This paper investigates for a 25-year period the sediment distribution in a semi-arid Brazilian basin (2 × 10⁴ km²) with a network containing more than 4000 surface reservoirs. The methodology is based on rating curves and fitted parameters derived from field data. The results showed that suspended load corresponded to 70% of the total sediment yield (148 t km^-2 year^-1). The relatively low contribution of the suspended load (compared with other semi-arid regions) was attributed to the impact of the numerous upstream reservoirs, which retained 235 t km^-2 year^-1. The micro (50 hm³) reservoirs responded to, respectively, 5, 17, 30 and 48% of the total sediment retention by the reservoir network. This indicates that retention in the non-strategic reservoirs has a positive impact on water availability, since siltation of the strategic reservoirs would be expected to more than double if only such reservoirs existed. Citation Lima Neto, I. E., Wiegand, M. C. & de Araújo, J. C. (2011) Sediment redistribution due to a dense reservoir network in a large semi-arid Brazilian basin. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(2), 319–333.

This paper investigates climate change impacts on the hydrology and water quality of Brazilian semi-arid reservoirs. An integrated approach coupling climate, hydrological and water quality models was proposed. Five general circulation models (GCMs) and two future scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5) were used for the projections. The simulations showed that uncertainty in climate forecast significantly impacted hydrological and water quality outputs. Some scenarios revealed a strong decrease in streamflow and storage volume. On the other hand, 40% of multi-GCM projections indicated reservoir eutrophication. The impacts on hydrology and water quality under SSP5-8.5 were more significant than those under SSP2-4.5. The results also indicated that drought events may be prolonged under climate change, principally at the end of the 21st century for SSP5-8.5, and may significantly increase the total phosphorus concentration. This suggests that tropical semi-arid reservoirs could be more vulnerable to eutrophication in scenarios of climate change than those in other regions.

Air injection systems have a wide range of environmental engineering applications. In this study, we conducted experiments on air injection in a relatively large water tank to investigate the effect of nozzle type, including single/multiple orifice nozzles and a porous airstone, on the characteristics of the bubbles and the induced flow structure. Measurements of bubble characteristics and flow field surrounding the bubble core were obtained using a double-tip optical probe and particle image velocimetry, respectively. The results revealed that bubble velocity did not change significantly with different nozzles, but bubble size decreased significantly while interfacial area, liquid entrainment rate, and kinetic energy of the mean and turbulent flow increased significantly by using the porous airstone instead of nozzles with large orifices. The results for a nozzle with multiple orifices of small diameter are comparable to those for the airstone, which suggests the suitability of its use for systems suscep...