Long-term operation optimization of circulating cooling water systems under fouling conditions

Fouling caused by excess metal ions in hard water can negatively impact the performance of the circulating cooling water system(CCWS)by depositing ions on the heat exchanger's surface.Currently,the operation optimization of CCWS often prioritizes short-term flow velocity optimization for minimizing power consumption,without considering fouling.However,low flow velocity promotes fouling.Therefore,it's crucial to balance fouling and energy/water conservation for optimal CCWS long-term operation.This study proposes a mixed-integer nonlinear programming(MINLP)model to achieve this goal.The model considers fouling in the pipeline,dynamic concentration cycle,and variable frequency drive to optimize the synergy between heat transfer,pressure drop,and fouling.By optimizing the concentration cycle of the CCWS,water conservation and fouling control can be achieved.The model can obtain the optimal operating parameters for different operation intervals,including the number of pumps,frequency,and valve local resistance coefficient.Sensitivity experiments on cycle and environmental temperature reveal that as the cycle increases,the marginal benefits of energy/water conservation decrease.In periods with minimal impact on fouling rate,energy/water conservation can be achieved by increasing the cycle while maintaining a low fouling rate.Overall,the proposed model has significant energy/water saving effects and can comprehensively optimize the CCWS through its incorporation of fouling and cycle optimization.

Summer Atmospheric Water Cycle under the Transition Influence of the Westerly and Summer Monsoon over the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin in the Southern Tibetan Plateau

This study compares the summer atmospheric water cycle,including moisture sources and consumption,in the upstream,midstream,and downstream regions of the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin in the southern Tibetan Plateau.The evolutions of moisture properties under the influence of the westerly and summer southerly monsoon are examined using 5-yr multi-source measurements and ERA5 reanalysis data.Note that moisture consumption in this study is associated with clouds,precipitation,and diabatic heating.Compared to the midstream and downstream regions,the upstream region has less moisture,clouds,and precipitation,where the moisture is brought by the westerly.In early August,the vertical wet advection over this region becomes enhanced and generates more high clouds and precipitation.The midstream region has moisture carried by the westerly in June and by the southerly monsoon from July to August.The higher vertical wet advection maximum here forms more high clouds,with a precipitation peak in early July.The downstream region is mainly affected by the southerly-driven wet advection.The rich moisture and strong vertical wet advection here produce the most clouds and precipitation among the three regions,with a precipitation peak in late June.The height of the maximum moisture condensation is different between the midstream region(325 hPa)and the other two regions(375 hPa),due to the higher upward motion maximum in the midstream region.The diabatic heating structures show that stratiform clouds dominate the upstream region,stratiform clouds and deep convection co-exist in the midstream region,and deep convection systems characterize the downstream region.

Impacts of artificial dams on terrestrial water storage changes and the Earth's elastic load response during 1950-2016: A case study of medium and large reservoirs in Chinese mainland

The construction of dams for intercepting and storing water has altered surface water distributions, landsea water exchanges, and the load response of the solid Earth. The lack of accurate estimation of reservoir properties through the land surface and hydrological models can lead to water storage simulation and extraction errors. This impact is particularly evident in many artificial reservoirs in China. The study aims to comprehensively assess the spatiotemporal distribution and trends of water storage in medium and large reservoirs(MLRs) in Chinese mainland during 1950-2016, and to investigate the gravity,displacement, and strain effects induced by the reservoir mass concentration using the load elasticity theory. In addition, the impoundment contributions of MLRs to the relative sea level changes were assessed using a sea-level equation. The results show impoundment increases in the MLRs during1950-2016, particularly in the Yangtze River(Changjiang) and southern basins, causing significant elastic load effects in the surrounding areas of the reservoirs and increasing the relative sea level in China's offshore. However, long-term groundwater estimation trends are overestimated and underestimated in the Yangtze River and southwestern basins, respectively, due to the neglect of the MLRs impacts or the uncertainty of the hydrological model's output(e.g., soil moisture, etc.). The construction of MLRs may reduce the water mass input from land to the ocean, thus slowing global sea level rise. The results of the impact of human activities on the regional water cycle provide important references and data support for improving the integration of hydrological models, evaluating Earth's viscoelastic responses under longterm reservoir storage, enhancing in-situ and satellite geodetic measurements, and identifying the main factors driving sea level changes.

