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Soil erosion and hydrogeological risk are critical phenomena gaining increased recognition within the scientific community. Although these occurrences are naturally occurring, human activities can exacerbate their impacts. For example, deforestation consistently amplifies soil erosion. This study examines two distinct forest management strategies aimed at addressing soil erosion: the Banded Standards Method (BSM) and the Scattered Standards Method (SSM). We conducted a field experiment in two test areas located in central Italy, with one area employing the BSM and the other implementing the SSM. Two soil erosion plots were established, representing prototypes of a novel erosion monitoring apparatus called the Natural Erosion Trap (NET), or Diabrosimeter, specifically designed for forest environments. At regular intervals, particularly after significant storm events, sediment and leaf litter accumulated within the erosion plots were collected, dried, and weighed to quantify erosion rates and assess the efficacy of the silvicultural methods under investigation. The results revealed a 30.72% reduction in the eroded material with BSM compared to SSM, underscoring BSM's ability to mitigate potential hazards and preserve environmental integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a coupled application of hydrological and hydraulic models to reconstruct a flash flood event of the ungauged watercourse of Wadi Deffa, Algeria. The objective is to compare the performances of three hydrological models (rational method, EBA4SUB, HEC-HMS) and two hydraulic bidimensional models (HEC-RAS 2D, FLO-2D) by using the Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) data. The comparison between the observed and simulated flood areas showed satisfactorily performance of the EBA4SUB-FLO-2D approach compared to the other approaches. The analysis of the observed and simulated flood depths showed a good estimate using the approaches EBA4SUB-FLO-2D and EBA4SUB-HEC- RAS 2D. The best estimate of the two flood depth approaches is attributed to the hydrological model EBA4SUB in estimating the peak flow. The results demonstrate that the EBA4SUB-FLO-2D modeling approach can provide reliable data for the management of flood risks in the ungauged watersheds of the southwest region of Algeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all the substances that can be present in water intended for human consumption, arsenic (As) is one of the most toxic. Many treatment technologies can be used for removing As from water, for instance, adsorption onto iron media, where commercially available adsorbents are removed and replaced with new media when they are exhausted. Since this is an expensive operation, in this work, a novel and portable plant for regenerating iron media has been developed and tested in four real case studies in Central Italy. The obtained results highlight the good efficiency of the system, which was able, from 2019 to 2023, to regenerate the iron media and to restore its capability to adsorb the As from water almost entirely. Indeed, when the legal threshold value of 10 μg/L is exceeded, the regeneration process is performed and, after that, the As concentration in the water effluent is at the minimum level in all the investigated case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transients generated by expulsion of air pockets in water pipelines represent a key issue in the management of water systems. Severe pressure surges may arise, with detrimental effects on pipelines, valves and other devices. To analyze the transient and predict the resulting pressure surge, both theoretical and experimental studies have been developed in the literature. However, most studies consider horizontal or vertical pipelines, whereas the actual profile in the real field environment is a sequence of ascending and descending pipes. Consequently, this paper summarizes laboratory experiments carried out on an undulating pipeline, with an orifice fitted at the high point to simulate an air release valve. In the experiments, the orifice diameter, the supply pressure and the air volume entrapped in the descending pipe were varied. In almost all the runs, the peak pressure was achieved during the mass oscillation transient. Water hammer only occurs because of the expulsion of air bubbles within the water column, but generally the effect on the transient is fairly negligible. Results also showed that pressure surges decrease upon increasing the orifice diameter, except for high supply pressure and small-entrapped volume, for which an intermediate 'critical' orifice diameter can be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring ephemeral and intermittent streams is a major challenge in hydrology. While direct field observations are best to detect spatial patterns of flow persistence, on site inspections are time and labor intensive and may be impractical in difficult-to-access environments. Motivated by latest advancements of digital cameras and computer vision techniques, in this work, we describe the development and application of a stage-camera system to monitor the water level in ungauged headwater streams. The system encompasses a consumer grade wildlife camera with near infrared (NIR) night vision capabilities and a white pole that serves as reference object in the collected images. Time-lapse imagery is processed through a computationally inexpensive algorithm featuring image quantization and binarization, and water level time series are filtered through a simple statistical scheme. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated through a set of benchmark experiments performed in controlled and natural settings, characterized by an increased level of complexity. Maximum mean absolute errors between stage-camera and reference data are approximately equal to 2cm in the worst scenario that corresponds to severe hydrometeorological conditions. Our preliminary results are encouraging and support the scalability of the stage-camera in future implementations in a wide range of natural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]