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Author Stavi, I.; Eldad, S.; Xu, C.; Xu, Z.; Gusarov, Y.; Haiman, M.; Argaman, E. url  openurl
  Title Ancient agricultural terrace walls control floods and regulate the distribution of Asphodelus ramosus geophytes in the Israeli arid Negev Type Journal Article
  Year 2024 Publication Catena Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 234 Issue Pages (up) 107588  
  Keywords Geo-archaeology, Hydrological connectivity, Hydrological modelling, Runoff harvesting, Soil and water conservation, Watershed management  
  Abstract Ancient stone terrace walls aimed at harvesting water runoff and facilitating crop production are widespread across the drylands of the Middle East and beyond. In addition to retaining the scarce water resource, the terrace walls also conserve soil and thicken its profile along ephemeral stream channels (wadis) by decreasing fluvial connectivity and mitigating erosional processes. In this study, we created hydrological models for three wadis with ancient stone terrace walls in the arid northern Negev of Israel, where the predominant geophyte species is Asphodelus ramosus L. A two-dimensional (2D) rain-on-grid (RoG) approach with a resolution of 2 m was used to simulate the rain events with return periods of 10, 20, 50, and 99 % (10-y, 5-y, 2-y, and yearly, respectively) based on the Intensity-Duration-Frequency rain curves for the region. To evaluate the effect of stone terrace walls on fluvial hydrology and geomorphology, the ground level was artificially elevated by 20 cm at the wall locations in a digital terrain model (DTM), using the built-in HEC-RAS 2D terrain modification tool. Our results showed that the terraced wadis have a high capacity to mitigate runoff loss, but a lesser capacity to delay the peak flow. Yet, for all rainstorm return periods, peak flow mitigation was positively related to the number of terrace walls along the stream channel. Field surveys in two of the studied wadis demonstrated that the A. ramosus clones were found in proximity to the stone terrace walls, presumably due to the greater soil–water content there. The results thus suggest that the terrace walls provide improved habitat conditions for these geophytes, supporting their growth and regulating their distribution along the wadi beds.  
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  ISSN 0341-8162 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number THL @ christoph.kuells @ Stavi2024107588 Serial 229  
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Author Belz, L.; Schüller, I.; Wehrmann, A.; Köster, J.; Wilkes, H. url  openurl
  Title The leaf wax biomarker record of a Namibian salt pan reveals enhanced summer rainfall during the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition Type Journal Article
  Year 2020 Publication Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 543 Issue Pages (up) 109561  
  Keywords -Alkanes, -Alkanols, Late Quaternary, Organic geochemistry, Palaeohydrology, Southern Africa  
  Abstract Conventional continental geoarchives are rarely available in arid southern Africa. Therefore, palaeoclimate data in this area are still patchy and late Quaternary climate development is only poorly understood. In the western Kalahari, salt pans (playas, ephemeral lakes) are common and can feature quasi-continuous sedimentation. This study presents the first climate-related biomarker record using sediments from the Omongwa Pan, a Kalahari salt pan located in eastern Namibia. Our approach to reconstruct vegetation and hydrology focuses on biogeochemical bulk parameters and plant wax-derived lipid biomarkers (n-alkanes, n-alkanols, and fatty acids) and their compound-specific carbon and hydrogen isotopic compositions. The presented record reaches back to 27 ka. During the glacial, rather low δ2H values of n-alkanes and low sediment input exclude a strong influence of winter rainfall. n-Alkane and n-alkanol distributions and δ13C values of n-hentriacontane (n-C31) indicate a shift to a vegetation with a higher proportion of C4 plants at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum until the end of Heinrich Stadial I (ca. 18–14.8 ka), which we interpret to indicate an abrupt excursion to a short wetter period likely to be caused by a temporary southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Shifts in δ2H values of n-C31 and plant wax parameters give evidence for changes to drier conditions during early Holocene. Comparison of this dataset with representative continental records from the region points to a major influence of summer rainfall at Omongwa Pan during the regarded time span and demonstrates the potential of southern African salt pans as archives for biomarker-based climate proxies.  
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  ISSN 0031-0182 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number THL @ christoph.kuells @ belz_leaf_2020 Serial 104  
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Author Romeo, N.; Mabry, J.; Hillegonds, D.; Kainz, G.; Jaklitsch, M.; Matsumoto, T. url  openurl
  Title Developments of a field gas extraction device and krypton purification system for groundwater radio-krypton dating at the IAEA Type Journal Article
  Year 2022 Publication Applied Radiation and Isotopes Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 189 Issue Pages (up) 110450  
  Keywords  
  Abstract The long-lived radio-krypton isotope 81Kr (t1/2 = 2.29 × 105 yr) is an ideal tracer for old groundwater age dating in the range of 105–106 years which goes beyond the reach of radio-carbon (14C) age dating. Analytical breakthrough made over the last two decades in Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) has enabled the use of this isotope with extremely low abundance (81Kr/Kr = 6 × 10−13) to be used as a practical dating tool for very old groundwater. The International Atomic Energy Agency aims to provide this new isotope tool for better groundwater resource management of Member States and developed a field sampling device to collect dissolved gas samples from groundwater and a system to separate and purify trace amounts of krypton from the gas samples for the ATTA analysis. The design, setup and performances of our sampling and purification systems are described here. Our system can produce a high purity aliquot of about 5 μL of krypton from 5 L of air sample (recovery yield of >90%). The samples made by our system were confirmed to be acceptable for the ATTA analysis.  
