering Stream Water Deficit Characteristics

Jang Hyun Sung and Seung Beom Seo

Water 2018, 10(11), 1521; doi:10.3390/w10111521

The Identification of Factors Affecting the Use of Pressurized Irrigation Systems by Farmers in Iran

Abdullah Momvandi, Maryam Omidi Najafabadi, Jamal F. Hosseini and Farhad Lashgarara

Water 2018, 10(11), 1532; doi:10.3390/w10111532

An Integrated Methodology to Analyze the Total Nitrogen Accumulation in a Drinking Water Reservoir Based on the SWAT Model Driven by CMADS: A Case Study of the Biliuhe Reservoir in Northeast China

Guoshuai Qin, Jianwei Liu, Tianxiang Wang, Shiguo Xu and Guangyu Su

Water 2018, 10(11), 1535; doi:10.3390/w10111535

Water Allocation Computation Model for River and Multi-Reservoir System with Sustainability-Efficiency-Equity Criteria

Anang M. Farriansyah, Pitojo Tri Juwono, Ery Suhartanto and Very Dermawan

Water 2018, 10(11), 1537; doi:10.3390/w10111537

Multi-Objective Optimization for Reservoir Operation Considering Water Diversion and Power Generation Objectives

Xiaomei Sun, Jungang Luo and Jiancang Xie

Water 2018, 10(11), 1540; doi:10.3390/w10111540

A Bi-Objective Pseudo-Interval T2 Linear Programming Approach and Its Application to Water Resources Management Under Uncertainty

Lei Jin, Haiyan Fu, Younggy Kim, Jiangxue Long and Guohe Huang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1545; doi:10.3390/w10111545

Improved Process Representation in the Simulation of the Hydrology of a Meso-Scale Semi-Arid Catchment

Aline M. L. Saraiva Okello, Ilyas Masih, Stefan Uhlenbrook, Graham P. W. Jewitt and Pieter Van der Zaag

Water 2018, 10(11), 1549; doi:10.3390/w10111549

Establishment and Evaluation of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT Model (CMADS)

Xianyong Meng, Hao Wang, Chunxiang Shi, Yiping Wu and Xiaonan Ji

Water 2018, 10(11), 1555; doi:10.3390/w10111555

Recent Trends and Long-Range Forecasts of Water Resources of Northeast Iraq and Climate Change Adaptation Measures

Nahlah Abbas, Saleh A. Wasimi, Nadhir Al-Ansari and Sultana Nasrin Baby

Water 2018, 10(11), 1562; doi:10.3390/w10111562

Socioeconomic and Environmental Proxies for Comparing Freshwater Ecosystem Service Threats across International Sites: A Diagnostic Approach

Thomas C. Harmon, Robyn L. Smyth, Sudeep Chandra, Daniel Conde, Ramesh Dhungel, Jaime Escobar, Natalia Hoyos, Juan Pablo Lozoya, Mariana Nin, Gerardo M.E. Perillo, Stephanie Pincetl, M. Cintia Piccolo, Brian Reid, James A. Rusak, Facundo Scordo, Maria I. Velez, Sandra R. Villamizar, Beverley Wemple and Mariana Zilio

Water 2018, 10(11), 1578; doi:10.3390/w10111578

Impacts of Legal and Institutional Changes on Irrigation Management Performance: A Case of the Gezira Irrigation Scheme, Sudan

Ahmed E. Elshaikh, Shi-hong Yang, Xiyun Jiao and Mohammed M. Elbashier

Water 2018, 10(11), 1579; doi:10.3390/w10111579

Multi-Water Source Joint Scheduling Model Using a Refined Water Supply Network: Case Study of Tianjin

Shanghong Zhang, Jiasheng Yang, Zhongyu Wan and Yujun Yi

Water 2018, 10(11), 1580; doi:10.3390/w10111580

An Improved Method to Estimate Soil Hydrodynamic and Hydraulic Roughness Parameters by Using Easily Measurable Data During Flood Irrigation Experiments and Inverse Modelling

Mohamed Alkassem Alosman, Stéphane Ruy, Samuel Buis, Patrice Lecharpentier, Jean Claude Bader, François Charron and Albert Olioso

Water 2018, 10(11), 1581; doi:10.3390/w10111581

Improving Seasonal Forecasts for Basin Scale Hydrological Applications

Manolis Grillakis, Aristeidis Koutroulis and Ioannis Tsanis

Water 2018, 10(11), 1593; doi:10.3390/w10111593

A Robust and Transferable Model for the Prediction of Flood Losses on Household Contents

Markus Mosimann, Linda Frossard, Margreth Keiler, Rolf Weingartner and Andreas Paul Zischg

Water 2018, 10(11), 1596; doi:10.3390/w10111596

Transaction Costs, Modes, and Scales from Agricultural to Industrial Water Rights Trading in an Inland River Basin, Northwest China

Xiaohong Deng, Xiaoyu Song and Zhongmin Xu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1598; doi:10.3390/w10111598

Optimal Scale of Urbanization with Scarce Water Resources: A Case Study in an Arid and Semi-Arid Area of China

Siyuan Liu, Ni Wang, Jiancang Xie, Rengui Jiang and Menglong Zhao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1602; doi:10.3390/w10111602

Assessing Potential Climate Change Impacts on Irrigation Requirements of Major Crops in the Brazos Headwaters Basin, Texas

Ripendra Awal, Ali Fares and Haimanote Bayabil

Water 2018, 10(11), 1610; doi:10.3390/w10111610

Applicability Assessment and Uncertainty Analysis of Multi-Precipitation Datasets for the Simulation of Hydrologic Models

Binbin Guo, Jing Zhang, Tingbao Xu, Barry Croke, Anthony Jakeman, Yongyu Song, Qin Yang, Xiaohui Lei and Weihong Liao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1611; doi:10.3390/w10111611

Issues of Meander Development: Land Degradation or Ecological Value? The Example of the Sajó River, Hungary

László Bertalan, Tibor József Novák, Zoltán Németh, Jesús Rodrigo-Comino, Ádám Kertész and Szilárd Szabó

Water 2018, 10(11), 1613; doi:10.3390/w10111613

A Global Optimization-Based Method for the Prediction of Water Inrush Hazard from Mining Floor

Dan Ma, Hongyu Duan, Xin Cai, Zhenhua Li, Qiang Li and Qi Zhang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1618; doi:10.3390/w10111618

Quantifying the Relationship between Drought and Water Scarcity Using Copulas: Case Study of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Metropolitan Areas in China

Linlin Fan, Hongrui Wang, Zhiping Liu and Na Li

Water 2018, 10(11), 1622; doi:10.3390/w10111622

Estimating the Root Water Uptake of Surface-Irrigated Apples Using Water Stable Isotopes and the Hydrus-1D Model

Lijian Zheng, Juanjuan Ma, Xihuan Sun, Xianghong Guo, Qiyun Cheng and Xiaokai Shi

Water 2018, 10(11), 1624; doi:10.3390/w10111624

Segmentation of Apples in Aerial Images under Sixteen Different Lighting Conditions Using Color and Texture for Optimal Irrigation

Sajad Sabzi, Yousef Abbaspour-Gilandeh, Ginés García-Mateos, Antonio Ruiz-Canales and José Miguel Molina-Martínez

Water 2018, 10(11), 1634; doi:10.3390/w10111634

A Study of the Influence of the Spatial Distribution of Rain Gauge Networks on Areal Average Rainfall Calculation

Jiho Lee, Soojun Kim and Hwandon Jun

Water 2018, 10(11), 1635; doi:10.3390/w10111635

Global IWRM Ideas and Local Context: Studying Narratives in Rural Cambodia

Ching Leong and Farhad Mukhtarov

Water 2018, 10(11), 1643; doi:10.3390/w10111643

Supporting Sustainable Water Management: Insights from Australia’s Reform Journey and Future Directions for the Murray–Darling Basin

Maureen Papas

Water 2018, 10(11), 1649; doi:10.3390/w10111649

Sustainable Water Management in Iraq (Kurdistan) as a Challenge for Governmental Responsibility

Mahmood A. Yousuf, Nada Rapantova and Jalal H. Younis

Water 2018, 10(11), 1651; doi:10.3390/w10111651

Towards Ecological-Economic Integrity in the Jing-Jin-Ji Regional Development in China

Suxiao Li, Hong Yang, Junguo Liu and Guangchun Lei

Water 2018, 10(11), 1653; doi:10.3390/w10111653

Landscape Drivers and Social Dynamics Shaping Microbial Contamination Risk in Three Maya Communities in Southern Belize, Central America

Peter C. Esselman, Shiguo Jiang, Henry A. Peller, David G. Buck and Joel D. Wainwright

Water 2018, 10(11), 1678; doi:10.3390/w10111678

Does Mussel Farming Promote Cost Savings and Equity in Reaching Nutrient Targets for the Baltic Sea?

Ing-Marie Gren, Sarah Säll, Abenezer Zeleke Aklilu and Wondmagegn Tirkaso

Water 2018, 10(11), 1682; doi:10.3390/w10111682

Capacity Building for Water Management in Peri-Urban Communities, Bangladesh: A Simulation-Gaming Approach

Sharlene L. Gomes, Leon M. Hermans, Kazi Faisal Islam, Sheikh Nazmul Huda, ATM Zakir Hossain and Wil A. H. Thissen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1704; doi:10.3390/w10111704

Hydraulics

Assessment of Aquatic Weed in Irrigation Channels Using UAV and Satellite Imagery

James Brinkhoff, John Hornbuckle and Jan L. Barton

Water 2018, 10(11), 1497; doi:10.3390/w10111497

Numerical Analysis on the Hydrodynamic Performance of an Artificially Ventilated Surface-Piercing Propeller

Dongmei Yang, Zhen Ren, Zhiqun Guo and Zeyang Gao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1499; doi:10.3390/w10111499

Experimental Analysis of River Evolution with Riparian Vegetation

Shuqing Yang, Yuchuan Bai and Haijue Xu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1500; doi:10.3390/w10111500

Optimal Design of Circular Baffles on Sloshing in a Rectangular Tank Horizontally Coupled by Structure

Mohammad Yaghoub Abdollahzadeh Jamalabadi, Vinh Ho-Huu and Truong Khang Nguyen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1504; doi:10.3390/w10111504

Verification and Validation of URANS Simulations of the Round Buoyant Jet in Counterflow

Yizhou Xiao, Wenxin Huai, Bin Ji and Zhonghua Yang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1509; doi:10.3390/w10111509

A Theoretically Derived Probability Distribution of Scour

Salvatore Manfreda, Oscar Link and Alonso Pizarro

Water 2018, 10(11), 1520; doi:10.3390/w10111520

Numerical and Experimental Comparative Study on the Flow-Induced Vibration of a Plane Gate

Chunying Shen, Wei Wang, Shihua He and Yimin Xu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1551; doi:10.3390/w10111551

Liquid Sloshing Damping in an Accelerated Tank Using a Novel Slot-Baffle Design

Ender Demirel and Mustafa M. Aral

Water 2018, 10(11), 1565; doi:10.3390/w10111565

Stern Twin-Propeller Effects on Harbor Infrastructures. Experimental Analysis

Anna Mujal-Colilles, Marcel·la Castells, Toni Llull, Xavi Gironella and Xavier Martínez de Osés

Water 2018, 10(11), 1571; doi:10.3390/w10111571

3D Numerical Study of the Flow Properties in a Double-Spur Dikes Field during a Flood Process

Xun Han and Pengzhi Lin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1574; doi:10.3390/w10111574

The 3-D Morphology Evolution of Spur Dike Scour under Clear-Water Scour Conditions

Li Zhang, Hao Wang, Xianqi Zhang, Bo Wang and Jian Chen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1583; doi:10.3390/w10111583

Design of A Streamwise-Lateral Ski-Jump Flow Discharge Spillway

Jun Deng, Wangru Wei, Zhong Tian and Faxing Zhang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1585; doi:10.3390/w10111585

Application of SIM, HSPIV, BTM, and BIV Techniques for Evaluations of a Two-Phase Air–Water Chute Aerator Flow

James Yang, Chang Lin, Ming-Jer Kao, Penghua Teng and Rajkumar V. Raikar

Water 2018, 10(11), 1590; doi:10.3390/w10111590

Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Rainfall for Two-Jet Collisions in Air

Hao Yuan, Weilin Xu, Rui Li, Yanzhang Feng and Yafeng Hao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1600; doi:10.3390/w10111600

Influence of Flushing Velocity and Flushing Frequency on the Service Life of Labyrinth-Channel Emitters

Zhangyan Li, Liming Yu, Na Li, Liuhong Chang and Ningbo Cui

Water 2018, 10(11), 1630; doi:10.3390/w10111630

Evolution of Hydrodynamic Characteristics with Scour Hole Developing around a Pile Group

Yilin Yang, Meilan Qi, Jinzhao Li and Xiaodong Ma

Water 2018, 10(11), 1632; doi:10.3390/w10111632

Experimental Study of Overland Flow through Rigid Emergent Vegetation with Different Densities and Location Arrangements

Yuting Wang, Huilan Zhang, Pingping Yang and Yunqi Wang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1638; doi:10.3390/w10111638

Long-Term GIS Analysis of Seaside Impacts Associated to Infrastructures and Urbanization and Spatial Correlation with Coastal Vulnerability in a Mediterranean Area

Salvador Garcia-Ayllon

Water 2018, 10(11), 1642; doi:10.3390/w10111642

Shore Protection Structures Increase and Evolution on the Northern Tuscany Coast (Italy): Influence of Tourism Industry

Enzo Pranzini, Giorgio Anfuso, Irene Cinelli, Marco Piccardi and Giovanni Vitale

Water 2018, 10(11), 1647; doi:10.3390/w10111647

Integration of a Parsimonious Hydrological Model with Recurrent Neural Networks for Improved Streamflow Forecasting

Ye Tian, Yue-Ping Xu, Zongliang Yang, Guoqing Wang and Qian Zhu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1655; doi:10.3390/w10111655

A New Well-Balanced Reconstruction Technique for the Numerical Simulation of Shallow Water Flows with Wet/Dry Fronts and Complex Topography

Zhengtao Zhu, Zhonghua Yang, Fengpeng Bai and Ruidong An

Water 2018, 10(11), 1661; doi:10.3390/w10111661

Numerical Modeling of Flow Over a Rectangular Broad-Crested Weir with a Sloped Upstream Face

Lei Jiang, Mingjun Diao, Haomiao Sun and Yu Ren

Water 2018, 10(11), 1663; doi:10.3390/w10111663

Hydraulic Jump and Resultant Flow Choking in a Circular Sewer Pipe of Steep Slope

Chunli Wang and S. Samuel Li

Water 2018, 10(11), 1674; doi:10.3390/w10111674

Assessment of Machine Learning Techniques for Monthly Flow Prediction

Zahra Alizadeh, Jafar Yazdi, Joong Hoon Kim and Abobakr Khalil Al-Shamiri

Water 2018, 10(11), 1676; doi:10.3390/w10111676

A Machine Learning Approach to Evaluating the Damage Level of Tooth-Shape Spur Dikes

Xianglong Wei, Yongjun Lu, Zhili Wang, Xingnian Liu and Siping Mo

Water 2018, 10(11), 1680; doi:10.3390/w10111680

Improved Instruments and Methods for the Photographic Study of Spark-Induced Cavitation Bubbles

Qi Zhang, Jing Luo, Yanwei Zhai and Yilan Li

Water 2018, 10(11), 1683; doi:10.3390/w10111683

Hydrodynamic Performance Analysis of the Vertical Axis Twin-Rotor Tidal Current Turbine

Yong Ma, Chao Hu, Yulong Li, Lei Li, Rui Deng and Dapeng Jiang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1694; doi:10.3390/w10111694

Analysis of Pressure Transient Following Rapid Filling of a Vented Horizontal Pipe

Lin Li, David Z. Zhu and Biao Huang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1698; doi:10.3390/w10111698

Occlusion in Bottom Intakes with Circular Bars by Flow with Gravel-Sized Sediment. An Experimental Study

Juan T. Garcia, Luis G. Castillo, Patricia L. Haro and Jose M. Carrillo

Water 2018, 10(11), 1699; doi:10.3390/w10111699

Hydrology

Climate Warming and Drought in the Bialowieza Forest from 1950–2015 and Their Impact on the Dieback of Norway Spruce Stands

Andrzej Boczoń, Anna Kowalska, Marek Ksepko and Karol Sokołowski

Water 2018, 10(11), 1502; doi:10.3390/w10111502

The Potential Utility of Satellite Soil Moisture Retrievals for Detecting Irrigation Patterns in China

Xiaohu Zhang, Jianxiu Qiu, Guoyong Leng, Yongmin Yang, Quanzhou Gao, Yue Fan and Jiashun Luo

Water 2018, 10(11), 1505; doi:10.3390/w10111505

Assessing the Hydrologic Impacts of Land Use Change in the Taihu Lake Basin of China from 1985 to 2010

Pengcheng Li, Hengpeng Li, Guishan Yang, Qi Zhang and Yaqin Diao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1512; doi:10.3390/w10111512

Detecting Snowfall Events over Mountainous Areas Using Optical Imagery

Jiangeng Wang, Yonghong Zhang, Yinyi Cheng, Xueliang Zhang, Xuezhi Feng, Wei Huang and Hao Zhou

