Land subsidence caused by groundwater extraction has numerous negative consequences, such as loss of groundwater storage and damage to infrastructure. Understanding the magnitude, timing, and locations of land subsidence, as well as the mechanisms driving it, is crucial to implementing mitigation strategies, yet the complex, nonlinear processes causing subsidence are difficult to quantify. Physical

When applying environmental models, the choice of model complexity and the design of field campaigns depend on each other and on the modeling/prediction goal. We propose jointly optimizing model complexity and data collection (design) by maximizing the expected performance for the modeling goal. We use ensembles of highly resolved virtual realities and of less complex modeling variants that differ

Analysis of reactive transport in natural and engineered porous media has benefited from the concept of mixing ratios, in particular as a basis for mathematical separation of transport and reactions processes. General use of solute age has also been recently explored as a way to describe solute mass transfer and/or as a proxy for reaction extent. Age here is defined as exposure‐time to the flow field

Topography is critical information for water resources management in lakes, and remote sensing provides a unique opportunity to estimate topography in ungauged regions. We introduce here a new method that estimates near‐shore topography of water bodies based on a flood frequency map and time series of water levels by assuming the equivalence between flood frequency and water level exceedance probability

Despite evidence that tap water is often safer and cheaper than alternative sources, tap water is avoided when perceived to be unsafe. Therefore, we conducted the first nationally‐representative US trends analysis of in‐home tap water avoidance between 2007–2016. We tested whether changes occurred during/after the Flint Water Crisis, and whether not drinking tap from one’s main water source differed

The presence of solute concentration fluctuations at spatial scales much below the scale of resolution is a major challenge for modeling reactive transport in porous media. Overlooking small‐scale fluctuations, which is the usual procedure, often results in strong disagreements between field observations and model predictions, including, but not limited to, the overestimation of effective reaction

No abstract is available for this article.

Large wood promotes fundamental changes in river hydraulics and morphology, playing a relevant role in river ecology but also in flood hazard. Accurate predictions of large wood dynamics in terms of deposition patterns and travel distance are still lacking and only recently have numerical models been developed to this end. In this work we enhance the capabilities of the numerical model Iber‐Wood in

The discipline of hydrology has long focused on quantifying the water balance, which is frequently used to estimate unknown water fluxes or stores. While technologies for measuring water balance components continue to improve, all components of the balance have substantial uncertainty at the watershed scale. Watershed‐scale evapotranspiration, storage, and groundwater import or export are particularly

Commercial microwave links (CMLs) have proven useful for providing rainfall information close to the ground surface. However, large uncertainties are associated with these retrievals, partly due to challenges in the type of data collection and processing. In particular, the most common case is when only minimum and maximum received signal levels (RSLs) over a given time interval (hereafter 15 minutes)

The projection of runoff in a large‐scale basin under climate change and human activities is crucial for the future management of water supplies. The impacts of climate change on runoff projections are associated with large uncertainties. In this study, using the optimization and selection of climate models, as well as an uncertainty analysis via the global Bayesian model averaging (BMA) approach,

A novel level set based approach is presented to calculate it in‐situ } contact angle distribution, θ , from pore‐scale immiscible fluids and rock configuration directly imaged with micro‐CT techniques. We first identify interfaces of the fluid‐fluid and fluid‐solid by their zero level set functions, this is accomplished by reinitializing the level set functions with the a sign distance function. Then

Globally, phytoplankton abundance is increasing in lakes as a result of climate change and land‐use change. The relative importance of climate and land‐use drivers has been examined primarily for mesotrophic and eutrophic lakes. However, oligotrophic lakes show different sensitivity to climate and land‐use drivers than mesotrophic and eutrophic lakes, necessitating further exploration of the relative

The contributions and composition of baseflow sources across an extended recession period were quantified for six subwatersheds of varying size in a structurally complex watershed in coastal California using endmember mixing analysis and related to catchment characteristics (e.g., topography, geology, land use, and soil characteristics). Both shallow subsurface and deep groundwater reservoirs were

Agriculture affects the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, leading to a deterioration of surface water quality. The increasing magnitude of climate change raises questions about potential additional or mitigating effects of climate change on this deterioration. One way to understand these potential effects is to cross‐analyze the dynamics of nutrient concentrations and hydro‐climatic

Mutual adjustment between process and form shapes the morphology of alluvial river channels, including channel banks. The tops of banks define the transition between the channel and adjacent floodplain, which corresponds to the level of incipient flooding. Despite the geomorphological and hydrological importance of this transition, few, if any, studies have extensively examined spatial variability

