Management of groundwater contamination is a very cost-intensive proposition filled with conflicting objectives and substantial uncertainty. A critical source of this uncertainty in groundwater problems comes from the data for the conductivity values for the aquifer on which the flow and transport of the contaminant is dependent. For a remediation solution to be reliable in practice it is impor...

The physiological and metabolic mechanisms behind the humic acid-mediated plant growth enhancement are discussed in detail. Experiments using cucumber (Cucumis sativus) plants show that the shoot growth enhancement caused by a structurally well-characterized humic acid with sedimentary origin is functionally associated with significant increases in abscisic acid (ABA) root concentration and roo...

Previous studies of the hydraulic conductivity of connective tissues have failed to show a correspondence between ultrastructure and specific hydraulic conductivity. We used the technique of quick-freeze/deep-etch to examine the ultrastructure of the corneal stroma and then utilized morphometric studies to compute the specific hydraulic conductivity of the corneal stroma. Our studies demonstrat...

Many groundwater remediation designs for contaminant plume containment are developed using mathematically based groundwater now models. These mathematical models are most eiTective as predictive tools when the parameters that govern groundwater flow are known with a high degree of certainty. The hydraulic conductivity of an aquifer, however, is uncertain, and so remediation designs developed lI...

A prerequisite for reliable hydraulic measurements is an accurate collection of the plant material. Thereby, the native hydraulic state of the sample has to be preserved during harvesting (i.e., cutting the plant or plant parts) and preparation (i.e., excising the target section). This is particularly difficult when harvesting has to be done under transpiring conditions. In this article, we pre...

Many forest roads are being closed as a step in watershed restoration. Ripping roads with subsoilers or rock rippers is a common practice to increase the infiltration capacity of roads prior to closure. When considering the effectiveness of ripping for reducing runoff and erosion and the potential reduction in slope stability by saturating road fills, it is important to know how ripping changes...

Steady, Darcian, 1-D, 1-phase evaporation through a vertically inhomogeneous soil from a horizontal water table is simulated as an optimal control problem, i.e. the hydraulic properties of the porous medium (relative permeability of moisture and capillary water retention curve) are considered as control functions. The Richards nonlinear ordinary differential equation is integrated twice as a bo...

Compacted clay has traditionally been used as a lining material in municipal solid waste landfills. However, natural clays may not always provide good contaminant sorption properties. One alternative material that is abundant in some parts of Europe and Turkey as well as Western United States is sepiolite. A laboratory study was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of sepiolite as a liner ...