Peace Project Water Use Plan - BC Hydro

Peace Project Water Use Plan
Annual Report: 2010
emissions. The strength of the dust emissions will be a function of the availability and
amount of PM10 in the beach sediments (a function of sediment texture) and the
strength of the wind. Having the ability to identify, in advance, areas that should be
prioritized for treatment could result in significant cost savings for mitigation to reduce
the contributions of PM10 from these beaches that affects local and
regional air quality.
This project was undertaken to assess the feasibility of developing a model system
that would identify the emission potential of beaches around the Williston Reservoir,
which could lead, in the future, to a system capable of providing information on the
emission potential of the beaches through time and as a function of environmental
conditions. Such a modeling system could form the basis for strategizing when and
where to apply dust control measures to maximize the investment on reducing the
PM10 concentrations that impact the local and regional environment, while saving
costs related to mitigation efforts.
The primary objectives of the study were to:
1. assess the ability of remotely-sensed data from RADARSAT-2 to predict near
surface soil moisture and surface roughness, which critically control wind erosion
threshold, at appropriate spatial and temporal scales on a representative beach
that has a range of surface and textural characteristics,
2. assess the ability of RADARSAT-2 and/or LandSAT to differentiate the textural
characteristics of the surface sediments, which will affect wind erosion threshold
and dust emission potential,
3. using a recently developed instrument (PI-SWERL), characterize the wind
erosion threshold and dust emission potential of selected beach surfaces and
evaluate the relationship between these measurements and the remotely sensed
signals for soil moisture, roughness, and texture,
4. further develop an available wind erosion model to enable it to characterize
erosion and dust emission potential using the RADARSAT-2 and LandSatderived
data, as well as the measured surface threshold and emission
relationships obtained with the PISWERL for typical wind speeds at the Williston
Reservoir.
This project successfully addressed the above listed objectives and produced a
working dust emission model that could, with some further development, serve as the
basis of a predictive system to identify beach areas at Williston Reservoir that could
be prioritized to receive dust emission controls. The modeled high emission days
correspond to dates where dust storms occurred as measured at the on-site
meteorological tower and dust monitoring station (recorded by the Tillage Trials
project), demonstrating that the model can effectively reproduce an emission event.
The model uses relatively few parameters and the methodology developed to obtain
these input parameters using GIS and remote sensing techniques along with a
stochastic approach for assessing threshold shear velocity can be applied not only to
this location in the future but to other locations as well. Model results indicate that
there is a spatial distribution to dust emissions on the reservoir beaches that change
as a function of the state of the input parameters. With foreknowledge of the critical
input parameters the model could be run in a forecasting mode to provide a map of
dust emission potential as a function of location and strength.
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