CIV E 633-ENVIRONMENTAL HYDROLOGY
FALL 2008
MIDTERM EXAM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008, 1900-2015

Name: ______________________ S.S. No. ________________ Grade: _________

Instructions: Closed book, closed notes. Use engineering paper. When you are finished, staple your work in sequence, and return this sheet with your work.

  1. Define "Environmental Hydrology." How does it differ from classical hydrology? What natural resources are considered in Environmental Hydrology?

  2. Explain the physical basis for the boomerang-shaped flood-peak-stage/date-of-occurrence relation at the Ladario gage in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso.

  3. What is the Leopold matrix? How are impacts evaluated in the Leopold matrix? Describe the Battelle Environmental Evaluation System.

  4. What is the process responsible for the oxygen in the atmosphere? What is the process responsible for the nitrogen in the atmosphere? What is the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere? What is the concentration of nitrogen in the atmosphere? What is the current carbon dioxide concentration (in ppm) in the atmosphere? Where did the juvenile carbon dioxide come from?

  5. Why is it a fallacy to state that tropical rainforests such as the Amazon will help in sequestering excess carbon from fossil-fuel burning? Explain.

  6. Why is phosphorous important in the biosphere? How long are global phosphate resources likely to last? Which sulphur compound is odiferous, and which is not?

  7. What processes take part in the nitrogen cycle? How does nitrogen enter the biosphere? How does nitrogen escape from the biosphere?

  8. Why is it necessary to have alternate periods of aerobiosis and anaerobiosis in a wetland to close the nitrogen cycle? How did the early inhabitants of the Llanos de Mojos manage to interrupt this natural process?

  9. What is DO? What is a typical value of DO in clean waters? What is BOD? What are typical BOD values in domestic wastewaters? What is the DO sag curve? What two reaction parameters does it depend on?

  10. What is redox potential? What does it describe? What redox potential (mV) describes aerobic conditions? What redox potential (mV) describes anoxic conditions? What redox potential (mV) describes anaerobic conditions? Describe the time sequence of oxidation-reduction in newly flooded wetland soils. What is methanogenesis?