Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Hydrology
Advancing floating macroplastic detection from space using hyperspectral imagery
Published: 2021-05-13
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Other Environmental Sciences
Airborne and spaceborne remote sensing (RS) collecting hyperspectral imagery provides unprecedented opportunities for the detection and monitoring of floating riverine and marine plastic debris. However, a major challenge in the application of RS techniques is the lack of fundamental understanding of spectral signatures of water-borne plastic debris. Recent work has emphasised the case for [...]
What you net depends on if you grab: A meta-analysis of sampling method's impact on measured aquatic microplastic concentration
Published: 2021-05-08
Subjects: Design of Experiments and Sample Surveys, Environmental Monitoring, Fresh Water Studies, Hydrology, Other Environmental Sciences
Microplastic pollution is measured with a variety of sampling methods. Field experiments indicate that commonly used sampling methods, including net, pump and grab samples, do not always result in equivalent measured concentration. We investigate the comparability of these methods through a meta-analysis of over one hundred surface water microplastic studies. We find systematic relationships [...]
Advancing river corridor science beyond disciplinary boundaries with an inductive approach to catalyse hypothesis generation
Published: 2021-05-08
Subjects: Hydrology
A unified conceptual framework for river corridors requires synthesis of diverse site-, method- and discipline-specific findings. The river research community has developed a substantial body of observations and process-specific interpretations, but we are still lacking a comprehensive model to distill this knowledge into fundamental transferable concepts. We confront the challenge of how a [...]
Release timing and duration control the fate of photolytic compounds in stream-hyporheic systems
Published: 2021-04-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Predicting environmental fate requires an understanding of the underlying, spatiotemporally variable interaction of transport and transformation processes. Photolytic compounds, for example, interact with both time-variable photolysis and the perennially dark hyporheic zone, generating potentially unexpected dynamics that arise from time-variable reactivity. This interaction has been found to [...]
A Hydrologist’s Guide to Open Science
Published: 2021-04-22
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Hydrologic research that is open, accessible, reusable, and reproducible will have the largest impact on the scientific community and broader society. While more and more members of the hydrology community and key hydrology organizations are embracing open science practices, technical (e.g., limited coding experience), resource (e.g., open access fees), and social (e.g., fear of being scooped) [...]
Transmissivity and groundwater flow exert a strong influence on drainage density
Published: 2021-04-07
Subjects: Geomorphology, Hydrology
The extent to which groundwater flow affects drainage density and erosion has long been debated, but is still uncertain. Here, I present a new hybrid analytical and numerical model that simulates groundwater flow, overland flow, hillslope erosion and stream incision. The model is used to explore the relation between groundwater flow and the incision and persistence of streams for a set of [...]
An overview of the evolving jurisdictional scope of the U.S. Clean Water Act for hydrologists
Published: 2021-04-02
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal mechanism by which the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of streams, lakes, and wetlands are protected in the U.S. The CWA has evolved considerably since its initial passage in 1948, including explicit expansions and contractions of jurisdictional scope through a series of legislative actions, court decisions, and agency rules. Here, we [...]
A Regional Semi-Distributed Streamflow Model Using Deep Learning
Published: 2021-03-08
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Hydrology
Recent studies have shown that deep learning models in hydrological applications significantly improved streamflow predictions at multiple stations compared to traditional machine learning approaches. However, most studies lack generalization; i.e. researchers are training separate models for each location. The spatial and temporal generalization ability of deep learning models in hydrology that [...]
New insight into post-seismic landslide evolution processes in the tropics
Published: 2021-03-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology
Earthquakes do not only trigger landslides in co-seismic phases but also elevate post-seismic landslide susceptibility either by causing a strength reduction in hillslope materials or by producing co-seismic landslide deposits, which are prone to further remobilization under the external forces generated by subsequent rainfall events. However, we still have limited observations regarding the [...]
Crisis at the Salton Sea: The Vital Role of Science
Published: 2021-03-04
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Chemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geochemistry, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Salton Sea—a hypersaline, terminal lake in southern California—is in crisis. A combination of mismanagement and competition among federal, state and local agencies has hindered efforts to address declining lake levels and unstable water chemistry. This delay has heightened the public health threat to regional communities as retreating shorelines expose dry lakebed— a source of potentially [...]
Hydro-Meteorological Aspects of the 2021 South Kalimantan Flood: Topography, Tides, and Precipitation
Published: 2021-03-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Hydrology, Meteorology
The 2021 South Kalimantan flood was recorded as the most serious ever to have taken place in the province. It occurred due to high-intensity rain during the period 10-19 January, accompanied by a spring tide. This study provides an overview of the disaster, with reference to the hydro-meteorological conditions (topography, tides, and precipitation). The method used was the analysis of the [...]
An uncertainty-focused database approach to extract spatiotemporal trends from qualitative and discontinuous lake-status histories
Published: 2021-03-01
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Other Earth Sciences, Sedimentology, Statistical Methodology, Stratigraphy
Changes in lake status are often interpreted as palaeoclimate indicators due to their dependence on precipitation and evaporation. The Global Lake Status Database (GLSDB) has since long provided a standardised synopsis of qualitative lake status over the last 30,000 14C years. Potential sources of uncertainty however are not recorded in the GLSDB. Here we present an updated and improved [...]
Simulating fully-integrated hydrological dynamics in complex Alpine headwaters: potential and challenges
Published: 2021-02-26
Subjects: Hydrology
Highly simplified approaches continue to underpin hydrological climate change impact assessments across the Earth’s mountainous regions. Fully-integrated surface-subsurface models may hold far greater potential to represent the distinctive regimes of steep, geologically-complex headwater catchments. However, their utility has not yet been tested across a wide range of mountainous settings. Here, [...]
Global climate-driven trade-offs between the water retention and cooling benefits of urban greening
Published: 2021-02-23
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Heat-related mortality and flooding are pressing challenges for the >4 billion urban population worldwide, exacerbated by increasing urbanization and climate change. Urban greening, such as green roofs and parks, can potentially help address both problems, but the geographical variation of the relative hydrological and thermal performance benefits of such interventions are unknown. Here we [...]
Numerical modeling of Earth's dynamic surface: a community approach
Published: 2021-02-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Other Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology, Soil Science, Stratigraphy
Computational modelling occupies a unique niche in Earth environmental sciences. Models serve not just as scientific technology and infrastructure, but also as digital containers of the scientific community's understanding of the natural world. As this understanding improves, so too must the associated software. This dual nature---models as both infrastructure and hypotheses---means that [...]