Preferential flow (PF)‐dominated soil structure is often considered a unique system consisting of micropores and macropores and thus supposed to provide dual‐pore filtering effects on hydrological signals, through which smoothing effects are likely to be stronger for matrix flow and weaker for PF via macropores. By using time series of hydrological signals (precipitation, canopy interception, throughfall

We investigate the impact of pore‐scale heterogeneity on reactive mixing using experimental data from inert fluid‐fluid displacement in a quasi two‐dimensional porous medium. We interpret the invading and defending fluids as the conservative components A+C and B+C of the instantaneous irreversible bimolecular chemical reaction A + B → C, and determine the reaction product C. We find strong growth of

At the pore scale, slow invasion of a wetting fluid in porous materials is often modelled with quasi‐static approximations which only consider capillary forces in the form of simple pore filling rules. The appropriateness of this approximation, often applied in pore network models, is contested in the literature, reflecting the difficulty of predicting imbibition relative permeability with these models

Accurate knowledge of permeability is crucial for successful management of groundwater, petroleum resources and subsurface contaminant remediation. The oscillating pore pressure method is a popular laboratory technique for permeability measurements of porous rock samples. We develop a novel data processing approach that utilizes a broad, multifrequency range of data and inverts it for permeability

Tidal analysis provides a cost‐effective way of estimating aquifer properties. Tidal response models that link aquifer properties with tidal signal characteristics, such as phase and amplitude, have been established in previous studies, but none of the previous models incorporate the skin effect. It is found in this study that the skin effect and the wellbore storage effect can have significant influence

Probabilistic models of subsurface flow and transport are required for risk assessment and reliable decision making under uncertainty. These applications require accurate estimates of confidence intervals, which generally cannot be ascertained with such statistical moments as mean (unbiased estimate) and variance (a measure of uncertainty) of a quantity of interest (QoI). The method of distributions

Hydrological parameters are scale‐dependent. Efficient monitoring techniques capable of measuring hydrological parameters, such as soil moisture content (θ ), over a wide range of spatial scales are essential for understanding the complexity of water and energy movement across the landscape. Techniques to measure θ over spatial scales in the range from centimeters to thousands of meters, however, are

This paper develops a coupled hydrologic‐economic model that estimates the effects of six tax institutions that theory predicts will lead to equal amounts of aquifer withdrawal. That said, the distributive effects of the tax institutions are expected to differ because each involves different combinations of tax thresholds and side payments (returned tax revenue). The tax policies can lead to groundwater

Downstream stakeholders are often hindered when performing water management decision making based on effective hydrological modeling and streamflow anticipation, due to alterations of river flow caused by upstream damming. Meanwhile, spaceborne altimeters and imagers can provide valuable data for the upper data‐limited reservoirs by monitoring their operations. This study proposes a novel modeling

Understanding and characterizing the spatial distribution of snow is critical to represent the energy balance and runoff production in mountain environments. In this study, we investigate the inter‐annual and seasonal variability in snow depth scaling behavior at the Izas experimental catchment of the Spanish Pyrenees (2000 to 2300 m above sea level). We conduct variogram analyses of 24 snow depth

As stormwater control measures (SCMs) capture surface runoff from impervious areas, a shift in the water balance and flow regime components may emerge in urban watersheds, but the amount of SCM treatment needed to detectably shift these components may vary. We used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrologic model to assess the sensitivity of 16 hydrologic metrics as an increasingly dense

Urbanization impacts ecosystem functions and services by fundamentally altering the balances between precipitation, water yield (Q), and evapotranspiration (ET) in watersheds. Accurate quantification of future hydrologic impacts is essential for national urban planning and watershed management decision making. We hypothesize that ‘hydrologic impacts of urbanization are not created equal’ as a result

Freezing and thawing of soil have a significant impact on the thermal‐hydrological processes in cold regions. Freezing point and unfrozen water content are key variables characterizing the freezing and thawing of soil. The testing results show that unfrozen water content is independent of initial water content in non‐saline silt, based on which a unified model for a soil freezing characteristic curve

Seasonal thermal stratification in reservoirs changes the thermal regime of regulated river systems as well as stream temperature responses to climate change. Cold releases from reservoir hypolimnion can depress downstream river temperature during warm seasons. Recent large‐scale climate change studies on stream temperature have largely ignored reservoir thermal stratification. In this study, we used

The emergence of state‐of‐the‐art satellite altimetry has provided new prospects for integrating water surface elevation (water level) measurements with a hydrologic model for river discharge estimation, which is particularly suited for poorly gauged or ungauged basins. In this context, we explored the possibility of model calibration using Jason‐2‐derived water levels, followed by SWOT (the Surface

