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Piano Key Weirs (PKWs) have recently been used as new or rehabilitation options in the world because of their advantages in hydraulic performance and construction costs. However, designing an efficient PKW is challenging due to a large and complex set of geometric and hydraulic parameters. Therefore, reaching an optimal PKW design depends on the examination of various geometric combinations and hydraulic parameters. In this study, we applied a multi-objective optimization model known as Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II to determine an optimal design by maximizing hydraulic discharge while minimizing the volume of the concrete. Here, we evaluated the capability of our approach in two separate case studies, one which represented as a rehabilitated weir and other as a new design. Both studies show that the developed approach could significantly reduce the concrete volume per unit of discharge. Moreover, the results show similar patterns in terms of the hydro-economic behavior of the model, which were discussed in three distinguished regions. The unique characteristics of these regions were elaborated, and their most cost-effective values of design parameters were identified. Finally, we discussed how the proposed model and findings of this study could be used for improving the preliminary design of PKWs in practice.

Despite extensive research on microplastics (MP) in marine environments, little is known about MP abundance and transport in terrestrial systems. There is, therefore, still little understanding of the main mechanisms driving the substantial transport of MP across different environmental compartments. Storm events can transport MP beyond boundaries, such as from the land to groundwater or the ocean, as has already been discovered for organic carbon transport. Urban stormwater detention ponds are suitable environments to study the impact of stormwater on the environmental fate and transport of MP. Herein, we investigate the longitudinal and vertical distribution of MP within two detention ponds with different physical characteristics. Soil samples were collected at various locations and from multiple depths (surface and subsurface layers) for measuring MP concentrations using fluorescence microscopy. Our findings show that MP are retained more near the inlet of the ponds, and MP of larger sizes were found more abundantly near inlets than outlets. We also found that MP mass and sizes decrease from surface soil to subsurface soil. In the pond, where vegetation (grass root network) was more considerable, MP were found more evenly distributed along the depth. In terms of shape, the fragments were the most abundant MP shape.

The diffusion equation is one of the most commonly used models for describing environmental problems involving heat, solute and water transport. A diffusive system can be either transient or steady state. When a system is transient, the dependent variable (e.g., temperature, concentration or hydraulic head) varies with time; whereas at steady state, the temporal variations are negligible. Here, we consider an intermediate state, called steady shape, corresponding to the situation where temporal variations in diffusive fluxes are negligible but the dependent variable may remain transient. We present a general theoretical framework for identifying steady shape conditions, and propose a novel method for evaluating the time scale needed for a diffusive system to approach both steady shape and steady state conditions.

Memphis aquifer is the primary drinking water source in Shelby County (Tennessee, USA), and it supplies industrial, commercial, and residential water. Memphis aquifer is separated from the Shallow aquifer by a clayey layer known as the Upper Claiborne confining unit (UCCU). All of the production wells in the Memphis area are screened in the Memphis aquifer, or even deeper in the Fort Pillow aquifer. Traditionally, it was assumed that the UCCU could fully protect the Memphis aquifer from the contaminated Shallow aquifer groundwater. However, recent studies show that at some locations, the UCCU is thin or absent, which possibly leads to the contribution of Shallow aquifer to the Memphis aquifer. Accurately locating the breaches demands expensive and difficult geological or geochemical investigations, especially within an urban area. Hence, a pre-field investigation to identify the locations where the presence of breaches is likely can significantly reduce the cost of field investigations and improve their results. In this study, to identify the locations where the presence of breaches in the UCCU is likely, we develop a reliable MODFLOW-based numerical model, and use three different analyses: (1) pilot-point calibration (PPC), (2) velocity and flow budget (VFB), and (3) particle tracking (PT), to post-process the developed groundwater model results. These pre-field numerical investigations provide relevant and defensible explanations for groundwater flow anomalies in an aquifer system for informed decision-making and future field investigations. In this study, we identify five specific zones within the broad study area which are reasonable candidates for the future field investigations. Finally, we test the results of each analysis against other evidence for breaches, to demonstrate that the results of the numerical analyses are reliable and supported by previous studies.

