Multi-column modelling of lake Geneva for climate applications

The interaction between large inland water bodies and the atmosphere impacts the evolution of regional weather and climate, which in turn affects the lake dynamics, thermodynamics, ice-formation, and, therefore, ecosystems. Over the last decades, various approaches have been used to model lake thermodynamics and dynamics in standalone mode or coupled to numerical atmospheric models. We assess a turbulence-closure $$k-\epsilon$$ k - ϵ multi-column lake model in standalone mode as a computationally-efficient alternative to a full three-dimensional hydrodynamic model in the case of Lake Geneva. While it struggles to reproduce some short-term features, the multi-column model reasonably reproduces the seasonal mean of the thermal horizontal and vertical structures governing heat and mass exchanges between the lake surface and the lower atmosphere (stratified period, thermocline depth, stability of the water column). As it requires typically two orders of magnitude less computational ressources, it may allow a two-way coupling with a RCM on timescales or spatial resolutions where full 3D lake models are too demanding.

Solid Waste Disposal on Inland Water Wetlands

Generation of solid waste precedes the surge of urbanization. The earliest waste dumping is recorded in Greece as early as 500 BCE, the conservancy workers in France, wastewater treatment in London, and aqueduct systems in oriental civilizations. The magnitude of waste has been compounding annually with the rise of global population, urbanization, and economic growth. Waste has been overtly and irresponsibly dumped in inland water bodies and the wetlands around it causing inherent damage to the fluvial, pond, or riverine ecosystems. The United Nations has declared this decade to be for ecosystem restoration, and hence, this chapter intends to ponder and establish the concerns of health, species modification, ecosystem endangering, pollution of the surface and subsurface water, impact on the vegetation along the water stretches, to name a few. The objective of this chapter is to evaluate the impact on the ecospheres while arriving at sustainable restoration options.

Water Pollution of Wetlands

Pollution has become a matter of grave concern at present with all the components of the environment laden with pollutants largely from anthropogenic sources and unplanned urbanization. Inland wetlands are very delicate ecosystems and encompass a variety of water bodies, namely ponds, rivers, swamps, etc. They house some unique floristic patterns that are crucial in the primary productivity and maintaining a balance of the wetland ecosystem. In addition to it, the inland water bodies are also productive and are of immense importance to humans. The inland wetlands are also an integral part of boosting the economy of the region as they support a number of industries including fishing and recreation. Thus pollution of water bodies has impacted the human race in a deleterious manner. This chapter is an attempt to overview the inland water bodies, their biodiversity pattern, pollution, and their effect on flora at large.

Liquidated Sulphur Mine “Piaseczno” – Vol. 2. Application of Integrated Measurement Technologies in the Inventory of the “Piaseczno” Water Body – State of 2020

