Ali Ameli

University of British Columbia | UBC · Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Soil mineral weathering is one of the major sources of base cations (BC), which play a dual role in forest ecosystems: they function as plant nutrients and buffer against the acidification of catchment runoff. On a long-term basis, soil weathering rates determine the highest sustainable forest productivity that does not cause acidification. It is b...

Representing hydrologic connectivity of non-floodplain wetlands (NFWs) to downstream waters in process-based models is an emerging challenge relevant to many research, regulatory, and management activities. We review four case studies that utilize process-based models developed to simulate NFW hydrology. Models range from a simple, lumped parameter...

Wetland protection and restoration strategies that are designed to promote hydrologic resilience do not incorporate the location of wetlands relative to the main stream network. This is primarily attributed to the lack of knowledge on the effects of wetland location on wetland hydrologic function (e.g., flood and drought mitigation). Here, we combi...

Soil mineral weathering is one of the major sources of base cations (BC), which play a dual role for a forest ecosystem; they function both as plant nutrients, and for buffering against acidification of catchment runoff. On a long-term basis, the soil weathering rates will determine the highest sustainable forest productivity without causing acidif...

Headwater groundwater subsidy, defined here as out-of-catchment groundwater flow contribution from a headwater catchment to its larger parent watershed (i.e., higher-order stream), can influence the water quality and quantity of regional water resources. But the integrated flow and transport modeling approaches currently being implemented to quanti...

Estimates of rates of wetland loss are important for understanding whether wetland policies meet their objectives. In Alberta, a no-net-area loss interim wetland policy was introduced in 1993. We tested the effectiveness of this interim wetland policy. A historical wetland inventory was established by generating a wetland inventory using digital to...

Wetlands across the globe provide extensive ecosystem services. However, many wetlands – especially those surrounded by uplands, often referred to as geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs) – remain poorly protected. Protection and restoration of wetlands frequently requires information on their hydrologic connectivity to other surface waters, and...

We present a new semi-analytical flow and transport model for the simulation of 3-D steady-state flow and particle movement between groundwater, a surface water body and a radial collector well in geometrically complex unconfined aquifers. This precise and grid-free Series Solution-analytic element method approach handles the irregular configuratio...

Hydrologic connectivity among wetlands is poorly characterized and understood. Our inability to quantify this connectivity compromises our understanding of the potential impacts of wetland loss on watershed structure, function and water supplies. We develop a computationally efficient, physically based subsurface–surface hydrologic model to charact...

The permeability architecture of the critical zone exerts a major influence on the hydrogeochemistry of the critical zone. Water flow path dynamics drive the spatiotemporal pattern of geochemical evolution and resulting streamflow concentration-discharge (C-Q) relation, but these flow paths are complex and difficult to map quantitatively. Here we c...

Subsurface transport of a sorbing contaminant is poorly understood and characterized. Here, a new semi-analytical saturated–unsaturated flow and transport model is coupled to a kinetic sorption algorithm to assess the impact of changes in the subsurface permeability architecture and flow rate on sorption characteristics. The model outputs reveal th...

Hydrologic connectivity of wetlands is poorly characterized and understood. Our inability to quantify this connectivity compromises our understanding of the potential impacts of wetland loss on watershed structure, function and water supplies. We develop a computationally efficient physically-based subsurface-surface hydrological model to character...

Defining the catchment transit time distribution remains a challenge. Here, we used a new semi-analytical physically-based integrated subsurface flow and advective-dispersive particle movement model to assess the subsurface controls on subsurface water flow paths and transit time distributions. First, we tested the efficacy of the new model for sim...

A semianalytical grid-free series solution method is presented for modeling 3-D steady state free boundary groundwater-surface water exchange in geometrically complex stratified aquifers. Continuous solutions for pressure in the subsurface are determined semianalytically, as is the location of the water table surface. Mass balance is satisfied exac...

Hillslope runoff theory is based largely on the differentiation between infiltration excess overland flow, saturation excess overland flow, and subsurface stormflow. Here we explore to what extent a 2-D friction-based overland flow model is useful for predicting hillslope-scale subsurface stormflow, posited here as phenomenologically the same as in...

The strong vertical gradient in soil and subsoil saturated hydraulic conductivity is characteristic feature of the hydrology of catchments. Despite the potential importance of these strong gradients, they have proven difficult to model using robust physically based schemes. This has hampered the testing of hypotheses about the implications of such...

A semi-analytical grid-free series solution method is presented for modeling 3-D steady-state free boundary groundwater-surface water exchange in geometrically complex stratified aquifers. Continuous solutions for pressure in the subsurface are determined semi-analytically, as is the location of the water table surface. Mass balance is satisfied ex...