Publications by authors named "Domenica Mirauda"

Lakes play an important role in providing various ecosystem services. However, stressors such as climate change, land use, or land-cover change threaten the ecological functions of lakes. National and international legislations address these threats and establish consistent, long-term monitoring schemes.

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Modelling and evaluating the resilience of environmental systems has recently raised significant interest among both practitioners and researchers. However, it has not yet been used to measure the absorption and recovery capacities of a river subject to varying levels of pollution due to natural and anthropic sources of contamination within the basin. Fast worldwide population growth and climate change are contributing to an increased degradation status in surface water bodies and to a decreased efficiency of their natural self-purification processes.

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In narrow open channels, the three-dimensional nature of the flow and the transport momentum from the sidewalls to the central region cause the maximum longitudinal velocity to occur below the water surface. The entropy model is unable to accurately describe the velocities near the free surface when the dip phenomenon exists. The present paper proposes a new dip-modified entropy law for steady open channel flows, which consists of three additional terms: the first one similar to Coles' function; the second one linearly proportional to the logarithmic distance from the free surface; and the third one depending on the cubic correction near the maximum velocity.

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The evaluation of bed shear stress distribution is fundamental to predicting the transport of sediments and pollutants in rivers and to designing successful stable open channels. Such distribution cannot be determined easily as it depends on the velocity field, the shape of the cross section, and the bed roughness conditions. In recent years, information theory has been proven to be reliable for estimating shear stress along the wetted perimeter of open channels.

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The knowledge of the fluid discharge in free surface flows requires a great number of velocity measurements along the whole cross-section, taking up a large amount of time, using expensive equipment, and employing specialized labor. To overcome these obstacles, various models have been developed thus far that show how to estimate the mean velocity through the maximum velocity. In three-dimensional open channels, the maximum velocity can be located below the free surface because of the presence of secondary flows mainly originating by the sidewalls, an occurrence known as dip-phenomenon.

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The present study develops an integrated methodology combining the results of the water-quality classification, according to the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC-WFD, with those of a mathematical integrity model. It is able to analyse the potential anthropogenic impacts on the receiving water body and to help municipal decision-makers when selecting short/medium/long-term strategic mitigation actions to be performed in a territory. Among the most important causes of water-quality degradation in a river, the focus is placed on pollutants from urban wastewater.

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The three-dimensional structure of river flow and the presence of secondary currents, mainly near walls, often cause the maximum cross-sectional velocity to occur below the free surface, which is known as the "dip" phenomenon. The present study proposes a theoretical model derived from the entropy theory to predict the velocity dip position along with the corresponding velocity value. Field data, collected at three ungauged sections located along the Alzette river in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and at three gauged sections located along three large rivers in Basilicata (southern Italy), were used to test its validity.

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