Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Water Resource Management
Geostatistical Assessment of Shallow Groundwater Risk in Urban Coastal Virginia: A Case Study from Virginia Beach
Published: 2026-04-14
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Hydrology, Life Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Water Resource Management
Urban groundwater assessments in coastal cities often rely on public monitoring datasets that are spatially uneven and temporally discontinuous. This study evaluates shallow groundwater risk in Virginia Beach, Virginia, using 30 years of records (1991–2020) from 121 monitoring wells for groundwater levels and 55 wells with groundwater‑quality data for chloride (Cl), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn). [...]
Increasing Floods and Intensifying Droughts: The Future of Hydrological Extremes in a Warming Climate
Published: 2026-04-13
Subjects: Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Understanding how climate change alters the frequency and severity of hydrological extremes is critical for anticipating regional vulnerabilities and guiding adaptation. In this study, we analyze changes in the magnitude, intensity, and duration of extreme streamflow events, both floods and droughts, under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios using the FutureStreams dataset. This dataset, driven by [...]
Lowering barriers to probing high-frequency variations in river chemistry through a frugal machine learning-based framework
Published: 2026-04-10
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
High-frequency river chemistry monitoring is crucial for capturing transient hydro-geochemical variations and ensuring water security, yet its implementation is limited by logistical and budgetary constraints. Here we present a machine learning-based framework that integrates continuous, low-cost physico-chemical proxies with sparse ‘anchoring’ solute measurements to reconstruct hourly-scale [...]
Simulation of Groundwater Flow To Evaluate Hydrogeologic Controls on a PFAS Plume, Coakley Landfill Superfund Site, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), have been detected at combined concentrations above 2,000 nanograms per liter (ng/L) at groundwater seep locations near the Coakley Landfill Superfund site, in North Hampton, New Hampshire. The landfill was active from 1972 to 1985. An impermeable cap was placed on the [...]
Probabilistic modelling of pharmaceutical pollution risk from sewage treatment work discharges using a Bayesian Network: application to a Scottish river catchment
Published: 2026-03-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Water Resource Management
Pharmaceuticals are increasingly recognised as a class of emerging contaminants of concern in rivers. Their continuous release from human use and variable removal in sewage treatment works (STWs) can produce ecologically relevant concentrations and contribute to antimicrobial resistance. We developed a probabilistic catchment-scale model based on a Bayesian Network (BN) to quantify pharmaceutical [...]
A terrain-aware approach for image-based urban flood monitoring
Published: 2026-03-12
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Urban nuisance flooding is widespread, yet quantitative observations of its magnitude and spatial variability remain limited. Most image-based approaches provide only relative measures of flooded image fraction, while quantitative methods require surveyed ground control and three-dimensional reconstruction. We introduce a terrain aware, perspective weighted framework that converts flooded image [...]
Estimation of the water table position in unconfined aquifers with MODFLOW 6
Published: 2026-03-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
The numerical estimation of the position of the water table in unconfined aquifers is important for many practical applications. Its determination through observations or analytical methods is restricted to a few cases. Therefore, it is often estimated through numerical simulations, which may be affected by numerical artifacts and/or poor stability. We use MODFLOW to estimate the position of the [...]
snowman: an open-source R package for automated 30-m snow and ice cover mapping using the Landsat archive
Published: 2026-03-06
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Glaciology, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Seasonal snow and ice cover are critical components of the cryosphere yet mapping their dynamics at ecologically relevant spatiotemporal scales remains challenging. Here I present snowman, an open-source R package and algorithm for automated mapping of snow and ice cover dynamics at 30-m resolution using Landsat satellite imagery (1982–present). The algorithm combines globally trained [...]
Data-driven control reveals distributed flood adaptation priorities across large river networks
Published: 2026-02-24
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dynamical Systems, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
In the face of growing flood risks, decentralized adaptation measures like detention storage, enhanced infiltration, and floodplain reconnection have the potential to mitigate flood impacts at the river basin scale. However, optimal spatial allocation of flood control measures is complicated by the high dimensionality of hydrologic systems and the sensitivity of proposed strategies to climate [...]
Biochar granulation and particle size influence hydrological performance of green roof substrates
Published: 2026-02-20
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Materials Science and Engineering, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Green roofs are increasingly being implemented in cities to improve stormwater management and provide additional ecosystem services. Biochar, a carbon-rich material derived from pyrolyzed biomass, has emerged as a promising substrate additive to improve hydrological performance of green roofs; however, unprocessed biochar is susceptible to erosion loss. Biochar granulation and particle size [...]
Assessing and Correcting Bias in Gridded Reference Evapotranspiration over Agricultural Lands Across the Contiguous United States
Published: 2026-02-19
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Climate, Environmental Monitoring, Geographic Information Sciences, Hydrology, Multivariate Analysis, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science, Water Resource Management
Gridded reference evapotranspiration (ETₒ) data are widely used for agricultural water management and remote sensing evapotranspiration (RSET) models, but biases can arise where coarse meteorological inputs fail to capture agricultural microclimates. We investigated biases in the gridMET ETₒ product across irrigated agricultural areas of the contiguous United States using ETₒ calculated from 793 [...]
Channel Change and Sediment Transport in the Puyallup River Watershed through 2022
Published: 2026-02-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
The Puyallup River drains a 990 square mile watershed in western Washington, with headwaters on the glacier-covered flanks of Mount Rainier. Major tributaries include the White, Carbon, and Mowich Rivers. In the levee-confined reaches of the lower watershed, loss of flood conveyance due to sand and gravel deposition has been a chronic issue. Over much of the 20th century, flood conveyance was [...]
A Vision for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Great Lakes Research and Management
Published: 2026-02-06
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Databases and Information Systems, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Fresh Water Studies, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Water Resource Management
The Laurentian Great Lakes are a vital freshwater resource and a regionally significant natural system facing complex, persistent, and compounding challenges from climate change, nutrient loading, and invasive species. The increasing availability of observational data, coupled with advances in computational power and machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods, presents an [...]
Widespread reliance of rainfed crops on upwind irrigated agriculture in India
Published: 2026-02-03
Subjects: Agriculture, Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Hydrology, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Rainfed crops account for approximately 40% of India’s food production and support 60% of its livestock. Although linked to oceanic monsoon rainfall, their productivity also depends on terrestrial evaporation, particularly in the non-monsoon season. However, the degree to which rainfed crops also rely on moisture sourced from upwind irrigated areas, remains largely unknown. Using a combination of [...]
A Benchmark Dataset of Agricultural Weather Stations over the Contiguous United States for Evapotranspiration Applications
Published: 2026-01-17
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Studies, Geographic Information Sciences, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Agricultural weather data are fundamental for the accurate estimate of evapotranspiration (ET), irrigation scheduling, and water-use accounting. In particular, reference ET provides a standardized atmospheric demand for water loss from a hypothetical well-watered grass (ETo) or alfalfa (ETr); however, weather stations may not adequately represent such climatic conditions. Weather data commonly [...]