Characteristics of In-Situ Soil Water Hysteresis Observed through Multiple-Years Monitoring

A soil water retention curve (SWRC) is an essential soil physical property for analyzing transport and retention of water in a soil layer. A SWRC is often described as a single-valued function that relates the soil water potential ψ to volumetric water content θ of the soil. However, an in-situ ψ − θ relation should show soil water hysteresis, though this fact is often neglected in analyses of field soil water regimes while long-term in-situ soil water hysteresis is not well characterized. This study aimed at probing and characterizing in-situ ψ − θ relations. The developments of large hysteresis in the in-situ ψ − θ relations were observed only a few times during the study period of 82 months. Any of the large hysteretic behaviors in the ψ − θ relations began with an unusually strong continual reduction in ψ. The completion of a hysteresis loop required a recorded maximum rainfall. Because the study field had very small chances to meet such strong rainfall events, it took multiple years to restore the fraction of soil water depleted by the unusually strong continual reduction in ψ. While wetting-drying cycles had occurred within a certain domain of ψ, hysteretic behaviors tended to be so small that the in-situ ψ − θ relation can be approximated as a single-valued function of θ(ψ). These observed patterns of the in-situ ψ − θ relations were characterized by kinds of difference in dθ/dψ between a drying process and a wetting process at a given ψ. Thus, more amounts of experimental facts about wetting SWRCs in parallel with drying SWRCs should be needed for correct modelling, analyzing, and predicting soil water regimes in fields. It is also necessary to increase our understandings about the long-term trends of occurrences of extreme weather conditions associated with possible change in climate.

Deformation and failure mechanism of Yanjiao rock slope influenced by rainfall and water level fluctuation of the Xiluodu hydropower station reservoir

With the construction of the Xiluodu hydropower station on the Jinsha River,the reservoir impoundment began in 2013 and the water level fluctuates annually between 540 m and 600 m above sea level.The Yanjiao rock slope which is located on the left bank of the Jinsha River 75 km upstream of the Xiluodu dam site,began to deform in 2014.The potential failure of the slope not only threatens Yanjiao town but also affects the safe operation of the Xiluodu reservoir.This paper is to find the factors influencing the Yanjiao slope deformation through field investigation,geotechnical reconnaissance,and monitoring.Results show that the Yanjiao slope can be divided into a bank collapse area(BCA)and a strong deformation area(SDA)based on the crack distribution characteristics of the slope.The rear area of the slope has been experiencing persistent deformation with a maximum cumulative displacement(GPS monitoring point G4)of 505 mm and 399 mm in the horizontal and vertical directions,respectively.The potential failure surface of the slope is formed 36 m below the surface based on the borehole inclinometer.The bank collapses of the Yanjiao slope are directly caused by the reservoir impoundment while the deformation area of the slope is affected by the combination of the rainfall and reservoir water level fluctuation.Based on mechanism of the Yanjiao slope,prestressed anchor combined with the surface drainage and slope unloading are recommended to prevent potential deformation.

Effective groundwater level recovery from mining reduction: Case study of Baoding and Shijiazhuang Plain area

The effective recovery of water level is a crucial measure of the success of comprehensive groundwater over-exploitation management actions in North China.However,traditional evaluation method do not directly capture the relationship between mining and other equilibrium elements.This study presents an innovative evaluation method to assess the water level recovery resulting from mining reduction based on the relationship between variation in exploitation and recharge.Firstly,the recharge variability of source and sink terms for both the base year and evaluation year is calculated and the coefficient of recharge variationβis introduced,which is then used to calculate the effective mining reduction and solve the water level recovery value caused by the effective mining reduction,and finally the water level recovery contribution by mining reduction is calculated by combining with the actual volume of mining reduction in the evaluation area.This research focuses on Baoding and Shijiazhuang Plain area,which share similar hydrogeological conditions but vary in groundwater exploitation and utilization.As the effect of groundwater level recovery with mining reduction was evaluated in these two areas as case study.In 2018,the results showed an effective water level recovery of 0.17 m and 0.13 m in the shallow groundwater of Shijiazhuang and Baoding Plain areas,respectively.The contributions of recovery from mining reduction were 76%and 57.98%for these two areas,respectively.It was notable that the water level recovery was most prominent in the foothill plain regions.From the evaluation results,it is evident that water level recovery depends not only on the intensity of groundwater mining reduction,but also on its effectiveness.The value of water level recovery alone cannot accurately indicate the intensity of mining reduction,as recharge variation significantly influences water level changes.Therefore,in practice,it is crucial to comprehensively assess the impact of mining reduction on water level recovery by combining the coefficient of recharge variation with the contribution of water level recovery from mining reduction.This integrated approach provide a more reasonable and scientifically supported basis,offering essential data support for groundwater management and conservation.To improve the accuracy and reliability of evaluation results,future work will focus on the standardizing and normalizing raw data processing.

