Analysis and online real-time integrated modelling of nitrate processes in the whole freshwater cycle

整个淡水循环中硝酸盐过程的分析和在线实时集成建模

• 批准号: NE/K001027/1
• 负责人: Lei Wang
• 金额: $ 10.26万
• 依托单位: British Geological Survey
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FK001027%2F1
• 关键词: Analysis; online; real; time; integrated

Nitrate pollution in freshwater, which is mainly from agricultural activities, remains an international problem. It threatens environment, economics and human health in the UK. Nitrate concentrations are more than 50 mg NO3 per liter EU drinking water standard with a rising trend in many UK freshwaters (groundwater and surface water). In the freshwater cycle, nitrate leached from the soil (after soil nitrogen (N) transformations, such as nitrification, denitrification and plant uptake) can (a) quickly discharge into surface streams, or (b) slowly transport through the unsaturated zone (from the base of the soil layer to water table) and the saturated zone before reaching boreholes, springs and streams. Groundwater and stream water may heavily influence each other's qualities through the interactions between them in the hyporheic zone (a zone below and adjacent to a streambed). Through recent research, it has become increasingly clear that it could take decades for leached nitrate from the soil to discharge into freshwaters due to nitrate storage and its potentially long time lag in the unsaturated and saturated zones. However, this time lag is rarely considered in current water nitrate management and policy development, although there is an urgent need to do so because of environmental and legislative pressures. While we now have a much better, although still incomplete, understanding of nitrate processes in each separate component of the freshwater cycle than before; further holistic research is required to advance our knowledge of nitrate processes in the interconnected whole cycle. I propose to investigate the nitrate transport and major N transformations in the soil and in the unsaturated, saturated and hyporheic zones by developing an integrated modelling method. A prototype of online and real-time modelling system will be developed for demonstration purposes. The development of such an integrated modelling method is a major challenge. It has never been tried before with such level of complexity involving the integration of soil, hydrology, hydrogeology, biogeochemistry and landscape sciences. However, it is worth pursuing with the reward of entirely novel insights into the behaviour of nitrate in the interconnected whole freshwater cycle, and direct benefit to academic society and water nitrate management policy makers, thus indirectly reducing the economic costs due to water nitrate problems (e.g. costs of treating nitrate in drinking water, and water nitrate related human diseases). The methods and tools developed in this research can be transferable to other areas. The Eden Valley, where I have developed numerical models in simulating runoff, groundwater recharge, and nitrate transport in groundwater and in the unsaturated zone, will be used as a testing area in this study. As it is also one of the catchments being studied in the NERC Macronutrient Cycles, and DEFRA Demonstration Test Catchment programmes, this project will be a valuable contribution to these ongoing programmes. This also means that there is a large amount of available data. The concept of real-time (as described here) does not necessarily imply a short modelling interval, but rather a way for automatically modelling and immediately delivering results and models. The novel online and real-time modelling method to be demonstrated in this project will greatly facilitate the efficient communication between stakeholders in a very cost-effective way, and have a potential to increase the participation of the catchment's community (including farmers and the general public) in nitrate management policy development, by publishing online information updated automatically in real-time.

淡水中的硝酸盐污染主要来自农业活动，仍然是一个国际问题。它威胁着英国的环境、经济和人类健康。硝酸盐浓度超过每升欧盟饮用水标准50毫克NO3，在许多英国淡水（地下水和地表水）中呈上升趋势。在淡水循环中，从土壤中沥滤出的硝酸盐（在土壤氮（N）转化之后，如硝化、反硝化和植物吸收）可以（a）迅速排入地表溪流，或（B）缓慢地通过非饱和区（从土壤层底部到地下水位）和饱和区，然后到达钻孔、泉水和溪流。地下水和溪流水通过它们在潜流带（河床下方和邻近河床的区域）中的相互作用可能严重影响彼此的质量。通过最近的研究，越来越清楚的是，由于硝酸盐储存及其在非饱和区和饱和区的潜在长时间滞后，从土壤中沥滤的硝酸盐可能需要几十年才能排放到淡水中。然而，这一时间滞后很少考虑在目前的硝酸盐管理和政策制定，虽然有迫切需要这样做，因为环境和立法的压力。虽然我们现在有一个更好的，虽然仍然不完整，了解硝酸盐过程中的每个单独的组成部分淡水循环比以前;进一步的整体研究，需要推进我们的知识硝酸盐过程中相互关联的整个循环。我建议调查硝酸盐运输和主要的N转化在土壤中，并在非饱和，饱和和hyporheic区通过开发一个综合的建模方法。将为示范目的开发一个在线和实时建模系统原型。 开发这种综合建模方法是一项重大挑战。以前从未尝试过如此复杂的方法，涉及土壤、水文学、水文地质学、生物地球化学和景观科学的整合。然而，值得追求的是对硝酸盐在相互关联的整个淡水循环中的行为的全新见解，并直接受益于学术界和水硝酸盐管理政策制定者，从而间接降低由于水硝酸盐问题造成的经济成本（例如，处理饮用水中硝酸盐的成本，以及与水硝酸盐相关的人类疾病）。在这项研究中开发的方法和工具可以转移到其他领域。 在伊登谷，我已经开发了数值模型，在模拟径流，地下水补给，地下水和非饱和带中的硝酸盐运输，将被用作本研究的试验区。由于它也是NERC宏量营养素循环和DEFRA示范测试集水区方案中正在研究的集水区之一，因此该项目将对这些正在进行的方案作出宝贵贡献。这也意味着有大量的可用数据。实时的概念（如本文所述）并不一定意味着短的建模间隔，而是一种自动建模和立即提供结果和模型的方式。本项目中将展示的新型在线和实时建模方法将以极具成本效益的方式极大地促进利益相关者之间的有效沟通，并有可能通过发布实时自动更新的在线信息，增加集水区社区（包括农民和公众）对硝酸盐管理政策制定的参与。

项目成果

The changing trend in nitrate concentrations in major aquifers due to historical nitrate loading from agricultural land across England and Wales from 1925 to 2150.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.10.127
• 发表时间: 2016-01
• 期刊: The Science of the total environment
• 作者: Lei Wang;Marianne Stuart;Melinda Lewis;Rob Ward;D. Skirvin;P. Naden;Adrian L. Collins;M. Ascott

A catchment-scale method to simulating the impact of historical nitrate loading from agricultural land on the nitrate-concentration trends in the sandstone aquifers in the Eden Valley, UK.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.10.235
• 发表时间: 2017-02
• 期刊: The Science of the total environment
• 作者: Lei Wang;S. Burke

The nitrate time bomb: a numerical way to investigate nitrate storage and lag time in the unsaturated zone

• DOI: 10.1007/s10653-013-9550-y
• 发表时间: 2013-10-01
• 期刊: ENVIRONMENTAL GEOCHEMISTRY AND HEALTH
• 影响因子: 4.2
• 作者: Wang, L.;Butcher, A. S.;Bloomfield, J. P.
• 通讯作者: Bloomfield, J. P.

A seamlessly coupled GIS and distributed groundwater flow model

无缝耦合的 GIS 和分布式地下水流模型

• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.04.007
• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: Environmental Modelling & Software
• 影响因子: 4.9
• 作者: Wang L