1,720,971 research outputs found
Advances in Flow Modeling for Water Resources and Hydrological Engineering
Full text linkSurface and ground waters can be considered the main sources of water supply for agricultural, municipal, and industrial consumers. Over the centuries, the combination of both naturally occurring conditions and humanity’s actions has placed increasing pressure on these water resources. As an example, climate change and natural variability in the distribution and occurrence of water are among the natural driving forces that complicate the sustainable development of water resources. Recent advances in computer techniques have allowed scientists to develop complex models at different scales to support water-resource planning and management. The Special Issue “Advances in Flow Modeling for Water Resources and Hydrological Engineering” presents a collection of scientific contributions providing a sample of the state-of-the-art research in this field
Integration of forest growth component in the fest-wb distributed hydrological model: The bonis catchment case study
No full textIn this paper, the FEST-FOREST model is presented. A FOREST module is written in the FORTRAN-90 programming language, and was included in the FEST-WB distributed hydrological model delivering the FEST-FOREST model. FEST-FOREST is a process-based dynamic model allowing the simulation at daily basis of gross primary production (GPP) and net primary production (NPP) together with the carbon allocation of a homogeneous population of trees (same age, same species). The model was implemented based on different equations from literature, commonly used in Eco-hydrological models. This model was developed within the framework of the INNOMED project co-funded under the ERA-NET WaterWorks2015 Call of the European Commission. The aim behind the implementation of the model was to simulate in a simplified mode the forest growth under different climate change and management scenarios, together with the impact on the water balance at the catchment. On a first application of the model, the results are considered very promising when compared to field measured data
Mapping drought characteristics in northern Algerian Basins using the ERA5-Land dataset
Full text linkOver the past decades, drought events have led to significant agricultural losses and water shortages in the Algerian catchments; these hydro-meteorological phenomena strongly affect the entire Mediterranean region, and its frequency and intensity may increase due to climate change. The purpose of this study is to investigate drought conditions in the northern region of Algeria using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) at different monthly scales (3, 6, 12, 24 months), calculated through the ERA5-Land monthly dataset, which provides a much more detailed mapping of drought vulnerability across the country compared to observed rain gauge data, whose ground distribution is sparse and whose data archive is neither homogeneous nor complete for the study area. The main characteristics of drought events (e.g., quantity, duration, severity, and intensity), that have historically affected several hydrological basins in the northern part of the nation, are examined using the run theory applied to SPI values from 1950 to 2022. Although a high number of occurrences appear at shorter timescales, the results indicate that these episodes generally have shorter durations and lower severity compared to long-timescale droughts. Specifically, a decrease in the average number of drought events as the timescale increases is found: from 69 events for the 3-month SPI, with an average duration of about 2 months, to 17 events for the 24-month SPI, with an average duration of approximately 8 months. By analysing the spatial and temporal distribution of drought features, this approach aims to identify areas experiencing water stress and support more effective water management and mitigation strategies
The sinkholes at “Piano dell’Acqua” (San Basile, Northern Calabria)
Full text linkFive sinkholes have recently been identified in the territory of San Basile (Northern Calabria, Southern Italy), in
locality “Piano dell’Acqua”. The sinkholes are located in a hilly setting, where the main landform is represented
by a slight valley draining toward the east. The sinkholes are limited in size, with maximum diameter of 10 m, and
maximum depth of 2.5 m. Two of them are elongated, whilst the remaining three are circular. The area where the
sinkholes develop is characterized by Pliocene conglomerate and sand, likely dislocated by tectonic lines.
The sinkholes were initially examined by means of multi-temporal aerial photos, and the outcomes from this
analysis were checked in the field through geological, structural and geomorphological surveys. At the same time,
an historical analysis was started in order to collect and critically evaluate the existing information and testimonies
about age of occurrence of the phenomena. At this aim, several interviews with local inhabitants were performed,
and a number of archives scrutinized.
As a result, the study allowed to hypothesize that two sinkholes developed during the winter 2000-2001, with
likely rapid formation. Two other cases probably originated during the 70’s, as also suggested by the age of the
vegetation hosted within the sinkholes. The last sinkhole, eventually, opened sometime between February 2001
and November 2007. According to the collected testimonies, a further phase of sinkhole development might have
occurred in the first half of the past Century, but no field evidence of this older phase has been found so far.
Analysis of the seismic catalogues showed that no earthquake can be identified as possible trigger of any of the
sinkholes at Piano dell’Acqua. Therefore, the origin of the studied phenomena should be related to sub-cutaneous
erosion, within an area that is rich in groundwater (as also shown by the site name, meaning “Water Plain”). Local
changes in the water table, both related to climate and man-induced activities, may have triggered the development
of the sinkholes that can be classified as belonging to the “suffusion” or “dropout” types (depending on whether
the surface materials are made of, respectively, cohesive or not cohesive deposits)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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