Water 2018, 10(11), 1514; doi:10.3390/w10111514

Water Supply Basins of São Paulo Metropolitan Region: Hydro-Climatic Characteristics of the 2013–2015 Water Crisis

Marianne Milano, Emmanuel Reynard, Graziele Muniz-Miranda and Joana Guerrin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1517; doi:10.3390/w10111517

Flash-Flood Forecasting in an Andean Mountain Catchment—Development of a Step-Wise Methodology Based on the Random Forest Algorithm

Paul Muñoz, Johanna Orellana-Alvear, Patrick Willems and Rolando Célleri

Water 2018, 10(11), 1519; doi:10.3390/w10111519

Response of the Meltwater Erosion to Runoff Energy Consumption on Loessal Slopes

Tian Wang, Peng Li, Jingming Hou, Zhanbin Li, Zongping Ren, Shengdong Cheng, Guoce Xu, Yuanyi Su and Feichao Wang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1522; doi:10.3390/w10111522

Drought Analysis in the Yellow River Basin Based on a Short-Scalar Palmer Drought Severity Index

Ye Zhu, Yi Liu, Xieyao Ma, Liliang Ren and Vijay P. Singh

Water 2018, 10(11), 1526; doi:10.3390/w10111526

North Sea Ecosystem-Scale Model-Based Quantification of Net Primary Productivity Changes by the Benthic Filter Feeder Mytilus edulis

Carsten Lemmen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1527; doi:10.3390/w10111527

An Integrated Modeling Approach to Study the Surface Water-Groundwater Interactions and Influence of Temporal Damping Effects on the Hydrological Cycle in the Miho Catchment in South Korea

Jaewon Joo, Yong Tian, Chunmiao Zheng, Yi Zheng, Zan Sun, Aijing Zhang and Hyungjoon Chang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1529; doi:10.3390/w10111529

Colloid Transport in a Single Fracture–Matrix System: Gravity Effects, Influence of Colloid Size and Density

Nikhil Bagalkot and G. Suresh Kumar

Water 2018, 10(11), 1531; doi:10.3390/w10111531

Assessment of SWAT Model Performance in Simulating Daily Streamflow under Rainfall Data Scarcity in Pacific Island Watersheds

Olkeba Tolessa Leta, Aly I. El-Kadi, Henrietta Dulai and Kariem A. Ghazal

Water 2018, 10(11), 1533; doi:10.3390/w10111533

Soil Water Depletion in Planted Alfalfa Pastures in an Alpine Pastoral Area

Lei Sun, Ze Huang, Zeng Cui, Rong Lu, Rui-Qi Zhang, Yu Liu, Manuel López-Vicente, Jitendra Ahirwal, Xue-Hong Wei and Gao-Lin Wu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1538; doi:10.3390/w10111538

Deep Learning with a Long Short-Term Memory Networks Approach for Rainfall-Runoff Simulation

Caihong Hu, Qiang Wu, Hui Li, Shengqi Jian, Nan Li and Zhengzheng Lou

Water 2018, 10(11), 1543; doi:10.3390/w10111543

Delineation of Saline-Water Intrusion Using Surface Geoelectrical Method in Jahanian Area, Pakistan

Muhammad Hasan, Yanjun Shang, Gulraiz Akhter and Weijun Jin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1548; doi:10.3390/w10111548

The Role of Moisture Sources and Climatic Teleconnections in Northeastern and South-Central Iran’s Hydro-Climatology

Mojtaba Heydarizad, Ezzat Raeisi, Rogert Sori, Luis Gimeno and Raquel Nieto

Water 2018, 10(11), 1550; doi:10.3390/w10111550

Analyzing Changes in the Flow Regime of the Yangtze River Using the Eco-Flow Metrics and IHA Metrics

Bing Gao, Jie Li and Xiaoshu Wang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1552; doi:10.3390/w10111552

Trend Analysis of Climatic and Hydrological Variables in the Awash River Basin, Ethiopia

Mohammed Gedefaw, Hao Wang, Denghua Yan, Xinshan Song, Dengming Yan, Guaqiang Dong, Jianwei Wang, Abel Girma, Babar Aijaz Ali, Dorjsuren Batsuren, Asaminew Abiyu and Tianling Qin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1554; doi:10.3390/w10111554

Correction and Informed Regionalization of Precipitation Data in a High Mountainous Region (Upper Indus Basin) and Its Effect on SWAT-Modelled Discharge

Asim Jahangir Khan and Manfred Koch

Water 2018, 10(11), 1557; doi:10.3390/w10111557

Drought Propagation in Semi-Arid River Basins in Latin America: Lessons from Mexico to the Southern Cone

Melanie Oertel, Francisco Javier Meza, Jorge Gironás, Christopher A. Scott, Facundo Rojas and Nicolás Pineda-Pablos

Water 2018, 10(11), 1564; doi:10.3390/w10111564

Decomposition of Water Level Time Series of a Tidal River into Tide, Wave and Rainfall-Runoff Components

Myungjin Lee, Younghoon You, Soojun Kim, Kyung Tak Kim and Hung Soo Kim

Water 2018, 10(11), 1568; doi:10.3390/w10111568

Synthetic Hydrographs Generation Downstream of a River Junction Using a Copula Approach for Hydrological Risk Assessment in Large Dams

Jose Angel Aranda and Rafael García-Bartual

Water 2018, 10(11), 1570; doi:10.3390/w10111570

Fingerprinting Suspended Sediment Sources in an Urbanized Watershed

Kritika Malhotra, Jasmeet Lamba, Puneet Srivastava and Stephanie Shepherd

Water 2018, 10(11), 1573; doi:10.3390/w10111573

Analysis of the Public Flood Risk Perception in a Flood-Prone City: The Case of Jingdezhen City in China

Zhiqiang Wang, Huimin Wang, Jing Huang, Jinle Kang and Dawei Han

Water 2018, 10(11), 1577; doi:10.3390/w10111577

A Modified Empirical Retracker for Lake Level Estimation Using Cryosat-2 SARin Data

Hui Xue, Jingjuan Liao and Lifei Zhao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1584; doi:10.3390/w10111584

Extreme Drought Events over the Amazon Basin: The Perspective from the Reconstruction of South American Hydroclimate

Beatriz Nunes Garcia, Renata Libonati and Ana M. B. Nunes

Water 2018, 10(11), 1594; doi:10.3390/w10111594

Evaluation of Various Probability Distributions for Deriving Design Flood Featuring Right-Tail Events in Pakistan

Muhammad Rizwan, Shenglian Guo, Feng Xiong and Jiabo Yin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1603; doi:10.3390/w10111603

Multi-Model Approaches for Improving Seasonal Ensemble Streamflow Prediction Scheme with Various Statistical Post-Processing Techniques in the Canadian Prairie Region

Ameer Muhammad, Tricia A. Stadnyk, Fisaha Unduche and Paulin Coulibaly

Water 2018, 10(11), 1604; doi:10.3390/w10111604

Spatial Prediction of Erosion Risk of a Small Mountainous Watershed Using RUSLE: A Case-Study of the Palar Sub-Watershed in Kodaikanal, South India

Evangelin Ramani Sujatha and Venkataramana Sridhar

Water 2018, 10(11), 1608; doi:10.3390/w10111608

Flood Routing Model with Particle Filter-Based Data Assimilation for Flash Flood Forecasting in the Micro-Model of Lower Yellow River, China

Minghong Chen, Juanjuan Pang and Pengxiang Wu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1612; doi:10.3390/w10111612

Improved Forecasting of Extreme Monthly Reservoir Inflow Using an Analogue-Based Forecasting Method: A Case Study of the Sirikit Dam in Thailand

Somchit Amnatsan, Sayaka Yoshikawa and Shinjiro Kanae

Water 2018, 10(11), 1614; doi:10.3390/w10111614

Key Climate Oscillation Factors Controlling Precipitation Variability during the Dry Season in Eastern Northeast Brazil: Study Case of Mundaú and Paraíba Do Meio River Basins

Thiago Alberto da Silva Pereira, Denis Duda Costa, Carlos Ruberto Fragoso Jr., Suzana Maria Gico Lima Montenegro and Cintia Bertacchi Uvo

Water 2018, 10(11), 1617; doi:10.3390/w10111617

Estimating Hydraulic Conductivity Fields in Composite Fan Delta Using Vertical Electrical Sounding

You-Cheng Chen, Jui-Pin Tsai, Liang-Cheng Chang, Ping-Yu Chang and Helen Lin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1620; doi:10.3390/w10111620

Application of Artificial Neural Networks for Accuracy Enhancements of Real-Time Flood Forecasting in the Imjin Basin

Aida Jabbari and Deg-Hyo Bae

Water 2018, 10(11), 1626; doi:10.3390/w10111626

Hydrological Guidelines for Reservoir Operation to Enhance Water Governance: Application to the Brazilian Semiarid Region