Determining safe yield and mapping water level zoning in groundwater resources of the Neishabour Plain

Groundwater is a crucial sources of water supply,especially in arid and semi-arid areas around the world.With uncontrolled withdrawals and limited availability of these resources,it is essential to determine the safe yield of these valuable resources.The Hill method approach was used in this study to determine the safe yield the Neishabour aquifer in Khorasan Razvi province in Iran.The results showed that the safe yield in the Neishabour aquifer is 60%lower than the current pumping amounts during the study period,indicating that further overdrafts could result in the destruction of this aquifer.This highlights the importance of using the Hill method to estimate the permitted exploitation from other aquifers,thus preventing problems caused by over-extraction and maintaining stability of global groundwater levels.

Failure mechanism of a large-scale composite deposits caused by the water level increases

The failure of slope caused by variations in water levels on both banks of reservoirs is common.Reservoir landslides greatly threaten the safety of reservoir area.Taking large-scale composite deposits located on the Lancang River in Southwest China as a study case,the origin of the deposits was analyzed based on the field investigation and a multi-material model was established in the physical model test.Combined with numerical simulation,the failure mechanism of the composite deposits during reservoir water level variations was studied.The results indicate that the deformation of the large-scale composite deposits is a staged sliding mode during the impoundment process.The first slip deformation is greatly affected by the buoyancy weight-reducing effect,and the permeability of soil and variation in the water level are the factors controlling slope deformation initiation.The high water sensitivity and low permeability of fine grained soil play an important role in the re-deformation of deposits slope.During the impoundment process,the deformation trend of the deposit slope is decreasing,and vertical consolidation of soil and increasing hydrostatic pressure on the slope surface are the main reasons for deformation attenuation.It is considered that the probability of large-scale sliding of the deposits during the impoundment period is low.But the damage caused by local bank collapse of the deposit slope still needs attention.The results of this paper will further improve our understanding of the failure mechanism of composite deposits caused by water level increases and provide guidance for the construction of hydropower stations.

Optimal Dynamic Voltage Restorer Using Water Cycle Optimization Algorithm

This paper proposes a low complexity control scheme for voltage control of a dynamic voltage restorer(DVR)in a three-phase system.The control scheme employs the fractional order,proportional-integral-derivative(FOPID)controller to improve on the DVR performance in order to enhance the power quality in terms of the response time,steady-state error and total harmonic distortion(THD).The result obtained was compared with fractional order,proportionalintegral(FOPI),proportional-integral-derivative(PID)and proportional-integral(PI)controllers in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed DVR control scheme.A water cycle optimization algorithm(WCA)was utilized to find the optimal set for all the controller gains.They were used to solve four power quality issues;balanced voltage sag,balanced voltage swell,unbalanced voltage sag,and unbalanced voltage swell.It showed that one set of controller gain obtained from the WCA could solve all the power quality issues while the others in the literature needed an individual set of optimal gain for each power quality problem.To prove the concept,the proposed DVR algorithm was simulated in the MATLAB/Simulink software and the results revealed that the four optimal controllers can compensate for all the power quality problems.A comparative analysis of the results in various aspects of their dynamic response and%THD was discussed and analyzed.It was found that PID controller yields the most rapid performance in terms of average response time while FOPID controller yields the best performance in term of average%steady-state error.FOPI controller was found to provide the lowest THD percentage in the average%THD.FOPID did not differ much in average response from the PID and average%THD from FOPI;however,FOPID provided the most outstanding average steady-state error.According to the CBMA curve,the dynamic responses of all controllers fall in the acceptable power quality area.The total harmonic distortion(THD)of the compensated load voltage from all the controllers were within the 8%limit in accordance to the IEEE std.519-2014.

