H31C-0379 INVITED 0800h
Designing Hydrologic Observatories as a Community Resource
CUAHSI convened a workshop in August 2004 to explore what makes a successful hydrologic observatory. Because of their high cost, only a small number of observatories will be operated, at least initially. (CUAHSI has recommended a pilot network of 5 observatories to develop operational experience and an eventual network of approximately 15 sites.) Because hydrologic scientists can work "in their backyard" (unlike oceanographers or astronomers), hydrologic observatories must offer significant advantages over current methods of field work to successfully attract researchers. Twenty-four teams of scientists submitted "prospectuses" of potential locations for hydrologic observatories for consideration by network attendees. These documents (available at http://www.cuahsi.org) were marketing documents to the workshop participants, who voted for a hypothetical network of 5 observatories from the 24 proposed sites. This network formed the basis for a day of discussions on necessary attributes of core data and how to form a network of observatories from a collection of sites that are designed and implemented individually. Key findings included: 1) Core data must be balanced among disciplines. Although the hydrologic cycle is an organizing principle for the design of HOs, physical data cannot dominate the core data; chemical and biological data, although more expensive to collect, must be given equal footing. 2) New data collection must strategically leverage existing data. Resources are always limited, so that a successful HO must carefully target gaps in existing data, as determined by an explicitly stated conceptual model, and fill them rather than designing an independent study. 3) Site logistics must support remote researchers. Significant resources will be necessary for on-site staff to handle housing, transportation, permitting and other needs. 4) Network-level hypotheses are required early in the implementation of HOs. A network will only emerge around hypotheses. Network-level hypotheses are currently being solicited by CUAHSI to help inform proposing team of important community questions.
http://www.cuahsi.org
H31C-0380 INVITED 0800h
Connecticut River Hydrologic Observatory
The Connecticut River basin possesses some characteristics that make it unique for studying hydrologic issues that transcend scale. The watershed was first dramatically altered through natural processes (glaciation) and then heavily impacted by human stresses (dams, deforestation, acid precipitation/deposition), only to exhibit recent decades of return to a more natural state (reforestation, land conservation, stream restoration, pollution abatement, and dam removal). The watershed is sufficiently north to be classified as a cold region. More specifically to hydrology, the watershed exhibits the spectrum of flooding problems: ice dams, convective storms, hurricanes, rain on melting snow, and low pressure systems. The 28,000 square kilometer Connecticut River Watershed covers one third of the states of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The >640-km long rivers' headwaters start on the Canadian border at the Fourth Connecticut Lake, and flows southward to discharge in Long Island sound. The lower 100 km of river are tidally influenced. The Connecticut River is responsible for 70 % of the freshwater inflow to Long Island Sound. The Connecticut River is a sixth order stream that exhibits a dendritic pattern in an elongated scheme. This setting therefore affords many first and second order streams in almost parallel fashion, flowing west or east towards the central Connecticut River spine. There are 38 major tributaries to the mainstem Connecticut River, and 26 of these tributaries drain greater than 250 square kilometers. There is in excess of 30,000 km of perennially flowing stream length in the watershed. For more information, see: http://www.unh.edu/erg/connho/
http://www.unh.edu/erg/connho/
H31C-0381 0800h
Susquehanna River Basin Hydrologic Observing System (SRBHOS)
In response to the NSF-CUAHSI initiative for a national network of Hydrologic Observatories, we propose to initiate the Susquehanna River Basin Hydrologic Observing System (SRBHOS), as the northeast node. The Susquehanna has a drainage area of 71, 410 km2. From the headwaters near Cooperstown, NY, the river is formed within the glaciated Appalachian Plateau physiographic province, crossing the Valley and Ridge, then the Piedmont, before finishing its' 444 mile journey in the Coastal Plain of the Chesapeake Bay. The Susquehanna is the major source of water and nutrients to the Chesapeake. It has a rich history in resource development (logging, mining, coal, agriculture, urban and heavy industry), with an unusual resilience to environmental degradation, which continues today. The shallow Susquehanna is one of the most flood-ravaged rivers in the US with a decadal regularity of major damage from hurricane floods and rain-on-snow events. As a result of this history, it has an enormous infrastructure for climate, surface water and groundwater monitoring already in place, including the nations only regional groundwater monitoring system for drought detection. Thirty-six research institutions have formed the SRBHOS partnership to collaborate on a basin-wide network design for a new scientific observing system. Researchers at the partner universities have conducted major NSF research projects within the basin, setting the stage and showing the need for a new terrestrial hydrologic observing system. The ultimate goal of SRBHOS is to close water, energy and solute budgets from the boundary layer to the water table, extending across plot, hillslope, watershed, and river basin scales. SRBHOS is organized around an existing network of testbeds (legacy watershed sites) run by the partner universities, and research institutions. The design of the observing system, when complete, will address fundamental science questions within major physiographic regions of the basin. A nested system of observations, will intersect the important landforms, climate zones, ecology, and human activities of the basin. Characterizing how humans and climate impact the sustainability of water resources in the Susquehanna River Basin will require an evolutionary approach, involving coordination of historical information and a phased-design for the new observing system. Detecting change (past and present) requires that the atmosphere, vegetation, geochemistry, and hydrology of the Susquehanna, are all observed coherently from the headwaters to the Chesapeake, from the boundary layer to the water table. The River Basin Adaptive Monitoring and Modeling Plan (RAMP) represents the design strategy to coherently select and assess core monitoring sites as well as new sites targeted for both short-term and long term scientific campaigns. Rich in historical research and infrastructure, SRBHOS will serve as a fundamental resource for the hydrologic science community into the future, while providing a "characteristic" hydrologic node in the national network.
http://www.srbhos.psu.edu
H31C-0382 INVITED 0800h
The Potomac River Basin and Western Shore Chesapeake Bay Drainage as a Proposed CUAHSI Hydrologic Observatory
A long-term hydrologic observatory is proposed for an area encompassing the Potomac River Basin and the basins that form the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay from the Gunpowder River on the north to the Rappahannock River on the south. The area is approximately 52,000 sq km and spans five physiographic provinces, with total relief of about 1200 m, and includes parts of MD, VA, PA, WV, and DC. The Potomac and adjacent mid-Atlantic drainage are characterized by a high frequency of floods and droughts, with attendant concerns about flood hazards and about the reliability of water supply. As of 2000, the population of the proposed study area was 8.26 million, with the highest density in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region. Land use is 45 percent forested, 32 percent agriculture, 5.7 percent developed, and 4.8 percent open water. Heterogeneous natural landscape patterns have been influenced by the legacy of four centuries of human disturbance, including a wave of deforestation, agricultural land use, and land abandonment leading to reforestation contemporaneous with some of the most rapidly expanding urban areas in the U.S. A wealth of existing instrumented field sites forms a network of resources that will be woven together as part of this effort, including: the USGS NAWQA study in the Potomac River Basin; the NSF-funded Baltimore LTER; USDA-ARS sites in Beltsville, MD; the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin's work in overseeing management of the Potomac River; the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's field sites, and active field sites of major research universities located in the region. This effort represents a significant partnership with local district offices of the U.S. Geological Survey. This poster presents study area attributes, preliminary study design, and a proposed core data program. The program is designed to attract researchers in the following areas of scientific inquiry: (1) orographic precipitation mechanisms, runoff generation, and groundwater recharge; (2) sediment sources, storage, and delivery, floodplain processes, and fate of sediment-associated contaminants; (3) biogeochemical cycling and sources and sinks of nutrients and toxic contaminants in the landscape from non-tidal uplands to estuarine waters; (4) defining water needs to support ecosystems, and moving the science of restoration to an integrated biophysical enterprise; and (5) urban development, infrastructure, and consequent transformation of hydrologic landscapes and processes.
http://www.umbc.edu/cuere/potomac
H31C-0383 0800h
Delaware River and Catskill Region Hydrologic Observatory
This poster presents the nationally unique opportunities for hydrology-based research in the Delaware River and Catskill Mountain (DelCat) Region. The DelCat region encompasses all of the Delaware river Basin and the New York City Catskills' source watersheds. It has been a key water resource region prior to the founding of our country. This mountain-river-estuary hydrologic system together with other watersheds in the Catskills has supported the population and economic growth of major metropolitan areas of the early United States by providing water supply, land and forests, transportation, power generation, fisheries, recreation, and pollution elimination. The presentation is an account of a forthcoming effort designed to elicit support and participation. After greatly expanding the user and research community for the DelCat observatory, we will design the facility to serve a large user base interested in studies on a wide range of basic and applied hydrologic science topics and issues. Our current plans are to define the form of the hydrologic observatory, and to forecast the nature of what hydrologic sciences can achieve in the DelCat Region.