José Carlos de Araújo, George Leite Mamede and Berthyer Peixoto de Lima

Water 2018, 10(11), 1628; doi:10.3390/w10111628

Riverbed Migrations in Western Taiwan under Climate Change

Yi-Chiung Chao, Chi-Wen Chen, Hsin-Chi Li and Yung-Ming Chen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1631; doi:10.3390/w10111631

Seasonal Variations in Water Uptake Patterns of Winter Wheat under Different Irrigation and Fertilization Treatments

Ying Ma and Xianfang Song

Water 2018, 10(11), 1633; doi:10.3390/w10111633

Sharp Interface Approach for Regional and Well Scale Modeling of Small Island Freshwater Lens: Tongatapu Island

Roshina Babu, Namsik Park, Sunkwon Yoon and Taaniela Kula

Water 2018, 10(11), 1636; doi:10.3390/w10111636

Studying Inertia Effects in Open Channel Flow Using Saint-Venant Equations

Dong-Sin Shih and Gour-Tsyh Yeh

Water 2018, 10(11), 1652; doi:10.3390/w10111652

A Stochastic Simulation Model for Monthly River Flow in Dry Season

Wenzhuo Wang, Zengchuan Dong, Feilin Zhu, Qing Cao, Juan Chen and Xiao Yu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1654; doi:10.3390/w10111654

Assessing the Importance of Potholes in the Canadian Prairie Region under Future Climate Change Scenarios

Ameer Muhammad, Grey R. Evenson, Tricia A. Stadnyk, Alaba Boluwade, Sanjeev Kumar Jha and Paulin Coulibaly

Water 2018, 10(11), 1657; doi:10.3390/w10111657

Changes in Magnitude and Timing of High Flows in Large Rain-Dominated Watersheds in the Cold Region of North-Eastern China

Liangliang Duan and Tijiu Cai

Water 2018, 10(11), 1658; doi:10.3390/w10111658

Responses of Water Fluxes and Water-Use Efficiency of Maize to Warming Based on Water Transformation Dynamical Processes Experimental Device (WTDPED) Experiment

Yali Wu, Ying Ma, Xianfang Song, Lihu Yang and Shengtian Yang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1660; doi:10.3390/w10111660

The Use of River Flow Discharge and Sediment Load for Multi-Objective Calibration of SWAT Based on the Bayesian Inference

Qin-Bo Cheng, Xi Chen, Jiao Wang, Zhi-Cai Zhang, Run-Run Zhang, Yong-Yu Xie, Christian Reinhardt-Imjela and Achim Schulte

Water 2018, 10(11), 1662; doi:10.3390/w10111662

Inter-Comparison of Rain-Gauge, Radar, and Satellite (IMERG GPM) Precipitation Estimates Performance for Rainfall-Runoff Modeling in a Mountainous Catchment in Poland

Paweł Gilewski and Marek Nawalany

Water 2018, 10(11), 1665; doi:10.3390/w10111665

Object-Based Convolutional Neural Networks for Cloud and Snow Detection in High-Resolution Multispectral Imagers

Lei Wang, Yang Chen, Luliang Tang, Rongshuang Fan and Yunlong Yao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1666; doi:10.3390/w10111666

The Influence of Climate and Land-Cover Scenarios on Dam Management Strategies in a High Water Pressure Catchment in Northeast Spain

J. Zabalza-Martínez, S. M. Vicente-Serrano, J. I. López-Moreno, G. Borràs Calvo, R. Savé, D. Pascual, E. Pla, E. Morán-Tejeda, F. Domínguez-Castro and C. L. Tague

Water 2018, 10(11), 1668; doi:10.3390/w10111668

Estimation of Peak Flow in Ungauged Catchments Using the Relationship between Runoff Coefficient and Curve Number

Nam Won Kim and Mun-Ju Shin

Water 2018, 10(11), 1669; doi:10.3390/w10111669

Impoundment Impact of the Three Gorge Reservoir on the Hydrological Regime in the Lower Han River, China

Junhong Zhang, Luojie Feng, Sujie Chen, Tao Huang, Lu Chen, Dangwei Wang, Minglong Dai and Dongdong Zhang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1670; doi:10.3390/w10111670

Physical and Biological Water Column Observations during Summer Sea/Land Breeze Winds in the Coastal Northern Tyrrhenian Sea

Riccardo Martellucci, Alberto Pierattini, Francesco Paladini de Mendoza, Cristiano Melchiorri, Viviana Piermattei and Marco Marcelli

Water 2018, 10(11), 1673; doi:10.3390/w10111673

Spatial and Seasonal Variation of O and H Isotopes in the Jiulong River, Southeast China

Kunhua Yang, Guilin Han, Man Liu, Xiaoqiang Li, Jinke Liu and Qian Zhang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1677; doi:10.3390/w10111677

Assessment of Siltation Processes of the Koronowski Reservoir in the Northern Polish Lowland Based on Bathymetry and Empirical Formulas

Dawid Szatten, Michał Habel, Luisa Pellegrini and Michael Maerker

Water 2018, 10(11), 1681; doi:10.3390/w10111681

Soil Erosion Modelling and Risk Assessment in Data Scarce Rift Valley Lake Regions, Ethiopia

Alemu O. Aga, Bayou Chane and Assefa M. Melesse

Water 2018, 10(11), 1684; doi:10.3390/w10111684

Sensing the Submerged Landscape of Nisida Roman Harbour in the Gulf of Naples from Integrated Measurements on a USV

Gaia Mattei, Salvatore Troisi, Pietro P. C. Aucelli, Gerardo Pappone, Francesco Peluso and Michele Stefanile

Water 2018, 10(11), 1686; doi:10.3390/w10111686

Automated Geospatial Models of Varying Complexities for Pine Forest Evapotranspiration Estimation with Advanced Data Mining

Sudhanshu Panda, Devendra M. Amatya, Rhett Jackson, Ge Sun and Asko Noormets

Water 2018, 10(11), 1687; doi:10.3390/w10111687

Assessing the Use of Satellite-Based Estimates and High-Resolution Precipitation Datasets for the Study of Extreme Precipitation Events over the Iberian Peninsula

Riccardo Hénin, Margarida L. R. Liberato, Alexandre M. Ramos and Célia M. Gouveia

Water 2018, 10(11), 1688; doi:10.3390/w10111688

Changes of Grassland Rain Use Efficiency and NDVI in Northwestern China from 1982 to 2013 and Its Response to Climate Change

Juan Chang, Jiaxi Tian, Zengxin Zhang, Xi Chen, Yizhao Chen, Sheng Chen and Zheng Duan

Water 2018, 10(11), 1689; doi:10.3390/w10111689

Impacts of Sea Level Rise and Groundwater Extraction Scenarios on Fresh Groundwater Resources in the Nile Delta Governorates, Egypt

Marmar Mabrouk, Andreja Jonoski, Gualbert H. P. Oude Essink and Stefan Uhlenbrook

Water 2018, 10(11), 1690; doi:10.3390/w10111690

Analysis of Precipitation Extremes in the Source Region of the Yangtze River during 1960–2016

Baojia Zhou, Chuan Liang, Peng Zhao and Qiong Dai

Water 2018, 10(11), 1691; doi:10.3390/w10111691

Modeling Summer Hypoxia Spatial Distribution and Fish Habitat Volume in Artificial Estuarine Waterway

Suna Chong, Chunhong Park, Ka Ram Lee and Kwang-Guk An

Water 2018, 10(11), 1695; doi:10.3390/w10111695

Introduction of an Experimental Terrestrial Forecasting/Monitoring System at Regional to Continental Scales Based on the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform (v1.1.0)

Stefan Kollet, Fabian Gasper, Slavko Brdar, Klaus Goergen, Harrie-Jan Hendricks-Franssen, Jessica Keune, Wolfgang Kurtz, Volker Küll, Florian Pappenberger, Stefan Poll, Silke Trömel, Prabhakar Shrestha, Clemens Simmer and Mauro Sulis

Water 2018, 10(11), 1697; doi:10.3390/w10111697

Waters from the Djiboutian Afar: A Review of Strontium Isotopic Composition and a Comparison with Ethiopian Waters and Red Sea Brines

Tiziano Boschetti, Mohamed Osman Awaleh and Maurizio Barbieri

Water 2018, 10(11), 1700; doi:10.3390/w10111700

Barrier-based Longitudinal Connectivity Index for Managing Urban Rivers

Heying Li, Demin Zhou, Shanshan Hu, Jianchen Zhang, Yuemei Jiang and Yue Zhang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1701; doi:10.3390/w10111701

Synthetic Impacts of Internal Climate Variability and Anthropogenic Change on Future Meteorological Droughts over China

Lei Gu, Jie Chen, Chong-Yu Xu, Hui-Min Wang and LiPing Zhang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1702; doi:10.3390/w10111702

