Comparison of sediment rating curves and sediment yield in subbasins of the Itacaiúnas River Watershed, Eastern Amazon

ABSTRACT Understanding the hydrosedimentological dynamics of tropical rivers is a challenge in the Amazon due to its remote and difficult-to-access areas. This study was based on data collected from 16 hydrosedimentological control sections in the 6 subbasins that make up the Itacaiúnas River Watershed (IRW), with 4 annual campaigns (high water levels, rising water levels, falling water levels, low water levels) between 2015 and 2019, with the aim of constructing and comparing sediment rating curves and sediment yield. The data at the mouth of the IRW revealed that the rainy season is responsible for 93% of liquid discharges (Q) with an average of 1460.88 m3/s and for 98% of suspended sediment discharges (SSQ) with an average of 5864.15 tons/day. Suspended sediment concentrations (SSCs) are low to moderate (50 to 150 mg/l). The curves encompassing all the data showed R2 values (0.92 to 0.99) greater than the curves with only the values of the rainy or dry season, indicating a good fit of the power equation to the SSQ and Q data for all sections studied. Higher values of coefficients a and b show areas of greater sediment production and deforestation, as well as areas with new sources of sediment and preserved forest.

Hybrid particle swarm optimization and tabu search for the design of large-scale water distribution networks

ABSTRACT Water distribution network (WDN) optimization has received special attention from various technicians and researchers, mainly due to its high costs of implementation, operation and maintenance. However, the low computational efficiency of most developed algorithms makes them difficult to apply in large-scale WDN design problems. This article presents a hybrid particle swarm optimization and tabu search (H-PSOTS) algorithm for WDN design. Incorporating tabu search (TS) as a local improvement procedure enables the H-PSOTS algorithm to avoid local optima and show satisfactory performance. Pure particle swarm optimization (PSO) and H-PSOTS algorithms were applied to three benchmark networks proposed in the literature: the Balerma irrigation network, the ZJ network and the Rural network. The hybrid methodology obtained good results when seeking an optimal solution and revealed high computational performance, making it a new option for the optimal design of real water distribution networks.

On the discretization of river networks for large scale hydrologic-hydrodynamic models

ABSTRACT The discretization of river networks is a critical step for computing flow routing in hydrological models. However, when it comes to more complex hydrologic-hydrodynamic models, adaptations in the spatial representation of model calculation units are further required to allow cost-effective simulations, especially for large scale applications. The objective of this paper is to assess the impacts of river discretization on simulated discharge, water levels and numerical stability of a catchment-based hydrologic-hydrodynamic model, using a fixed river length (Δx) segmentation method. The case study was the Purus river basin, a sub-basin of the Amazon, which covers an area that accounts for rapid response upstream reaches to downstream floodplain rivers. Results indicate that the maximum and minimum discharges are less affected by the adopted Δx (reach-length), whereas water levels are more influenced by this selection. It is showed that for the explicit local inertial one-dimensional routing, Δx and the α parameter of CFL (Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy) condition must be carefully chosen to avoid mass balance errors. Additionally, a simple Froude number-based flow limiter to avoid numerical issues is proposed and tested.

Influence of aeration induced by piers on the starting position of the flow aeration and extreme pressures in stepped spillways

ABSTRACT The operation of stepped spillways is limited by a range of discharges due to the risk of occurrence of the cavitation phenomenon and erosion on its steps. Since there is a demand for spillways with the possibility of overflow of greater discharges, the designs seek to increase the air concentration of the flow, which can occur through the installation of piers in the spillway in order to protect the structure from the above mentioned damage. The aim of this work is to analyze flow characteristics and extreme minimum and maximum pressures with non-exceedance probability of 0.1% and 99.9% acting next to the step edges of the spillway with aeration induced by piers through an experimental analysis in a physical model. Based on the results obtained, flow behavior was defined and equations for predicting the extreme pressures that occur along the stepped spillway with aeration induced by piers were proposed.

Water governance assessment at different scales: a reservoir case study in the Brazilian semiarid region

ABSTRACT This article analyses the application of OECD water governance principles to the semiarid region of Brazil. Between 2012 and 2017, the Paraíba River basin (macroscale) and its Epitácio Pessoa reservoir – EPR (microscale) suffered a severe drought. The reservoir came close to collapse in 2017, which led to water use conflicts that were aggravated due to water mismanagement. Four evaluation criteria were considered: policy alignment to the OECD principles, its implementation, on-ground results, and policy impacts. The outcomes indicate water management fragilities, even after 24 years of the Brazilian National Water Resources Policy enactment, and the need for a better water management integration at different scales: National, State, and River Basin. By considering a smaller scale (a basin and its main reservoir), it was possible to observe water governance failures that lead to water crises since the best practices performed by the national agency, at the national scale, have not been verified at the local scale.