The systematic response of coastal ecosystems to inundation and salinity exposure is fundamental to their ecology and biogeochemical function. Here we observe and model freshwater‐seawater interactions in a first‐order stream – floodplain system where tidal access was recently restored. Subsurface flow and transport modeling were used to quantify and better understand the interplay of processes, properties

As urban droughts make headlines across the globe, it is increasingly relevant to critically evaluate the long‐term sustainability of both water supply and demand in the world's cities. This is the case even in water‐rich regions, where upward swings in water demands during periods of hot, dry weather can aggravate already strained water supplies and increase cities' vulnerability to water shortage

Inter‐basin water transfers have been undertaken in those regions that water demand has gone beyond regional water availability. Some reservoirs in a recipient region have both natural inflow (NI) and the controlled inflow (CI) through water transfer. This study establishes a theoretical framework to analyze reservoir operation with combined NI and CI, via an optimization model to maximize the net

A flood forecasting system commonly consists of at least two essential components, i.e., a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to provide rainfall forecasts and a hydrological/hydraulic model to predict the hydrological response. Whilst being widely used for flood forecasting, hydrological models only provide a simplified representation of the physical processes of flooding due to negligence of

Vegetation plays an important role in regulating terrestrial water and energy fluxes. Recent research reported that China is the largest contributor to the global net increase in green foliage. Such large‐scale vegetation greenness change would inevitably affect the water budget across China. In this study, we evaluated the effects of vegetation greenness change on evapotranspiration (ET) and water

Urban flooding is highly uncertain, so the use of probabilistic approaches in early flood warning is encouraged. While well‐established 1D‐2D hydrodynamic sewer models do exist, their deterministic nature and long computational time undermine their applicability for real‐time urban flood nowcasting. Aiming at meeting the needs of fast and probabilistic flood modelling, a new hybrid modelling method

The Northern Great Plains (NGP) experienced a transition from a long drought cycle to a deluge cycle in late 1900s. Embedded within this long‐term transition were shorter‐term decadal‐scale dry and wet periods. A recent NGP drought (1999‐2004) was followed in 2005 by a wet period that continues to present day. However, how surface hydrology in a northern glaciated landscape responds to increased precipitation

Sedimentation and turbidity have effects on habitat suitability in the San Francisco Bay‐Delta (Bay‐Delta), concerning key species in the bay as well as the ability of the delta marshes to keep pace with sea level rise. A daily rainfall runoff and transport model of the Sacramento River Basin of northern California was developed to simulate streamflow and suspended sediment transport to the Bay‐Delta

Understanding causal relations is of utmost importance in hydrology and climate research for systems identification, prediction and understanding systems behavior in a changing climate. Traditionally, researchers in hydrometeorology attempted to study causal questions by conducting controlled experiments using numerical models. This approach, however, in most cases of interest provides uncertain results

Machine learning (ML) algorithms are being increasingly used in Earth and Environmental modeling studies owing to the ever‐increasing availability of diverse data sets and computational resources as well as advancement in ML algorithms. Despite advances in their predictive accuracy, the usefulness of ML algorithms for inference remains elusive. In this study, we employ two popular ML algorithms, artificial

We investigate processes of bedrock‐core bar and island development in a bedrock‐influenced anastomosed reach of the Sabie River, Kruger National Park, eastern South Africa. For sites subject to alluvial stripping during an extreme flood event (~4,470–5,630 m3 s−1) in 2012, preflood and postflood aerial photographs and LiDAR data, 2‐D morphodynamic simulations, and field observations reveal that the

Many subaerial and subaqueous morphological patterns are repetitive both in space and time, and a characteristic wavelength L and a characteristic period T can be associated with the bottom forms, along with a migration speed cr=L/T. In this contribution we focus our attention on river dunes, which form under steady flows, and on tidal sand waves, which form under oscillatory flows. Now, it is widely

This paper introduces an efficient surrogate model with the aim of accelerating joint estimation of subsurface geological properties and relative permeability parameters for high‐dimensional inversion problems. We fully replace the high‐fidelity model with a set of subdomain linear models through integrating model linearization with smooth local parameterization where the Gaussian geological parameters

We present a method combining multilevel Monte Carlo (MLMC) and a graph‐based primary subnetwork identification algorithm to provide estimates of the mean and variance of the distribution of first passage times in fracture media at significantly lower computational cost than standard Monte Carlo (MC) methods. Simulations of solute transport are performed using a discrete fracture network (DFN) and

