Characteristics of Turbulence in the Downstream Region of a Vegetation Patch

In presence of vegetation patches in a channel bed, different flow–morphology interactions in the river will result. The investigation of the nature and intensity of these structures is a crucial part of the research works of river engineering. In this experimental study, the characteristics of turbulence in the non-developed region downstream of a vegetation patch suffering from a gradual fade have been investigated. The changes in turbulent structure were tracked in sequential patterns by reducing the patch size. The model vegetation was selected carefully to simulate the aquatic vegetation patches in natural rivers. Velocity profile, TKE (Turbulent Kinetic Energy), turbulent power spectra and quadrant analysis have been used to investigate the behavior and intensity of the turbulent structures. The results of the velocity profile and TKE indicate that there are three different flow layers in the region downstream of the vegetation patch, including the wake layer, mixing layer and shear layer. When the vegetation patch is wide enough (Dv/Dc > 0.5, termed as the patch width ratio, where Dv is the width of a vegetation patch and Dc is the width of the channel), highly intermittent anisotropic turbulent events appear in the mixing layer at the depth of z/Hv = 0.7~1.1 and distance of x/Hv = 8~12 (where x is streamwise distance from the patch edge, z is vertical distance from channel bed and Hv is the height of a vegetation patch). The results of quadrant analysis show that these structures are associated with the dominance of the outward interactions (Q1). Moreover, these structures accompany large coherent Reynolds shear stresses, anomalies in streamwise velocity, increases in the standard deviation of TKE and increases in intermittent Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKEi). The intensity and extents of these structures fade with the decrease in the size of a vegetation patch. On the other hand, as the size of the vegetation patch decreases, von Karman vortexes appear in the wake layer and form the dominant flow structures in the downstream region of a vegetation patch.

Shock Structures Using the OBurnett Equations in Combination with the Holian Conjecture

In the present work, we study the normal shock wave flow problem using a combination of the OBurnett equations and the Holian conjecture. The numerical results of the OBurnett equations for normal shocks established several fundamental aspects of the equations such as the thermodynamic consistency of the equations, and the existence of the heteroclinic trajectory and smooth shock structures at all Mach numbers. The shock profiles for the hydrodynamic field variables were found to be in quantitative agreement with the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) results in the upstream region, whereas further improvement was desirable in the downstream region of the shock. For the discrepancy in the downstream region, we conjecture that the viscosity–temperature relation (μ∝Tφ) needs to be modified in order to achieve increased dissipation and thereby achieve better agreement with the benchmark results in the downstream region. In this respect, we examine the Holian conjecture (HC), wherein transport coefficients (absolute viscosity and thermal conductivity) are evaluated using the temperature in the direction of shock propagation rather than the average temperature. The results of the modified theory (OBurnett + HC) are compared against the benchmark results and we find that the modified theory improves upon the OBurnett results, especially in the case of the heat flux shock profile. We find that the accuracy gain is marginal at lower Mach numbers, while the shock profiles are described better using the modified theory for the case of strong shocks.

Magnetic Field Generation by Charge Exchange in a Supernova Remnant in the Early Universe

We present new-generation mechanisms of magnetic fields in supernova remnant shocks propagating to partially ionized plasmas in the early universe. Upstream plasmas are dissipated at the collisionless shock, but hydrogen atoms are not dissipated because they do not interact with electromagnetic fields. After the hydrogen atoms are ionized in the shock downstream region, they become cold proton beams that induce the electron return current. The injection of the beam protons can be interpreted as an external force acting on the downstream proton plasma. We show that the effective external force and the electron return current can generate magnetic fields without any seed magnetic fields. The magnetic field strength is estimated to be B ∼ 10 − 14 – 10 − 11 G , where the characteristic length scale is the mean free path of charge exchange, ∼ 10 15 cm . Since protons are marginally magnetized by the generated magnetic field in the downstream region, the magnetic field could be amplified to larger values and stretched to larger scales by turbulent dynamo and expansion.

Simulation of Actual Evapotranspiration and Evaluation of Three Complementary Relationships in the Upper Regions of the Mekong River and the Salween River

