Browse Articles
Climate Variability Masked Greening Effects on Water Yield in the Yangtze River Basin During 2001–2018
-  28 December 2021
Key Points
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The Yangtze River basin experienced significant vegetation greening during 2001–2018
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The recent vegetation greening led to a significant increase in evapotranspiration (ET)
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Precipitation variability masked the effects of ET increase on water yield
Global Water Scarcity Assessment Incorporating Green Water in Crop Production
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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We propose a new agricultural water scarcity index (WSIAW) by explicitly incorporating green and blue water for crop production
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WSIAW indicated severe water scarcity over a much broader geographical coverage compared with water scarcity based on blue water only
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WSIAW exhibited an increasing trend in many regions, mainly due to expanding cropland and increasing water withdrawals by other sectors
Modeling Decadal Salt Marsh Development: Variability of the Salt Marsh Edge Under Influence of Waves and Sediment Availability
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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50-year biogeomorphological development of salt marshes, forced by waves and suspended sediment, is modeled
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Seaward extension is observed with low wave forcing, whereas landward retreat is observed with high wave forcing
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Salt marshes forced with high waves are able to switch from a retreating to an expanding extent, with increasing sediment availability
From Stream Flows to Cash Flows: Leveraging Evolutionary Multi‐Objective Direct Policy Search to Manage Hydrologic Financial Risks
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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Reservoir control and financial risk management share a common multi-objective decision structure and can be optimized using similar methods
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Evolutionary Multi-Objective Direct Policy Search is used to develop financial risk management policies for a hydropower producer
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Information theoretic sensitivity analysis and visual analytics are used to build intuition about how policies adapt to changing conditions
Uncovering Flooding Mechanisms Across the Contiguous United States Through Interpretive Deep Learning on Representative Catchments
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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The expected gradients method was used to retrieve flooding mechanisms learned by long short-term memory networks in 160 catchments in the United States
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Snowmelt, recent rainfall, and historical rainfall induce 10.1%, 60.9%, and 29.0% of the 20,908 identified flow peaks, respectively
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The additive decomposition method unveiled models' distinct behaviors in retaining and discarding information for different flood types
An Improved Zhang's Dynamic Water Balance Model Using Budyko‐Based Snow Representation for Better Streamflow Predictions
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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A parsimonious snow module is developed based on Budyko's framework to improve an existing physics-based dynamic water balance model
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A monthly parameterization is proposed to reflect the seasonal behavior of catchment characteristics
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The augmented model that includes snow with monthly parameterization shows significant improvements in simulating monthly streamflow
Dynamic Flow Alteration Index for Complex River Networks With Cascading Reservoir Systems
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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A new Dynamic Flow Alteration Index is proposed to compute the cumulative degree of regulation for complex river networks
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The time-varying regulation metric captures the human influence due to reservoir operations and water management
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Estimated local and cumulative regulation compare well against traditionally used residence time estimates
Investigating Soil Desiccation Cracking Using an Infrared Thermal Imaging Technique
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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Soil-atmosphere temperature difference is proportional to soil evaporation rate, with a higher value corresponding to more pore water
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The horizontal movement tendency of pore water is similar to that of solid particles, toward evaporation-induced low temperature areas
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Desiccation cracks are prone to formation in the low temperature area and lengthen parallel to the isotherm
Model‐Reduced Adjoint‐Based Inversion Using Deep‐Learning: Example of Geological Carbon Sequestration Modeling
-  27 December 2021
Key Points
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An integration of deep convolutional autoencoder and linear-transition unit emulates a reduced-order linear model
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The auto-differentiation module fully deployed in deep-learning frameworks is used to derive a model-reduced adjoint
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Model-reduced adjoint inversion using deep-learning effectively estimates spatial parameters for geological carbon sequestration modeling
Late payments, liquidity constraints and the mismatch between due dates and paydays
-  7 January 2022
Key Points
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The unintended misalignment between social security paydays and water bill due dates increase the likelihood of late payments water bills
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A liquidity shock in the amount of a bimonthly water bill results in a 10.3% increase in late payments among recipients of income support
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Our findings may provide utility regulators with insights into the desired timing of due dates for bill payment and late fees policy
Observed landscape responsiveness to climate forcing
-  7 January 2022
Key Points
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Observed intra-seasonal energy flux variance (from diurnal temperature amplitude) is used to quantify surface responsiveness to forcings
