Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Hydraulic Engineering
Liquefaction as an energetic instability of saturated granular systems – Density control and static enthalpy equilibrium
Published: 2025-12-27
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geophysics and Seismology, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Materials Science and Engineering, Mining Engineering, Other Materials Science and Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
Liquefaction of saturated granular materials is commonly interpreted within stress-based frameworks that rely on the existence of an intact grain skeleton. At the onset of liquefaction, however, the contact network collapses and effective stress ceases to be a meaningful state variable. This work reformulates liquefaction as an enthalpy-driven instability of the coupled grain–water system and [...]
Comprehensive Assessment of Flood Risk and Community Impact of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Iowa
Published: 2025-12-27
Subjects: Agriculture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Life Sciences
Flooding presents a significant risk to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), especially in regions increasingly affected by extreme weather events. This study uses advanced geospatial analysis techniques to assess the environmental and economic vulnerabilities of 12,703 CAFOs across Iowa, United States. We focused on the exposure of CAFOS to 100-year and 500-year floodplains, [...]
Community-Oriented Data Integration and Communication Framework for Streamflow Forecast Models and Flood Inundation Map Products
Published: 2025-12-24
Subjects: Civil Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Water Resource Management
Access to critical flood risk information is often limited by expert-driven workflows that require specialized software, representing a barrier to stakeholder engagement and effective science communication. This study presents a generalized web-based framework that integrates federal datasets for real-time scenario-based flood forecasting and mapping at the CONUS scale. By leveraging [...]
Infiltration drives a Heavy–Tailed Distribution of Combined Sewer Overflow Spill Durations
Published: 2025-12-11
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Environmental Sciences, Hydraulic Engineering
Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) discharge untreated wastewater into natural water bodies during periods of excess sewer flow, posing environmental risks. Using ∼ 4 million CSO spill events recorded by Event Duration Monitors across England (2020–2024), we characterize the statistical distribution of spill durations. We find that while spills exceeding two hours represent only ∼ 10% of events, [...]
Spatiotemporal connections in high precipitation events in Iran: Application of complex networks
Published: 2025-11-29
Subjects: Environmental Education, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Water Resource Management
Study region A relatively large area covering east and west Asia, north Africa, and Europe. Study focus This study examines the complex correlation patterns of high precipitation events in Iran and the rest of the study region. For this purpose, the Complex Networks Theory is used to find the links between high precipitation events in Iran and the rest of the study area with different time lags. [...]
Unified Cross-Modal Learning for Hydrological Processes Using Multi-Task Transformer Framework
Published: 2025-10-31
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Most deep learning studies in hydrology adopt single-task frameworks that address individual variables such as rainfall or streamflow independently, limiting opportunities for shared learning across related environmental processes. This study introduces a unified multi-task, multi-modal deep learning framework capable of jointly performing 24-hour horizon streamflow forecasting and rainfall [...]
A Static Enthalpy Equilibrium Approach to the Stability of Saturated Sands (Version 2)
Published: 2025-10-25
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Mineral Physics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Sedimentology
This preprint presents a physical formulaton for the stability of saturated granular systems based on a static enthalpy equilibrium. The approach definnes equilibrium as the balance between the gravitationel potential of the granular framework and the hydraulic work of the pore water. From this energetic condition, the limit state and the transition between stable, metastable, and liquefied [...]
Multi-Task Learning as a Step Toward Building General-Purpose Hydrological Forecasting Systems
Published: 2025-10-21
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Multivariate Analysis
Streamflow and soil moisture are two critical variables in the hydrological cycle, linked through infiltration, runoff generation, and groundwater recharge. Traditional forecasting approaches often treat them independently, overlooking interdependencies and limiting predictive skill. This study investigates Multi-Task Learning (MTL) for daily prediction of both variables using the CAMELS dataset [...]
A real time reservoir inflow forecast evaluation framework
Published: 2025-10-16
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
Recent advances in data driven hydrologic forecasts have led to a multitude of new and rapidly improving streamflow forecast products and technologies. These often lead hydropower producers to question whether such advances translate into increases in revenue and whether implementing these new forecasts justify the additional associated costs. To address this, we present a general framework that [...]
A Sensitivity Analysis Approach to Identifying Drivers of Streamflow Hysteresis
Published: 2025-09-28
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering
We study the critical interplay between streamflow hysteresis and local hydro-morphologic conditions. Hysteresis strength, which can lead to over 60% errors in discharge estimation with widely accepted monitoring methods, is primarily influenced by local characteristics such as bed slope, roughness, and event wave intensity. Our study used a 1D numerical model to highlight the hysteresis response [...]
A Critical Review of Nature-Based Solutions for Enhancing Climate Resilience and Water Security in Mountain Ecosystems
Published: 2025-09-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mountain ecosystems, functioning as indispensable "water towers," face escalating threats from climate change, land degradation, and water insecurity, jeopardizing the livelihoods of downstream populations. This paper presents a comprehensive critical review of integrated strategies designed to enhance the resilience of these vital socio-ecological systems. It synthesizes the theoretical [...]
Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Ecosystem Services: A Multi-Module InVEST-LCM Analysis
Published: 2025-09-24
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Hydraulic Engineering, Nature and Society Relations, Remote Sensing
Land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics influence ecological processes and the provision of essential ecosystem services (ESs). So, understanding how LULC changes influence ESs is critical for sustainable land management and conservation planning, especially in rapidly urbanizing watersheds. Despite studies examining individual ecosystem services, there remains a notable research gap in [...]
Spatiotemporal Urban Flood Expansion and Propagation by Percentage of Node in Flood Assessment (PNFA)
Published: 2025-09-18
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering
Urban pluvial flooding is a complex process shaped by rainfall intensity, drainage system capacity, and urban infrastructure. While previous studies have mapped flood extents, the spatiotemporal evolution of drainage saturation and overflow propagation remain insufficiently explored. This study introduces the Percentage of Node in Flood Assessment (PNFA), integrating the Flood Expansion Rate [...]
Advancing Long-Horizon Hydrological Forecasting: A Mamba-based Approach with Explainable AI for Generalized Streamflow Prediction
Published: 2025-09-02
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Accurate long-horizon streamflow forecasting is crucial for water resource management, but existing models often face efficiency and interpretability challenges. This study comprehensively evaluates the Mamba architecture, which utilizes State Space Models for efficient sequence processing, for 120-hour hourly generalized streamflow prediction across 125 diverse Iowa watersheds using 72-hour [...]
HydroBlox: AI-Assisted Visual Programming Framework for Enhanced Scientific Reproducibility in Hydrology
Published: 2025-06-21
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computational Engineering, Education, Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Science and Mathematics Education
Scientific workflow reproducibility for hydrological and environmental analyses remains a challenge due to the heterogeneity of data sources, analysis protocols, and evolving visualization needs. This study introduces HydroBlox, a client-side browser-based framework that supports the creation, execution, and export of hydrological workflows using a visual programming interface. The platform [...]