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Modeling and nowcasting of flash floods remains challenging, mainly due to uncertainty of high-resolution spatial and temporal precipitation estimates, missing discharge observations of affected catchments and limitations of commonly used hydrologic models. In this study, we present a framework for flash flood hind- and nowcasting using the partial differential equation (PDE)-based ParFlow hydrologic model forced with quantitative radar precipitation estimates and nowcasts for a small 18.5 km2 headwater catchment in Germany. In the framework, an uncalibrated probabilistic modeling approach is applied. It accounts for model input uncertainty by forcing the model with precipitation inputs from different sources, and accounts for model parameter uncertainty by perturbing two spatially uniform soil hydraulic parameters. Thus, sources of uncertainty are propagated through the model and represented in the results. To demonstrate the advantages of the proposed framework, a commonly used conceptual model was applied over the same catchment for comparison. Results show the framework to be robust, with the uncalibrated PDE-based model matching streamflow observations reasonably. The model lead time was further improved when forced with precipitation nowcasts. This study successfully demonstrates a parsimonious application of the PDE-based ParFlow model in a flash flood hindcasting and nowcasting framework, which is of interest in applications to poorly or ungauged watersheds.

A pre-economic feasibility study was undertaken to determine the potential of cereal straw for industrial utilization in Minnesota. Specifically, utilizing straw for pulp and paper manufacture was of interest. The availability of cereal straw fiber supplies at various locations across the state of Minnesota, along with pre-processing issues such as transportation, harvesting, handling, and storage, are discussed and priced. The greatest economic advantage of straw for industrial use appears to be the low cost of the raw material compared to traditional raw materials. This also provides an excellent opportunity for additional income for farmers. The methodology and information provided here should be helpful in evaluating the feasibility of utilizing straw for other industrial purposes in other parts of the world. However, in some Third World countries, long-standing on-farm, traditional uses of cereal straws for fuel, fiber, and animal feed may limit their availability for industrial utilization.

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<p>Climate change and its impacts at local scales, such as the more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events like droughts or floods, pose an increasing problem for agriculture. Our aim is to support farmers with soil condition and weather forecasting products that provide the basis for optimal adaptation to short-term weather variability and extremes as well as to long-term, regional climate change.</p><p>For this purpose, a prototypical monitoring and real-time forecasting system was established. The monitoring networks consist of a novel cosmic ray neutron sensor (Styx Neutronica), soil moisture and temperature sensors in four depths between 5 and 60 cm (SoilNet) and an all-in-one weather station (ATMOS-41, METER Environment) to measure the atmospheric conditions including air temperature, humidity, pressure, solar irradiance, wind speed and precipitation at 2 meter height above ground. The observation data are transmitted in real time to a cloud server via the cellular solution NBIoT (Narrow Band Internet of Things). After data post-processing the meteorological and hydrological parameters measured on site are directly assimilated into the fully coupled multi-physical numerical model system TSMP (Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform, www.terrsysmp.org) at Forschungszentrum Jülich. ParFlow hydrologic model (www.parflow.org) is used in combination with the Community Land Model (CLM) to predict hourly, high-resolution (near plot level) information on soil moisture or other soil and meteorological parameters for the next 10 days. A special feature here is the prediction on the temporal development of plant-available water between 0-60cm depth for the sites of our monitoring network partners.</p><p>Observation data as well as the forecasting products are published in near real time on the digital product platform www.adapter-projekt.de. Users thus have direct access to relevant information that support them in planning agricultural management, e.g. irrigation and fertilization requirements, trafficability or workability.</p>