Among many inland water bodies, a large group includes water bodies formed as an effect of mining activities. Open-cast mining of common minerals, i.e., sand, gravel, loam, basic minerals such as lignite, sulphur and fossil resins of coniferous trees (amber) leaves many excavations, which spontaneously get filled with precipitation waters, black waters (the ones near the surface) and ground waters (deeper underground), often making new and wonderful elements of local landscape. Till the time of political transformations in Poland, due to low awareness of proper reclamation of post-mining areas, few post-mining excavations that spontaneously filled with water were subdued to comprehensive inventory, surveying and geological documentation, which is a necessary condition for their safe use. Examples of such objects are Bagry and Staw Płaszowski in Kraków (mining of loam (clay), sand and gravel), which have undergone full surveying inventory, including bathymetric surveying, only several decades after the end of mining (Gawałkiewicz R., Maciaszek J., 1999; Gawałkiewicz R., 2017; Gawałkiewicz R., 2018a and Gawałkiewicz R., 2018b), despite being the property of the city of Cracow for many years and functioning as sports and recreational, natural (ecological) and economical (fishing facilities) spots. A worth mentioning body of water is the reservoir “Piaseczno” (the commune of Łoniów, the Sandomierz District), now classified as a part of a group of reservoirs with medium retention and has been created after the opencast exploitation of sulphur ended. Despite many years of reclamation measures (shallowing by washing glass sands to the reservoir) and due to the great risk of danger (local landslides, unstable ground in the costal zones, artificially maintained level of the water table) the Łoniów commune did not approve this reservoir to use; and nowadays, the reservoir is not suitable for any form of use. The only function that can be fulfilled is ecological function. In the article the results of the complex geodetic (littoral zone) and hydrographic (body of water) inventory are presented. It was possible owing to the use of the remote-controlled HyDrone produced by Seeflor Systems and equipped with a SonarMite BTX/SPX OHMEX ultrasonic sonar by Lymtech and a GNSS set by Trimble (R8s antenna + TSC3 controller) and biological inventory in the littoral zone. Detailed morphometric parameters of the reservoir were also noted based on the integrated geodetic and bathymetric measurements, which in the future may provide valuable data used in the process of adapting the analyzed area for various socio-economical purposes, while maintaining a high degree of safety of its use. ZLIKWIDOWANA KOPALNIA SIARKI „PIASECZNO” – cz. 2. ZASTOSOWANIE ZINTEGROWANYCH TECHNOLOGII POMIAROWYCH W INWENTARYZACJI AKWENU „PIASECZNO” – STAN 2020 r. Spośród licznej grupy śródlądowych zbiorników wodnych dużą grupę stanowią obecnie akweny będące wynikiem działalności górniczej. Eksploatacja odkrywkowa kopalin pospolitych, tj.: piasków, żwirów, gliny, kopalin podstawowych, takich jak węgiel brunatny, surowców chemicznych, jak siarka, oraz kopalnych żywic drzew iglastych (bursztynu) pozostawia po sobie liczną wyrobiska, które z czasem wypełniają się samoistnie wodami opadowymi, zaskórnymi (przypowierzchniowymi) oraz gruntowymi (podziemnymi), tworząc często nowe i niezwykłe elementy lokalnego krajobrazu. Do czasu przemian ustrojowych w Polsce znikoma świadomość właściwej rekultywacji terenów pogórniczych decydowała o tym, iż niewiele wyrobisk poeksploatacyjnych samoistnie wypełnionych wodą doczekało się kompleksowej inwentaryzacji i udokumentowania mierniczo- geologicznego, co jest niezbędnym warunkiem bezpiecznego niegórniczego ich użytkowania. Przykładem takich obiektów wodnych są krakowskie Bagry i Staw Płaszowski (eksploatacja: gliny, piasku, żwiru), które doczekały się pełnej inwentaryzacji geodezyjnej, w tym batymetrycznej, dopiero kilkadziesiąt lat po zakończeniu eksploatacji surowców (Gawałkiewicz R., Maciaszek J., 1999; Gawałkiewicz R., 2017; Gawałkiewicz R., 2018a oraz Gawałkiewicz R., 2018b), mimo iż od wielu lat stanowią własność miasta Krakowa, pełniąc funkcje rekreacyjno-sportowe, przyrodnicze (użytki ekologiczne) oraz gospodarcze (obiekty wędkarskie). Wartym uwagi akwenem wodnym kwalifikowanym obecnie do grupy zbiorników średniej retencji, powstałym po eksploatacji odkrywkowej złóż siarki, jest zbiornik Piaseczno (gm. Łoniów, pow. sandomierski). Pomimo wielu lat rekultywacji (zabezpieczeń zboczy i ich wielokrotnego przemodelowywania, wypłycania poprzez namywanie piasków szklarskich do zbiornika), z uwagi na szereg niebezpieczeństw (lokalnych osuwisk, niestabilnego podłoża w strefach nadbrzeżnych, sztucznie utrzymywanego poziomu zwierciadła wody) nie został przekazany w użytkowanie gminie Łoniów i dziś poza funkcją użytku ekologicznego nie nadaje się do jakiejkolwiek innej formy zagospodarowania. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki kompleksowej inwentaryzacji geodezyjnej (strefa przybrzeżna) i hydrograficznej (akwen) przy wykorzystaniu zdalnie sterowanego hydrodrona HyDrone firmy Seefloor Systems wyposażonego w sondę ultradźwiękową SonarMite BTX/SPX OHMEX firmy Lymtech oraz zestaw GNSS firmy Trimble (antena R8s + kontroler TSC3) oraz inwentaryzacji przyrodniczej w strefie litoralu. Określono także szczegółowe parametry morfometryczne zbiornika na podstawie zintegrowanych pomiarów geodezyjnych oraz batymetrycznych, co w przyszłości może stanowić wartościowy materiał w procesie adaptacji analizowanego terenu do różnych społeczno- gospodarczych celów przy zachowaniu warunku wysokiego stopnia bezpieczeństwa jego użytkowania.

ICESat-2 Reservoir Applications: A case study from the largest man-made reservoir in India

Monitoring inland water levels is crucial for understanding hydrological processes to climate change impact leading to policy implementation. Satellite altimetry has proved to be an excellent technique to precisely measure water levels of rivers, lakes, and other inland water bodies. The ATL13 product of ICESat-2 space-borne LiDAR is solely dedicated to inland water bodies. The water surface heights were derived from ICESat-2's strong beams, and performance was assessed with respect to reservoir gauge observations. Statistical measurements were used to understand the agreement (R2= 0.99, %RMSE=0.08) among the datasets. An R2 value of 0.99 was observed between ICESat-2 derived water level anomaly and the reservoir storage anomaly. This study provides a unique opportunity to utilize the ATL13 data product to study reservoir water level variation and estimate the reservoir's storage. The methodology can also be helpful to understand the reservoir storage variation in a data-sparse region.

