Das Projekt "Water resources vulnerability to climate and anthropogenic landscape changes (WARECALC)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften Brüssel. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Politecnico Torino.Climate projections and trend analysis of historical data suggest that precipitation and temperature changes can dramatically alter the supply of and the demand for water in the human- and eco-systems. Moreover, anthropogenic landscape changes are occurring at unprecedented scales and rates given the societal needs for various (and often competing) ecosystem goods and services (food, energy, and water). How stable or resilient are the human- and eco- systems to climatic and anthropogenic perturbations remain a major societal concern. Of these concerns, hydrologic cycle changes, water resources availability and related management rank among the highest because of their importance in regulating human and ecological sustainability and climate feedbacks. A number of recent studies suggest that continental runoff increased throughout the 20th century despite a rapid increase in water consumption by humans and their activities. Scope of the project: The goal of this research program is on the overall impact of such changes on rainfall (the source of water) and concomitant replenishment of usable water supplies (e.g. ground- and stream- water) given their high priority to any future water resource planning. Even within this restricted scope, the barriers to scientific progress are numerous necessitating an inter-disciplinary approach that combines principles from eco-hydrology, hydraulics and fluid mechanics, soil physics, plant physiology, stochastic processes, dynamical systems theory, and water resources management. This project aims to build a network of researchers with complementary talents to begin progress on these fronts. Moreover, this network of researchers will be actively engaged in preparing the next generation of international scientists (via graduate student exchanges) who will be trained to approach such interdisciplinary societal problems and progress on them by adopting trans-disciplinary approaches now emerging from complex systems science.
Das Projekt "Assessment and Modeling of Coupled Ecological and Hydrological Dynamics in the Restored Corridor of a River (REstored CORridor Dynamics - RECORD)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme.The project objective is to increase mechanistic understanding of coupled hydrological and ecological processes in near-river corridors.
Das Projekt "Planning the Flexibility of Wastewater Treatment Plants by means of Scenario Analyses" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme.The planning, sizing and building of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) is a costly and laborious task. WWTP are therefore constructed to be long- lasting (25-30 years) and are designed to cope with changes over time of selected factors (e.g. incoming load in 30 years, wastewater temperature in 30 years). Unfortunately, identifying the relevant factors for planning and design, their interconnections, and how they will change over time for such a long time span is an uncertain task. This can lead to over- or undersized WWTPs and to difficulties in adapting the WWTP to changing environmental conditions. The goal of the Ph.D. project is to provide a methodology to improve the way practitioners consider this long term uncertainty during the planning and design phase of a WWTP. The basic concept behind the methodology is the assumption that the future is not predictable. At most one can characterize the range of possible future scenarios that may be encountered. The flexibility of WWTP should enable the plant to adapt to the different and changing scenarios over time with minimal effort. Following questions are to be answered during the project: What are the relevant driving forces affecting the development of a WWTP during its operational life? How are these driving forces cross-linked? How can future scenarios for a WWTP be developed using the relevant driving forces? How can the scenarios be integrated into the planning and design process of a WWTP? What are the flexibilities of a WWTP? How can the flexibility of a WWTP be designed to cope with the expected scenarios? Keywords: Scenario Technique, Flexibility, Adaptive Management, Wastewater Treatment, Uncertainty, Design, Forecasting, Infrastructure
Das Projekt "Snow-and ice-melt dynamics of Aosta Valley glaciers" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme.The project investigates the dynamics of snow- and icemelt of the glaciers in Aosta Valley that feed hydropower plants, and, specifically, the accuracy of parsimonious and physically oriented melt models in predicting the snowmelt, in view of their operational use for hydropower production.
Das Projekt "Optimal Regulation of the the Jura Lakes Water System" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme.The water levels of the lakes of Murten, Neuchatel and Biel and the discharge in th river Aare are controlled by the outflow of the lake of Biel. The regulation procedure is based on rules which were established in the years 1980-82. The resulting hydraulic conditions in the Jura waters system should meet various requirements, e.g. demands of flood protection, agriculture, fauna, flora, and other environmental, economical and touristic aspects. The question arised whether the rules for the regulations can be changed so that the management of the water levels can better meet all of the purposes .For each domain the specific demands concerning the optimal (time-variant) water levels had to be established. This was carried out with the help of experts within each special environmental branch. By means of a hydrodynamical numerical model the hydraulic effects of different regulation rules were simulated for the whole Jura waters system under various hydrological conditions. The regulation scenarios are evaluated with the aid of a non-monetary multi-criteria method.