Based on observed precipitation and runoff data, monthly actual evapotranspiration (ETa) was calculated by the hydrological budget balance method in the Nu River Basin (NRB) and Lancang River Basin (LCRB). The performance of three developed complementary relationship methods, the nonlinear advection-aridity (nonlinear AA) method, generalized complementary relationship method (B2015), and sigmoid generalized complementary function (H2018), on simulating (ETa) were evaluated. The evaluation results showed that three methods were able to accurately simulate monthly (ETa) series. The NSE between the monthly (ETa) simulated by the nonlinear AA, B2015, and H2018 methods and the water-balance-derived (ETa) were 0.89, 0.83, and 0.91, respectively. The R-square were 0.90, 0.84, and 0.93, respectively. Overall, the H2018 method showed the best performance. The parameter α had a negative correlation with regional aridity index. Annual (ETa) and precipitation showed significant increasing trends during 1956–2018 in the basins at all temporal scales (dry and wet seasons and annual series). Runoff also exhibited an increasing trend in each sub-basin, except for the downstream region of the LCRB. The increasing magnitudes of wet reason precipitation and runoff in the mid-stream region was the highest, with the value of 73.7 mm/10a and 44.9 mm/10a, respectively. The (ETa) increased dramatically in the downstream region, the magnitude reached 25.9 mm/10a. Precipitation was the main factor leasing to (ETa) change. The increasing magnitude of (ETa) accounted for 42.4% of the precipitation increment. Research on the influence mechanism between meteorological factors and (ETa) showed that the contribution rate of air temperature to (ETa) was the highest, reaching 23.5%, which showed a significant positive correlation. The second was wind speed, whose contribution rate was − 10.2% on average, and even reached − 14.1% in the upstream region of the NRB. The correlation coefficient between (ETa) and wind speed was highest in mid-stream region of the NRB, which was greater than 0.80. The contribution rates of increasing humidity to (ETa) were − 12.5% and − 9.2% in the NRB and LCRB, respectively. (ETa) was negatively correlated with humidity. The negative correlation was especially strong in the mid-stream region, with coefficients were greater than − 0.65. The sunshine hours had the least effect on (ETa), and the contribution rates were − 6.5% and − 4.1%, respectively.

Dynamic Optimal Control Differential Game of Ecological Compensation for Multipollutant Transboundary Pollution

This paper studies a Stackelberg differential game between an upstream region and a downstream region for transboundary pollution control and ecological compensation in a river basin and increases the number of pollutants assumed in the model to multiple. Emission and green innovation investment between upstream and downstream regions in the same basin is a Stackelberg game, and the downstream region provides economic compensation for green innovation investment in the upstream region. The results show that there is an optimal ecological compensation rate, and a Pareto improvement result can be obtained by implementing ecological compensation. Increasing the proportion of ecological compensation can improve the nonvirtuous chain reaction between green innovation investment cost, pollutant transfer rate, and ecological compensation rate. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a joint mechanism composed of the government and the market and formulate a reasonable green innovation subsidy scheme according to the actual situation of the basin, so as to restrict the emergence of this “individual rational” behavior. For river basin areas that can establish a unified management department and organize the implementation of decision-making, the cooperative game is a very effective pollution control decision.

Key parameters for landscape evolution and anthropogenisation estimation in the Kamchia River downstream region (Eastern Bulgaria)

Pollen productivity еstimate (PPE) and relevant source area of pollen (RSAP) are critical parameters for quantitative interpretations of pollen data in palaeolandscape and palaeoecological reconstructions, and for analyses of the landscapes evolution and anthropogenisation as well. In light of this, the present paper endeavours to calculate PPE of key plant taxa and to define the RSAP in the Kamchia River Downstream Region (Eastern Bulgaria) in order to use them in landscape simulations and estimations. For the purposes of this research, a dataset of pollen counts from 10 modern pollen samples together with corresponding vegetation data, measured around each sample point in concentric rings, were collected in 2020. Three submodels of the Extended R-Value (ERV) model were used to relate pollen percentages to vegetation composition. Therewith, in order to create a calibrated model, the plant abundance of each pollen type was weighed by distance in GIS environment. The findings led to the conclusion that most of the tree taxa have PPE higher than 1 (ERV3 submodel). Cichoriceae, Fabaceae and Asteraceae have lower PPE.

Quantifying the Relative Contribution of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Activities on Runoff Variations in the Central Part of Tajikistan in Central Asia

Quantifying the relative contribution of climate change and anthropogenic activities to runoff alterations are essential for the sustainable management of water resources in Central Asian countries. In the Kofarnihon River Basin (KRB) in Central Asia, both changing climate conditions and anthropogenic activities are known to have caused changes to the hydrological cycle. Therefore, quantifying the net influence of anthropogenic contribution to the runoff changes is a challenge. This study applied the original and modified Mann–Kendall trend test, including the Sen’s slope test, Pettitt’s test, double cumulative curve, and elasticity methods. These methods were applied to determine the historical trends, magnitude changes and change points of the temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, and runoff from 1950 to 2016. In addition, the contributions of climate change and anthropogenic activities to runoff changes in the KRB were evaluated. The trend analysis showed a significant increasing trend in annual temperature and potential evapotranspiration, while the annual precipitation trend showed an insignificant decreasing trend during the 1950–2016 time period. The change point in runoff occurred in 1986 in the upstream region and 1991 in the downstream region. Further, the time series (1950–2016) is separated into the prior impacted period (1950–1986 and 1950–1991) and post impacted period (1987–2016 and 1992–2016) for the upstream and downstream regions, respectively. During the post impacted period, climate change and anthropogenic activities contributed to 87.96% and 12.04% in the upstream region and 7.53% and 92.47% in the downstream region of the KRB. The results showed that in runoff changes, the anthropogenic activities played a dominant role in the downstream (97.78%) and the climate change impacts played a dominant factor in the upstream region (87.96%). In the land-use type changes, the dominant role was played by construction land, which showed that the area from 248.63 km2 in 1990 increased to 685.45 km2 (175.69%) in 2015. These findings suggest that it is essential to adopt effective steps for the sustainable development of the ecological, hydrological, and social order in the KRB in Central Asia.