Hydrological Simulation and Runoff Component Analysis over a Cold Mountainous River Basin in Southwest China

Weidong Xuan, Qiang Fu, Guanghua Qin, Cong Zhu, Suli Pan and Yue-Ping Xu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1705; doi:10.3390/w10111705

Water Use and Scarcity

Risk Assessment of Soil Salinization Due to Tomato Cultivation in Mediterranean Climate Conditions

Angela Libutti, Anna Rita Bernadette Cammerino and Massimo Monteleone

Water 2018, 10(11), 1503; doi:10.3390/w10111503

Climate Change Impact on Water Resources in the Awash Basin, Ethiopia

Meron Teferi Taye, Ellen Dyer, Feyera A. Hirpa and Katrina Charles

Water 2018, 10(11), 1560; doi:10.3390/w10111560

Improving Monitoring and Water Point Functionality in Rural Ethiopia

Carmen Anthonj, Lisa Fleming, Ryan Cronk, Samuel Godfrey, Argaw Ambelu, Jane Bevan, Emanuele Sozzi and Jamie Bartram

Water 2018, 10(11), 1591; doi:10.3390/w10111591

Analysis and Optimization of Open Circulating Cooling Water System

Ziqiang Lv, Jiuju Cai, Wenqiang Sun and Lianyong Wang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1592; doi:10.3390/w10111592

Analysis of the Dynamic Changes of the Baiyangdian Lake Surface Based on a Complex Water Extraction Method

Xiaoya Wang, Wenjie Wang, Weiguo Jiang, Kai Jia, Pinzeng Rao and Jinxia Lv

Water 2018, 10(11), 1616; doi:10.3390/w10111616

Multi-Crop Production Decisions and Economic Irrigation Water Use Efficiency: The Effects of Water Costs, Pressure Irrigation Adoption, and Climatic Determinants

Yubing Fan, Raymond Massey and Seong C. Park

Water 2018, 10(11), 1637; doi:10.3390/w10111637

Application of Multiple Approaches to Investigate the Hydrochemistry Evolution of Groundwater in an Arid Region: Nomhon, Northwestern China

Nuan Yang, Guangcai Wang, Zheming Shi, Dan Zhao, Wanjun Jiang, Liang Guo, Fu Liao and Pengpeng Zhou

Water 2018, 10(11), 1667; doi:10.3390/w10111667

Drought Vulnerability Indices in Mexico

David Ortega-Gaucin, Jesús de la Cruz Bartolón and Heidy V. Castellano Bahena

Water 2018, 10(11), 1671; doi:10.3390/w10111671

Water Quality and Ecosystems

A Case Study of Heavy Metal Pollution in Water of Bone River by Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mine Activities in Eastern Part of Gorontalo, Indonesia

Nurfitri Abdul Gafur, Masayuki Sakakibara, Sakae Sano and Koichiro Sera

Water 2018, 10(11), 1507; doi:10.3390/w10111507

Spatiotemporal Variation in Benthic-Invertebrates-Based Physical Habitat Modelling: Can We Use Generic Instead of Local and Season-Specific Habitat Suitability Criteria?

Christos Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos Skoulikidis, Anastasios Stamou and Elias Dimitriou

Water 2018, 10(11), 1508; doi:10.3390/w10111508

Modeling Fish Movement Trajectories in Relation to Hydraulic Response Relationships in an Experimental Fishway

Junjun Tan, Lin Tao, Zhu Gao, Huichao Dai and Xiaotao Shi

Water 2018, 10(11), 1511; doi:10.3390/w10111511

Impact of Changes of Land Use on Water Quality, from Tropical Forest to Anthropogenic Occupation: A Multivariate Approach

Alexis Joseph Rodríguez-Romero, Axel Eduardo Rico-Sánchez, Erick Mendoza-Martínez, Andrea Gómez-Ruiz, Jacinto Elías Sedeño-Díaz and Eugenia López-López

Water 2018, 10(11), 1518; doi:10.3390/w10111518

Chemical Weathering and Riverine Carbonate System Driven by Human Activities in a Subtropical Karst Basin, South China

Xiaoxi Lyu, Zhen Tao, Quanzhou Gao, Haixia Peng and Mei Zhou

Water 2018, 10(11), 1524; doi:10.3390/w10111524

Stomatal Conductance Responses of Acacia caven to Seasonal Patterns of Water Availability at Different Soil Depths in a Mediterranean Savanna

Marcelo Sepulveda M., Horacio E. Bown and Bonifacio Fernandez L.

Water 2018, 10(11), 1534; doi:10.3390/w10111534

Microbial Community Composition and Antibiotic Resistance Genes within a North Carolina Urban Water System

Kevin Lambirth, Matthew Tsilimigras, Anju Lulla, James Johnson, Abrar Al-Shaer, Orion Wynblatt, Shannon Sypolt, Cory Brouwer, Sandra Clinton, Olya Keen, Molly Redmond, Anthony Fodor and Cynthia Gibas

Water 2018, 10(11), 1539; doi:10.3390/w10111539

Recognition of Patterns of Benthic Diatom Assemblages within a River System to Aid Bioassessment

Shuxin Mao, Shuhan Guo, Hongbing Deng, Zhicai Xie and Tao Tang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1559; doi:10.3390/w10111559

Physiological and Dry Matter Characteristics of Spring Maize in Northeast China under Drought Stress

Peng Jiang, Fu Cai, Zi-Qi Zhao, Ying Meng, Ling-Yun Gao and Tian-Hong Zhao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1561; doi:10.3390/w10111561

Adaptive Detection Method for Organic Contamination Events in Water Distribution Systems Using the UV-Vis Spectrum Based on Semi-Supervised Learning

Qiaojun Yu, Hang Yin, Ke Wang, Hui Dong and Dibo Hou

Water 2018, 10(11), 1566; doi:10.3390/w10111566

Influences on Water Quality and Abundance of Cladophora, a Shore-Fouling Green Algae, over Urban Shoreline in Lake Ontario

E. Todd Howell

Water 2018, 10(11), 1569; doi:10.3390/w10111569

An Integrated Analysis of the Eutrophication Process in the Enxoé Reservoir within the DPSIR Framework

Tiago B. Ramos, Hanaa Darouich, Maria C. Gonçalves, David Brito, Maria A. Castelo Branco, José C. Martins, Manuel L. Fernandes, Fernando P. Pires, Manuela Morais and Ramiro Neves

Water 2018, 10(11), 1576; doi:10.3390/w10111576

Abundance, Distribution, and Drivers of Microplastic Contamination in Urban River Environments

Joseph Tibbetts, Stefan Krause, Iseult Lynch and Gregory H. Sambrook Smith

Water 2018, 10(11), 1597; doi:10.3390/w10111597

Effects of Dredging Season on Sediment Properties and Nutrient Fluxes across the Sediment–Water Interface in Meiliang Bay of Lake Taihu, China

Ji-Cheng Zhong, Ju-Hua Yu, Xiao-Lan Zheng, Shuai-Long Wen, De-Hong Liu and Cheng-Xin Fan

Water 2018, 10(11), 1606; doi:10.3390/w10111606

The Influence of Hyporheic Exchange on Water Temperatures in a Headwater Stream

Christopher Surfleet and Justin Louen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1615; doi:10.3390/w10111615

Spatiotemporal Variations in Mercury Bioaccumulation at Fine and Broad Scales for Two Freshwater Sport Fishes

Shyam M. Thomas, Stephanie J. Melles and Satyendra P. Bhavsar

Water 2018, 10(11), 1625; doi:10.3390/w10111625

Microbiological and Physicochemical Water Quality Assessments of River Water in an Industrial Region of the Northwest Coast of Borneo

Sui S. Leong, Johan Ismail, Nurdiyana A. Denil, Shahrul R. Sarbini, Wafri Wasli and Arlene Debbie

Water 2018, 10(11), 1648; doi:10.3390/w10111648

Theoretical Model of Suspended Sediment Concentration in a Flow with Submerged Vegetation

Da Li, Zhonghua Yang, Zhaohua Sun, Wenxin Huai and Jianhua Liu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1656; doi:10.3390/w10111656

Enhanced Phosphate Removal from Water by Honeycomb-Like Microporous Lanthanum-Chitosan Magnetic Spheres

Rong Cheng, Liang-Jie Shen, Ying-Ying Zhang, Dan-Yang Dai, Xiang Zheng, Long-Wen Liao, Lei Wang and Lei Shi

Water 2018, 10(11), 1659; doi:10.3390/w10111659

Potential Use of Dimocarpus longan Seeds as a Flocculant in Landfill Leachate Treatment

Hamidi Abdul Aziz, Nor Aini Rahim, Siti Fatihah Ramli, Motasem Y. D. Alazaiza, Fatehah Mohd Omar and Yung-Tse Hung