Effect of hydraulic and geometric factors upon leakage flow rate in pressurized pipes

ABSTRACT Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of a leakage in a pressurized pipe were undertaken to determine the empirical effects of hydraulic and geometric factors on the leakage flow rate. The results showed that pressure, leakage area and leakage form, influenced the leakage flow rate significantly, while pipe thickness and mean velocity did not influence the leakage flow rate. With relation to the interactions, the effect of pressure upon leakage flow rate depends on leakage area, being stronger for great leakage areas; the effects of leakage area and pressure on leakage flow rate is more pronounced for longitudinal leakages than for circular leakages. Finally, our results suggest that the equations that predict leakage flow rate in pressurized pipes may need a revision.

Imazapic interaction and mobility in soil cultivated with sugarcane in northeast Brazil

ABSTRACT In the plantation of sugarcane, Imazapic has used pre- or post-emergence, alone or in combination with other herbicides. When applied to the soil in pre-emergence, Imazapic can undergo the sorption, leaching and/or degradation processes due to physical, chemical and biological effects, besides being absorbed by weeds. The objective of this work was to evaluate the interaction and mobility of the Imazapic herbicide in the soil where the soil columns with a dystrophic Yellow Ultisol (YUd) and a dystrophic Red-Yellow Oxisol (RYOd) from northeastern Brazil were used. The higher adsorption potential of the RYOd is associated with higher clay content, higher Fed and Feo concentrations, and soil acidic pH. The CDE – 2 sorption sites model adequately represented the experimental data from the Imazapic breakthrough curves to the RYOd and YUd soils. From the Kd partition coefficients for RYOd and YUd, high values of the GUS index (5.94 and 7.04, respectively) were calculated, confirming the high leaching potential of the Imazapic molecule in these soils.

Dam-Break analysis: proposal of a simplified approach

ABSTRACT Simplified methods are useful alternatives for prior analysis of the effects of dam rupture and can guide the decision-making process for carrying out more complete studies. In this context, a new simplified approach is presented, which enables the analysis of aspects from dam rupture of earthen dams that failed due to overtopping, considering dam height and reservoir volume as input data. Hypothetical cases were analyzed applying dam-break hydrodynamic simulations, which results allowed the development of equations capable of estimating peak flow attenuation and peak discharge arrival time along the downstream valley. The proposed approach was applied in a hypothetical case study (15 m high dam and 17 hm3 reservoir volume), obtaining results close to those achieved through other methods, especially in case of estimating the maximum discharges throughout the downstream valley, where the average differences between the results of the methods were of the order of 15%.

Thermal functioning of a tropical reservoir assessed through three-dimensional modelling and high-frequency monitoring

ABSTRACT Urban lakes and reservoirs provide important ecosystem services. However, their water quality is being affected by anthropogenic pressures. The thermal regime is a strong driver of the vertical transport of nutrients, phytoplankton and oxygen. Thermal stratification can modify biogeochemical processes. In this paper, a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model was implemented and validated with high-frequency measurement of water temperature. The simulation results were in agreement with the measurements. For all simulation period, the model performance was evaluated based on hourly values, presenting a maximum RMSE of 0.65 ºC and Relative Error of 2.08%. The results show that high-frequency measurement associated with a three-dimensional model could help to understand and identify the reasons for the changes in the thermal condition of a shallow urban lake. The impact of the stream inflow on the temperature was highlighted, showing that during higher discharge events, when the river temperature is colder than the lake water, it flows into the lake deeper layers. The inflow water sank to the deeper layers where the lake morphology changes. The model showed an impact along the entire lake, showing the importance of monitoring the inflow water temperature. This modelling tool could be further used to study specific patterns of reservoir hydrodynamics.

Satellite altimetry over small reservoirs in the Brazilian semiarid region

ABSTRACT Northeast Brazil is one of the most populated semiarid regions in the world. The region is highly dependent on reservoirs for human water supply, irrigation, industry, and livestock. The objective of this study was to validate water level time series from the satellites Envisat, SARAL, Sentinel-3A/-3B, Jason-2/-3 in small reservoirs in Northeast Brazil. In total, we evaluated the water level time series of 20 reservoirs. The Sentinel-3B outperforms the other altimeters with a maximum RMSE of 0.21 m. In seven reservoirs with updated depth-area-volume curves, the altimetric water level was used to calculate the corresponding volume. The obtained volume was then compared to the volume given by the same curve by using in situ stage. Our investigations showed that, in the case of small reservoirs, the precision of water level time series derived from satellite altimetry is mainly governed by the seasonal variability of the water storage especially at the end of the 2012-2017 drought period.