A fundamental concept in groundwater hydrology is the notion of steady state, or equilibrium conditions. When a system at some initial steady state condition is perturbed by pumping, a transient cone of depression will develop and the system will approach a new steady state condition. Understanding the time scale required for the transient process to occur is of practical interest since it would help practitioners decide whether to use a steady state model or a more complicated transient model. Standard approaches to estimate the response time use simple scaling relationships which neglect spatial variations. Alternatively, others define the response time to be the amount of time taken for the difference between the transient and steady state solutions to fall below some arbitrary tolerance level. Here, we present a novel approach and use the concept of mean action time to predict aquifer response time scales in a two-dimensional radial geometry for pumping, injection and recovery processes. Our approach leads to relatively simple closed form expressions that explicitly show how the time scale depends on the hydraulic parameters and position. Furthermore, our dimensionless framework allows us to predict the response time scales for a range of applications including small scale laboratory problems and large scale field problems. Our analysis shows that the response time scales vary spatially, but are equivalent for pumping, injection and associated recovery processes. Furthermore, the time scale is independent of the pumping or injection flow rate. We test these predictions in a laboratory scale aquifer and find that our physical measurements corroborate the theoretical predictions.

In order to manage and control the pathogen release from waste streams of various municipal, industrial, and agricultural pollution sources, it is crucial to investigate the impact of release pathways of such contaminants on their fate and transport in groundwater, especially in respect to natural heterogeneities encountered in aquifers. In this laboratory scale study, we investigate the impacts of different release scenarios of Escherichia coli bacteria, including spatially distributed surface recharge and single-point deep injection, as well as mono-pulse and continuous injection on the transport of Escherichia coli within both single-layered and multilayer aquifers. The results demonstrate earlier arrival of bacteria breakthrough curve (BTC) than conservative solute within a single-layer system with textural and continuum scale heterogeneities, attributed to size exclusion mechanism and preferential flow paths. Size exclusion may be responsible for multiple peaked BTCs observed in all cases of mono-pulse injection of bacteria through both single layer and multi-layer systems. The higher breakthrough of bacteria suspension introduced through a distributed source compared to the point source injection at the same flow rate (19% and 53% in middle and top layers, respectively) suggests that natural hydrologic events such as storm may be more influential in the transport of pathogens in soils than point injections of bacteria in engineering applications such as bioremediation. Moreover, our results reveal that the concentration of the semi-steady state breakthrough formed under distributed and continuous injection condition increases significantly with an increase in the recharge flow rate. This would suggest that a variation in hydrologic conditions can significantly mobilize pathogens which are already deposited in soils.

Summary A major challenge in studying coupled groundwater and surface-water interactions arises from the considerable difference in the response time scales of groundwater and surface-water systems affected by external forcings. Although coupled models representing the interaction of groundwater and surface-water systems have been studied for over a century, most have focused on groundwater quantity or quality issues rather than response time. In this study, we present an analytical framework, based on the concept of mean action time (MAT), to estimate the time scale required for groundwater systems to respond to changes in surface-water conditions. MAT can be used to estimate the transient response time scale by analyzing the governing mathematical model. This framework does not require any form of transient solution (either numerical or analytical) to the governing equation, yet it provides a closed form mathematical relationship for the response time as a function of the aquifer geometry, boundary conditions, and flow parameters. Our analysis indicates that aquifer systems have three fundamental time scales: (i) a time scale that depends on the intrinsic properties of the aquifer, (ii) a time scale that depends on the intrinsic properties of the boundary condition, and (iii) a time scale that depends on the properties of the entire system. We discuss two practical scenarios where MAT estimates provide useful insights and we test the MAT predictions using new laboratory-scale experimental data sets.

Summary Groundwater flow models are usually characterized as being either transient flow models or steady state flow models. Given that steady state groundwater flow conditions arise as a long time asymptotic limit of a particular transient response, it is natural for us to seek a finite estimate of the amount of time required for a particular transient flow problem to effectively reach steady state. Here, we introduce the concept of mean action time (MAT) to address a fundamental question: how long does it take for a groundwater recharge process or discharge processes to effectively reach steady state? This concept relies on identifying a cumulative distribution function, F ( t ; x ), which varies from F (0; x ) = 0 to F ( t ; x ) → 1 − as t → ∞, thereby providing us with a measurement of the progress of the system towards steady state. The MAT corresponds to the mean of the associated probability density function f ( t ; x ) = d F /d t , and we demonstrate that this framework provides useful analytical insight by explicitly showing how the MAT depends on the parameters in the model and the geometry of the problem. Additional theoretical results relating to the variance of f ( t ; x ), known as the variance of action time (VAT), are also presented. To test our theoretical predictions we include measurements from a laboratory-scale experiment describing flow through a homogeneous porous medium. The laboratory data confirms that the theoretical MAT predictions are in good agreement with measurements from the physical model.