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  ISSN 0969-8043 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number THL @ christoph.kuells @ Romeo2022110450 Serial 214  
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Author Pree, T.A.D. url  openurl
  Title The politics of baselining in the Grants uranium mining district of northwestern New Mexico Type Journal Article
  Year 2020 Publication Journal of Environmental Management Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 268 Issue Pages (up) 110601  
  Keywords Critical stakeholder analysis, Environmental cleanup, Environmental monitoring, Mining reclamation/remediation/restoration, Politics of baselining  
  Abstract During the second half of the twentieth century, northwestern New Mexico served as the primary production site for one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals. From 1948 to 1970 the “Grants uranium district” provided almost half of the total uranium ore accumulated by the United States federal government for the production of nuclear weapons, in addition to becoming a national source for commercial nuclear energy from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. By the twenty-first century, after a prolonged period of economic decline that began in the late 1970s, all uranium mining and milling in New Mexico had ceased, leaving a legacy of environmental health impacts. What was once referred to as “The Uranium Capital of the World” now encompasses over a thousand abandoned uranium mines and seven massive uranium mill tailings piles, which are associated with airborne and soil contamination as well as groundwater plumes of uranium and other contaminants of concern, in a landscape that has been fractured by underground mine workings and punctured by thousands of exploratory boreholes. This article presents an ethnographic study of the diverse forms of expertise involved in monitoring and managing the mine waste and mill tailings. Drawing from over two years of ethnographic research, I describe the relationship between different stakeholders from local communities, government agencies, and transnational mining corporations as they deliberate about the possibility of cleaning up the former mining district. My thesis is that the possibility of cleaning up the Grants district hinges on the “politics of baselining”—a term I introduce to describe the relationship between stakeholders and their competing environmental models and hydrogeological theories; each accounts for a different geological past prior to mining that can be deemed “natural,” as the background against which to measure the anthropogenic impacts from mining.  
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  ISSN 0301-4797 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number THL @ christoph.kuells @ pree_politics_2020 Serial 151  
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Author Jamali, B.; Bach, P.M.; Deletic, A. url  openurl
  Title Rainwater harvesting for urban flood management – An integrated modelling framework Type Journal Article
  Year 2020 Publication Water Research Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 171 Issue Pages (up) 115372  
  Keywords Rainwater harvesting tanks, Urban flood simulation, Rapid flood inundation model, Urban flood risk mitigation  
  Abstract It is well known that rainwater harvesting (RWH) can augment water supply and reduce stormwater pollutant discharges. Due to the lack of continuous 2D modelling of urban flood coverage and its associated damage, the ability of RWH to reduce urban flood risks has not been fully evaluated. Literature suggests that small distributed storage spaces using RWH tanks will reduce flood damage only during small to medium flooding events and therefore cumulative assessment of their benefits is needed. In this study we developed a new integrated modelling framework that implements a semi-continuous simulation approach to investigate flood prevention and water supply benefits of RWH tanks. The framework includes a continuous mass balance simulation model that considers antecedent rainfall conditions and water demand/usage of tanks and predicts the available storage prior to each storm event. To do so, this model couples a rainfall-runoff tank storage model with a detailed stochastic end-use water demand model. The available storage capacity of tanks is then used as a boundary condition for the novel rapid flood simulation model. This flood model was developed by coupling the U.S. EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to the Cellular-Automata Fast Flood Evaluation (CA-ffé) model to predict the inundation depth caused by surcharges over the capacity of the drainage network. The stage-depth damage curves method was used to calculate time series of flood damage, which are then directly used for flood risk and cost-benefit analysis. The model was tested through a case study in Melbourne, using a recorded rainfall time series of 85 years (after validating the flood model against 1D-2D MIKE-FLOOD). Results showed that extensive implementation of RWH tanks in the study area is economically feasible and can reduce expected annual damage in the catchment by up to approximately 30 percent. Availability of storage space and temporal distribution of rainfall within an event were important factors affecting tank performance for flood reduction.  
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  ISSN 0043-1354 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number THL @ christoph.kuells @ Jamali2020115372 Serial 239  
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