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Intra-seasonal mechanisms based on the energy flux-soil moisture relationship and weather variability describe responsiveness patterns
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Spending more time in the water-limited evaporative regime enhances surface responsiveness across intra-seasonal to interannual timescales
Contextualizing Inflow and Infiltration Within the Streamflow Regime of Urban Watersheds
-  7 January 2022
Key Points
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Large volumes of precipitation and ground water flow into sanitary-sewer pipes
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This undesirable diversion of water substantially reduces flow in urban streams
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Abatement of this problem could enhance low flows in urban streams by 6 – 36%
Anchoring Multi‐Scale Models to Micron‐Scale Imaging of Multiphase Flow in Rocks
-  7 January 2022
Key Points
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Improved differential imaging technique is used to quantify porosity and saturation distribution of a heterogeneous rock sample
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A new sub-rock typing method based on the drainage experiment is presented
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Segmentation of microporous regions plays an important role in multiphase flow simulation
Forest Canopy Density Effects on Snowpack across the Climate Gradients of the Western United States Mountain Ranges
-  6 January 2022
Key Points
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Canopy density effect on peak snow accumulation and snowpack duration varies with winter climates
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Canopy thinning is most effective in wet/warm winter climates for improving snowpack duration
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Greatest decrease in snowpack duration under warming is anticipated for snowpack under dense canopy in presently warm winter climates
Supporting growth and transpiration of newly planted street trees with passive irrigation systems
-  6 January 2022
Key Points
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Passive irrigation systems with a saturated zone and underdrain supported accelerated tree growth in initial years following planting
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Accelerated growth was not sustained beyond two years. Despite this, trees with greater initial growth used more water in later years
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Hence, passive irrigation systems may facilitate cooling and runoff reduction benefits through greater growth and transpiration
How do Perceptions of Risk Communicator Attributes Affect Emergency Response? An Examination of a Water Contamination Emergency in Boston, USA
-  6 January 2022
Key Points
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People perceived different authorities’ credibility similarly, underscoring the need for them to provide compatible warning messaging
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Planning with multiple stakeholders and citizens before an incident is important to increase awareness and protective action compliance
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Water safety management must be integrated with a community’s comprehensive emergency operations planning to ensure effective response
Lasting effects of soil compaction on soil water regime confirmed by geoelectrical monitoring
-  6 January 2022
Key Points
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Effects of soil compaction on soil hydraulic properties are reflected in soil water dynamics as seen by geoelectrical measurements
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Pedophysical model predictions linking soil structural traits with electrical resistivity are consistent with soil hydraulic models
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Soil compaction reduced both electrical resistivity and hydraulic conductivity and enhanced surface evaporation relative to uncompacted soil
Bluecat: A Local Uncertainty Estimator for Deterministic Simulations and Predictions
-  6 January 2022
Key Points
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We propose a new method to frame a deterministic prediction model into a stochastic setting with probability based uncertainty assessment
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We theoretically and empirically prove the optimal performance of the method for operational applications
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We provide an open source computer code to apply the method and perform diagnostic checking
Mapping Flow‐obstructing Structures on Global Rivers
-  5 January 2022
Key Points
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We manually identified 30,549 river obstructions on 2.1 million km of large rivers across the globe
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The Global River Obstruction Database provides rich new context for understanding human impacts on rivers
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GROD identifies many in-river structures missed by other global dam databases
A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media
- Water Resources Research
-  513-522
-  June 1976
Evaluating the use of “goodness‐of‐fit” Measures in hydrologic and hydroclimatic model validation
- Water Resources Research
-  233-241
-  1 January 1999
Validity of Cubic Law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture
- Water Resources Research
-  1016-1024
-  December 1980
Electromagnetic determination of soil water content: Measurements in coaxial transmission lines
- Water Resources Research
-  574-582
-  June 1980
Response of mean annual evapotranspiration to vegetation changes at catchment scale
- Water Resources Research
-  701-708
-  1 March 2001
Techniques of trend analysis for monthly water quality data
- Water Resources Research
-  107-121
-  February 1982
Effective and efficient global optimization for conceptual rainfall‐runoff models
- Water Resources Research
-  1015-1031
-  April 1992
The WFDEI meteorological forcing data set: WATCH Forcing Data methodology applied to ERA‐Interim reanalysis data
- Water Resources Research
-  7505-7514
-  19 August 2014
Key Points
- Global three hourly meteorological forcing data at half-degree spatial resolution
- Covers 1979–2012
- Improvements compared to the WATCH forcing data
The Millennium Drought in southeast Australia (2001–2009): Natural and human causes and implications for water resources, ecosystems, economy, and society
- Water Resources Research
-  1040-1057
-  6 February 2013
Key Points
- Drivers and impacts of Australia's record drought were analyzed
- Impacts accumulated and propagated through the water cycle at different rates
- Future droughts may not be managed better than past ones.