Evolutive Trend of Water Level in the Ebrie Lagoon by Reconstitution of the Tide Gauge Time Series in Front of the Abidjan Coastline (Côte d’Ivoire)

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report shows that sea-level rise, which has been accelerated since the 19th century resulting to the global warming, threatens coastal areas with high population growth. A Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS) assessment highlighted the lack of data in Africa, and in Côte d’Ivoire in particular. In order to estimate the evolutionary trend of sea level along the Ivorian coast, and to draw up preventive plans to protect properties and populations, we digitized 65 years of historical tidegrams recorded in the Ebrie Lagoon, using the “Surfer” and “Nunieau” software, then processed them using “T-Tide” and “U-Tide” software. The average levels were calculated using the Demerliac filter from complete daily (day and night) recordings for providing a usable database of 31 years of hourly lagoon data from 1979 to 2015. Our results show that a mean water level in lagoon is 1.04 m. The evolutionary trend in sea level, estimated in the lagoon via the Vridi canal, during the rainy season is the most significant at 2.93 mm/year. This is followed by the dry season, with a trend of 2.89 mm/year. The flood season trend is 2.78 mm/year. This suggests that marine water inflows dominate continental inflows. Our results highlight the vulnerability of Côte d’Ivoire’s coasts to the risk of marine submersion.

Influence of Seasonal Ground Water Level Fluctuations on the Stability of the Rohingya Refugee Camp Hills of Ukhiya, Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh—A Threat for Sustainable Development

Bangladesh is a south Asian Monsoonal Country and the recent precipitation pattern in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh is changing and increasing the number of monsoonal slope failures and landslide hazards in the Kutubpalong & Balukhali Rohingya camp area. An attempt has been made to see the influence of seasonal variation of ground water level (G.W.L.) fluctuations on the stability of the eco hills and forests of Ukhiya Teknaf region. Ukhiya hills are in great danger because of cutting trees from the hill slopes and it is well established that due to recent change of climate, short term rainfall for few consecutive days during monsoon might show an influence on the factor of safety (Fs) values of the camp hill slopes. A clear G.W.L. variation between dry and wet seasons has an influence on the stability (Fs) values indicating that climate has a strong influence on the stability and threatening sustainable development. A stable or marginally stable slope might be unstable during raining and show a variation of ground water level (G.W.L.). The generation of pore water pressure (P.W.P.) is also influenced by seasonal variation of ground water level. During wet season negative P.W.P. called suction plays an important role to occur slope failures in the Ukhiya hills. Based on all calculated factor of safety values (Fs) at different locations, four (4) susceptible landslide risk zones are identified. They are very high risk (Fs = 0.18 to 0.46), high risk (Fs = 0.56 to 0.75), medium risk (Fs = 0.76 to 1.0) and marginally stable areas (Fs ≈ 1). Proper geo-engineering measures must be taken by the concerned authorizes to reduce P.W.P. during monsoon by installing rain water harvesting system, allowing sufficient drainage & other geotechnical measures to reduce the risk of slope failures in the Ukhiya hills. Based on the stability factor (Fs) at different slope locations of the camp hills, a risk map of the investigated area has been produced for the local community for their safety and to build up awareness & to motivate them to evacuate the site during monsoonal slope failures. The established “Risk Maps” can be used for future geological engineering works as well as for sustainable planning, design and construction purposes relating to adaptation and mitigation of landslide risks in the investigated area.

Carbon and Water Footprint Evaluation of 120Wp Rural Household Photovoltaic System: Case Study

This study uses the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to evaluate the magnitude of the environmental impact, in terms of global warming potential, and water footprint throughout the 20 years of useful life of a rural electrical energy concession comprised of 120Wp Households photovoltaic systems (HPS) in the isolated communities of San Martin, in the Peruvian Amazon region. On the other hand, due to the particular conditions of the system (installation, operation, maintenance, monthly tariff collection), it is necessary to know its real impact and sustainability;not only through the aforementioned environmental impact indicators, but also by energy intensity values required by the system throughout its life cycle. Therefore, this paper used the Cumulative energy demand (CED) method to determine the amount of energy taken from natural resources for each process involved in the LCA and calculated with this, i.e., the Energy Payback Time (EPBT) of the whole system. Likewise, the HPS has been environmentally compared to other case studies and the Peruvian Energy Mix, revealing a lower impact in the latter case and results within the range for stand-alone systems. Besides, the HPS shows a strong relation between energy production and O&M condition. Additionally, this study allows a further promotion of the use of this type of system in isolated areas, as well as the diversification of electricity generation in Peru.

A Water Level Forecast of Pattani River in the Southern of Thailand by Deep Learning

Nowadays, the deep learning methods are widely applied to analyze and predict the trend of various disaster events and offer the alternatives to make the appropriate decisions. These support the water resource management and the short-term planning. In this paper, the water levels of the Pattani River in the Southern of Thailand have been predicted every hour of 7 days forecast. Time Series Transformer and Linear Regression were applied in this work. The results of both were the water levels forecast that had the high accuracy. Moreover, the water levels forecasting dashboard was developed for using to monitor the water levels at the Pattani River as well.

