A global evaluation of streamflow drought characteristics

How drought is characterised depends on the purpose and region of the study and the available data. In case of regional applications or global comparison a standardisation of the methodology to characterise drought is preferable. In this study the threshold level method in combination with three common pooling procedures is applied to daily streamflow series from a wide range of hydrological regimes. Drought deficit characteristics, such as drought duration and deficit volume, are derived, and the methods are evaluated for their applicability for regional studies. Three different pooling procedures are evaluated: the moving-average procedure (MA-procedure), the inter-event time method (IT-method), and the sequent peak algorithm (SPA). The MA-procedure proved to be a flexible approach for the different series, and its parameter, the averaging interval, can easily be optimised for each stream. However, it modifies the discharge series and might introduce dependency between drought events. For the IT-method it is more difficult to find an optimal value for its parameter, the length of the excess period, in particular for flashy streams. The SPA can only be recommended as pooling procedure for the selection of annual maximum series of deficit characteristics and for very low threshold levels to ensure that events occurring shortly after major events are recognized. Furthermore, a frequency analysis of deficit volume and duration is conducted based on partial duration series of drought events. According to extreme value theory, excesses over a certain limit are Generalized Pareto (GP) distributed. It was found that this model indeed performed better than or equally to other distribution models. In general, the GP-model could be used for streams of all regime types. However, for intermittent streams, zero-flow periods should be treated as censored data. For catchments with frost during the winter season, summer and winter droughts have to be analysed separately

Knowledge, attitudes and temptation to use doping in sport: an examination in a sample of Norwegian junior elite athletes

Masteroppgave - Norges idrettshøgskole, 2014In modern times, the history of doping in sports has shown to be a great problem among competitive elite athletes. As many may be aware of, doping in sports is illegal, threatening to the athletes health and a violation of the sport`s reputation. The health consequences of using prohibited substances are many and can cause harmful effects to those who chose to dope. Doping use is not only limited to athletes on an elite level, they are also used by adolescent athletes in competitive sports at various levels, as well as it have seen to be common among other levels of sport and exercise. Even in pre-adolescent athletes, doping has shown to exist, and that it tend to increase with age.Seksjon for coaching og psykologi / Department of Coaching and Psycholog

Design and numerical analysis of floating photovoltaic array for fjord conditions

To reduce anthropogenic climate change and its negative consequences, renewable energy is key. Solar energy is one of the cheapest forms of renewable energy. However, it demands large land areas, which may cause conflicts. Therefore, floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems have been developed. Existing FPV systems are mainly found on calm water bodies with minimal environmental loads. These areas may also introduce conflicts, and in some regions calm water bodies are a scarcity. Therefore, developing FPV systems that can withstand harsher marine environmental conditions could give the possibility of harvesting solar power in much larger quantities, and with less conflicts related to the use of area. As this is a rather new area of innovation, only few projects exist. This thesis aims to design and analyse an innovative FPV array that can withstand waves based on environmental loads from Norwegian fjords, with a significant wave height of 2,1 m. These conditions are much harsher than what is seen for most existing FPVs and may also serve as a step towards developing fully offshore FPV systems. The thesis analyses four different connection and mooring configurations to identify the effect on the response of the array. The suggested design consists of modules with a 2,5 x 2,5 m platform constructed of a grid of aluminium beams, with two 2 x 1 m solar panels and a 0,5 m wide maintenance walkway that allows access to all solar panels and connections, on top of four upright cylindric floaters. The modules are meant to be connected in arrays. The hydrostatic and hydrodynamic properties of a single module is calculated in the frequency domain using potential theory. The properties are implemented in Sima – Simo - Riflex, where a 3x3 array of modules is assembled and the behaviour is studied in a time domain analysis with irregular waves. The results show that the design is not suitable for the given environmental conditions without improvements. The connector and mooring stiffness impact the array behaviour, and the results may be used as an inspiration for future designs. The results also indicate that small lightweight FPV systems in large waves may be prone to large motions that are outside the limits of the applied method of analysis

Hydrological projections for floods in Norway under a future climate

An ensemble of regional climate scenarios, calibrated hydrological models and flood frequency analyses are used to assess likely changes in hydrological floods under a future climate in Norway for two periods, 2021-2050 and 2071-2100. Analyses are based on detailed modelling for 115 catchments, and changes in the mean annual flood, the 200-year and the 1000-year floods are estimated. Regional guidance for using the projections in climate change adaptation planning is also presented

Nitrate stable isotopes and major ions in snow and ice samples from four Svalbard sites

Increasing reactive nitrogen (N-r) deposition in the Arctic may adversely impact N-limited ecosystems. To investigate atmospheric transport of N-r to Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic, snow and firn samples were collected from glaciers and analysed to define spatial and temporal variations (1 10 years) in major ion concentrations and the stable isotope composition (delta N-15 and delta O-18) of nitrate (NO3-) across the archipelago. The delta N-15(NO3-) and delta O-18(NO3-) averaged -4 parts per thousand and 67 parts per thousand in seasonal snow (2010-11) and -9 parts per thousand and 74 parts per thousand in firn accumulated over the decade 2001-2011. East-west zonal gradients were observed across the archipelago for some major ions (non-sea salt sulphate and magnesium) and also for delta N-15(NO3-) and delta O-18(NO3-) in snow, which suggests a different origin for air masses arriving in different sectors of Svalbard. We propose that snowfall associated with long-distance air mass transport over the Arctic Ocean inherits relatively low delta N-15(NO3-) due to in-transport N isotope fractionation. In contrast, faster air mass transport from the north-west Atlantic or northern Europe results in snowfall with higher delta N-15(NO3-) because in-transport fractionation of N is then time-limited