Global hydrological models have become an established tool to simulate water resources worldwide. Most of the GHMs are however uncalibrated and typically use a set of basic hydrological parameters, that could potentially lead to unrealistic projections of the terrestrial water cycle. The calibration of hydrological models is usually performed by using and comparing modeled to observed discharge. Accurate

The NASA/CNES Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will estimate global river discharge using remote sensing. Synoptic remote sensing data extends in situ point measurements, but, at any given point, is generally less accurate. We address two questions: 1)What are the scales at which river dynamics can be observed, given spatial sampling and measurement noise characteristics? 2) Is there

Spreading and mixing are complementary processes that promote reaction of two reactive aqueous solutes present in contiguous plumes in groundwater. Spreading reconfigures the plume geometry, elongating the interface between the plumes; while mixing increases the volume of aquifer occupied by each plume, bringing the solute molecules together to react. Since reaction only occurs where the two solute

The division of sediment at river bifurcations is crucial for the morphodynamics of anastamosing rivers and distributary delta channel networks. Many river bifurcations are strongly asymmetric and have a planform where a small channel branches off to the side. Such a configuration is also typical for man‐made diversions of water and sediment into canals. At asymmetric bifurcations, the division of

Groundwater can have a critical role in sustaining the functioning of natural ecosystems during droughts, especially in dry and seasonally dry climates. However, the response to droughts of ecosystems embedded in urban areas is not well known. This study investigates how different scenarios of groundwater availability control the water balance and vegetation productivity of two urban reserves hosting

Describing the effects of surface roughness on flow resistance remains a first‐order challenge for modeling shallow overland flow using the Saint Venant equations (SVE). This challenge has resulted in a proliferation of roughness schemes relating the properties of a uniform rough surface to bulk velocity and resistance, making selection of an appropriate roughness scheme daunting—especially on heterogeneous

Understanding the dynamics of miscible viscous fingering is of paramount importance in a wide range of applications, from groundwater hydrology to enhanced oil recovery. In this work, we investigate the effect of precipitation and deposition of an initially dissolved component and the subsequent porosity and permeability variations on miscible viscous fingering in porous media. The commonly used stream

Fine particles (0.1‐100 microns) are ubiquitous within the water column. Observations on the interactions between suspended fine particles and sediment beds remain limited, reducing our ability to understand the interactions and feedbacks between fine particles, morphodynamics and hyporheic flow. We performed laboratory experiments to explore changes in bedform morphodynamics and hyporheic flow following

The Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission expected to launch in 2021 will offer a unique opportunity to map river discharge at an unprecedented spatial resolution globally from observations of water surface elevation, width, and slope. Because river discharge will not be directly observed from SWOT, a number of algorithms of varying complexity have been developed to estimate discharge

Several factors have an impact on the generation of floods, for example, antecedent moisture conditions and the shape of the catchment. A very important factor is the event rainfall, especially its temporal distribution. However, the categorization of temporal distributions is riddled with uncertainty, due to a priori assumptions on distribution types. Here, we propose a new clustering approach based

Bias correction techniques are widely used to bridge the gap between climate model outputs and input requirements of hydrological models to assess the climate change impacts on hydrology. In addition to univariate bias correction methods, several multivariate bias correction methods were proposed recently, which can not only correct the biases in marginal distributions of individual climate variables

Hyporheic exchange in riverbeds is driven by current‐bed topography interactions. Because riverbeds exhibit topographic roughness across scales, from individual grains to bedforms and bars, they can exhibit fractal patterns. This study analyzed the influence of fractal properties of riverbed topography on hyporheic exchange. A set of synthetic fractal riverbeds with different scaling statistics was

Cao et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023568) proposed a modified particle filter‐based data assimilation method with a local weighting procedure (MPFDA‐LW) for a two‐dimensional hydrodynamic model (HydroM2D) in dam‐break flood simulation. The MPFDA‐LW method intends to take into account the spatial‐temporal variability of the Manning coefficient to improve the performances of the HydroM2D

Root zone soil moisture (RZSM) is important in sustaining terrestrial ecosystems and water cycling. However, noninvasive mapping of RZSM remains challenging in the field, especially its spatial variability at local scales. We propose a novel method of applying ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) for noninvasive determination of RZSM. First, this method identified coarse root reflections in GPR images to

Small streams often lack reliable hydrological data. Environmental agencies play a key role in providing such data; however, these agencies are often challenged by the growing monitoring needs and lack of funding. Given the spatial mismatch between observed data and small watersheds/headwaters, local volunteers can act as potentially valuable research partners. We examine how CrowdHydrology, a citizen