Water 2018, 10(11), 1672; doi:10.3390/w10111672

Anthropogenic Impact and Ecological Risk Assessment of Thallium and Cobalt in Poyang Lake Using the Geochemical Baseline

Yanyan Li, Xiaodong Qu, Min Zhang, Wenqi Peng, Yang Yu and Bo Gao

Water 2018, 10(11), 1703; doi:10.3390/w10111703

Water and Wastewater Treatment

The Effect of Organic Carbon Addition on the Community Structure and Kinetics of Microcystin-Degrading Bacterial Consortia

Derek Manheim, Yuen-Ming Cheung and Sunny Jiang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1523; doi:10.3390/w10111523

Determination of Removal Efficiencies for Escherichia coli, Clostridial Spores, and F-Specific Coliphages in Unit Processes of Surface Waterworks for QMRA Applications

Anna-Maria Hokajärvi, Tarja Pitkänen, Päivi Meriläinen, Ari Kauppinen, Ville Matikka, Sara Kovanen, Asko Vepsäläinen and Ilkka T. Miettinen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1525; doi:10.3390/w10111525

Effect of Aeration Modes and COD/N Ratios on Organic Matter and Nitrogen Removal in Horizontal Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland Mesocosms

Xin Chen, Hui Zhu, Yingying Xu, Brian Shutes, Baixing Yan and Qingwei Zhou

Water 2018, 10(11), 1530; doi:10.3390/w10111530

Laboratory Efficacy and Disinfection by-Product Formation of a Coagulant/Disinfectant Tablet for Point-of-Use Water Treatment

Félix Légaré-Julien, Olivier Lemay, Ulysse Vallée-Godbout, Christian Bouchard and Caetano C. Dorea

Water 2018, 10(11), 1567; doi:10.3390/w10111567

Effects of Urban Stormwater Control Measures on Denitrification in Receiving Streams

Erin N. Rivers, Sara K. McMillan, Colin D. Bell and Sandra M. Clinton

Water 2018, 10(11), 1582; doi:10.3390/w10111582

Soil Layer Development and Biota in Bioretention

Emily Mitchell Ayers and Patrick Kangas

Water 2018, 10(11), 1587; doi:10.3390/w10111587

Capillary Nanofiltration under Anoxic Conditions as Post-Treatment after Bank Filtration

Jeannette Jährig, Leo Vredenbregt, Daniel Wicke, Ulf Miehe and Alexander Sperlich

Water 2018, 10(11), 1599; doi:10.3390/w10111599

Treatment Efficiency of Diffuse Agricultural Pollution in a Constructed Wetland Impacted by Groundwater Seepage

Keit Kill, Jaan Pärn, Rauno Lust, Ülo Mander and Kuno Kasak

Water 2018, 10(11), 1601; doi:10.3390/w10111601

Benzotriazole Uptake and Removal in Vegetated Biofilter Mesocosms Planted with Carex praegracilis

James Conrad Pritchard, Yeo-Myoung Cho, Negin Ashoori, Jordyn M. Wolfand, Jeff D. Sutton, Margaret E. Carolan, Eduardo Gamez, Khoa Doan, Joshua S. Wiley and Richard G. Luthy

Water 2018, 10(11), 1605; doi:10.3390/w10111605

Characterizing Water Pollution Potential in Life Cycle Impact Assessment Based on Bacterial Growth and Water Quality Models

Shunwen Bai, Xiuheng Wang, Xinyue Zhao and Nanqi Ren

Water 2018, 10(11), 1621; doi:10.3390/w10111621

Effects of Commonly Occurring Metal Ions on Hydroxyapatite Crystallization for Phosphorus Recovery from Wastewater

Hongliang Dai, Xinwei Tan, Hui Zhu, Tongshuai Sun and Xingang Wang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1619; doi:10.3390/w10111619

Sugarcane Distillery Spent Wash, a New Resource for Third-Generation Biodiesel Production

Julien Hoarau, Isabelle Grondin, Yanis Caro and Thomas Petit

Water 2018, 10(11), 1623; doi:10.3390/w10111623

Quantifying Urban Bioswale Nitrogen Cycling in the Soil, Gas, and Plant Phases

Nandan Shetty, Ranran Hu, Jessica Hoch, Brian Mailloux, Matthew Palmer, Duncan N. L. Menge, Krista McGuire, Wade McGillis and Patricia Culligan

Water 2018, 10(11), 1627; doi:10.3390/w10111627

Affordability of Decentralized Wastewater Systems: A Case Study in Integrated Planning from INDIA

Norbert Brunner, Markus Starkl, Absar A. Kazmi, Alvaro Real, Nitin Jain and Vijay Mishra

Water 2018, 10(11), 1644; doi:10.3390/w10111644

Agroindustrial Wastewater Treatment with Simultaneous Biodiesel Production in Attached Growth Systems Using a Mixed Microbial Culture

Olga N. Tsolcha, Athanasia G. Tekerlekopoulou, Christos S. Akratos, George Aggelis, Savvas Genitsaris, Maria Moustaka-Gouni and Dimitrios V. Vayenas

Water 2018, 10(11), 1693; doi:10.3390/w10111693

Water–Food–Energy Nexus

Cannibalism and Habitat Selection of Cultured Chinese Mitten Crab: Effects of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation with Different Nutritional and Refuge Values

Qingfei Zeng, Erik Jeppesen, Xiaohong Gu, Zhigang Mao and Huihui Chen

Water 2018, 10(11), 1542; doi:10.3390/w10111542

Evaluating the Tradeoffs between Groundwater Pumping for Snow-Melting and Nearshore Fishery Productivity in Obama City, Japan

Kimberly M. Burnett, Christopher A. Wada, Makoto Taniguchi, Ryo Sugimoto and Daisuke Tahara

Water 2018, 10(11), 1556; doi:10.3390/w10111556

Soil Salinity Assessment Using Saturated Paste and Mass Soil:Water 1:1 and 1:5 Ratios Extracts

George Kargas, Iakovos Chatzigiakoumis, Athanasios Kollias, Dimitrios Spiliotis, Ioannis Massas and Petros Kerkides

Water 2018, 10(11), 1589; doi:10.3390/w10111589

Water Footprint for Pulse, Cereal, and Oilseed Crops in Saskatchewan, Canada

Dianyuan Ding, Ying Zhao, Hui Guo, Xueyan Li, Jeff Schoenau and Bingcheng Si

Water 2018, 10(11), 1609; doi:10.3390/w10111609

Organic Amendments Influence Soil Water Depletion, Root Distribution, and Water Productivity of Summer Maize in the Guanzhong Plain of Northwest China

Li-Li Zhao, Lu-Sheng Li, Huan-Jie Cai, Xiao-Hu Shi and Chao Zhang

Water 2018, 10(11), 1640; doi:10.3390/w10111640

Inter-Sectoral Linkage and External Trade Analysis for Virtual Water and Embodied Carbon Emissions in China

Huiping Huang, Xinsheng Li, Lianhai Cao, Dongdong Jia, Junlong Zhang, Chunying Wang and Yuping Han

Water 2018, 10(11), 1664; doi:10.3390/w10111664

An Automatic Irrigation Control System for Soilless Culture of Lettuce

Zhigang Liu and Qinchao Xu

Water 2018, 10(11), 1692; doi:10.3390/w10111692

---

Communication

Application of a Rapid and Simple UV-Spectrophotometric Method for the Study of Desorption of Esterquat Collectors in Tailings–Seawater Systems

Olga Ibragimova and Rolf Arne Kleiv

Water 2018, 10(11), 1544; doi:10.3390/w10111544

 

Case Report

A Comprehensive Method of Calculating Maximum Bridge Scour Depth

Rupayan Saha, Seung Oh Lee and Seung Ho Hong

Water 2018, 10(11), 1572; doi:10.3390/w10111572

Approaches to Failure Risk Analysis of the Water Distribution Network with Regard to the Safety of Consumers

Katarzyna Pietrucha-Urbanik and Barbara Tchórzewska-Cieślak

Water 2018, 10(11), 1679; doi:10.3390/w10111679

 

Editorial

River and Lake Ice Processes—Impacts of Freshwater Ice on Aquatic Ecosystems in a Changing Globe

Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt, Helen M. Baulch and Emily Cavaliere

Water 2018, 10(11), 1586; doi:10.3390/w10111586

 

 

Topical Collection (without Deadline)

Water Policy Collection

To access the full list of Topical Collections, please click here

 

“We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.” – Ben Franklin

CRS Report: 'The Geospatial Data Act of 2018'

This brief CRS report by Peter Folger describes the recently-passed Geospatial Data Act of 2018.

Download CRS_GDA2018_22Oct2018

I had posted on the GDA (see here and here) especially about its exclusionary procurement aspect. 

Here is a statement from the American Association of Geographers announcing the passage of the GDA without the restrictive provisions. Thanks to to the AAG, UCGIS and Dr. Dawn Wright of Esri for their vigilance.