Displaying Water Table Levels, Flow Direction for Predicting Construction Techniques Using Geographic Information: Case Study of Kumba (South West, Cameroon)

The rapid economic growth of the town present the matter of water issue as a problem to human life human life, construction life, agriculture, etc. This study is to predict techniques of foundation construction through the displaying of the water table at the flow direction in the town of Kumba and GIS. It is characterized by a significant research question which is the level of fall and rise in groundwater levels within the town of Kumba and this influence on choice of types of foundation in construction. This study is directed to decision makers, and technicians of the construction field to develop policies facilitating the supervision when building construction foundation by informing about water level depth and its flow direction in the town. To achieve this, depths of static water levels were measured in over 200 randomly selected hand-dug wells in Kumba, after their geolocation and data were collected during the dry season (November and March 2017) and during the rainy season (between April and October 2017). Data were analyzed and treated using Microsoft Excel and GIS software us as Golden Surfer, Global Mapper, and ArcGIS. The results show variations of water level and those areas that may threaten foundation construction. Quarter as Kumba Station, Mile 1, Bulletin Street (Fongong Quarter), and parts of Fiango show that water table is to deep water and proper for the shallow foundation but very hard for water supply through borehole. Groundwater flow direction was revealed to be towards the south and southeastern parts of Kumba. The significant of the study is to propose to the technician the direct application on the field of chosen types of foundations according to the quarter and proposed groundwater supply possibilities.

The Relationship between Water Resources Use Efficiency and Scientific and Technological Innovation Level: Case Study of Yangtze River Basin in China

The Yangtze River Basin’s water resource utilization efficiency(WUE)and scientific and technological innovation level(STI)are closely connected,and the comprehension of these relationships will help to improve WUE and promote local economic growth and conservation of water.This study uses 19 provinces and regions along the Yangtze River’s mainstream from 2009 to 2019 as its research objects and uses a Vector Auto Regression(VAR)model to quantitatively evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of the coupling coordination degree(CCD)between the two subsystems of WUE and STI.The findings show that:(1)Both the WUE and STI in the Yangtze River Basin showed an upward trend during the study period,but the STI effectively lagged behind the WUE;(2)The CCD of the two subsystems generally showed an upward trend,and the CCD of each province was improved to varying degrees,but the majority of regions did not develop a high-quality coordination stage;(3)The CCD of the two systems displayed apparent positive spatial autocorrelation in the spatial correlation pattern,and there were only two types:high-high(H-H)urbanization areas and low-low(L-L)urbanization areas;(4)The STI showed no obvious response to the impact of the WUE,while the WUE responded greatly to the STI,and both of them were highly dependent on themselves.Optimizing their interaction mechanisms should be the primary focus of high-quality development in the basin of the Yangtze River in the future.These results give the government an empirical basis to enhance the WUE and promote regional sustainable development.

Mean water level setup/setdown in the inlet-lagoon system induced by tidal action—a case study of Xincun Inlet,Hainan Island in China

With the tides propagating from the open sea to the lagoon, the mean water level （MWL） in the inlet and lagoon becomes different from that at the open sea, and a setup/setdown is generated. The change of MWL （setup/setdown） in the system imposes a great impact on regulating the development of tidal marshes, on determining the long-term water level for harbor maintenance, on the planning for the water front development with the flood control for the possible inundation, and on the interpretation of the historical sea level change when using tidal marsh peat deposits in the lagoon as the indicator for open sea＇ s sea level. In this case study on the mechanisms which control the setup/setdown in Xincun Inlet, Hainan in China, the 2-D barotropic mode of Eulerian - Lagrangian CIRCulation （ELCIRC） model was utilized. After model calibration and verification, a series of numerical experiments were conducted to examine the effects of bottom friction and advection terms, wetting and drying of intertidal areas, bathymetry and boundary conditions on the setup/setdown in the system. The modeling results show that setup occurs over the inlet and lagoon areas with an order of one tenth of the tide range at the entrance. The larger the bottom friction is, a larger setup is generated. Without the advection term, the setup is reduced clue to a decrease of water level gradient to compensate for the disappearance of the advection term. Even without overtides, a setup can still be developed in the system. Sea level rise and dredging in the inlet and tidal channel can cause a decrease of setup in the system, whereas shoaling of the system can increase the setup. The uniqueness of the Xincun Inlet with respect to MWL change is that there is no evident setdown in the inlet, which can be attributed to the complex geometry and bathymetry associated with the inlet system.

