W. Edgar Watt

Urbanization, land use, and water quality in Shanghai 1947-1996

The paper undertakes a preliminary investigation into the relationship between water quality and urbanization as well as the changing patterns of land use within Shanghai. Longitudinal changes to water quality at various points along the course of the Huangpu River are analysed and compared to changes in the rates of urbanization and changes in land uses. The results reveal that rapid urbanization corresponds with rapid degradation of water quality. It also shows that urban land uses are positively correlated with the decline in water quality. A regression model shows that close to 94% of the variability in water quality classifications is explained by industrial land area. The paper concludes with the need for comprehensive land use planning as a way of protecting valuable water resources.

Adaptation of a Storm Drainage System to Accommodate Increased Rainfall Resulting from Climate Change

Extreme rainfalls in southern Ontario may increase significantly as a result of climate change. This study was designed to determine the impact of a 15% increase in design rainfall intensities on drainage of a typical urban catchment and to investigate adaptive measures. A calibrated model (PCSWMM 2000) was used to: (1) determine the system performance under current and climate-changed design rainfalls; and (2) calculate the magnitudes of various adaptive measures required to reduce the peak discharge to current levels. For this type of catchment, effective retrofit options that provide the required peak discharge reductions included downspout disconnection (50% of connected roofs), increased depression storage (by 45 m3/impervious hectare), and increased street detention storage (by 40m3/impervious hectare).

Twenty Years of Flood Risk Mapping Under the Canadian National Flood Damage Reduction Program

In the early 1970s, Canada faced a problem similar to the United States and other countries that resulted from a reactive strategy towards floods and flooding: ever increasing expenditures of flood control structures together with increasing expenditure on flood disaster assistance without any reduction in flood damage potential. Canada’s cities were growing and there was pressure for development in the nation’s floodplains and increasing demands on governments to provide flood control. Canada’s response to this problem, the National Flood Damage Reduction (FDR) Program, is described by Bruce [1]. “Past governmental contributions to flood relief and flood control structures have not curbed floodplain investment processes nor the concomitant increase in damage potential. The new program is intended to coordinate federal and provincial strategies by clearly defining flood-risk areas, by discouraging continuing investment in those areas, and by following up with appropriate measures to limit damage to existing development.”

Frequency analysis of short‐duration rainfalls

Abstract An investigation was carried out to determine the appropriateness of a probability distribution and fitting technique commonly used in Canada for rainfall frequency analysis. The extreme value type 1 (EV1) distribution was assessed for three long‐term Canadian stations: Victoria, St Thomas and Quebec. The EV1 distribution appears to provide a reasonable fit for durations varying from 5 min to 6 h, but is not clearly superior to another two‐parameter distribution, the lognormal. The fitting technique, known as modified moments or regression, was assessed by comparing it with three other fitting techniques: moments, maximum likelihood and adjusted maximum likelihood. This comparison was carried out using Monte Carlo simulation techniques over the parameter space deemed to be representative of short duration rainfall data for Canada. In terms of estimating rainfall amounts of specified return period, the modified moments technique was the poorest with regard to both bias and efficiency. In general, ...

ECONOMIC APPROACH TO OPTIMIZING DESIGN PARAMETERS

The steady state profile of the longshore current induced by regular, obliquely incident, breaking waves, over a bottom with arbitrary parallel bottom contours, is predicted. A momentum approach is adopted. The wave parameters must be given at a depth outside the surf zone, where the current velocity is very small. The variation of the bottom roughness along the given bottom profile must be prescribed in advance. Depth refraction is included also in the calculation of wave set-down and set-up. Current refraction and rip-currents are excluded. The model includes two new expressions, one for the calculation of the turbulent lateral mixing, and one for the turbulent bottom friction. The term for the bottom friction is non-linear. Rapid convergent numerical algorithms are described for the solution of the governing equations. The predicted current profiles are compared with laboratory experiments and field measurements. For a plane sloping bottom, the influence of different eddy viscosities and constant values of bottom roughness is examined.The calculation of turbulent flow using Naviers equations assumes the introduction of a turbulent viscosity coefficient the value of which is normally constant, conforming with Boussinesqs hypothesis. It was shown that setting aside this hypothesis, a velocity profile quite different to that resulting from the classic theory is obtained in the case of flow induced by wind. This result appears to be confirmed by the tests carried out in the Mediterranean. The advantage of this method is that it gives the vertical turbulent diffusion which is of particular interest to pollution studies.In the numerical method of prediction of wind waves in deep water, Hasselmanns nonlinear interaction theory is applied. This method assumes the energy balance of individual component waves. However, the total energy balance must exist in the transformation of irregular waves in shoaling water. In this investigation, experiments were carried out on the transformations in shoaling water of composite waves having two components and random waves having one or two main peaks. It was found that the elementary component wave height of the composite waves and the elementary peak power of the random waves decrease with decrease in the water depth. This reason can be explained qualitatively by the theory of the elementary component wave height change of finite amplitude waves in shoaling water. The secondary component wave height of the composite waves and the secondary peak power of the random waves increase with decrease in the water depth. This can be explained qualitatively by Hamadas theory of nonlinear interaction in uniform depth.Experiments have been carried out by using non-breaking waves and breaking waves to investigate the wave forces on a vertical circular cell located in the shallow water. Based on the experimental data, the drag coefficient and the inertia coefficient of a circular cylinder and the curling factor of breaking waves are estimated, and the computation methods of wave forces are examined. As a result, it is shown that the phase lag of inertia forces behind the accelerations of water particles should be considered for the estimation of the drag coefficient as well as the inertia coefficient. In addition the previous formula of the maximum breaking wave forces acting on a cell or a pile is revised by introducing the effects of the above-mentioned phase lag and another phase difference, both of which are functions of the ratio of the cell diameter to the wave length. • It is confirmed that the proposed formula is applicable even to the large cell with the diameter comparable to the wave length. INTRODUCTION Many studies have been done on the impulsive pressures acting on a vertical wall, but there has been very little investigation of breaking wave forces on a cell-type structure. The breaking wave forces should be taken into consideration all the same in the design of pile-type or cell-type structures in nearshore area, because breaking waves cause extreme shock pressures on a cell structure asThe air bubble plume induced by the steady release of air into water has been analyzed with an integral technique based on the equations for conservation of mass, momentum and buoyancy. This approach has been widely used to study the behavior of submerged turbulent jets and plumes. The case of air-bubble induced flow, however, includes additional features. In this study the compressibility of the air and the differential velocity between the rising air bubbles ,and the water are introduced as basic propertie s of the air bubble plume in addition to a fundamental coefficient of entrainment and a turbulent Schmidt number characterizing the lateral spreading of the air bubbles. Theoretical solutions for twoand three-dimensional air-bubble systems in homogeneous, stagnant water are presented in both dimensional and normalized form and compared to existing experimental data. The further complication of a stratified environment is briefly discussed since this case is of great practical interest. This paper is to be considered as a progress report, as future experimental verification of various hypotheses is needed.