A diagnosis-prescription system for nitrogen management in environment

Abstract

A decision support system in the framework of the geographic information system (GIS) and subsurface flow model, Hydrosub, were used to identify critical areas from simulated spatial distributions of relative nitrogen export. Diagnosis and prescription Expert Systems (ES) are developed and applied to the identification of probable causes of excessive nitrogen export and selection of appropriate Best Management Practices (BMPs). The result is a spatially distributed set of recommended Best Management Practices that are feasible economically and environmentally. For the study watershed, using catch crops and rhizobium-legume (instead of using conventional commercial fertilizers) were the most recommended Best Management Practices.

Impact of Spatial Discretization of Hydrologic Models on Spatial Distribution of Nonpoint Source Pollution Hotspots

“…Hydrologic and environmental models play an important role in providing reliable and accurate information that serves as a base for environmental assessment and decision making (Djodjic et al 2002;Zadeh et al 2007;Panagopoulos et al 2012). The accuracy of a model simulation and the associated uncertainty are directly related to environmental management action and related decision making.…”

“…On-land variables are gaining more attention from hydrologists, with research growing in stormwater management and NPS pollution. Nonpoint source pollution hotspots are also referred to as critical source areas (CSAs) (Djodjic et al 2002), which, because they represent high concentrations of nutrients or sediment yield rate or surface runoff amounts, are a priority in water quality treatment or management (Zadeh et al 2007). The magnitude and spatial distribution of water quality variables simulated by hydrologic models have been used as indicators of NPS hotspots (Srinivasan et al 2005;Pandey et al 2009;Kalin et al 2004;Niraula et al 2012;Emili and Greene 2013).…”

A mass-conservative switching algorithm for modeling fluid flow in variably saturated porous media

“…Fluid flow in variably saturated porous media plays an important role in many branches of sciences and engineering including petroleum reservoir [3], multi-phase flow [2,14], water resources [46,50,51], and bioenvironmental processes [53,54]. Experimentation and process-based mathematical modeling are two orthodox approaches which have been extensively used to analyze fluid flow in different systems with varying degree of complexity.…”