Hydrological Model to Simulate Daily Flow in a Basin with the Help of a GIS

Hydrological modeling is an essential tool to evaluate water resources in hydrological basins. The time invested in it depends on the structure of the hydrological model chosen, the amount and quality of information required and the efforts invested in calibration. CEQUEAU is a distributed hydrological model developed at the INRS-ETE, Quebec, Canada. The basin is divided into cells and the rainfall-runoff process is simulated cell by cell until the outlet. Recent advances in geomatics make it possible to develop modules integrated in geographic information systems (GIS) to facilitate the processing of information required by hydrological models. The objective of the present investigation is to implement the CEQUEAU model in Idrisi GIS for the hydrological modeling of basins, thereby reducing information processing time and improving limitations in the original version, such as the number of discretization cells and methods to calculate evapotranspiration. This document presents the results from the implementation of the CEQUEAU model, including evapotranspiration, water levels (in reservoirs, soil and aquifers) and hydrographs. These results show that these new changes provide more hydrology options to the user and with better results.

Canopy Storage Implications on Interception Loss Modeling

A rainfall interception methodology was implemented in a deciduous Ficus benjamina (L.) tree to evaluate the interception loss, as well as the dynamics on canopy storage capacity (S) and free through fall (ρ). Measurements of gross precipitation (Pg), through fall and meteorological data were recorded every 5 minutes. Nineteen individual storms from summer to autumn 2005, and twenty one in spring to autumn, 2006 were analyzed. For the studied period, 151.59 mm and 203.35 mm of rainfall occurred on 2005 and 2006 respectively. Canopy interception was 59.46% and 70.98% of Pg for the first and second year. Throughfall data recorded during 2005 were ?38.14% (of Pg) and 27.21% (of Pg) for 2006. The throughfall and gross precipitation relationship yielded S = 1.50 mm for the 2005 data. In 2006 storms were analyzed in detail, where ρ and S varied in a range from 0.10 to 0.64 and from 1.00 to 2.03 mm, respectively. Moreover, application of the Rutter and Gash models with two years of rainfall data (2005-2006) from the study area indicated an underestimation and overestimation of 69% and 88%, respectively. The slightly best prediction of the interception loss was obtained with the Gash model. Yet S and ρ change significantly due to wind speed, temperature, rainfall intensity and seasonal vegetation development.

Synthesis and Characterization of KFeP_(2)O_(7) Nanoparticles Implanted in Silica

Rivers and aquifers are increasingly affected worldwide by the action of agro-industrial pollution. Facing this challenge, nanoparticles have found a wide range of applications in the decontamination and remediation of water, given the characteristics which make them highly reactive to specific substances. One of the simplest ways of gaining access to these particles is through their synthesis over a sufficiently rigid matrix of manageable size. This report describes the synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles of iron and potassium diphosphate (KFeP2O7) synthesized on silica gel beads (SiO2). Analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been applied in order to determine the mineral phases and morphology of the synthesized compounds. Complementary tests were conducted so as to determine surface characteristics such as specific area by the BET method and point of zero charge (pHpzc) by mass titration. The acid-base titration enabled to determine the adsorptive nature of nanoparticles and their response to a pH range from 1 to 12.