Toxicity of Tire Rubber Microplastics to Freshwater Sediment Organisms

High emission of tire rubber particles to the surrounding environment is an inevitable consequence of the current habits of transportation. Although most of the emissions stay within a close range of the sources, it has been proven that the smallest particles can be transported to remote locations through the atmosphere, including inland water bodies. It has been estimated that a relevant portion of the global emissions of tire rubber particles reach surface waters, but effects on aquatic life in the receiving water bodies are not completely understood. In the present study, we used the freshwater sediment dwellers Lumbriculus variegatus and Chironomus riparius to examine the toxicity of tire rubber particles at environmentally relevant concentrations, using different types of sediment and two particle sizes of tire rubber. Overall, the experiments were unable to discern any effects on the growth, survival or reproduction of the two animals tested. Significant differences were found among the animals dwelling on different sediments, but the effects were not attributable to the presence of tire rubber particles. This study provides important information regarding the lack of effect of tire rubber particles in laboratory experiments with model sediment dwellers and opens more questions about the potential effects of tire rubber particles in the real environment with longer durations and varying environmental factors. The influence of other factors such as the leaching of additives in the overall toxicity of tire rubber particles should be also considered.

Evaporation from a large lowland reservoir – observed dynamics during a warm summer

Evaporation forms a large loss term in the water balance of inland water bodies. During summer seasons, which are projected to become warmer with more severe and prolonged periods of drought, the combination of high evaporation rates and increasing demand on freshwater resources forms a challenge for water managers. Correct parameterisation of open water evaporation is crucial to include in operational hydrological models to make well supported predictions of the loss of water through evaporation. Here, we aim to study the controls on open water evaporation of a large lowland reservoir in the Netherlands. To this end, we analyse the dynamics of open water evaporation at two locations, i.e. Stavoren and Trintelhaven, at the border of Lake IJssel (1100 km2) where eddy covariance systems were installed during the summer seasons of 2019 and 2020. From these measurements we find that wind speed and the vertical vapour pressure gradient, but not available energy, can explain most of the variability of observed hourly open water evaporation. This is in agreement with Dalton's model which is a well-established model often used in oceanographic studies for calculating open water evaporation. At the daily timescale, we find that wind speed and water temperature are the main drivers in Stavoren. These observed driving variables of open water evaporation are used to develop simple data-driven models for both measurement locations. Validation of these models demonstrates that a simple model using only two variables, performs well both at the hourly timescale (R2 = 0.84 in Stavoren, and R2 = 0.67 in Trintelhaven), and at the daily timescale (R2 = 0.72 in Stavoren, and R2 = 0.51 in Trintelhaven). Using only routinely measured meteorological variables leads to well performing simple data-driven models at hourly (R2 = 0.78 in Stavoren, and R2 = 0.51 in Trintelhaven) and daily (R2 = 0.85 in Stavoren, and R2 = 0.43 in Trintelhaven) timescales. These results for the summer periods show that global radiation is not directly coupled to open water evaporation at the hourly or even daily timescale, but rather wind speed and vertical gradient of vapour pressure are variables that explain most of the variance of open water evaporation. However, when we extend the time series to a complete year, we find a distinct yearly cycle reflecting the yearly dynamics of global radiation. We find that the commonly used model of Penman (1948) produces results that resemble the yearly cycle of observed evaporation. However, at the diurnal scale estimated evaporation using Penman’s model disagrees with observed evaporation. Therefore, using the Penman equation to model open water evaporation for shorter periods of time is questioned. We would like to stress the importance of including the correct drivers in the parameterization of open water evaporation in hydrological models to adequately represent the role of evaporation in the surface-atmosphere interaction of inland water bodies.

Identification of Potential Surface Water Resources for Inland Aquaculture from Sentinel-2 Images of the Rwenzori Region of Uganda

Aquaculture has the potential to sustainably meet the growing demand for animal protein. The availability of water is essential for aquaculture development, but there is no knowledge about the potential inland water resources of the Rwenzori region of Uganda. Though remote sensing is popularly utilized during studies involving various aspects of surface water, it has never been employed in mapping inland water bodies of Uganda. In this study, we assessed the efficiency of seven remote-sensing derived water index methods to map the available surface water resources in the Rwenzori region using moderate resolution Sentinel 2A/B imagery. From the four targeted sites, the Automated Water Extraction Index for urban areas (AWEInsh) and shadow removal (AWEIsh) were the best at identifying inland water bodies in the region. Both AWEIsh and AWEInsh consistently had the highest overall accuracy (OA) and kappa (OA > 90%, kappa > 0.8 in sites 1 and 2; OA > 84.9%, kappa > 0.61 in sites 3 and 4), as well as the lowest omission errors in all sites. AWEI was able to suppress classification noise from shadows and other non-water dark surfaces. However, none of the seven water indices used during this study was able to efficiently extract narrow water bodies such as streams. This was due to a combination of factors like the presence of terrain shadows, a dense vegetation cover, and the image resolution. Nonetheless, AWEI can efficiently identify other surface water resources such as crater lakes and rivers/streams that are potentially suitable for aquaculture from moderate resolution Sentinel 2A/B imagery.