This paper investigated the spacing threshold of nonsubmerged spur dikes with alternate layout to classify the impact scale of spur dikes. A mathematical model was built based on standard $k$-$\epsilon$ model, finite volume method (FVM), and rigid lid assumption and was verified by experimental data. According to dimensional analysis, three indices, that is, $F_r$ (Froude number), $B/b$ (channel width to dike length), and $B/h$ (channel width to water depth), were identified as the influencing factors on the spacing threshold, based on which fifteen sets of conditions were simulated. The calculation results indicate that $B/h$ is the most influencing parameter on $S_c/b$ (spacing threshold to dike length), followed by $B/b$ and $F_r$. A dimensionless empirical formula of spacing threshold is fitted by multivariate regression. The results of four sets of additional conditions illustrate that the generalization of empirical formula is satisfactory and the precision of interpolation is higher than that of extrapolation. Furthermore, the spacing threshold of alternate spur dikes is generally smaller than ipsilateral spur dikes.

In this study, an interval fuzzy credibility-constrained programming (IFCP) method is developed for river water quality management. IFCP is derived from incorporating techniques of fuzzy credibility-constrained programming (FCP) and interval-parameter programming (IPP) within a general optimization framework. IFCP is capable of tackling uncertainties presented as interval numbers and possibility distributions as well as analyzing the reliability of satisfying (or the risk of violating) system’s constraints. A real-world case for water quality management planning of the Xiangxi River in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region (which faces severe water quality problems due to pollution from point and nonpoint sources) is then conducted for demonstrating the applicability of the developed method. The results demonstrate that high biological oxygen demand (BOD) discharge is observed at the Baishahe chemical plant and Gufu wastewater treatment plant. For nonpoint sources, crop farming generates large amounts of total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN). The results are helpful for managers in not only making decisions of effluent discharges from point and nonpoint sources but also gaining insight into the tradeoff between system benefit and environmental requirement.

Karst aquifers are known for their heterogeneous physical properties and irregular complex flow patterns which make it a challenge to describe the hydrological behavior and to quantitatively define the distribution of river flow components using hydrologic models. In this paper, a conceptual lumped hydrologic model, Xin’anjiang model (XAJ), was applied in Sancha River, which is a karst basin in southwest China, for the simulation of streamflow. The performance of XAJ model was evaluated based on the model’s ability to reproduce the streamflow and baseflow. Percentage of bias (PBIAS), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), coefficient of determination ($R^2$), and standard deviation (RSR) were calculated between the simulated and measured flow for both calibration and validation period. The low PBIAS and RSR (2.7% and 0.367 for calibration period, 1.3% and 0.376 for validation period) and the high NSE and $R^2$ (0.866 and 0.866 for calibration period, 0.858 and 0.860 for validation period) indicate that the model structure and parameters are of reasonable validity. Furthermore, streamflow was separated to baseflow and surface flow using the “baseflow programme,” and the calculated results indicate that the model could also reproduce the response of baseflow in such karst system.

The runoff change in Weihe River is significantly decreasing with the climate change and the huge increasing of human activities. The analysis of the variation changes of runoff would provide scientific understanding of Weihe River basin and similar basins. Mann-Kendall method is used to detect the variation changes of annual and seasonal runoff of 1919–2011 at the outlet station, that is, Huaxian station, in the mainstream of Weihe River. The results show that the runoff variation point is 1990, and there were significant changes in trends and periodicals, corroborated by wavelet variance analysis, Kendall’s rank tests, and trends persistence test, in annual, seasonal, and monthly runoff at the variation point of 1990. Attribution analysis indicates that the primary drivers of the shift in runoff variation were human activities rather than climate change, as water consumption (particularly groundwater consumption) increased sharply in the 1990s.

Since Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) method can combine the forecasts of different models together to generate a new one which is expected to be better than any individual model’s forecast, it has been widely used in hydrology for ensemble hydrologic prediction. Previous studies of the BMA mostly focused on the comparison of the BMA mean prediction with each individual model’s prediction. As BMA has the ability to provide a statistical distribution of the quantity to be forecasted, the research focus in this study is shifted onto the comparison of the prediction uncertainty interval generated by BMA with that of each individual model under two different BMA combination schemes. In the first BMA scheme, three models under the same Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency objective function are, respectively, calibrated, thus providing three-member predictions ensemble for the BMA combination. In the second BMA scheme, all three models are, respectively, calibrated under three different objective functions other than Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency to obtain nine-member predictions ensemble. Finally, the model efficiency and the uncertainty intervals of each individual model and two BMA combination schemes are assessed and compared.