Landslide triggering by rain infiltration
- Water Resources Research
-  1897-1910
-  1 July 2000
Water management: Current and future challenges and research directions
- Water Resources Research
-  4823-4839
-  20 June 2015
Macropores and water flow in soils revisited
- Water Resources Research
-  3071-3092
-  23 February 2013
Key Points
- Darcy-Richards is inadequate
- Stokes flow may be useful in some circumstances
- Still important questions to be resolved in soil physics
Methods and technologies to improve efficiency of water use
- Water Resources Research
-  29 July 2008
The Millennium Drought in southeast Australia (2001–2009): Natural and human causes and implications for water resources, ecosystems, economy, and society
- Water Resources Research
-  1040-1057
-  6 February 2013
Key Points
- Drivers and impacts of Australia's record drought were analyzed
- Impacts accumulated and propagated through the water cycle at different rates
- Future droughts may not be managed better than past ones.
The twenty‐first century Colorado River hot drought and implications for the future
- Water Resources Research
-  2404-2418
-  17 February 2017
Key Points
- Record Colorado River flow reductions averaged 19.3% per year during 2000–2014. One-third or more of the decline was likely due to warming
- Unabated greenhouse gas emissions will lead to continued substantial warming, translating to twenty-first century flow reductions of 35% or more
- More precipitation can reduce the flow loss, but lack of increase to date and large megadrought threat, reinforce risk of large flow loss
Plain Language Summary
Between 2000 and 2014, annual Colorado River flows averaged 19% below the 1906–1999 average, the worst 15-year drought on record. Approximately one-third of the flow loss is due to high temperatures now common in the basin, a result of human caused climate change. Previous comparable droughts were caused by a lack of precipitation, not high temperatures. As temperatures increase in the 21st century due to continued human emissions of greenhouse gasses, additional temperature-induced flow losses will occur. These losses may exceed 20% at mid-century and 35% at end-century. Additional precipitation may reduce these temperature-induced losses somewhat, but to date no precipitation increases have been noted and climate models do not agree that such increases will occur. These results suggest that future climate change impacts on the Colorado River will be greater than currently assumed. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will lead to lower future temperatures and hence less flow loss.
Satellite Remote Sensing for Water Resources Management: Potential for Supporting Sustainable Development in Data‐Poor Regions
- Water Resources Research
-  9724-9758
-  29 October 2018
Key Points
- Satellite remote sensing is being incorporated into water resources management but is generally underutilized
- New and proposed missions have the potential to transform water resources management for sustainable development, especially in data-poor regions
- Ongoing challenges of accuracy, sampling, and continuity and capacity development need to be addressed, as well as new challenges of information volume and diversity
The science and practice of river restoration
- Water Resources Research
-  5974-5997
-  24 July 2015
Key Points
- River restoration is a prominent area of applied water-resources science
- restoration includes connectivity, physical-biotic interactions, and history
- effective restoration requires collaboration among scientists and practitioners
Quantifying renewable groundwater stress with GRACE
- Water Resources Research
-  5217-5238
-  16 June 2015
Key Points:
- Renewable groundwater stress is quantified in the world's largest aquifers
- Characteristic stress regimes are defined to determine the severity of stress
- Overstressed aquifers are mainly in rangeland biomes with some croplands
What Role Does Hydrological Science Play in the Age of Machine Learning?
- Water Resources Research
-  13 November 2020
Key Points
- Hydrology lacks scale-relevant theories, but deep learning experiments suggest that these theories should exist
- The success of machine learning for hydrological forecasting has potential to decouple science from modeling
- It is up to hydrologists to clearly show where and when hydrological theory adds value to simulation and forecasting