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About 50% of U.S. water pollution problems are caused by non-point source (NPS) pollution, primarily sediment and nutrients from agricultural areas, despite the widespread implementation of agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs). However, the effectiveness of implementation strategies and type of BMPs at watershed scale are still not well understood. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) ecohydrological model was used to assess the effectiveness of pollutant mitigation strategies in the Raccoon River watershed (RRW) in west-central Iowa, USA. We analyzed fourteen management scenarios based on systematic combinations of five strategies: fertilizer/manure management, changing row-crop land to perennial grass, vegetative filter strips, cover crops and shallower tile drainage systems, specifically aimed at reducing nitrate and total suspended sediment yields from hotspot areas in the RRW. Moreover, we assessed implications of climate change on management practices, and the impacts of management practices on water availability, row crop yield, and total agricultural production. Our results indicate that sufficient reduction of nitrate load may require either implementation of multiple management practices (38.5% with current setup) or conversion of extensive areas into perennial grass (up to 49.7%) to meet and maintain the drinking water standard. However, climate change may undermine the effectiveness of management practices, especially late in the 21st century, cutting the reduction by up to 65% for nitrate and more for sediment loads. Further, though our approach is targeted, it resulted in a slight decrease (~5%) in watershed average crop yield and hence an overall reduction in total crop production, mainly due to the conversion of row-crop lands to perennial grass. Such yield reductions could be quite spatially heterogeneously distributed (0 to 40%).

Abstract This paper examines the impact of alternate world oil price assumptions on the long-term economic outlook for Alberta, as determined by a provincial econometric model. Under each of three oil price scenarios, three distinct future periods are identified for the main oil producing region in Canada, ie Alberta. The first period exhibits a recession versus expansion in the economy and a complete divergence in real GDP between the upper and lower oil price scenarios. However, this GDP gap is reduced by the end of the second period as all scenarios tend to converge. Although the GDP is varied among the different scenarios, the last period is seen to require diversification away from energy industries in order to sustain healthy growth. The study results suggest that, due to the limited life index of conventional oil and gas reserves and projected slow growth in long-term oil prices, the provincial government should encourage the development of non-conventional resources or implementa comprehensive policy of industrial diversification towards non-resource based industries in the current period.

Abstract The radiological environment around Wolsong NPP site has been monitored since Wolsong Unit 1 started commercial operation in 1983, as required by regulations in Korea. As a result of the periodic safety review on Wolsong Unit 3 & 4 in 2011, the regulator recommended that an assessment on the long-term accumulation trend of environmental radioactivity around Wolsong Unit 3 & 4 should be performed. In response to this, the assessment was performed based on environmental monitoring data and non-parametric statistical tool (i.e., Mann–Kendall Test). The environmental monitoring data included indicator organisms, soil and marine deposit which were usually monitored for verification of the typical radioactivity level. Most results of the assessment showed no trend and only a few results showed a slight increase. It was concluded that the radioactivity accumulation due to the operation of the plant was insignificant and thus no concern has been raised regarding any effect on the safety and health of the residents around Wolsong NPP site. It is expected that the result of this study could be utilized to establish the plan and policy for environmental monitoring at other NPP sites.

Regulatory inspection and violation reports provide insight into the impact of natural gas extraction on the surrounding environment, human health, and public safety. Inspection reports for natural gas wells in Pennsylvania were collected from the Pennsylvania DEP Compliance Report from 2000 to 2014. Analysis of 215,444 inspection records for 70,043 conventional and unconventional wells was conducted in order to compare the odds of violations occurring under different circumstances. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the probability of violations occurring for both conventional and unconventional wells. When inspected, conventional wells had 40% higher odds of having a violation. However, unconventional wells had higher odds for environmental violations related to waste discharge as well as cementing and casing failures. Large operators had 40% lower odds of having any violation than smaller operators. While larger operators had fewer violations, a few of the largest companies had rates of violation much higher than the average for all operators, with some reaching violation rates as high as 1 in 4 active wells. A well also has a higher chance of being in violation if it is in the first year (85%) or second year (109%) since its spud date.

The climate change induced by global warming has raised concerns over safety of coastal and offshore infrastructure. At several places in the world therefore studies are being made to know the effect of such change on design and operational ocean parameters. This paper is oriented in this direction and its aim is to specify future changes in the design significant wave height (Hs) over a series of locations along the Indian coastline. Thirty-nine sites were selected along the 7000-km-long Indian coast and design Hs with a return period of 100 years were calculated on the basis of past as well as future wave data of duration 27 years each. The simulation of waves was done by running a numerical wave model forced by wind derived from a modeling experiment called CORDEX. Fitting of data to Generalized Pareto Distribution gave the 100-year Hs at all 39 locations. The results indicate that the design Hs calculated on the basis of projected data was much higher than the one based on historical data. Such increase was as small as 5 % and as high as 58 % as per the location. The west coast sites showed a higher rise in the Hs value than the east ones.

Abstract There is a concern that underground stored CO 2 may potentially escape and intrude shallow aquifers that may lead to degradation of the water quality and possible mobilization of metals. Moreover migrating CO 2 gas may invade buildings causing lethal conditions for humans. A better understanding of gaseous CO 2 migration in heterogeneous aquifer systems at low pressure will help in risk assessment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). We performed complementary 1D column and 2D tank experiments by injecting gaseous CO 2 at three different rates into constructed heterogeneous porous media in laboratory setups. Soil moisture sensors were installed in the test systems to monitor the movement of the gaseous phase. The generated experimental data was analyzed using the numerical multiphase modeling code T2VOC. The results confirmed that large-scale heterogeneity controls overall gaseous CO 2 migration in porous media while processes occurring at smaller scale are of significance for gas saturations. Monitoring the exact gaseous movement and concentrations is difficult even in a constructed heterogeneous medium and point measurements are not always capturing the full dynamics of the system. The numerical model provided good estimates of the general flow of the gaseous phase around larger heterogeneous features and estimated the total amount of gaseous CO 2 in the test system to a good approximation. However, the numerical model was not able to adequately describe the processes occurring at smaller scale including unstable gaseous movement at low flow rates and dissolution of CO 2 .

Abstract To investigate the climatic effects of land reclamation in Tokyo Bay, numerical experiments were carried out under typical summer and winter synoptic conditions. The model is based upon the three-dimensional Boussinesq equations with the hydrostatic assumption. Since land-use is different for every subdivision in Tokyo, the model includes a sub-grid parameterization scheme which can calculate heat budget on the mixture surface of various surface conditions. Diurnal variations of the simulated surface temperature in typical summer conditions without the land reclamation agree well with observed ones averaged over about 30 days each which have been chosen from six years for typical summer and winter days. The model predicts that the surface temperature at midnight on a typical winter day in the central part of Tokyo will increase by about 1.5 K after reclamation of the northern half of the Bay.

A dynamic model was developed for representing the abatement of sulfates and metals in column reactors inoculated with sulfate reducing bacteria. The model framework includes both bioactive mechanisms (bioreduction of sulfates and bioprecipitation of metals) and passive abiotic mechanism (sorption onto the column filling). Sorption capacities of column filling material were determined by dedicated tests of sulfate and cadmium removal. These experimental data implemented in model framework denoted that before steady state sorption mechanism could predominate over bioactive mechanism. Sensitivity analysis confirmed that, varying sorption and bioreduction parameters in typical range of laboratory scale systems, sorption cannot be neglected before steady state. An operative equation was obtained by literature data and model simulations showing that in the majority of works reported in the literature the operational times used for column experiments are not sufficient to saturate column sorption capacity. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 33: 70–80, 2014