Date of Award:

5-2020

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

David K. Stevens

Committee

David K. Stevens

Committee

Mac McKee

Committee

L. Niel Allen

Committee

Jeffrey S. Horsburgh

Committee

Jagath Kaluarachchi

Abstract

This dissertation presents a set of approaches to help address water quality problems related to total phosphorus loads in water bodies. Water quality degradation is caused by many nonpoint sources such as agricultural runoff, fertilizers applications, and bank erosion. Three studies present methodologies for water quality protection from degradation in watersheds. The first study demonstrates the application of a watershed simulation tool that can quantify flows in the watershed, the amount of released pollutants and identify the areas contributing to the pollutants’ release in the watershed. The second study presents a simple combination tool that can pair potential management practices with the identified nonpoint sources areas to generate cost-effective combinations of management practices for reducing excess phosphorus loading to water bodies. The last study develops an optimization framework that recommends the area optimum sizes that are available for implementing management practices. These studies were applied to real-case problems to reduce excess nutrients within the Lower Bear River Watershed in northern Utah and expected to improve the management of nutrient control plans under the allocated funds.

Checksum

fb62f76df8d267c85be5468933b33d16

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .