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Published: 19 January 2023

A journal for all water-related research

Nature Water volume 1 , page 1 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Nature Water aims to be a venue for all research on the evolving relationship between water resources and society.

In the series of notes now commonly known as the Codex Leicester, Leonardo da Vinci described water as ‘vetturale della natura’, the driving force of all nature. Da Vinci was fascinated by water and by its motion. His studies focussed specifically on the way water flows, especially in rivers, the way it goes around obstacles, the way it erodes rocks, and more broadly on how everything in nature progresses through the motion of water.

Although Da Vinci was mostly referring to the physical properties of water, it would be fair to extend his words to take into consideration that water resources are also the engine of human society. Since the origin of civilization, people have settled around rivers, lakes and along coastal areas. Water was essential for drinking of course, but also for sanitation, transportation and for agriculture. Throughout history, the relationship between water and society has evolved primarily thanks to scientific and technological progress. Aqueducts, sewages, irrigation and transportation canals and eventually water and wastewater treatment systems have improved how water is distributed, and helped prevent damage to the environment and the spreading of pathogens and pollutants.

All the scientific and technological progress of the past has however not been enough to prevent the water-related challenges of modern society. According to the United Nations (UN), as of 2020, 26% of the world population still lacked access to safely managed drinking water and 46% did not have safely managed sanitation. Water and sanitation are in fact the focus of the 6 th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the UN, which aims at ensuring access to clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. Furthermore, water is central to the achievements of most of the other SDGs, including zero hunger, sustainable cities, gender equality, climate action and responsible consumption.

Although the most significant problems with water and sanitation are in the poorest countries, the richer countries also suffer from water inequalities and water injustice. At a global level, rising temperatures and extreme weather events like floods and droughts drastically reduce water quantity and quality. Furthermore, increasing population and technological progress generate higher demands for clean water on the one hand, and severe water contamination on the other.

Facing the challenges related to water requires changes in the current technological and social infrastructure, in order to achieve environmentally sustainable use of water resources and a more equal and just water access. This will be possible through the combination of concurrent and diverse actions, including improvements in technological infrastructure, behaviour, governance, laws and regulations.

The launch of Nature Water originates from the desire to create a venue where all researchers working towards a more equitable and sustainable relationship between water and society can find the most significant contributions from natural sciences, social sciences and engineering. Our aim to report significant contributions from all water-related research is clearly expressed in the Viewpoint published in this first issue, which showcases the contribution of nine experts covering some of the challenges and prospects in a range of areas of water research.

The rest of the content also covers a variety of topics. The Review by Rodell and Reager and the Article by Schilling et al. focus on hydrology; the Analysis by Zeng et al. is about the water–energy nexus; the Perspective by Schipanski is about governance of groundwater resources; the Article by Mueller and Gasteyer and the Article by Rachunok and Fletcher analyse water-related economic inequalities in different communities; finally the Perspective by Elimelech and co-authors, the Article by Xie and co-authors and the Article by Liu and co-authors, focus on water and wastewater treatment.

As a journal covering a thematic research area, there are two essential aspects that Nature Water will endorse from the outset. The first one, which is beautifully illustrated by Julia Martin-Ortega in her World View , is that when looking at the interaction between people and water, social sciences must be an integral part of research, on par with natural sciences and engineering. Improving our understanding of natural resources or developing new and efficient technologies will not be enough if we do not take into account how behaviours, perceptions, laws and regulations can lead to a more just, less expensive and more environmentally sustainable access and use of water resources.

The second is that the results of water research should be open to all. Nature Water is a transformative journal, which means that authors of primary research have the option of open-access publication. We are also fully committed to open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reproducible) data, as well as the sharing of code. The Comment by Emma Schymanski and Stanislaus Schymanski, and the Comment by Rhea Verbeke illustrate the importance of open science as well as the obstacles that seem to limit the data and code sharing at this stage. At Nature Water , we explicitly encourage our authors to deposit their data and codes in public repositories, and we shall work with the research community to ensure that open science becomes common practice for all areas of water-related research.

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A journal for all water-related research. Nat Water 1 , 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00026-3

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Contemporary and relic waters strongly decoupled in arid alpine environments

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Roles Funding acquisition, Investigation, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alaska-Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, United States of America

Roles Funding acquisition, Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity, Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America, Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan

Brendan J. Moran,
David F. Boutt,
Lee Ann Munk,
Joshua D. Fisher

Published: April 2, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191
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Deciphering the dominant controls on the connections between groundwater, surface water, and climate is critical to understanding water cycles in arid environments. Yet, persistent uncertainties in the fundamental hydrology of these systems remain. The growing demand for critical minerals such as lithium and associated water demands in the arid environments in which they often occur has amplified the urgency to address these uncertainties. We present an integrated hydrological analysis of the Dry Andes region utilizing a uniquely comprehensive set of tracer data ( 3 H, 18 O/ 2 H) for these environments, paired directly with physical hydrological observations. We find two strongly decoupled hydrological systems that interact only under specific hydrogeological conditions where preferential conduits exist. The primary conditions creating these conduits are laterally extensive fine-grained evaporite and/or lacustrine units and perennial flowing streams connected with regional groundwater discharge sites. The efficient capture and transport of modern or “contemporary” water (weeks to years old) within these conduits is the primary control of the interplay between modern hydroclimate variations and groundwater aquifers in these environments. Modern waters account for a small portion of basin budgets but are critical to sustaining surface waters due to the existence of these conduits. As a result, surface waters near basin floors are disproportionally sensitive to short-term climate and anthropogenic perturbations. The framework we present describes a new understanding of the dominant controls on natural water cycles intrinsic to these arid high-elevation systems that will improve our ability to manage critical water resources.

Citation: Moran BJ, Boutt DF, Munk LA, Fisher JD (2024) Contemporary and relic waters strongly decoupled in arid alpine environments. PLOS Water 3(4): e0000191. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191

Editor: Daniel Reddythota, Faculty of Water Supply & Environmental Engineering, ArbaMinch Water Technology Institute (AWTI), ETHIOPIA

Received: September 25, 2023; Accepted: December 19, 2023; Published: April 2, 2024

Copyright: © 2024 Moran et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All data necessary to interpret, replicate, and build upon the findings reported in this article are provided as tables in the Supporting information . The supporting information includes the raw data, data processing, and statistical results used to produce this work. Additionally, a time series of repeat sampling for tritium activities in water is shown to support the results presented in the main text.

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

1. Introduction

Water is a scarce but essential resource for human societies and ecosystems in Earth’s driest regions [ 1 ]. The nature of water cycles and hydrogeological systems in these environments make groundwater an especially critical freshwater resource for both humans and ecosystems [ 2 , 3 ]. This is particularly true of arid, high-elevation regions where steep gradients in topography and climate develop deep water tables and long transit times increasing the importance of multi-decadal groundwater storage in water budgets [ 4 , 5 ]. In many of these regions direct (i.e. water extraction) and indirect (i.e. global climate change) anthropogenic impacts are increasing and threatening the quantity and quality of both groundwater and surface water [ 6 , 7 ]. The resulting relative and in some cases absolute scarcity can increase social tension among riparian parties including communities, governmental authorities, and industry users [ 8 – 10 ]. In addition, responses to natural perturbations (i.e. droughts) are often not well understood in these environments [ 11 , 12 ] making sustainable and equitable water management challenging. In arid, remote regions, limited precipitation and the importance of basin-scale groundwater flow systems together with a lack of long-term, high-quality instrumental records make responsibly allocating water resources challenging [ 13 , 14 ]. These conditions also mean that surface water is scarce and groundwater discharge is primarily sourced from relic water (defined herein as water originating 100s to 1000s of years ago, including waters termed “Pre-modern” or “Fossil”) often underpins the hydrological cycle, acting as critical buffers from large inter-annual fluctuations [ 2 , 15 , 16 ]. Fundamental questions remain regarding key aspects of the hydrological functioning in these environments which perpetuate persistent uncertainties around water sources and transport. This raises important questions about water scarcity issues in the face of increasing water resource development and the likely consequences of global climate change.

The Dry Andes of South America, marked by one of Earth’s highest and broadest plateaus on the margin of the driest nonpolar desert, is one of the most extreme places on the planet [ 17 , 18 ]. This region is often referred to as the “Lithium Triangle” as it holds the majority of the world’s reserves of the battery component metal in the form of Li-bearing brines under its salt flats or “salares” [ 19 ]. The exploitation of this resource has rapidly expanded in the push to decarbonize the global economy, highlighting concerns over the sustainability of intensive groundwater extraction [ 20 – 22 ], equitable water management, and the tradeoffs of water allocation and water management decisions [ 23 , 24 ]. This landscape is composed of many adjoining endorheic basins with hyper-arid (<50 mm of precipitation/year) to arid conditions on their basin floors where groundwater recharge occurs primarily at the highest elevations near watershed divides [ 25 – 28 ]. Thick vadose zones (>100 m) across nearly the entire landscape above basin floors and intense solar insolation create conditions where actual groundwater recharge and evaporation rates are difficult to quantify and sources of water difficult to trace [ 29 – 31 ]. Where water tables reach the surface near basin floors, large evaporite deposits, and persistent saline water bodies have formed [ 32 , 33 ]. Persistent surface water features (saline/brackish lagoons, vegetated wetlands, and perennial and intermittent streams) and their interconnections are controlled by a combination of lithology, topography, and structure, yet deciphering the specific controls on connectivity between these features, the modern hydroclimate and regional groundwater remains elusive [ 33 ]. In addition, paleoclimate records from sediment cores, groundwater discharge deposits, and rodent middens across the region indicate that at least four major pluvial periods have occurred over the past ~100 kyr, increasing precipitation by a factor of 2–3 times modern rates [ 34 – 36 ]. These wet periods dramatically altered the hydrological and ecological conditions [ 37 ], and the effects are likely still evident in the modern hydrological system in the form of transient groundwater storage changes within the deep and extensive regional aquifers responding over 100–10,000-year time scales [ 38 ]. These conditions have accentuated distinctions between the regional groundwater system and surface waters, making it an ideal testing ground to address these persistent questions in arid hydrology.

The challenge of hydrological budget closure in these environments has been well documented worldwide and highlights the uncertainties that remain to be addressed [ 28 , 39 , 40 ]. Imbalances where calculated inflows are smaller than outflows are observed in nearly every arid region worldwide [ 41 – 45 ], including in the massive Salar de Atacama basin on the western edge of the Andean plateau [ 32 , 46 ]. Major unresolved questions include groundwater transit time characteristics, surface water sources and residence times, and interconnectivity between groundwater, surface hydrology, and climate [ 5 , 47 , 48 ]. Recent work in the basins of the Dry Andes has shown that true hydrological catchments often cross topography and include substantial inputs from relic groundwater sourced from long flow paths and/or groundwater storage head-decay [ 32 , 38 , 49 ]. Therefore, modern water budgets often do not come close to closure at steady-state with modern climate inputs [ 28 ]. Though the inputs from modern precipitation are relatively small, large infrequent precipitation events play an important role in sustaining salar floor water bodies in these environments through preferential recharge and laterally extensive areas of restricted vertical infiltration on basin floor margins [ 33 , 50 ]. Other work shows the critical role that evaporite stratigraphy has on the expression of surface water features and their connection to modern precipitation inputs and groundwater discharge [ 33 , 51 ]. Recent work by Moran et al., [ 14 ] establishes that modern water accounts for a small portion of water budgets but is critical to sustaining surface water bodies and wetlands, as a result, these arid systems are uniquely sensitive to climate (drought) and anthropogenic perturbations on short time scales. Much of the work to date has been focused on the western edge of the Dry Andes, while other work has explored these issues in basins further east [ 52 – 54 ] but a mechanistic framework to explain hydrological and hydrogeochemical observations region-wide has not been established.

Substantial gaps remain in our understanding of the time scales and spatial definition of primary interconnections that constitute water cycles in these environments, specifically the controls on groundwater, surface water, and modern climate interactions [ 55 ]. We investigate these remaining uncertainties using a large dataset of tritium activity in water paired with stable oxygen and hydrogen isotope signatures, and hydrophysical and hydrogeochemical field observations. Utilizing a new approach to integrating and interpreting the well-established systematics of these tracers across a large and diverse dataset we present a process-based conceptual framework that describes two dominant archetypes of flow systems in these environments and the controls on connections between their constituent parts. The approach of utilizing 3 H activity and stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes to address source and transit questions in these environments was presented in previous works, however, those studies focused specifically on deciphering regional scale interconnections between moisture and recharge sources to groundwater discharge [ 38 , 50 ], and relationships between decadal-scale hydroclimate variability and surface and groundwater body inflow sources in general [ 14 ]. This work presents a completely novel framework for the whole Dry Andes which defines connections among the diverse array of water types, and their specific source waters. Most importantly, this new framework provides critical new insight into expected responses to perturbations (natural and anthropogenic) in the Dry Andes and characterizes intrinsic hydrological processes for arid alpine systems worldwide.

2.1. Approach

Endorheic basins are topographically closed and in arid regions they often have a negative water balance, developing salars or playas on their floors [ 56 , 57 ]. Local flow paths mimic topography and occur between adjacent higher and lower elevation zones, while regional flow paths may cross topographic boundaries [ 4 , 58 ]. Typical of other mountainous arid regions, the basins of the Dry Andes consist of higher-elevation areas where most recharge occurs, a zone of lateral flow, and a discharge area on or near the basin floor [ 59 ]. Due to thick vadose zones, regional groundwater flow, steep topographic gradients combined with dense brine groundwater, and fine-grained sediments accumulated on basin floors, perennial groundwater discharge sites are common along the margins of these salars [ 33 , 50 ].

The hydrological system in this region is complex and heterogeneous on all scales, and large gaps exist in hydrogeological and hydroclimatological data coverage, especially above the basin floors at the higher elevation plateaus and mountain peaks. Deep water tables (100s of meters) and rugged terrain make direct observation of the groundwater system impractical across much of the landscape. Long-term high-quality terrestrial monitoring of climatology and streamflow flow is also sparse. Therefore, highly parameterized models and tracers that require additional assumptions are not the most effective tools to assess water flux rates or transit times in this environment. Tracing signatures recorded in the water molecule itself most reliably integrate small-scale variability with large-scale processes and can be captured with individual water samples [ 60 , 61 ]. Stable isotope ratios (δ 18 O, δ 2 H) and radioisotopes ( 3 H) in water offer many unique advantages in these systems [ 62 , 63 ]. Besides the well-understood influence (fractionation) from low and high-temperature water-rock interaction and evaporation, signatures of δ 18 O & δ 2 H in groundwater recharge remain unchanged from infiltration until re-emergence from the ground [ 63 – 65 ]. Geothermal water-rock interactions cause a pronounced “oxygen shift” in δ 18 O & δ 2 H cross-plot space and a trend line with a slope approaching zero [ 66 ]. Evaporation causes the signature of a water parcel to increase in deuterium excess and deviate from the Global Meteoric Water Line (GMWL) along a steep, positive linear slope. Deuterium excess (d-excess) is the deviation from the global meteoric water line defined as d-excess = δ 2 H-8*δ 18 O [ 67 ]. These fractionation processes both act to progressively increase the d-excess value in a sample or group of samples but can be reliably differentiated from each other through comparison of the slopes of the apparent local evaporation line (LEL) trends defining groups of samples [ 29 , 68 ].

The 3 H activities in modern precipitation over the region, also presented by Boutt et al. [ 50 ] and Moran et al. [ 38 ], are determined to be 3.17 ± 0.53 TU from 5 amount-weighted rain and snow samples collected between 2013 and 2014 in the western part of the region (Chile); and determined to be 4.54 ± 1.34 TU from 3 amount-weighted rain and snow samples collected between 2018 and 2019 in the eastern region (Argentine Puna) ( Fig 1 ). These values are within the range reported by others in the region [ 25 , 26 , 72 – 74 ]. Consistent with other studies in this region and across the southern hemisphere, the 3 H activities in precipitation have now stabilized to reflect modern production and so this value accurately reflects (within uncertainty) any recharge that occurred within the last few decades [ 75 ]. Water recharged in 1955 before the bomb peak with a 3 H activity of 3.17 ± 0.53 TU would have between 0.07 and 0.10 TU in June 2020, or about 2–3% of the modern precipitation input; water with a 3 H activity of 4.54 ± 1.34 TU would have between 0.08 and 0.15 TU in June 2020, also about 2–3% of the modern precipitation input [ 76 ]. Due to the small but non-negligible analytical uncertainty (~0.02–0.07 TU at low activities), samples with these very small activities are herein considered to be effectively 3 H-dead waters or indistinguishable from zero. Waters registering such low activities are assumed to contain negligible volumes of water recharged post-bomb peak (1955), as even small amounts of water with these higher activities would heavily skew resultant activities in these 3 H-dead samples to appear to contain high levels of modern water. Since most of the waters measured in this environment contain effectively no 3 H, our objective is not to directly estimate discrete mean residence time distributions but instead to describe the relative proportions of 3 H-dead to recent recharge (<65 years old) in these waters [ 69 ]. This relative water age value allows for the reliable interpretation of connections to modern precipitation inputs, as well as the lack thereof.

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Pie charts represent the percent modern content, colored outlines show general water type groupings, and colored dots show sample sites by their physical water type. The black crosses are precipitation sample sites. Black outlines show internally drained basins, blue solid lines are perennial streams, and blue dashed lines are intermittent streams. Important features (salars, mountains, rivers) are noted along with their elevations. (a) Map of the Salar de Atacama basin and the northern Puna region to the east, where pie charts represent the average content of inflow zones and surface waters to display all data (see Moran et al., 2022). (b) Map of the southern Puna where each pie chart represents one sample. (c) A schematic cross-section of salar-basin floor hydrogeological systems describing the physical water classifications. The basemap for (a) and (b) is World Imagery (ESRI), and the locator map is the National Geographic Style Map with country borders; they can be accessed here: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/data-appliance/2022/maps/world-imagery.htm , and https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=f33a34de3a294590ab48f246e99958c9 , respectively.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.g001

2.2. Physical water-type groupings

Sampled waters were grouped into seven physical water types. These distinctions are based on extensive knowledge of the regional hydrogeology gathered during more than ten field campaigns in Salar de Atacama on the Puna Plateau, previously published works, and scrutiny of geochemical signatures [ 33 ]. A schematic cross-section describing these water groupings is shown in Fig 1c . Nucleus Brines are groundwaters from the core of the halite-dominated brine aquifer, sampled at shallow depths <13 meters below ground level (mbgl), Marginal Brines are groundwaters from the margins of the brine aquifer, sampled at the water table (<2 mbgl). Transitional Pools are highly saline, shallow pools that form at the margin of the halite crust that grow and shrink rapidly primarily in response to precipitation events. These are often adjacent to (~1-2km away) but distinct from the Lagoons (saline lakes). Many of these Lagoon water bodies also grow and shrink seasonally and after precipitation events but are perennially extant. They are also quite shallow (<1m) but much less saline than the Transitional Pools. In Salar de Atacama we were able to access groundwater wells, whereas, in the Puna region, these brine bodies are present in the vicinity of the salars indicated in Fig 1 , there are currently very few accessible groundwater wells that could be sampled. In addition, on the high-elevation plateau, there are no true Transitional Pools as there are in Salar de Atacama. The waters classified as “inflows” are separated into three groups; Streams are perennially and intermittently flowing fresh surface waters, Inflow Groundwaters (Inflow Gw) are fresh to brackish waters sampled from wells and from persistent springs that we define as groundwater outcrops, and Transition Zone Groundwaters are brackish to saline waters sampled at the water table within the transition zone between the inflow water bodies and the brines.

2.3. Water sample analysis

To assess spatially explicit water residence times within these hydrological systems we utilize stable (δ 18 O & δ 2 H) and radiogenic ( 3 H) isotopic tracer measurements in 142 water samples collected across the Dry Andes. These include surface and groundwaters collected during numerous field campaigns between October 2011 and March 2021 in Salar de Atacama (data first presented in Moran et al. [ 14 ]) and from 2019 and 2020 on the Puna Plateau. The breakdown of these samples by physical water type is provided as the "n" value in Fig 2a , and the spatial distribution of these data is provided in Fig 1 . Samples were collected with a consistent, standardized procedure and in-situ measurements of temperature, specific conductance, and pH were made at each sampling location during collection. Tritium activity in water samples was measured at the Dissolved and Noble Gas Laboratory, University of Utah. Samples were collected in 1 L High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) bottles with minimal headspace. In the lab, 0.5 L aliquots were distilled to remove dissolved solids. These water samples were then degassed in stainless steel flasks until <0.01% of dissolved gas remained and sealed to ingrow helium. 3 H concentrations were measured by helium ingrowth [ 77 ]; 6–12 weeks is typically adequate to ingrow sufficient 3 He from the decay of 3 H (t 1/2 = 12.32 yr.; [ 78 ]) for analysis. 3 He concentrations were then measured on a MAP215-50 magnetic sector mass spectrometer using an electron multiplier to measure low abundance 3 He, which was directly correlated with the amount of 3 H decayed. Data are reported in tritium units (TU) on the date of sampling, where one TU is equivalent to one tritium atom per 10 18 hydrogen atoms ( 3 H/H*10 18 ) [ 63 ]. This method of analysis conducted at the University of Utah Noble Gas Lab has a detection limit of 0.05 TU and a measurement error of ± 2%. Several duplicate analyses of the same sample were conducted to confirm important values, and the reproducibility for these samples is of the same order as the precision of the measurement. The analytical error associated with each sample is reported along with the full dataset in the supplemental material.

Grey boxes inside the polygons show the interquartile range; red dots are the median and polygons represent the frequency distribution of the data (black dots). Data are grouped by (a) physical water type, where colors of polygons correspond to physical water type dots in Fig 1 ; (b) by elevation of sample; (c) by specific conductance of sample, where colors of polygons show fresh (blue) to brine (pink) waters; and (d) by sample elevation above the basin floor (basin floor elevations indicated in Fig 1 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.g002

Water samples were analyzed for δ 2 H and δ 18 O using wave-length scanned cavity ring-down spectroscopy (Picarro L-1102i); samples were vaporized at 120°C (150°C for higher salt content waters) in the Stable Isotope Laboratory at the University of Alaska Anchorage. International reference standards (International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria) were used to calibrate the instrument to the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water-Standard Light Antarctic Precipitation (VSMOW-SLAP) scale and working standards (USGS45: δ 2 H = -10.3‰, δ 18 O = -2.24‰ and USGS46: δ 2 H = -235.8‰, δ 18 O = -29.8‰) were used with each analytical run to correct for instrumental drift. Long-term mean and standard deviation records of a purified water laboratory internal QA/QC standard (δ 2 H = -149.80‰, δ 18 O = -19.68‰) yield an instrumental precision of 0.93‰ for δ 2 H and 0.08‰ for δ 18 O. The full dataset is provided in the supplemental material.

2.4. Inclusivity in global research

No permits were required for the collection of these data. The data not already published in Moran et al. [ 38 ] and Moran et al., [ 14 ] were collected from road crossings and public rights of way, only from natural waters, and no soil or sediments were collected. The geographical coordinates of the study sites are provided in full in the Supporting Information ( S1 Table ). Additional information regarding the ethical, cultural, and scientific considerations specific to inclusivity in global research is included in the Supporting Information ( S1 Checklist ).

3. Results & discussion

3.1. water transit time partitioning.

We assess tritium ( 3 H) activities in 142 samples representing all major physical water types covering a large swath of the Dry Andes, of these samples 37 are new data collected to expand the reach of this analysis across the Puna Plateau in Argentina and integrate with data from previous studies in Moran et al. [ 38 ] and Moran et al. [ 14 ]. In this environment where modern water and pre-modern water appear to be strongly decoupled in terms of where they exist on the landscape, determining the relative proportion of each in a sample is an effective way to define the relative transit age and therefore relative sources of water to different water bodies. A detailed summary of this analysis and the raw and derived data presented in the results is provided in the supplemental material ( S1 Table ).

The geographical distribution of relative water age across the region highlights important results concerning surface and groundwater on basin floors and inflow waters to the basins ( Fig 1 ). First, in the Salar de Atacama basin, all basin inflow waters (streams, springs, and groundwaters) are principally composed of pre-modern water (ie. 0–5% modern, [ 14 ]). Relative modern water components in inflow waters are consistent across several years, and in different seasons of site repeat sampling, larger river waters show higher seasonal and yearly variability due to their direct and more rapid interaction with modern precipitation inputs ( S1 Fig ). Waters at the basin floor, in saline surface waters, and brine groundwaters also show consistently larger components of modern water. In addition, two high-elevation (4100 masl) fresh-to-brackish lakes near the watershed divide contain ~30% modern water, similar to the basin floor surface waters. These results demonstrate the strong distinctions that exist between overall inputs to these basin water budgets and the near-surface waters at the basin floors, especially since recent inflow waters are critical to sustaining these surface waters. These general observations also describe the higher-elevation plateau endorheic basins to the east. Inflow groundwaters, which here consist of spring complexes that are effectively “outcrops” of and discharge from the groundwater system to the surface, have very low modern water content (0–2%). Basin floor waters on the plateau (saline surface waters) also have substantially higher modern water content than the nearby groundwaters.

There are a few important distinctions between water age distributions on the plateau and at the lower elevation of Salar de Atacama. One is that many of these higher elevation basin floor waters (brackish-brine lagoons) have modern water contents of >50%, some of the highest values observed in the region. Two exceptions to this are the lagoons at Salar del Hombre Muerto and Salar del Carachi Pampa. Another key distinction is the consistently high modern water content in streams on the Puna plateau, particularly in the large perennial rivers of Rio Los Patos and Rio Punilla which average ~22% modern, and streams in the northern Puna region which average 46%. The vegetated wetland complexes above the basin floors, common to the high elevations of this region, have consistently higher modern water content than nearby groundwaters and streams. The commonalities in transit age across the whole region and the distinctions between low-elevation and high-elevation systems are valuable in deciphering the dominant controls on water transport and interconnectivity.

Examining the distribution of these data across the region allows for further examination of common dominant controlling mechanisms across the many individual basin systems. Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted on data groupings in each panel of Fig 2 showing that the groupings chosen are statistically unique (P-value <0.001) except when grouped by Sample Elevation Above Basin Floor (P-value = 0.09), detailed results of these tests are provided in the supplemental material ( S2 Table ). Fig 2a shows the distribution of the water age ratios grouped by water type, a definition based on the position between recharge and discharge zone, and salinity (described schematically in Fig 1c ). Inflow groundwaters average <5% modern water content, similar to stream waters yet stream data skew towards very low modern water values. Importantly several stream samples show higher modern water content of between 15% and 60%, these samples are of the large perennial streams mentioned above. Saline surface waters near the basin floors average 20–30% modern while the lagoons (perennial saline lakes) in particular show a large range in values but also skew towards the lower values. The brine groundwater bodies within the salar evaporites and the brackish groundwaters in the transition zone between fresh inflow and brine (TZ Gw) show two primary groupings of relative age. One of very low modern water content and the other close to 25% modern, this younger water component is most clearly shown in the marginal brine waters but is also present in the other two water bodies. Grouped by sample elevation we observe that on average, more modern water exists near the surface above 3000 masl but also that waters with very small modern components are present at all elevations ( Fig 2b ). Importantly the lowest elevations show clusters of samples with modern content similar to the highest elevations. These characteristics can also be seen when grouped by elevation above the basin floor ( Fig 2d ), where samples collected highest above the basin floor average higher modern water content. Most samples were collected very near basin floors, which reflects the concentration of near-surface water and its absence elsewhere and shows a wide distribution of water ages. Grouped by specific conductivity (a proxy for salinity) we see that the freshest water is predominately relic but also that there are many freshwaters with much higher modern content. Average water age generally increases with salinity, but the saltiest waters (brines) also contain a range of ages from <3% modern to nearly 95% modern. These results provide many important insights into where pre-modern and modern water persist in this system, their sources, and how they interact.

These results indicate a strong influence of hydroclimate, topography, and hydrogeology on transit time and modern water inputs. In this arid environment, modern water is not spatially common but differences in climate across the region have important influences on surface hydrology. Region-wide, groundwaters, and most streams have very small modern components reflecting the long transit times from their source waters. But the large perennially flowing streams that occur mostly at the colder and slightly wetter climate at these higher elevations, have a substantial portion of their flow composed of modern water. Vegetated wetland complexes or vegas can be extensive and often form near basin floors at the periphery of salars, high elevation wetlands or peatlands referred to in this region as bofedales also occur sporadically on the Puna above 3800 masl around groundwater discharge points or springs [ 79 ]. Although these two systems are characterized by different ecology, they display similar hydrological characteristics in that they are strongly connected to recent precipitation inputs; we refer to all these systems together herein as vegas. The consistently strong signature in surface water bodies at basin floors exists across the region but the somewhat wetter climate at higher elevations elevates their modern water component slightly. Specific hydrogeological and ecological conditions that allow water tables to persist close to the surface (<5m) are a shared feature of all the water bodies mentioned above. The basin floors and the vegetated wetlands are the only places in this environment where laterally extensive fine-grained sedimentary units occur [ 33 ]. We argue that these conditions strongly control how modern water enters and moves through this system since most precipitation either evaporates in the thick vadose zones or slowly infiltrates towards the groundwater table below.

3.2. Hydrogeological mechanisms controlling source partitioning

We further investigate mechanisms controlling the partitioning of waters in this environment using d-excess signatures paired with percent modern water content ( Fig 3a ). The d-excess provides a reliable measure of the amount of evaporation a sampled water has undergone, placing important constraints on waters that have had little or no atmospheric interaction from that which has undergone substantial evaporation (waters with increasing negative values). We group all stream samples by average streamflow at the sample site to highlight the relative size of each stream and therefore the relative volume of modern water represented by the ratio (data provided in S3 Table ).

(a) Processes controlling physical water distinctions and interactions based on 3 H, δ 18 O, and δ 2 H signatures. Circles are proportional to the average magnitude of discharge at each stream site, SdA streams are plotted within the black dashed box. The grey vertical bar is the GMWL, and the blue box at the top represents the approximate range of meteoric input waters in the region (based on Moran et al., 2019 data). Arrows depict the influence of important hydrological processes and interactions. (b) These data plotted in δ 18 O-δ 2 H space relative to the LMWL (Rissmann et al. 2015) and evaporation trends of basin floor waters in Salar de Atacama and on the higher elevation Puna plateau.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.g003

The inflow groundwaters plot close to the GMWL as they are composed of infiltration that interacted minimally with the atmosphere before becoming groundwater, and their modern water content indicates nearly all of their volume is composed of relic water. The streams also plot along the GMWL and most have similar mean age profiles to the inflow groundwaters while some have many times the amount of modern water in them. This likely reflects the fact that inflow groundwater is relic regional groundwater and provides the baseflow to streams in this environment. But some of the streams, particularly the large streams on the Puna plateau are composed of a large amount of recent meteoric water that does not show a strong evaporation signature. The vegas also have a similar signature to these large Puna streams. The other major water groupings display a few distinctive characteristics. Marginal brines and transitional pools plot in a similar position likely reflecting similar sources and interactions between these water bodies. The nucleus brine waters show less evaporation, indicating a distinct combination of sources but skew more towards the regional groundwaters than the marginal water bodies. The lagoon waters tend to fall between the nucleus brines and the marginal/transitional pool waters with a large range of modern components and are less evaporated than the other saline surface waters suggesting they are more closely connected to the inflow waters than other basin floor water bodies.

These results reiterate that most inflow is relic water but also show that large streams particularly on the higher elevation plateau can transport substantial volumes of modern water relatively quickly through these systems. These streams along with the vegetated wetland complexes appear to be the primary hydrological conditions under which fresh modern water is captured and transported within human time scales. The fact that the saline basin floor surface water bodies also contain substantial amounts of modern water and that these four water types (streams, vegas, lagoons, and transitional pools) are the only places where water tables exist near the surface in this environment demonstrates this is the primary pathway of modern hydroclimate connection to the larger hydrological cycle. We present the two principle archetypal frameworks that describe these climate-surface water-groundwater interactions in this system.

We define the archetypal flow systems in this environment which describe and integrate our observations of transit time and flow paths in the Dry Andes ( Fig 4 ). The Ephemeral Surface Flow System is the more common type and is defined by steep topography and structural and hydrogeological conditions that promote infiltration and drop water tables well below the surface ( Fig 4a ). Intermittent streams do often form downgradient of spring complexes in these systems (for example in the southern and eastern parts of the Salar de Atacama and to the east of Salar de Carchi Pampa) but generally flow for short distances downgradient of spring discharge and/or intermittently during large rain events. These streams are fed almost entirely by regional groundwater and contain very small or transitory proportions of modern water. Perched aquifers do form, in the vicinity of vegetated wetlands at elevation and particularly near the basin floors where the abundance of fine-grained deposits and evaporite precipitation prevents infiltration directly to the deeper water table, these perched aquifers allow moderately aged (years-decades) waters to feed basin floors and importantly create persistent shallow water tables that allow recent rainfall to mix with the saturated zone near the surface. We argue that these conditions are what maintain the vegetated wetlands and lagoons at elevation and allow them to capture and transmit modern precipitation. The dimensions and depth of the water table constitute the dominant control on surface water formation and modern hydroclimate connections in these systems.

The size of the 3 H symbol and pie charts show the relative modern water content in major water bodies and along flow paths. Arrows show general flow paths from precipitation-to-recharge-to-groundwater, colored by relative modern water content from green-to-blue with the predicted presence of very old “Fossil” water in teal. Straight arrows show general modern precipitation inputs and regional groundwaters, and zig-zag arrows represent water fluxes to and from the surface scaled by relative flux magnitude. General water body types and geology are colored and textured. (a) Represents the archetype dominated by ephemeral streams and regional groundwater fluxes, (b) represents the archetype dominated by perennial streams that act as efficient conduits for modern water.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.g004

The other primary archetype in this environment is a perennial surface flow system which is defined primarily by relatively large perennial streams that are also fed predominantly by regional groundwater (baseflow) but maintain consistent flow in all seasons and over large distances (30–100 km) ( Fig 4b ). Smaller topographic gradients and/or hydrological conditions that allow these streams to form create unique hydrological systems that capture more modern rainfall and move it efficiently toward basin floors. The presence of this perennial surface water itself, like shallow water tables, creates conduits that capture modern rainfall and runoff before it evaporates or begins infiltrating through the thick vadose zones. The presence of these conduits is the primary control on connections between the modern hydroclimate and surface waters in these systems. Across most of this arid landscape, when rainfall does occur, much of it rapidly evaporates at the surface and as it makes its way toward the water table, the 0.01–5% of that water that reaches the water table as groundwater recharge (now and during past climate conditions) sustains the regional groundwater system [ 28 , 80 ]. These mechanisms are also responsible for maintaining the saline water bodies near the basin floors and on the salars. Groundwater discharge is focused near the basin floor where the topography flattens and fine-grained units have accumulated, creating permeability contrasts that both force water to the surface and restrict infiltration. These conditions create persistent shallow water tables that in turn allow modern waters to efficiently mix with relic groundwaters.

3.3. Implications for society and ecosystems

The pronounced decoupling between basin-to-regional scale groundwaters, which constitute the primary inflow to these endorheic basins, and local, modern precipitation inputs has major implications for the management and future sustainability of water systems in the Dry Andes and other arid mountain environments. Our results show that modern precipitation comprises only a small portion of modern hydrological budgets in these environments but is critical to maintaining surface water bodies and vegetation due to a unique but intrinsic set of hydrogeological conditions that have developed in these environments. The Sixth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports a high confidence projection of increased drought extent and severity in the area [ 81 ], which presents threats to the delicate balance of these environments and hydrological systems. Prolonged droughts have been shown to cause major and rapid changes to surface water systems in this region over the last few decades [ 14 , 54 ]. It is critical to understand the current interplay between pre-modern and modern waters to define how human use and changing temperature and precipitation in the region could alter the integrity of these systems. We define the modern and relic water systems in this region for the first time within a framework that reconciles the prevalence of relic groundwater in these environments with the observations of rapid changes to surface waters in response to natural and anthropogenic perturbations.

A major focus in these watersheds is the interplay between competing use of water by a variety of riparian stakeholders and the policies and use rights conferred by water managers. Demands for water resources exist from current metal mines and the massive expansion of exploration for lithium among other commodities, indigenous communities, agriculture, as well as the environmental flows required to maintain existing ecosystem services and functions. There is a lack of watershed-specific knowledge of water resources in the region, meaning that water management is naïve to the pre-modern and modern water balance dynamics. If left unfilled, this knowledge gap could lead to use patterns that threaten the viability of these hydrological systems. Moreover, there is limited regional coordination and oversight related to water management in the area which exacerbates the sustainable water management challenge.

4. Conclusion

The work presented in this study provides an important starting point for filling the technical knowledge gap surrounding water balances in these environments. The study develops a general but rigorous framework for users of water in these basins and presents the opportunity to revise water budgets within scientifically justifiable bounds that do not require steady-state closure of basin budgets to allocate water resources more responsibly. In addition, this new understanding can greatly improve our ability to attribute current and future impacts from anthropogenic activities in fragile wetlands systems and predict and respond more effectively to the accelerating impacts of human-induced climate change. This analysis and the new hydrological conceptual models we present will improve our ability to reduce the risk of depleting vulnerable freshwater resources and damaging ecosystems reliant on the delicate balance between modern and pre-modern water inputs and plan human development that avoids the most damaging potential impacts on water quantity and quality. For instance, a particular focus with high potential benefit would be to prioritize the protection of these modern water conduits we’ve identified from disruption or obstruction and/or the removal of existing obstructions. An understanding of connections to modern and past climates will also improve our ability to plan for the effects of future climate changes in these environments.

Supporting information

S1 fig. time series of tracer data from sites of repeated sampling within the presented datasets..

Names and water types correspond to the sample site name in S1 Table .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.s001

S1 Checklist. PLOS’ questionnaire on inclusivity in global research completed with our responses.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.s002

S1 Table. Summary of 3H data and results presented in this work.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.s003

S2 Table. Description of Kruskal-Wallis test results conducted on groupings of percent modern water content data.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.s004

S3 Table. Summary of hydrophysical data and results used in this work.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.s005

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000191.s006

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Felicity Arengo, Patricia Marconi, and Diego Frau for inviting us to join multiple sampling campaigns that were pivotal to collecting the data that initiated this study on the Puna. We also want to thank Ricki Sheldon, the Consejo de Pueblos Atacameños, Asociación de Agricultores Zapar, Asociación de Agricultores Soncor, Comunidad de Toconao, Comunidad de Catarpe, Comunidad de Coyo, Familia Bautista de Tambillo, and CONAF for graciously volunteering to access and conduct sampling that was pivotal to this study.

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MyU : For Students, Faculty, and Staff

News Roundup Spring 2024

The Class of 2024 spring graduation celebration

CEGE Spring Graduation Celebration and Order of the Engineer

Forty-seven graduates of the undergraduate and grad student programs (pictured above) in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering took part in the Order of the Engineer on graduation day. Distinguished Speakers at this departmental event included Katrina Kessler (MS EnvE 2021), Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and student Brian Balquist. Following this event, students participated in the college-wide Commencement Ceremony at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

UNIVERSITY & DEPARTMENT

The University of Minnesota’s Crookston, Duluth, and Rochester campuses have been awarded the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement, joining the Twin Cities (2006, 2015) and Morris campuses (2015), and making the U of M the country’s first and only university system at which every individual campus has received this selective designation. Only 368 from nearly 4,000 qualifying U.S. universities and colleges have been granted this designation.

CEGE contributed strongly to the College of Science and Engineering’s efforts toward sustainability research. CEGE researchers are bringing in over $35 million in funded research to study carbon mineralization, nature and urban areas, circularity of water resources, and global snowfall patterns. This news was highlighted in the Fall 2023 issue of Inventing Tomorrow (pages 10-11). https://issuu.com/inventingtomorrow/docs/fall_2023_inventing_tomorrow-web

CEGE’s new program for a one-year master’s degree in structural engineering is now accepting applicants for Fall 2024. We owe a big thanks to DAN MURPHY and LAURA AMUNDSON for their volunteer work to help curate the program with Professor JIA-LIANG LE and EBRAHIM SHEMSHADIAN, the program director. Potential students and companies interested in hosting a summer intern can contact Ebrahim Shemshadian ( [email protected] ).

BERNIE BULLERT , CEGE benefactor and MN Water Research Fund founder, was profiled on the website of the University of Minnesota Foundation (UMF). There you can read more about his mission to share clean water technologies with smaller communities in Minnesota. Many have joined Bullert in this mission. MWRF Recognizes their Generous 2024 Partners. Gold Partners: Bernie Bullert, Hawkins, Inc., Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and SL-serco. Silver Partners: ISG, Karl and Pam Streed, Kasco, Kelly Lange-Haider and Mark Haider, ME Simpson, Naeem Qureshi, Dr. Paul H. Boening, TKDA, and Waterous. Bronze Partners: Bruce R. Bullert; Brenda Lenz, Ph.D., APRN FNP-C, CNE; CDM Smith; Central States Water Environment Association (CSWEA MN); Heidi and Steve Hamilton; Jim “Bulldog” Sadler; Lisa and Del Cerney; Magney Construction; Sambatek; Shannon and John Wolkerstorfer; Stantec; and Tenon Systems.

After retiring from Baker-Tilly, NICK DRAGISICH (BCE 1977) has taken on a new role: City Council member in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. After earning his BCE from the University of Minnesota, Dragisich earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas. Dragisich retired in May from his position as managing director at Baker Tilly, where he had previously served as firm director. Prior to that, he served as assistant city manager in Spokane, Washington, was the city administrator and city engineer in Virginia, Minnesota, and was mayor of Chisholm, Minnesota—all adding up to more than 40 years of experience in local government. Dragisich was selected by a unanimous vote. His current term expires in December 2024.

PAUL F. GNIRK (Ph.D. 1966) passed away January 29, 2024, at the age of 86. A memorial service was held Saturday, February 24, at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T), where he started and ended his teaching career, though he had many other positions, professional and voluntary. In 2018 Paul was inducted into the SDSM&T Hardrocker Hall of Fame, and in 2022, he was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, joining his mother Adeline S. Gnirk, who had been inducted in 1987 for her work authoring nine books on the history of south central South Dakota.

ROGER M. HILL (BCE 1957) passed away on January 13, 2024, at the age of 90. His daughter, Kelly Robinson, wrote to CEGE that Roger was “a dedicated Gopher fan until the end, and we enjoyed many football games together in recent years. Thank you for everything.”

KAUSER JAHAN (Ph.D. 1993, advised by Walter Maier), PE, is now a civil and environmental engineering professor and department head at Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering. Jahan was awarded a 3-year (2022- 2025), $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The grant supports her project, “WaterWorks: Developing the New Generation of Workforce for Water/Wastewater Utilities,” for the development of educational tools that will expose and prepare today’s students for careers in water and wastewater utilities.

SAURA JOST (BCE 2010, advised by Timothy LaPara) was elected to the St. Paul City Council for Ward 3. She is part of the historic group of women that make up the nation’s first all-female city council in a large city.

The 2024 ASCE Western Great Lakes Student Symposium combines several competitions for students involved in ASCE. CEGE sent a large contingent of competitors to Chicago. Each of the competition groups won awards: Ethics Paper 1st place Hans Lagerquist; Sustainable Solutions team 1st place overall in (qualifying them for the National competition in Utah in June); GeoWall 2nd place overall; Men’s Sprint for Concrete Canoe with rowers Sakthi Sundaram Saravanan and Owen McDonald 2nd place; Product Prototype for Concrete Canoe 2nd place; Steel Bridge (200 lb bridge weight) 2nd place in lightness; Scavenger Hunt 3rd place; and Aesthetics and Structural Efficiency for Steel Bridge 4th place.

Students competing on the Minnesota Environmental Engineers, Scientists, and Enthusiasts (MEESE) team earned second place in the Conference on the Environment undergraduate student design competition in November 2023. Erin Surdo is the MEESE Faculty Adviser. Pictured are NIKO DESHPANDE, ANNA RETTLER, and SYDNEY OLSON.

The CEGE CLASS OF 2023 raised money to help reduce the financial barrier for fellow students taking the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, a cost of $175 per test taker. As a result of this gift, they were able to make the exam more affordable for 15 current CEGE seniors. CEGE students who take the FE exam pass the first time at a rate well above national averages, demonstrating that CEGE does a great job of teaching engineering fundamentals. In 2023, 46 of 50 students passed the challenging exam on the first try.

This winter break, four CEGE students joined 10 other students from the College of Science and Engineering for the global seminar, Design for Life: Water in Tanzania. The students visited numerous sites in Tanzania, collected water source samples, designed rural water systems, and went on safari. Read the trip blog: http://globalblogs.cse.umn.edu/search/label/Tanzania%202024

Undergraduate Honor Student MALIK KHADAR (advised by Dr. Paul Capel) received honorable mention for the Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award for undergraduate students who show outstanding research potential in an area of computing research.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

AKASH BHAT (advised by William Arnold) presented his Ph.D. defense on Friday, October 27, 2023. Bhat’s thesis is “Photolysis of fluorochemicals: Tracking fluorine, use of UV-LEDs, and computational insights.” Bhat’s work investigating the degradation of fluorinated compounds will assist in the future design of fluorinated chemicals such that persistent and/or toxic byproducts are not formed in the environment.

ETHAN BOTMEN (advised by Bill Arnold) completed his Master of Science Final Exam February 28, 2024. His research topic was Degradation of Fluorinated Compounds by Nucleophilic Attack of Organo-fluorine Functional Groups.

XIATING CHEN , Ph.D. Candidate in Water Resources Engineering at the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory is the recipient of the 2023 Nels Nelson Memorial Fellowship Award. Chen (advised by Xue Feng) is researching eco-hydrological functions of urban trees and other green infrastructure at both the local and watershed scale, through combined field observations and modeling approaches.

ALICE PRATES BISSO DAMBROZ has been a Visiting Student Researcher at the University of Minnesota since last August, on a Doctoral Dissertation Research Award from Fulbright. Her CEGE advisor is Dr. Paul Capel. Dambroz is a fourth year Ph.D. student in Soil Science at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria in Brazil, where she studies with her adviser Jean Minella. Her research focuses on the hydrological monitoring of a small agricultural watershed in Southern Brazil, which is located on a transition area between volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Its topography, shallow soils, and land use make it prone to runoff and erosion processes.

Yielding to people in crosswalks should be a very pedestrian topic. Yet graduate student researchers TIANYI LI, JOSHUA KLAVINS, TE XU, NIAZ MAHMUD ZAFRI (Dept.of Urban and Regional Planning at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology), and Professor Raphael Stern found that drivers often do not yield to pedestrians, but they are influenced by the markings around a crosswalk. Their work was picked up by the Minnesota Reformer.

TIANYI LI (Ph.D. student advised by Raphael Stern) also won the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation (DDET) Fellowship for the third time! Li (center) and Stern (right) are pictured at the Federal Highway Administration with Latoya Jones, the program manager for the DDET Fellowship.

The Three Minute Thesis Contest and the Minnesota Nice trophy has become an annual tradition in CEGE. 2023’s winner was EHSANUR RAHMAN , a Ph.D. student advised by Boya Xiong.

GUANJU (WILLIAM) WEI , a Ph.D. student advised by Judy Yang, is the recipient of the 2023 Heinz G. Stefan Fellowship. He presented his research entitled Microfluidic Investigation of the Biofilm Growth under Dynamic Fluid Environments and received his award at the St. Anthony Falls Research Laboratory April 9. The results of Wei's research can be used in industrial, medical, and scientific fields to control biofilm growth.

BILL ARNOLD stars in an award-winning video about prairie potholes. The Prairie Potholes Project film was made with the University of Delaware and highlights Arnold’s NSF research. The official winners of the 2024 Environmental Communications Awards Competition Grand Prize are Jon Cox and Ben Hemmings who produced and directed the film. Graduate student Marcia Pacheco (CFANS/LAAS) and Bill Arnold are the on-screen stars.

Four faculty from CEGE join the Center for Transportation Studies Faculty and Research Scholars for FY24–25: SEONGJIN CHOI, KETSON ROBERTO MAXIMIANO DOS SANTOS, PEDRAM MORTAZAVI, and BENJAMIN WORSFOLD . CTS Scholars are drawn from diverse fields including engineering, planning, computer science, environmental studies, and public policy.

XUE FENG is coauthor on an article in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment . The authors evaluate global plant responses to changing rainfall regimes that are now characterized by fewer and larger rainfall events. A news release written at Univ. of Maryland can be found here: https://webhost.essic. umd.edu/april-showers-bring-mayflowers- but-with-drizzles-or-downpours/ A long-running series of U of M research projects aimed at improving stormwater quality are beginning to see practical application by stormwater specialists from the Twin Cities metro area and beyond. JOHN GULLIVER has been studying best practices for stormwater management for about 16 years. Lately, he has focused specifically on mitigating phosphorous contamination. His research was highlighted by the Center for Transportation Studies.

JIAQI LI, BILL ARNOLD, and RAYMOND HOZALSKI published a paper on N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) precursors in Minnesota rivers. “Animal Feedlots and Domestic Wastewater Discharges are Likely Sources of N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) Precursors in Midwestern Watersheds,” Environmental Science and Technology (January 2024) doi: 10.1021/acs. est.3c09251

ALIREZA KHANI contributed to MnDOT research on Optimizing Charging Infrastructure for Electric Trucks. Electric options for medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks (e-trucks) are still largely in development. These trucks account for a substantial percentage of transportation greenhouse gas emissions. They have greater power needs and different charging needs than personal EVs. Proactively planning for e-truck charging stations will support MnDOT in helping to achieve the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. This research was featured in the webinar “Electrification of the Freight System in Minnesota,” hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies. A recording of the event is now available online.

MICHAEL LEVIN has developed a unique course for CEGE students on Air Transportation Systems. It is the only class at UMN studying air transportation systems from an infrastructure design and management perspective. Spring 2024 saw the third offering of this course, which is offered for juniors, seniors, and graduate students.

Research Professor SOFIA (SONIA) MOGILEVSKAYA has been developing international connections. She visited the University of Seville, Spain, November 13–26, 2023, where she taught a short course titled “Fundamentals of Homogenization in Composites.” She also met with the graduate students to discuss collaborative research with Prof. Vladislav Mantic, from the Group of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis at the University of Seville. Her visit was a part of planned activities within the DIAGONAL Consortium funded by the European Commission. CEGE UMN is a partner organization within DIAGONAL, represented by CEGE professors Mogilevskaya and Joseph Labuz. Mantic will visit CEGE summer 2024 to follow up on research developments and discuss plans for future collaboration and organization of short-term exchange visits for the graduate students from each institution.

DAVID NEWCOMB passed away in March. He was a professor in CEGE from 1989–99 in the area of pavement engineering. Newcomb led the research program on asphalt materials characterization. He was the technical director of Mn/ROAD pavement research facility, and he started an enduring collaboration with MnDOT that continues today. In 2000, he moved from Minnesota to become vice-president for Research and Technology at the National Asphalt Pavement Association. Later he moved to his native Texas, where he was appointed to the division head of Materials and Pavement at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a position from which he recently retired. He will be greatly missed.

PAIGE NOVAK won Minnesota ASCE’s 2023 Distinguished Engineer of the Year Award for her contributions to society through her engineering achievements and professional experiences.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced ten inaugural (NSF) Regional Innovation Engines awards, with a potential $1.6 billion investment nationally over the next decade. Great Lakes ReNEW is led by the Chicago-based water innovation hub, Current, and includes a team from the University of Minnesota, including PAIGE NOVAK. Current will receive $15 mil for the first two years, and up to $160 million over ten years to develop and grow a water-focused innovation engine in the Great Lakes region. The project’s ambitious plan is to create a decarbonized circular “blue economy” to leverage the region’s extraordinary water resources to transform the upper Midwest—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Brewing one pint of beer generates seven pints of wastewater, on average. So what can you do with that wastewater? PAIGE NOVAK and her team are exploring the possibilities of capturing pollutants in wastewater and using bacteria to transform them into energy.

BOYA XIONG has been selected as a recipient of the 2024 40 Under 40 Recognition Program by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. The award was presented at the 2024 AAEES Awards Ceremony, April 11, 2024, at the historic Howard University in Washington, D.C.

JUDY Q. YANG received a McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Award. This two-year award recognizes promising assistant professors and is intended to advance the careers of individuals who have the potential to make significant contributions to their departments and their scholarly fields.

Professor Emeritus CHARLES FAIRHURST , his son CHARLES EDWARD FAIRHURST , and his daughter MARGARET FAIRHURST DURENBERGER were on campus recently to present Department Head Paige Novak with a check for $25,000 for the Charles Fairhurst Fellowship in Earth Resources Engineering in support of graduate students studying geomechanics. The life of Charles Fairhurst through a discussion with his children is featured on the Engineering and Technology History Wiki at https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Charles_Fairhurst#00:00:14_INTRODUCTION

About Handwashing

Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running water.
Handwashing with soap is one of the best ways to stay healthy.
If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol to clean your hands.

Why it's important

Washing hands can keep you healthy and prevent the spread of respiratory and diarrheal infections. Germs can spread from person to person or from surfaces to people when you:

Touch your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
Prepare or eat food and drinks with unwashed hands
Touch surfaces or objects that have germs on them
Blow your nose, cough, or sneeze into hands and then touch other people's hands or common objects

Key times to wash hands

You can help yourself and your loved ones stay healthy by washing your hands often, especially during these key times when you are likely to get and spread germs:

Before, during, and after preparing food
Before and after eating food
Before and after caring for someone at home who is sick with vomiting or diarrhea
Before and after treating a cut or wound
After using the toilet
After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
After handling pet food or pet treats
After touching garbage

How it works

Washing your hands is easy, and it’s one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs. Follow these five steps every time.

Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds . Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
Dry your hands using a clean towel or an air dryer.

Use hand sanitizer when you can't use soap and water

Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs in most situations. If soap and water are not readily available, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. You can tell if the sanitizer contains at least 60% alcohol by looking at the product label.

What you can do

CDC has health promotion materials to encourage kids and adults to make handwashing part of their everyday lives.

Share social media graphics and messages.
Print stickers and place clings on bathroom mirrors.
Promote handwashing on or around Global Handwashing Day , celebrated each year on October 15.
Distribute fact sheets to share information about hand hygiene for specific audiences.
Frequent Questions About Hand Hygiene
Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings
The Life is Better with Clean Hands Campaign

Clean Hands

Having clean hands is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick and prevent the spread of germs to others.

For Everyone

Health care providers.

Cost of living help and a future made in Australia

Investing in a future made in australia.

Investing in a Future Made in Australia and the skills to make it a reality

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Attracting investment in key industries

Making Australians the beneficiaries of change

A Future Made in Australia is about creating new jobs and opportunities for every part of our country by maximising the economic and industrial benefits of the move to net zero and securing Australia’s place in a changing global economic and strategic landscape.

The Government’s $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia package will help facilitate the private sector investment required for Australia to be an indispensable part of the global economy.

For more information refer to the Future Made in Australia fact sheet [PDF 438KB]

Better deploying capital in priority areas

The Future Made in Australia package will realise Australia’s potential to become a renewable energy superpower, value‑add to our resources and strengthen economic security by better attracting and enabling investment in priority areas. The Government will create a Future Made in Australia Act and establish a National Interest Framework that identifies priority industries and ensures investments associated with them are responsible and targeted.

The Framework will have a focus on industries that contribute to the net zero transformation where Australia has a comparative advantage, and where Australia has national interest imperatives related to economic resilience and security.

Strengthening and streamlining approvals

This Budget provides a faster pathway to better decisions on environmental, energy, planning, cultural heritage and foreign investment approvals.

This includes:

$134.2 million to better prioritise approvals for renewable energy projects of national significance, and support faster decisions on environment, cultural heritage and planning approvals.
Working with the states and territories through the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council to accelerate electricity grid connections.
$20.7 million to improve engagement with communities impacted by the energy transition and accelerate the delivery of key energy projects.
$15.7 million to strengthen scrutiny of high‑risk foreign investment proposals, enhance monitoring and enforcement activities and support faster decisions.

The Government will also encourage foreign investment by providing refunds of 75 per cent of application fees for unsuccessful competitive bids.

Promoting sustainable finance

The Government is committing $17.3 million to mobilise private sector investment in sustainable activities. This includes extending Australia’s sustainable finance taxonomy to the agriculture sector and developing a labelling regime for financial products marketed as sustainable.

The Government will also examine opportunities to improve data quality and provide $1.3 million to develop and issue guidance for best practice transition plans.

Making Australia a renewable energy superpower

Powering australia with cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy.

Australia’s potential to produce abundant renewable energy is a powerful source of comparative advantage. To realise this, the Government is unlocking more than $65 billion of investment in renewable capacity through the Capacity Investment Scheme by 2030.

This Budget helps Australians benefit from cheaper, cleaner energy sooner by investing $27.7 million to integrate consumer energy resources like batteries and solar into the grid.

The New Vehicle Efficiency Standard will save Australians around $95 billion at the bowser by 2050 and reduce transport emissions.

Unlocking investment in net zero industries and jobs

This Budget accelerates growth of new industries by establishing the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund and delivering a 10‑year extension of funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. It also delivers the $44.4 million Energy Industry Jobs Plan and $134.2 million for skills and employment support in key regions.

The Future Made in Australia package establishes time‑limited incentives to invest in new industries. The Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive will make Australia’s pipeline of hydrogen projects commercial sooner, at an estimated cost of $6.7 billion over the decade. This Budget also expands the Hydrogen Headstart program by $1.3 billion.

Boosting demand for Australia’s green exports

The Government is making it easier for businesses and trading partners to source low‑emissions products by building better markets and product standards for green products.

This Budget provides $32.2 million to fast‑track the initial phase of the Guarantee of Origin scheme, focused on renewable hydrogen, and bring forward the expansion of the scheme to accredit the emissions content of green metals and low‑carbon liquid fuels. The Government is also working closely with trading partners to identify opportunities to drive greater supply chain transparency and better market recognition of high environmental, social and governance standards in the critical minerals sector.

Realising the opportunities of the net zero transformation

Australia is committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and is developing six sector plans covering:

electricity and energy
agriculture and land
the built environment.

This Budget continues investment in effective emissions abatement, including through $63.8 million to support emissions reduction efforts in the agriculture and land sector.

The Government is also investing $399 million to establish the Net Zero Economy Authority and support the economy‑wide net zero transformation. This Budget also invests an additional $48 million in reforms to the Australian Carbon Credit Unit scheme and $20.7 million to improve community engagement.

Strengthening resources and economic security

Backing a strong resources sector.

The Government is investing $8.8 billion over the decade to add more value to our resources and strengthen critical minerals supply chains. This Budget establishes a production tax incentive for processing and refining critical minerals at an estimated cost of $7 billion over the decade. It commits up to $1.2 billion in strategic critical minerals projects through the Critical Minerals Facility and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, and pre‑feasibility studies for common user precincts.

This is in addition to $566.1 million to support Geoscience Australia to map all of Australia’s critical minerals, strategic materials, groundwater and other resources essential for the transition to net zero.

Manufacturing clean energy technologies

The Government is committing $1.5 billion to manufacturing clean energy technologies, including the $1 billion Solar Sunshot and $523.2 million Battery Breakthrough Initiative. These investments will be delivered by ARENA.

Strengthening supply chains

To support the delivery of the 82 per cent renewable energy target, the Government has formed the National Renewable Energy Supply Chain Action Plan with states and territories. The Government will invest an additional $14.3 million working with trade partners to support global rules on unfair trade practices and to negotiate benchmarks for trade in high quality critical minerals.

Digital, science and innovation

Investing in new technologies and capabilities.

The Government is investing $466.4 million to partner with PsiQuantum and the Queensland Government to build the world’s first commercial‑scale quantum computer in Brisbane.

The Government will undertake a strategic examination of Australia’s research and development (R&D) system with $38.2 million invested in a range of science, technology, engineering, and maths programs.

The Government is providing $448.7 million to partner with the United States in the Landsat Next satellite program to provide access to critical data to monitor the earth’s climate, agricultural production, and natural disasters.

Modernising and digitising industries

This Budget commits $288.1 million to support Australia’s Digital ID System. A National Robotics Strategy will also be released to promote the responsible production and adoption of robotics and automation technologies for advanced manufacturing in Australia.

Reforming tertiary education

The Government is committing $1.6 billion over 5 years, and an additional $2.7 billion from 2028–29 to 2034–35 to reform the tertiary education system and deliver Australia's future workforce.

This includes $1.1 billion for reforms to university funding and tertiary system governance.

Over $500 million will be provided for skills and training in priority industries and to support women’s participation in these sectors.

The Government will set a tertiary attainment target of 80 per cent of the working‑age population by 2050.

Supporting students on placements

The Government will establish Commonwealth Prac Payments (CPP) for students undertaking mandatory placements. From 1 July 2025, the payment will provide more than 73,000 eligible students, including teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers with $319.50 per week during their placements.

Felicity is a full‑time student receiving Youth Allowance, living by herself. She is studying a Bachelor of Nursing and must stop paid work during her mandatory prac placement. During her prac, Felicity receives $712.05 per week from the Government including: $319.50 of CPP, $285.55 of Youth Allowance (YA), $103.50 of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) and $3.50 of Energy Supplement.

Felicity receives $351.55 a week more than she would have in 2023 before indexation and the changes to YA, CRA and CPP in the current and 2023–24 Budget

Broadening access to university

From January 2026, needs‑based funding will provide per student funding contributions for under‑represented students. The Government will also provide $350.3 million to fully fund university enabling courses and increase pathways for prospective students to university.

Skills pipeline for priority industries

Skills and training for Future Made in Australia industries

The Government will expand eligibility to the New Energy Apprenticeships Program to include work in the clean energy sector, including in construction and advanced manufacturing. This will provide access to $10,000 incentive payments and support our target of 10,000 new energy apprentices.

The Government will commit $30 million to turbocharge the VET teaching workforce for clean energy courses and $50 million to upgrade and expand clean energy training facilities.

The Government will invest $55.6 million to establish the Building Women’s Careers program to support women’s participation in key industries including clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Supporting apprentices and building the construction workforce

The $5,000 support payments to apprentices in priority occupations will be maintained for another 12 months to 1 July 2025, up from $3,000 in the absence of any changes. Employers of these apprentices will receive a $5,000 hiring incentive, up from $4,000 in the absence of changes. This will provide certainty to apprentices while the Strategic Review of the Apprenticeship Incentive System is underway.

The Government will also invest $88.8 million to deliver 20,000 new fee‑free TAFE places including pre‑apprenticeships in courses relevant to the construction sector. The Government will provide $1.8 million to deliver streamlined skills assessments for around 1,900 migrants from comparable countries to work in Australia’s housing construction industry.

Strengthening our defence industry capability

An integrated and focused approach to defending Australia

The Government is investing an additional $50.3 billion over ten years to implement the 2024 National Defence Strategy to meet Australia’s strategic needs.

Overall funding for Defence will reach $765 billion over the decade. Defence’s Integrated Investment Program has been rebuilt to create a focused Australian Defence Force, accelerate delivery of priority capabilities, and provide certainty to grow Australia’s defence industry. This includes funding for the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet and establishing a guided weapons and explosive ordnance manufacturing capability earlier.

The Government is reforming Defence’s budget to support the National Defence Strategy and delivery of priority capabilities.

Developing defence industry and skills

Industry development grants funding of $165.7 million will also help businesses to scale up and deliver the Sovereign Defence Industrial Priorities, which include continuous naval shipbuilding and sustainment, and development and integration of autonomous systems.

The Government is providing $101.8 million to attract and retain the skilled industrial workforce to support Australian shipbuilding and delivery of conventionally armed, nuclear powered submarines. This includes a pilot apprenticeship program in shipbuilding trades and technologies.

Investing in civil maritime capabilities

The Government is providing $123.8 million to maintain and enhance civil maritime security capabilities. This includes $71.2 million to increase the Australian Border Force’s on‑water response and aerial surveillance capabilities.

Securing Australia’s place in the world

Strengthening relationships and simplifying trade

A stable, prosperous and resilient Pacific region

The Government is delivering over $2 billion in development assistance to the Pacific in 2024–25. This includes the Australia‑Tuvalu Falepili Union.

Investing in our relationship with Southeast Asia

Following the launch of Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, the Government is committing $505.9 million to deepen ties with the region.

Australia recently celebrated 50 years of partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). At the ASEAN‑Australia Special Summit, the Government announced a range of new and expanded initiatives, including a $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility to boost Australian trade and investment.

Simplifying trade

The Government will abolish 457 nuisance tariffs from 1 July 2024, streamlining $8.5 billion in annual trade and eliminating tariffs on goods such as toothbrushes, fridges, dishwashers, clothing and sanitary products.

The Government will provide $29.9 million to coordinate trade simplification and deliver the Digital Trade Accelerator program, and $10.9 million to enhance the Go Global Toolkit to support exporters.

The Government is expanding the Australia‑India Business Exchange, diversifying trade and helping more Australian businesses build commercial ties with India and across South Asia. There will be $2 million to support Australian agricultural exporters entering the Chinese markets.

Support for small businesses

Helping small businesses

This Budget’s Small Business Statement reaffirms the Government’s commitment to deliver a better deal for small businesses, with $641.4 million in targeted support.

For more information refer to the small business fact sheet [PDF 0.98MB]

Improving cash flow

The Government is providing $290 million to extend the $20,000 instant asset write‑off for 12 months. There will be $25.3 million to improve payment times to small businesses and $23.3 million to increase eInvoicing adoption.

Easing cost pressures and reducing the administrative burden

This Budget provides $3.5 billion of energy bill relief, including rebates of $325 to around one million small businesses.

The Government is reducing the administrative burden for small business by abolishing 457 nuisance tariffs and delivering $10 million to provide additional support for small business employers administering the Paid Parental Leave scheme.

Supporting confidence and resilience in the small business sector

This Budget invests a further $10.8 million in tailored, free and confidential financial and mental wellbeing supports for small business owners.

The Government is providing $20.5 million to the Fair Work Ombudsman to help small businesses understand and comply with recent workplace relations changes.

There will be $3 million to implement the Government’s response to the Review of the Franchising Code of Conduct, including remaking and enhancing the Code, and an additional $2.6 million to support more small businesses through alternative dispute resolution.

A more resilient Australia

Preparing for the future

The Government is preparing Australia for future droughts and heightened risk of natural disasters.

Disaster resilience and preparedness

The Government will provide $138.7 million to improve Australia’s response and resilience to natural hazards and disasters. Support includes: funding for the National Emergency Management Agency to supply communities with vital goods, equipment, and temporary accommodation during an emergency, aerial firefighting capability, and mental health support. This is in addition to the $11.4 billion previously committed for Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements for the states and territories.

The Government is establishing a pilot program for Australia’s Strategic Fleet. These vessels will improve Australia’s capacity to respond and support communities and supply chains during crises.

Preparing for drought and climate change

This Budget provides $174.6 million from the National Water Grid Fund to deliver new water infrastructure projects that will enhance water security, boost agricultural production and help drought proof regional communities.

The Government will provide $519.1 million from its Future Drought Fund to help farmers and rural communities manage the impacts of climate change and prepare for future droughts.

This investment will build the drought resilience of more farmers like Victorian cropper Ed Rickard.

The Fund supported Ed in developing a better farm business plan, which identified his need for weather stations and soil moisture probes. It also helped him implement a succession plan that ensured his farm’s long-term viability.

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Water Resources Research
Online ISSN: 1944-7973. Print ISSN: 0043-1397. Water Resources Research is an open access journal that publishes original research articles and commentaries on hydrology, water resources, and the social sciences of water that provide a broad understanding of the role of water in Earth's system. Water Resources Research is now a fully open ...
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Contemporary and relic waters strongly decoupled in arid alpine
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In association with the International Water Association Water Research has an open access companion journal Water Research X, sharing the same aims and scope, editorial team, submission system and rigorous peer review. Water Research publishes refereed, original research papers on all aspects of the science and technology of the anthropogenic water cycle, water quality, and its management ...
Home
Water Resources is a peer-reviewed journal focused on the assessment and use of water resources, their quality, and protection. Covers a broad range of research areas, including physical, dynamic, chemical, and biological phenomena that occur within or involve water. Encompasses research related to the prediction of variations in continental ...
(PDF) Water Resources Management and Sustainability
of his total 260 research papers, 31 (i.e. only 11.8%, see Appendix A at the end) ... solutions and models for sustainable water resources through research, monitoring and experiments varying from ...
Water Resources Research
Print ISSN: 0043-1397. Water Resources Research is an open access journal that publishes original research articles and commentaries on hydrology, water resources, and the social sciences of water that provide a broad understanding of the role of water in Earth's system. Water Resources Research is now a fully open access journal.
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Water Resources Management is an international, multidisciplinary forum for the publication of original contributions and the exchange of knowledge and experience on the management of water resources. In particular, the journal publishes contributions on water resources assessment, development, conservation and control, emphasizing policies and ...
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Overview. Sustainable Water Resources Management publishes articles that deal with the interface of water resources science and the needs of human populations, highlighting work that addresses practical methods and basic research on water resources management. Covers a broad range of topics in water resources management.
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The authors annually evaluated the reduction in the use of water (2.5 10 5 tons), nitrogen (5.6 NH 3 -N tons), and carbon emissions (134 tons) through the reuse of treated sewage. Advances in the management of solid waste and wastewater treatment include landfilling, the composting of organic matter, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and ...
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Key Points. Increasing lake water level trends in 52% of all lakes and decreasing in 43% of them. Increasing water level trends in northern Sweden and decreasing in the south. Different Water level seasonal patterns in regulated and non-regulated lakes in the South.
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Water price reform is an effective way of rationalizing and protecting water resources in areas where water is scarce. This paper first presents a method for measuring water footprint by sector based on the non-competitive input-output technique. Second, this research explores the relationship between water price adjustment and labor compensation, as well as regional water export.
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Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been central to water governance and management worldwide since the 1990s. ... To this end, while beyond the scope of this paper, future research may seek to validate the results presented herein and further unpack causality through small-N in-depth case studies. Credit author statement. Shahana ...
About Handwashing
Washing your hands is easy, and it's one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs. Follow these five steps every time. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and ...
Water Resources Research: Vol 57, No 11
First Published: 23 October 2021. Key Points. Suspended sediment concentration of the Changjiang River has decreased by an order of magnitude in recent 3 decades from ∼1.0 to ∼0.1 kg/m 3. Sediment source/sink reverse partially and downstream recovery capacity decrease exponentially under the reservoir operation.
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This Budget accelerates growth of new industries by establishing the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund and delivering a 10‑year extension of funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. It also delivers the $44.4 million Energy Industry Jobs Plan and $134.2 million for skills and employment support in key regions.
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First Published: 01 April 2024. Key Points. A novel strategy is developed to produce a high-precision precipitation product (0.1°/daily, 2015-present) for the Tibetan Plateau. The new merged product apparently outperforms three widely-used precipitation datasets, especially at medium-high rain rates.
USDA
Access the portal of NASS, the official source of agricultural data and statistics in the US, and explore various reports and products.

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Contemporary and relic waters strongly decoupled in arid alpine environments

1. Introduction

2.1. Approach

2.2. Physical water-type groupings

2.3. Water sample analysis

2.4. Inclusivity in global research

3. Results & discussion

3.2. Hydrogeological mechanisms controlling source partitioning

3.3. Implications for society and ecosystems

4. Conclusion

Supporting information

S1 Checklist. PLOS’ questionnaire on inclusivity in global research completed with our responses.

S1 Table. Summary of 3H data and results presented in this work.

S2 Table. Description of Kruskal-Wallis test results conducted on groupings of percent modern water content data.

S3 Table. Summary of hydrophysical data and results used in this work.

Acknowledgments

Sustainable Water Resources Management

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About Handwashing

Why it's important

Key times to wash hands

How it works

Use hand sanitizer when you can't use soap and water

What you can do

Clean Hands

For Everyone

Cost of living help and a future made in Australia

Attracting investment in key industries

Better deploying capital in priority areas

Strengthening and streamlining approvals

Promoting sustainable finance

Making Australia a renewable energy superpower

Unlocking investment in net zero industries and jobs

Boosting demand for Australia’s green exports

Realising the opportunities of the net zero transformation

Strengthening resources and economic security

Manufacturing clean energy technologies

Strengthening supply chains

Digital, science and innovation

Modernising and digitising industries

Reforming tertiary education

Supporting students on placements

Broadening access to university

Skills pipeline for priority industries

Supporting apprentices and building the construction workforce

Strengthening our defence industry capability

Developing defence industry and skills

Investing in civil maritime capabilities

Securing Australia’s place in the world

A stable, prosperous and resilient Pacific region

Investing in our relationship with Southeast Asia

Simplifying trade

Support for small businesses

Improving cash flow

Easing cost pressures and reducing the administrative burden

Supporting confidence and resilience in the small business sector

A more resilient Australia

Disaster resilience and preparedness

Preparing for drought and climate change

IMAGES

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