Article
Environmental Sciences
D. Koutsoyiannis, A. Montanari
Summary: This study presents a new method for simulating and predicting hydrologic variables with uncertainty assessment. The method is able to infer the probability distribution of the prediction without strong hypotheses on the statistical characterization of the prediction error and transparently uses observations. This method bridges the gaps between deterministic and stochastic models, as well as between rigorous theory and innovative data usage.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yeonjeong Seong, Cheon-Kyu Choi, Younghun Jung
Summary: In order to prevent damage from local storms and typhoons in Korea, a rainfall-runoff model reflecting local geological, meteorological and physical characteristics is developed. The accuracy of the model is influenced by various uncertainty factors, including input data, model parameters, and modeling simplification. This study aims to estimate runoff for two rainfall events using a Grid Rainfall-Runoff Model (GRM), quantify the uncertainty of the GRM model using the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) method, and assess the uncertainty ranges of the GRM based on different likelihood functions. The study found that the GRM parameters varied with different rainfall patterns and identified the most sensitive parameters. Additionally, the study showed that the uncertainty range of the GRM model can be changed based on the subjective selection of likelihood functions and thresholds. The GRM model, which is open source and accessible, can be used for disaster prevention plans such as flood forecasting and flood insurance policies. Quantifying and standardizing the parameter range of the GRM can potentially increase the reliability of rainfall-runoff simulations by reducing uncertainty factors.
Article
Environmental Sciences
R. O. Imhoff, C. C. Brauer, K. J. van Heeringen, R. Uijlenhoet, A. H. Weerts
Summary: In this study, radar rainfall nowcasting was used to construct discharge forecasts for Dutch catchments. The results showed that both rainfall and discharge forecast errors increase with increasing rainfall intensity and spatial variability. The performance of discharge forecasts depends on the initial conditions, with faster increase in forecast error for shallow groundwater table. Among the tested algorithms, Rainymotion DenseRotation, Pysteps deterministic, and probabilistic methods outperformed the others in discharge forecasting. The study also found that the threshold exceedance forecasts provided advanced warning compared to no rainfall forecasts, with PS-D and PS-P methods producing lower false alarm ratio and inconsistency index values.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Water Resources
Felix Salgado-Castillo, Miguel Barrios, Jorge Velez Upegui
Summary: This study aimed to determine precipitation uncertainty using an error model based on the skew normal distribution function and evaluate its impact on simulated flow. The results show that the hydrological model's performance is more sensitive to the location of the meteorological station than the number of stations employed.
HYDROLOGICAL SCIENCES JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Sanghyup Lee, Yeonjeong Seong, Younghun Jung
Summary: Recently, abnormal natural phenomena caused by climate change have been observed. Inadequate water resource management, which is related to human activities, can also be a contributing factor. Accurate rainfall estimation and prediction are crucial to prevent and mitigate damages caused by flooding. However, uncertainties often hinder accurate rainfall forecasting. This study aims to enhance reliability and improve prediction by investigating the uncertainty of Korean rainfall ensemble prediction data and runoff analysis model.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Danyang Zhao, Tong Wei, Ziliang Jia, Jiashen Feng, Yanhong Kong, Yingxia Li
Summary: An investigation into the influence of rainfall characteristics and catchment characteristics on runoff generation in urban catchments reveals that total precipitation and maximum 60-minute rainfall intensity are the most influential factors. Additionally, heavy rainfall regimes produce higher peak flow rates and total inflow per unit area, with lower runoff control effects compared to moderate rainfall regimes. Antecedent precipitation also plays a significant role in runoff generation, particularly during rainstorms with daily rainfall larger than 50 mm. Catchment characteristics only have an impact on runoff generation under heavy rainfall regime conditions.
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT
(2022)
Article
Water Resources
Trent Biggs, Adam Zeigler, Kristine T. Taniguchi-Quan
Summary: This study quantified rainfall, runoff, and suspended sediment loads in the Tijuana River watershed on the US-Mexico border. The results showed that urbanization and channelization led to an increase in annual runoff and suspended sediment loads. Neglecting the impact of dams on extreme wet years resulted in overestimation of suspended sediment loads.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY-REGIONAL STUDIES
(2022)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Abhinav Kumar Singh, Pankaj Kumar, Rawshan Ali, Nadhir Al-Ansari, Dinesh Kumar Vishwakarma, Kuldeep Singh Kushwaha, Kanhu Charan Panda, Atish Sagar, Ehsan Mirzania, Ahmed Elbeltagi, Alban Kuriqi, Salim Heddam
Summary: This study uses data-driven models for rainfall-runoff prediction in the Gola watershed and evaluates the performance of four heuristic methods. The results show that the RF model outperforms the other models and has higher accuracy.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Thien Huy Truong Nguyen, Bree Bennett, Michael Leonard
Summary: Stochastic rainfall models are important for evaluating hydrological risks, but there are discrepancies between rainfall metrics and flow metrics. The performance of different models varies depending on the strictness of the flow-based comparison and the region analyzed.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Ming Li, Huidong Jin, Quanxi Shao
Summary: The copula-based postprocessing method shows improved forecast skills for rainfall indices in a case study in Queensland, Australia, outperforming other methods in most cases and particularly showing substantial improvements in tropical regions.
WEATHER AND CLIMATE EXTREMES
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Achraf Tounsi, Marouane Temimi, Mohamed Abdelkader, Jonathan J. Gourley
Summary: This study evaluates the performance of deterministic and probabilistic precipitation nowcasting models over the greater New York City area. The results show that the LINDA-P method has the highest correlation and longest decorrelation times. It also performs better for moderate and heavy rainfall compared to other Lagrangian Persistence-based approaches. However, it has a higher average runtime cost compared to the STEPS method.
ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Conor Tyson, Qianqiu Longyang, Bethany T. Neilson, Ruijie Zeng, Tianfang Xu
Summary: In the mountainous Western U.S., accurately simulating streamflow in snow-dominated, karst basins is important for water resources management. To overcome the challenges of high spatiotemporal variability and scarcity of climate stations, a physically based snow model is used to simulate snow processes, and deep learning is employed to simulate streamflow using the calculated snowmelt and potential evapotranspiration rates.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shahin Khosh Bin Ghomash, Daniel Bachmann, Daniel Caviedes-Voullieme, Christoph Hinz
Summary: This study explores the extent to which spatiotemporal variability of intense rainfall affects runoff and flooding. Synthetic rainfall signals with different hyetograph variabilities are generated and applied to a hydrodynamic model for simulations in the Kan catchment in Tehran, Iran. The results indicate that temporal and spatial variability have different degrees of impact on runoff response and floodplain extents, with temporal variability showing a significantly higher effect than spatial variability. Furthermore, the influence of storm spatiotemporal variability on stream discharge and flood response is found to depend on the location within the drainage network.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Marco Dal Molin, Dmitri Kavetski, Fabrizio Fenicia
Summary: Catchment-scale hydrological models are widely used to represent hydrological processes and support water resource management. SuperflexPy is an open-source Python framework that allows for building conceptual hydrological models with a high degree of control over model specifications.
GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Kangling Lin, Hua Chen, Yanlai Zhou, Sheng Sheng, Yuxuan Luo, Shenglian Guo, Chong -Yu Xu
Summary: This study proposes a similarity search-based data-driven framework and applies the advanced temporal convolutional network based encoder-decoder model (S-TCNED) for multi-step ahead flood forecasting. The results show that the S-TCNED model can effectively mimic the long-term rainfall-runoff relationship and provide more reliable and accurate forecasts of large floods compared to the TCNED model, even in extreme weather conditions.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
R. Markt, L. Endler, F. Amman, A. Schedl, T. Penz, M. Buchel-Marxer, D. Grunbacher, M. Mayr, E. Peer, M. Pedrazzini, W. Rauch, A. O. Wagner, F. Allerberger, A. Bergthaler, H. Insam
Summary: Utilizing wastewater samples, this study found a correlation between viral load in wastewater and the incidence of COVID-19 cases, and suggested that the emergence of new virus variants may alter the wastewater signal, which should be taken into consideration in future models.