 The introductory material:

In the 114th and 115th Congresses, several bills entitled the Geospatial Data Act were introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives. Congress did not act on legislation introduced in the 114th Congress; however, in September 2018, a version of the bill, the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 (GDA), was included in H.R. 302, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, as Subtitle F of Title VII. Congress passed H.R. 302 on October 3, 2018, and President Trump signed it into law on October 5 as P.L. 115-254.

The federal government has recognized the need to organize and coordinate the collection and management of geospatial data since at least 1990. In that year, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revised Circular A-16—which provides guidance regarding coordination of federal surveying, mapping, and related spatial data activities—to establish the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and to promote the coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data nationwide. Past Congresses have recognized the challenge of coordinating and sharing geospatial data from the local, county, and state level to the national level and vice versa. Until enactment of the GDA, however, the executive branch had led nearly all efforts to better coordinate and share geospatial data within the federal government.

Stakeholders have long recognized the need to better organize and manage geospatial data among federal agencies and among the federal government, local and state authorities, the private sector, and academia. Some observers and stakeholders have commented that the GDA has the potential to improve the extent and efficiency of executive branch agency coordination of geospatial activities and thus to help minimize duplication of effort in acquiring and using geospatial data, saving taxpayers money. However, it could be argued that some level of duplication of effort, and of inefficiency in the management and sharing of geospatial information, will always exist across a vast federal bureaucracy in which a majority of government information has some geospatial component. It also could be argued that the size of the federal bureaucracy is only one factor contributing to the challenges of organizing and managing geospatial data; surveying and mapping activities themselves are prone to duplication of effort among the different missions and goals of the executive branch.

The GDA codifies aspects of OMB Circular A-16, authorizing many of its existing components and modifying or expanding upon other aspects. The GDA continues the FGDC and supports the goal of creating a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), defined in the new law as “the technology, policies, criteria, standards, and employees necessary to promotegeospatial data sharing throughout the Federal Government, State, tribal, and local governments, and the private sector(including nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education).”

The GDA adds a number of congressional oversight components. For example, it adds a requirement for annual performance reporting from each of the federal agencies responsible for a specific geospatial topic (or theme), and it requires the FGDC to conduct a summary and evaluation of each agency in fulfilling the responsibilities listed in the GDA. The annual summaries and evaluations must be made available to the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC, charged with providing advice and recommendations to the FGDC). Further, the law requires the FGDC to make available to Congress, not less than every two years, a report summarizing and evaluating agency performance, comments from the NGAC, responses to those comments, and responses to comments from the responsible agencies themselves.

One long-standing issue for Congress has been the cost of geospatial activities to the federal government—namely, what it costs to acquire, manage, share, and use geospatial data. To help address that concern, the GDA requires the responsible federal agencies to inventory and assess their geospatial data assets as part of their annual budget submissions. The GDA potentially could illuminate for Congress how each responsible agency budgets for its geospatial activities, which may allow Congress to better evaluate what portion of agency appropriations contributes to the federal geospatial enterprise. This information could enable Congress to query the Director of OMB (the vice-chairperson of the FGDC), about the budgetary implications of agency expenditures on geospatial-related activities in each budget cycle.

Enjoy!

"Big data is like teenage sex: everybody talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it." - Dan Ariely

Trump Twofer! 1) CRS Insight Report: 'The Trump Administration Directives on Western Water' and 2) 'Presidential Memorandum on Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West'

1) This two-pager CRS Insight report by Pervaze A. Sheikh and Charles V. Stern was updated on 9 November 2018: The Trump Administration Directives on Western Water. 

I added the graphics - they are not from these reports.

Here is the entire text. This versiondoes not contain all the hot links so you might want to read the online version - click here.

On October 19, 2018, the Trump Administration released a Presidential Memorandum directing federal agencies to address regulations that burden federal water projects in California and complete biological opinions under theEndangered Species Act (ESA; 16 U.S.C. §§1531 et seq.) for specific federal water projects in the western United States. Affected projects include the California Central Valley Project (CVP), the Klamath Irrigation Project in Oregon, and the Columbia River Basin water system in the Pacific Northwest. The White House memorandum does not carry the force of law nor is it a federal regulation. Rather, it serves as a directive to federal agencies for these projects. Congressional interest in the directive arises from both specific interest in these projects and broader interest in managing water conveyance systems in the West and addressing their regulatory policies. This insight covers specific projects or water systems addressed by the memorandum.

California Water and the CVP

The CVP is a large water supply project in northern and central California operated by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), an agency in the Department of the Interior (DOI). The CVP's service area extends over a distance of approximately 400 miles in central California. The project delivers more than 7 million acre-feet of water per year, on average, to support irrigated agriculture, municipalities, and species, and is operated jointly with the State Water Project (SWP; owned and operated by the State of California). Water deliveries from the CVP and SWP are regulated through a series of laws and regulations. Biological Opinions (BiOps) issued under ESA and state water quality standards issued under the Clean Water Act are two primary factors affecting how much water can be delivered to users. BiOps addressing the CVP and SWP were issued in 2008 for Delta smelt by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS, in DOI) and, in 2009, by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, in the Department of Commerce) for salmon.

The White House memorandum directs the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce (Secretaries) to identify water infrastructure projects in California for which both Secretaries have responsibility for under ESA and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. §§4321 et seq.). For each project, the Secretaries are to jointly 

designate one official who, within 30 days, is to identify regulations or procedures that burden the project. The agencies are also to develop a plan to "appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind regulations or procedures that burden the project beyond the degree needed to protect the public interest or comply with the law." Public interest is not defined or discussed in the memorandum, but burden is defined as "to unnecessarily obstruct, delay, curtail, impede, or otherwise impose significant costs on the permitting, utilization, transmission, delivery, or supply of water resources and infrastructure."

The memorandum further directs the Secretaries to develop a timeline for completing the environmental compliance requirements for the identified projects within 40 days.

In addition, the memorandum also directs the Secretaries to ensure that the review of the long-term coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and California State Water Project (OCAP) is completed with an updated operations plan and issued Record of Decision. The memorandum directs the biological assessment of OCAP to be completed before January 31, 2019, and a final BiOp to be issued within 135 days of January 31, 2019.

These directives follow a memo, issued by Secretary Zinke on August 17, 2018, soliciting ideas from federal agency staff on how to address California water issues. The Secretary directed staff to develop a plan of action to maximize water supply deliveries, incorporate best science into real-time decision making, streamline ESA and NEPA processes, construct new storage for water, resolve issues with OCAP and other joint state and federal projects, and improve coordination between FWS and NMFS, among other actions.

Other Western Projects Addressed

The White House memorandum also directs the Secretaries to complete a joint consultation on the Klamath Irrigation Project by March 2019 and develop a schedule to complete the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement and associated BiOps by 2020.

The Klamath Project is a federal irrigation project in Oregon owned and operated by Reclamation; it provides irrigation water for an estimated 1,400 farms in the Klamath River Basin. The current BiOps regulate water flows to the Klamath Project to provide more water to endangered fish.

The Columbia River Basin produces hydropower and regulates water flows through 31 federal dams owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Reclamation. The basin supports 13 listed fish species or distinct populations (salmon and trout species). Basin dams have blocked fish passage in much of the basin, and hydropower generation leads to fish mortality due to fish passing through turbines. The current BiOp for the Columbia River dates to 2014. Court rulings have altered the system BiOps over time, and efforts are underway to create a new BiOp (a judge allowed NMFS until 2021 to finish the new document).

Potential Congressional Interest

Some in Congress are interested in the White House memorandum because it shows the intent and direction of the Administration for implementing laws associated with western water. The policies in the directive could result in expediting (and in some cases altering) the implementation of key laws governing the management of water supplies in the West. Some who support this approach contend that the direction to federal agencies will result in improved access to and certainty for water supplies, along with streamlining regulatory processes. Some critical of the memorandum contend that it could lower environmental standards for these projects and affect listed species. They contend that it might set a precedent for species affected by other projects. The effect of the memorandum's directive will depend on its implementation. For example, how the Administration applies the definition of burden to regulations or procedures when addressing the CVP, to what extent new BiOps for these projects alter existing requirements for environmental protection, and how regulatory processes will be streamlined, will largely determine how transformative the regulations will be.

2) And here is the Presidential Memorandum on Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West:

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
THE SECRETARY OF COMMERC
THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY
THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY
THE CHAIR OF THE COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Subject:        Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following:

Section 1.  Policy.  During the 20th Century, the Federal Government invested enormous resources in water infrastructure throughout the western United States to reduce flood risks to communities; to provide reliable water supplies for farms, families, businesses, and fish and wildlife; and to generate dependable hydropower.  Decades of uncoordinated, piecemeal regulatory actions have diminished the ability of our Federal infrastructure, however, to deliver water and power in an efficient, cost‑effective way.