Seasonal Dynamics of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Water and Sediment of A Multi-level Ditch System in Sanjiang Plain,Northeast China

The multi-level ditch system developed in the Sanjiang Plain,Northeast China has sped up water drainage process hence transferred more pollutants from farmlands into the rivers of this region.Understanding the seasonal dynamics of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) transportation in the ditch system and the role of different ditch size is thus crucial for water pollution control of the rivers in the Sanjiang Plain.In this study,an investigation was conducted in the Nongjiang watershed of the Sanjiang Plain to study the nutrient variation and the correlation between water and sediments in the ditch system in terms of ditch level.Water and sediments samples were collected in each ditch level in growing season at regular intervals (once per month),and TN,NO 3--N,NH 4+-N,TP,and PO 4 3--P were analyzed.The results show that nutrient contents in water were higher in June and July,especially in July,the contents of TN and TP were 3.21mg/L and 0.84mg/L in field ditch,4.04mg/L and 1.06mg/L in lateral ditch,2.46mg/L and 0.70mg/L in branch ditch,1.92mg/L and 0.63mg/L in main ditch,respectively.In August and September,the nutrient contents in the water were relatively lower.The peak value of nutrient in ditch water had been moving from the field ditch to the main ditch over time,showing a remarkable impact of ditch system on river water environment.The nutrient transfer in ditch sediments could only be found in rainfall season.Nutrient contents in ditch sediment had effect on that in ditch water,but nutrients in ditch water and sediments had different origination.Ditch management in terms of the key fac-tors is hence very important for protecting river water environment.

Life cycle cost analysis of new FRP based solar parabolic trough collector hot water generation system

Parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) are employed for a variety of applications including steam generation and hot water generation. This paper deals with the experimental results and an economic analysis of a new fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) based solar PTC with an embedded electronic controlled tracking system designed and developed for hot water generation in a restaurant in Madurai, India. The new collector performance has been tested according to ASHRAE Standard 93 (1986). The performance of a new PTC hot water generation system with a well mixed hot water storage tank is investigated by a series of extensive tests over ten months period. The average maximum storage tank water temperature observed was 74.91 °C, when no energy is withdrawn from the tank to the load during the collection period. The total cost of the new economic FRP based solar PTC for hot water generation with an embedded electronic controlled tracking system is Rs. 25000 (US$ 573) only. In the present work, life cycle savings (LCS) method is employed for a detailed economic analysis of the PTC system. A computer program is used as a tool for the economic analysis. The present worth of life cycle solar savings is evaluated for the new solar PTC hot water generation system that replaces an existing electric water heating system in the restaurant and attains a value of Rs. 23171.66 after 15 years, which is a significant saving. The LCS method and the MATLAB computer simulation program presented in this paper can be used to estimate the LCS of other renewable energy systems.

Water cycle investigations in Hungarian forest ecosystems

From the biological point of view the value of autotrophy plant association is determined by the carbon fixation and the carbon cycle. Among the plant associations of Hungary, forest has the largest biological carbon fixation and carbon cycle. In general, the annual water cycle is the key factor in the organic material production of the Hungarian forests. The most intensive water con- sumption and organic material production take place from May till July, which period is named main water consumption and respec- tively main growing period, In Hungary the categories of the forest climate are characterized by main tree species and based on the characteristic meteorological data （Jaro and Tatraaljai, 1985）. In Hungary the forest area covered by stand is 1,650,000 hm2. Beech forest climate covers 8% of the forest area, hornbeam-oak forest climate covers 22%, sessile oak-Turkey oak forest climate covers 48% and forest steppe climate covers 22%. Partly in the frame of ICP-Forests, the Department of Ecology in the Forest Research Institute carries out long term, complex ecophysiological investigations on several sample plots （so-called basic plots） throughout the whole country. The organic material production （growth）, the nutrient and water cycle, the measurements of air pollutants and mete- orological parameters, as well as chemical analyses are all part of the investigations. As a comparison the figure of two basic plots （Sopron Pasp0kladfiny） shows the water cycles of a good growing beech stand in beech climate and a wcak pedunculate oak stand in forest steppe climate in the hydrological year of 2001-2002. In the Hungarian forest 60% 70% of the precipitation is used for inter- ception, evaporation, and in the vegetation season, for the transpiration both in beech and forest steppe climate. From other point of view, only 30%-40% of the open air precipitation infiltrates into the soil and can be utilized by the forest.