JOURNAL OF WATER AND HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Clemens Hiller, Lukas Walter, Kay Helfricht, Klemens Weisleitner, Stefan Achleitner
Summary: High mountain environments have undergone significant geomorphological changes due to rising temperatures recently. This study explores the potential of semi-automatic image analysis to detect the extent and frequency of inundation in a proglacial outwash plain. The results show an increasing degree of channel concentration and a maximum inundation area of 35% of the analyzed area from a single event.
Review
Construction & Building Technology
Martin Oberascher, Wolfgang Rauch, Robert Sitzenfrei
Summary: Smart cities aim to improve urban sustainability and enhance quality of life for residents. However, the network-based management of urban water infrastructure (UWI) and the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) still face challenges in achieving efficient monitoring and control networks, requiring coordination of different communication technologies for optimal functionality.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Prashant Kumar, Soroush Dabiri, Wolfgang Rauch
Summary: This paper presents a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation to study the hydrodynamics and mixing operation within the anaerobic digester tank of a wastewater treatment plant. By comparing the simulations from Eulerian and Lagrangian methods, the benefits and shortcomings of using a Lagrangian solver are highlighted. The effect of a draft tube on velocity profiles is also investigated.
COMPUTATIONAL PARTICLE MECHANICS
(2022)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Fabian Amman, Rudolf Markt, Lukas Endler, Sebastian Hupfauf, Benedikt Agerer, Anna Schedl, Lukas Richter, Melanie Zechmeister, Martin Bicher, Georg Heiler, Petr Triska, Matthew Thornton, Thomas Penz, Martin Senekowitsch, Jan Laine, Zsofia Keszei, Peter Klimek, Fabiana Naegele, Markus Mayr, Beatrice Daleiden, Martin Steinlechner, Harald Niederstaetter, Petra Heidinger, Wolfgang Rauch, Christoph Scheffknecht, Guenther Vogl, Gunther Weichlinger, Andreas Otto Wagner, Katarzyna Slipko, Amandine Masseron, Elena Radu, Franz Allerberger, Niki Popper, Christoph Bock, Daniela Schmid, Herbert Oberacher, Norbert Kreuzinger, Heribert Insam, Andreas Bergthaler
Summary: Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at the national scale is effective in tracking emerging variants. The study developed a system called VaQuERo, which allows for accurate quantification of predefined variants in complex wastewater samples. The research also identified increased viral genetic diversity during the Delta variant period and proposed a framework for predicting emerging variants and measuring the reproductive advantage of variants of concern using wastewater data.
NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Negin Binesh, Amin Sarang, Mohammad Hossein Niksokhan, Wolfgang Rauch, Giuseppe T. Aronica
Summary: This study measures the social and hydraulic resilience of an Urban Drainage System (UDS) using two methodologies, one based on flexibility and the other based on a combination of different sub-characteristics. The results indicate a relatively low level of flood resiliency for the UDS in the studied area, and the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) is found to be an effective adaptive measure to enhance the UDS resilience.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wolfgang Rauch, Hannes Schenk, Heribert Insam, Rudolf Markt, Norbert Kreuzinger
Summary: Wastewater-based epidemiology is an important monitoring tool for pandemic management, and this paper provides a framework for data modelling and analysis in this field. Data preprocessing, data smoothing, and multivariate regression are crucial steps to improve the accuracy of signal propagation and prediction.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Chemical
Thomas Neuner, Michael Meister, Martin Pillei, Marc Koch, Wolfgang Rauch
Summary: This article investigates a non-invasive ultrasonic flow field measurement method and its applicability in resolving fluid flow in bio-and chemical engineering reactors. Through validation experiments, the study demonstrates the suitability of ultrasonic measurement for specific reactor geometries and highlights its potential applications in chemical, mechanical and biological engineering.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yannick Back, Prashant Kumar, Peter M. Bach, Wolfgang Rauch, Manfred Kleidorfer
Summary: The demand for residential, commercial and traffic areas in rapidly growing cities increases due to urban densification, resulting in surface sealing. Climate change adds to the risks faced by cities worldwide, necessitating holistic urban planning strategies and adaptive measures. This study combines Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Geographic Information System (GIS) to refine an existing urban micro-and bio-climatic modelling approach and demonstrates the importance of variability in wind speed and air temperature patterns in urban heat development and thermal comfort assessment.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Martin Oberascher, Carolina Kinzel, Ulrich Kastlunger, Martin Schoepf, Karl Grimm, Daniel Plaiasu, Wolfgang Rauch, Robert Sitzenfrei
Summary: The concept of the Internet of Things allows for the implementation of measurement equipment in urban water infrastructure on a large scale, but its potentials are often unclear, making it difficult to justify investments. To address this issue, the Smart Campus serves as an innovative testbed for smart and data-driven applications, providing insights into the impact of communication technology and sensor placement on service quality. Additionally, the integration of water distribution and urban drainage networks, along with nature-based solutions and measures to involve the urban population, allows for synergistic implementation and cross-system improvements.
WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Virology
Rudolf Markt, Fabian Stillebacher, Fabiana Naegele, Anna Kammerer, Nico Peer, Maria Payr, Christoph Scheffknecht, Silvina Dria, Simon Draxl-Weiskopf, Markus Mayr, Wolfgang Rauch, Norbert Kreuzinger, Lukas Rainer, Florian Bachner, Martin Zuba, Herwig Ostermann, Nina Lackner, Heribert Insam, Andreas Otto Wagner
Summary: Since the start of the 2019 pandemic, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has proven to be a valuable tool for monitoring the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. With methods and infrastructure being settled, it is time to expand the potential of this tool to a wider range of pathogens. Our study used WBE data from SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to monitor the presence of influenza and norovirus in wastewater during the winter season. The results showed the applicability of ammonia-normalization in comparing different wastewater treatment plants and the potential of utilizing existing WBE programs for monitoring multiple pathogens.
Article
Agricultural Engineering
Soroush Dabiri, Prashant Kumar, Wolfgang Rauch
Summary: This study proposes a new computational fluid dynamics platform to estimate the biokinetics of wastewater treatment plants and assess the energy performance of anaerobic digestion tanks. The method is validated using numerical and experimental studies and provides a link between methane production and mixing energy consumption. The on-site settings of the recirculation mixing system can prepare a uniform mixture, but reducing mixing rate does not result in proper mixing quality and leads to increased energy consumption.
BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Hannes Schenk, Petra Heidinger, Heribert Insam, Norbert Kreuzinger, Rudolf Markt, Fabiana Naegele, Herbert Oberacher, Christoph Scheffknecht, Martin Steinlechner, Gunther Vogl, Andreas Otto Wagner, Wolfgang Rauch
Summary: Wastewater-based epidemiology has been widely used in Austria since April 2020 to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This study analyzed the viral concentrations in raw sewage to predict short-term hospitalization occupancy. The results showed the potential of using viral loads in sewage to forecast Covid-19 hospitalization occupancy.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Johannes Sappl, Matthias Harders, Wolfgang Rauch
Summary: In this study, a novel Temporal Fusion Transformer model was calibrated based on six years of data to predict biogas production in wastewater treatment plants. The model provides accurate and stable forecasts, making it a valuable tool for operational management.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Agricultural Engineering
Jeremy Z. Yan, Prashant Kumar, Wolfgang Rauch
Summary: This study investigates the impact of turbulent diffusion on mixing of biochemical reaction models and develops a new codebase called CHAD to incorporate and validate turbulent diffusion. The findings show that the implemented models accurately capture turbulent diffusion and reveal that thermal turbulent diffusion significantly influences mixing.
BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY
(2024)
