Internal phosphorus loading and its driving factors in the dry period of Brazilian semiarid reservoirs.

This study investigated the relationships between physical, limnological and climatic drivers with the internal total phosphorus (TP) loading produced over the dry period in 30 water supply reservoirs of the Brazilian semiarid. Improvements in the understanding of sedimentary TP fluxes in reservoirs of dryland regions are pressing as they usually have serious water quality related issues, remaining mostly eutrophic especially under frequent drought events. Gross daily fluxes and net seasonal average release rates were calculated from mass balance and regression equations considering water and sediment TP concentrations, anoxic duration, water temperature and fish contribution. Additionally, the ratio of wind speed to reservoir volume was proposed as a new surrogate and then applied as explanatory variable to predictive models. The results indicated TP release rates higher than reported for non-semiarid lakes/reservoirs with average gross fluxes ranging from 17.64 to 35.99 mg m-2 day-1. This may be attributed to the enriched sediments (1029.49 ± 552.49 mg kg-1) allied with warmer water temperature, high trophic state, and prolonged anoxic periods (average duration of about 60 days). The average release rates were negatively correlated with water transparency and water depth, and positively correlated with Chl-a, wind speed and trophic state. The release rates increased across the trophic gradient (p < 0.05), about 10-fold higher under hypertrophic conditions than in oligotrophic ones. As anoxia is linked with eutrophication, phosphorus release is more likely in eutrophic ecosystems. Regarding the new surrogate, a strong predictive ability for TP release (R2: 0.26-0.93) was observed. Similarly, the proposed models presented a physically consistent behavior with a stabilizing releasing pattern suggesting the achievement of equilibrium in nutrient exchange between sediment-water interface. This research advanced by combining and proposing methods to assess and quantify sedimentary fluxes in data-scarce regions balancing accuracy and transferability, in order to be replicable to other dryland environments globally.

Modeling flow-related phosphorus inputs to tropical semiarid reservoirs.

Hydrological data and total phosphorus (TP) concentration at reservoirs' outlet were combined in a transient complete-mix model to obtain mean input loads and inlet concentration-flow relationships. This approach was designed to investigate the issue of phosphorus pollution in semiarid regions with intermittent rivers. The methodology was applied for twenty reservoirs in the State of Ceará, Brazilian semiarid. The modeled TP loads correlated well (R2 = 0.74) with reference loads estimated from environmental inventories, with only 10% of underestimated results. The average input loads per unit area of the catchments ranged from about 4 to 40 kg km-2 yr-1, which were considerably lower than the national average of about 500 kg km-2 yr-1. This was attributed to lower precipitation indexes, intermittent river regime and a high-density reservoir network, peculiar of the Brazilian semiarid. Meanwhile, the input load per unit area of a small and highly populated urban catchment, with higher precipitation indexes and deficient sanitation was substantially higher (2626 kg km-2 yr-1). Moreover, the fitted TP concentration-flow relationships directly reflected different TP input sources: strong u-shaped behavior marked the curves of highly non-point source dominated catchments, whereas a dilution pattern prevailed in those with significant point source inputs. The model validation with measured riverine TP concentration reached a NSE of 0.63. However, peak values in TP concentration during low flow rates sensitively affected the fitting of the models. In spite of non-point source dominance in the catchments, some relationships presented a slight signal of this use type. The variation range of the fitting parameters in comparison with other studies, as well the expected behavior of the curves in light of land use characteristics, strongly support the methodology applied in this study. The proposed approach will potentially help address the TP issue in tropical semiarid regions. Furthermore, the paper presents a simple way to deal with the challenging lack of monitored data in such environments.

Integração do SWMM e ferramentas SIG para modelagem hidrológico-hidráulica de bacia complexa / SWMM and GIS tools integration for hydrological-hydraulic modeling of a complex basin

RESUMO O presente trabalho aplicou o Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) para simular e avaliar a resposta hidrológica do sistema de macrodrenagem de um rio costeiro, cuja bacia situa-se em área de transição urbano-rural e apresenta influência marítima em seu exutório. Assim, como condição de contorno de jusante, reconstruiu-se a curva de maré existente no exutório da bacia por meio do método harmônico. Ademais, realizou-se a delimitação dos trechos de escoamento e a discretização das sub-bacias automaticamente e desenvolveu-se um mapa de uso e ocupação do solo para obtenção dos parâmetros físicos e espaciais dos elementos da drenagem, etapas estas auxiliadas por ferramentas de Sistemas de Informações Geográficas (SIG). Procedeu-se à simulação das vazões no sistema para o período de um mês sob condição de precipitação moderada. A validação do modelo resultou em um coeficiente de Nash-Sutcliffe de 0,57. Os resultados mostraram que o SWMM simulou as vazões nos trechos de drenagem das sub-bacias rurais com desvio médio de 8,6% das vazões medidas em campo. Para os trechos sob influência marinha, o SWMM conseguiu reproduzir o efeito da maré nos trechos, apresentando uma oscilação completa. Ademais, obteve-se a descarga fluvial média da bacia ao estuário de 2,35 m3.s-1 e a vazão média mensal afluente ao maior reservatório da bacia de 0,33 m3.s-1, resultados estes em consonância com trabalhos anteriores realizados na bacia em estudo. Em síntese, os resultados obtidos e o modelo proposto têm potencial para auxiliar na gestão integrada de águas rurais, urbanas e costeiras.

ABSTRACT The present work applied the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to simulate and evaluate the hydrological response of a coastal river macrodrainage system whose basin is located in an urban-rural transition area and has a tidal influence in its outflow. Thus, as a downstream contour condition, the existing tidal curve in the basin's outlet was reconstructed using the harmonic method. In addition, drainage stretches and sub-basins were automatically delimited, and a land use and occupation maps were developed to obtain the physical and spatial parameters of the drainage elements, these steps being aided by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools. The flow was simulated in the system for a period of one month under a moderate precipitation condition. The validation of the model resulted in a Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.57. The results showed that the SWMM simulated the flows in the drainage stretches of the rural sub-basins with an average deviation of 8.6% of the flows measured in the field. For stretches under tidal influence, SWMM was able to reproduce the effect of the tide in the stretches with a complete oscillation. In addition, the river discharge from the basin to the estuary was 2.35 m3.s-1, on average, and the average monthly flow affluent to the largest reservoir in the basin was 0.33 m3.s-1, consistently with previous work carried out in the study basin. In summary, the results obtained and the proposed model have the potential to assist in the integrated management of rural, urban, and coastal waters.