Das Projekt "Snow-and ice-melt dynamics of Aosta Valley glaciers" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme durchgeführt. 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 "Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Yanqi Basin, Sinkiang, China" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme durchgeführt. Irrigation in the Yanqi Basin, Sinkiang, China has led to water table rise and soil salination. A model is used to assess management options. These include more irrigation with groundwater, water saving irrigation techniques and others. The model relies on input data from remote sensing.The Yanqi Basin is located in the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang.This agriculturally highly productive region is heavily irrigated with water drawn from the Kaidu River. The Kaidu River itself is mainly fed by snow and glacier melt from the Tian Mountain surrounding the basin. A very poor drainage system and an overexploitation of surface water have lead to a series of environmental problems: 1. Seepage water under irrigated fields has raised the groundwater table during the last years, causing strongly increased groundwater evaporation. The salt dissolved in the groundwater accumulates at the soil surface as the groundwater evaporates. This soil salinization leads to degradation of vegetation as well as to a loss of arable farmland. 2. The runoff from the Bostan Lake to the downstream Corridor is limited since large amount of water is used for irrigation in the Yanqi Basin. Nowadays, the runoff is maintained by pumping water from the lake to the river. The environmental and ecological system is facing a serious threat.In order to improve the situation in the Yanqi Basin, a jointly funded cooperation has been set up by the Institute of Environmental Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) , China Institute of Geological and Environmental Monitoring (CIGEM) and Xinjiang Agricultural University. The situation could in principle be improved by using groundwater for irrigation, thus lowering the groundwater table and saving unproductive evaporation. However, this is associated with higher cost as groundwater has to be pumped. The major decision variable to steer the system into a desirable state is thus the ratio of irrigation water pumped from the aquifer and irrigation water drawn from the river. The basis to evaluate the ideal ratio between river and groundwater - applied to irrigation - will be a groundwater model combined with models describing the processes of the unsaturated zone. The project will focus on the following aspects of research: (...)
Das Projekt "Optimal Regulation of the the Jura Lakes Water System" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme durchgeführt. 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.
Das Projekt "Planning the Flexibility of Wastewater Treatment Plants by means of Scenario Analyses" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme durchgeführt. 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 "Water resources vulnerability to climate and anthropogenic landscape changes (WARECALC)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Politecnico Torino durchgeführt. 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 vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme durchgeführt. The project objective is to increase mechanistic understanding of coupled hydrological and ecological processes in near-river corridors.
Das Projekt "Climate Change, Mountain Hydrology and Institutional Constraints: International and Local Dimensions" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Verkehrsplanung und Transportsysteme durchgeführt. A crucial vulnerability faced by the international community in the near future will be access to fresh water in sufficient quantity and of adequate quality to meet increasing and more diverse needs of a growing world population. Mountains have always held a privileged relationship with water, as the sources of the world's greatest rivers and as the home of the great reserves of water held in glaciers.Major global forces nevertheless threaten these mountain reservoirs. Climate change is predicted to modify quantities of water available as well as shift its seasonality. It is likely that even greater challenges will come from the dynamics of human behavior. Population growth is perhaps the most obvious threat to sufficient water supply but it goes hand in hand with changing norms and evolving activities, leading to increasing competition among use for agriculture, industry, leisure, and domestic activities. Influencing production and distribution are societal rules and norms such as pricing schemes, regulations, and property rights that determine who gets how much water and when. Appropriate solutions to oversee water use will contribute to efficient and equitable distribution. Poor management can aggravate shortages, increase social and economic disparities, and is a potential source of deadly international conflict.Mountain regions are generally considered to be the 'water towers of the world' not only because they receive important quantities of precipitation, but also because this water is then stored there in the form of snow and ice. Populations living in mountains have a very long history of overseeing this precious resource and can be the source of important knowledge about solving the dilemmas of managing a public good that knows no boundaries and can therefore be diverted and traded. Resources governed by natural processes in this way become inextricably linked with political and economic forces. (...)
| Origin | Count |
|---|---|
| Bund | 7 |
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| Förderprogramm | 7 |
| License | Count |
|---|---|
| open | 7 |
| Language | Count |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | 7 |
| Englisch | 6 |
| Resource type | Count |
|---|---|
| Keine | 6 |
| Webseite | 1 |
| Topic | Count |
|---|---|
| Boden | 6 |
| Lebewesen & Lebensräume | 7 |
| Luft | 6 |
| Mensch & Umwelt | 7 |
| Wasser | 7 |
| Weitere | 7 |