Unless addressed, fragmented regulation of water infrastructure will continue to produce inefficiencies, unnecessary burdens, and conflict among the Federal Government, States, tribes, and local public agencies that deliver water to their citizenry.  To meet these challenges, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce should, to the extent permitted by law, work together to minimize unnecessary regulatory burdens and foster more efficient decision-making so that water projects are better able to meet the demands of their authorized purposes.

Sec. 2.  Streamlining Western Water Infrastructure Regulatory Processes and Removing Unnecessary Burdens.  To address water infrastructure challenges in the western United States, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall undertake the following actions:

(a)  Within 30 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall:

(i)   identify major water infrastructure projects in California for which the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce have joint responsibility under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) (Public Law 93-205) or individual responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) (Public Law 91-190); and

(ii)  for each such project, work together to facilitate the designation of one official to coordinate the agencies’ ESA and NEPA compliance responsibilities.  Within the 30-day time period provided by this subsection, the designated official shall also identify regulations and procedures that potentially burden the project and develop a proposed plan, for consideration by the Secretaries, to appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind any regulations or procedures that unduly burden the project beyond the degree necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with the law.  For purposes of this memorandum, “burden” means to unnecessarily obstruct, delay, curtail, impede, or otherwise impose significant costs on the permitting, utilization, transmission, delivery, or supply of water resources and infrastructure.

(b)  Within 40 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall develop a timeline for completing applicable environmental compliance requirements for projects identified under section 2(a)(i) of this memorandum.  Environmental compliance requirements shall be completed as expeditiously as possible, and in accordance with applicable law.

(c)  To the maximum extent practicable and consistent with applicable law, including the authorities granted to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (Public Law 114-322):

(i)    The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall ensure that the ongoing review of the long-term coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project is completed and an updated Plan of Operations and Record of Decision is issued.

(ii)   The Secretary of the Interior shall issue final biological assessments for the long-term coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project not later than January 31, 2019.

(iii)  The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall ensure the issuance of their respective final biological opinions for the long-term coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project within 135 days of the deadline provided in section 2(c)(ii) of this memorandum.  To the extent practicable and consistent with law, these shall be joint opinions.

(iv)   The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall complete the joint consultation presently underway for the Klamath Irrigation Project by August 2019.

(d)  The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall provide monthly updates to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and other components of the Executive Office of the President, as appropriate, regarding progress in meeting the established timelines.

Sec. 3.  Improve Forecasts of Water Availability.  To facilitate greater use of forecast-based management and use of authorities and capabilities provided by the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115-25) and other applicable laws, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall convene water experts and resource managers to develop an action plan to improve the information and modeling capabilities related to water availability and water infrastructure projects.  The action plan shall be completed by January 2019 and submitted to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality.

Sec. 4.  Improving Use of Technology to Increase Water Reliability.  To the maximum extent practicable, and pursuant to the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act (Public Law 102-575, title XVI), the Water Desalination Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-298), and other applicable laws, the Secretary of the Interior shall direct appropriate bureaus to promote the expanded use of technology for improving the accuracy and reliability of water and power deliveries.  This promotion of expanded use should include:

(a)  investment in technology and reduction of regulatory burdens to enable broader scale deployment of desalination technology;

(b)  investment in technology and reduction of regulatory burdens to enable broader scale use of recycled water; and

(c)  investment in programs that promote and encourage innovation, research, and development of technology that improve water management, using best available science through real-time monitoring of wildlife and water deliveries.

Sec. 5.  Consideration of Locally Developed Plans in Hydroelectric Projects Licensing.  To the extent the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce participate in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensing activities for hydroelectric projects, and to the extent permitted by law, the Secretaries shall give appropriate consideration to any relevant information available to them in locally developed plans, where consistent with the best available information.

Sec. 6.  Streamlining Regulatory Processes and Removing Unnecessary Burdens on the Columbia River Basin Water Infrastructure.  In order to address water and hydropower operations challenges in the Columbia River Basin, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works under the direction of the Secretary of the Army, shall develop a schedule to complete the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement and the associated Biological Opinion due by 2020.  The schedule shall be submitted to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality within 60 days of the date of this memorandum.

Sec. 7.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b)  This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c)  This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d)  The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

DONALD J. TRUMP    19 October 2018

Enjoy!

“In the West, when you touch water, you touch everything.” – Wayne N. Aspinall

AWRA Publication: 'State Water Plans - Monographs from 17 States'

I have to a give a big shout-out to AWRA President Dr. Brenda O. Bateman (Technical Services Division Administrator for the Oregon Water Resources Department) and BoD member Scott Kudlas (Director of the Office of Water Supply at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality) for being the driving forces behind this landmark publication. Kudos to all those who contributed their time to this effort. And, lest I forget, the AWRA Policy Technical Committee

The states represented are: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.  

Delayed shill alert: I am the AWRA Technical Director.

Download the report (PDF): click here 

From the report:

Introduction

The American Water Resources Association (AWRA) is pleased to present this publication resulting from its third National Leadership Institute (NLI) Workshop for State Officials. State leaders gathered during a three-day period in 2017 (November 8-10), in a workshop designed specifically for state officials who have responsibility for developing their state water plans. Their professions were diverse and included engineers, planners, scientists, economists, and other disciplines. 

The workshop covered a wide variety of topics, including the latest updates on groundwater policy, water governance models, open source data tools, the fundamentals of integrated water resources planning, and how to build support for water planning. Discussions quickly turned to the desire to develop original materials and analysis for the American Water Resources Association, drawing upon the expertise of current and previous workshop participants. 

We asked the authors to follow a common format, providing an “elevator speech” that succinctly describes the purpose of each water plan. From there, we asked them to point the reader to the statutory underpinnings, to help set the formal context. Authors then described the planning horizons, scheduled deadlines, and current status of their plans. They have provided a summary of the process used and the resulting components contained in each plan. Authors took the time to make some observations about the challenges overcome and the challenges that yet remain with these efforts. Finally, they provided a sense of scope and scale, both geographically and financially. 

In the concluding chapter, we highlight some of the common themes and threads we observed along the way. 

Enjoy!

"We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases. "
- Goethe

Benefits & Challenges: Virginia Tech Unveils A New Undergraduate Degree in Water Resources, Policy & Management

At the recently-concluded 2018 AWRA Annual Conference in Baltimore Karl Williard of SIU convened and moderated a panel on Benefits and Challenges of Delivering Interdisciplinary Graduate and Undergraduate Education in Water Resources. Besides Karl the panelists were Sharon B. Megdal of the University of Arizona, Stephen Schoenholtz of Virginia Tech and yours truly.

Here is a description of the panel:

The science and policy of water resources involves many disciplines including hydrology, hydrogeology, engineering, chemistry, economics, law, and sociology and effective management of water resources commonly requires complex, interdisciplinary solutions.  Accordingly, in the past two decades, academia has responded to the need for training future water professionals by creating interdisciplinary water resources and hydrology graduate and more recently undergraduate education programs.  The federal government has also responded to this need by encouraging the training of interdisciplinary scientists through funding programs such as the National Science Foundation’s Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (NSF IGERT).  True interdisciplinary education and training is difficult to accomplish.  For example, universities need to rely on faculty who themselves were trained predominantly in disciplinary environments to lead and develop these education programs.  Successful interdisciplinary training requires new and novel approaches to education.  The panel discussion will highlight some of the successes and challenges associated with training the next generation of interdisciplinary water professionals from the perspective of well-established and relatively new education programs. 

Karl gave an overview of this important topic and Sharon and I recounted our experiences and thoughts on the topic. Stephen provided something different: a presentation on Virgina Tech's innovative new undergraduate degree, the first and only one of its kind in the USA: 

Download AWRA2018_Schoenholtz

Here is the blurb from the degree program's website: 

 Few undergraduate degree programs provide integrated training in water science, policy, and management; yet, professionals are required to have interdisciplinary expertise in these areas to solve critical problems facing society today and in the future. Water: Resources, Policy, and Management, administered by the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, is an interdisciplinary program and the first its kind in Virginia and is unique to any other undergraduate program anywhere in the U.S. The new degree program offers a strong interdisciplinary approach to water science, policy and management, while complementing existing undergraduate degree programs at Virginia Tech.

 I am generally skeptical of undergraduate degrees in 'water resources' simply because I think that the study of water resources is best done at the graduate level after receiving an undergraduate degree in a fundamental discipline related to some aspect of water (e.g., geology, civil/environmental/ecological engineering, economics, ecology, chemistry, political science, and many more). That said, I wish Stephen and Virginia Tech much luck with their innovative, groundbreaking degree program.

Perhaps a new educatonal paradigm is in the making. 

"The purpose of education is not to make men carpenters, but to make carpenters men." -- W.E.B. Du Bois