http://environment.cornell.edu/Initiatives/HydrologicObservatories/DelawareRiver/
H31C-0384 INVITED 0800h
The Suwannee River Hydrologic Observatory: A Subtropical Coastal Plain Watershed in Transition
The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences (CUAHSI) proposed to establish a network of 5-15 hydrologic observatories (HO's) across North America is to support fundamental research for the hydrologic science community into the next century. These HO's are projected to be 10,000 to 50,000 km2 and will include a broad range of hydrologic, climatic, bio-geochemical and ecosystem processes, including the critical linkages and couplings. This network is envisioned as the natural laboratory for experimental hydrology in support of scientific investigations focused on predictive understanding at a scale that will include both atmospheric- and ecosystem-hydrologic interaction, as well as the hydrologic response to larger-scale climate variation and change. A group of researchers from Florida and Georgia plan to propose the Suwannee River watershed as a Hydrologic Observatory. The Suwannee River flows through a diverse watershed relatively unimpacted by urbanization but in transition to more intense land-use practices. It thus provides excellent opportunities to study the effects of ongoing changes in land use and water supply on varied hydrological processes. Much background information is available on the hydrology, hydrogeology, geology, chemistry, and biology of the watershed. Several major on-going monitoring programs are supported by state and federal agencies. Four characteristics, discussed in greater detail below, make the Suwannee River watershed ideal for a Hydrologic Observatory: Unregulated and rural - The Suwannee River is one of few major rivers in the United States with largely unregulated flow through rural areas and is relatively unimpaired with regard to water quality, leading to its designation as one of twelve National Showcase Watersheds. At Risk and in Transition - Land use is trending toward increased urbanization and intensive agriculture with an apparent coupled increase in nutrient loads and decline in water quality. In addition, population growth is fueling increased groundwater withdrawals from the Floridan aquifer for local consumption affecting water supply. Inter-basin transfers from the lower Suwannee River to south Florida have been suggested as one solution to south Florida's growing water crisis. Three Distinct Hydrologic Regimes - The Suwannee River watershed comprises three distinct but linked hydrologic landscape units. The upper Suwannee River interacts with the surficial aquifer but is largely separated from the Floridan aquifer by a confining unit. The middle Suwannee River interacts with both surficial aquifers and the unconfined karstic Floridan aquifer. The lower Suwannee River discharges to a deltaic estuary as surface water along with diffuse submarine groundwater discharge. Extensive Existing Data Infrastructure - Some discharge data exists from the turn of the 19th century to the present. More recently, the USDA Agricultural Research Service through the Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory (SEWRL) has monitored the Little River watershed in Georgia at the headwaters of the Suwannee River since 1965, and the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) has monitored the Suwannee River watershed in Florida since 1972. Other groups (USGS, Suwannee River Partnership, and individual university investigators) have long worked on specific, local geological, hydrological, and biological problems within the watershed. Contributing Organizations: University of Florida, Florida State University, University of South Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Georgia, USGS, USDA, and SRWMD
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jmartin/Prospectus.pdf
H31C-0385 INVITED 0800h
Illinois River Basin Hydrologic Observatory: A Center for Understanding and Predicting the Complex Hydrologic Cycle of Intensively Managed Landscapes
This paper is submitted on behalf of several individuals representing many institutions. We envision that the Illinois River Basin Hydrologic Observatory (IRB-HO) will be a center of excellence that provides improved scientific understanding of the hydrologic cycle with predictive capability to support better management and decision-making by stakeholders, in an intensively managed landscape. The Illinois River begins at the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers near Chicago, Illinois, and flows 380 km. southwest to the Mississippi River at Grafton, Illinois. It drains an area of over 80,000 sq. km. The basin is characterized by high productivity agriculture and rapid growth of urban areas, and located in northern temperate climate with low relief glaciated landscape. The observatory will address important questions that will lead to socially useful probabilistic assessments of future conditions in the basin. The IRB-HO will serve the following two functions: \begin{enumerate} \item Enable multi-scale interdisciplinary research by providing infrastructure that will attract scientists and water resource professionals to pursue research in the basin. Providing this "community science resource" will be an important function that attracts both remote and on-site participation by investigators from the hydrologic science community, nationally and internationally. \item Answer fundamental interdisciplinary questions of high societal relevance as part of the core effort. The core science questions will be organized around the broad thrust areas of (i) water, energy and sediment flux and dynamics, (ii) biogeochemistry, (iii) hydroecology, (iv) water resources management, (v) Transport of chemical and biological contaminants. \end{enumerate} The IRB-HO will be managed as a center with broad involvement of the community in conception, design and implementation. Further, the core data collected will be made publicly available immediately to realize maximum benefits from the HO. Education and outreach programs and effective partnerships with stakeholder organizations will be established to support management and policy decisions based on the scientific understanding and effective technology transfer.
H31C-0386 INVITED 0800h
Proposed Ozark Plateaus Province Hydrologic Observatory
The Upper White River, which drains about 40 percent of the Ozarks Ecoregion, is the main drain for the Ozark Plateaus and is characteristic of rivers draining other karst areas within the United States and the world. The proposed Ozark Plateaus Hydrologic Observatory (OPHO) encompasses twelve 8-digit hydrologic units covering about 67,000 km2 in parts of three states (Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma). Six major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoirs are within the OPHO including four on the main stem of the White River and one on the Illinois River. Karst features are prominent in the Salem, Ozark, and Springfield Plateaus of the OPHO, and include numerous solutionally enlarged fractures, caves, sinkholes, and sinking streams. Within the basin are numerous and diverse biological communities, representing influences from 1) eastern deciduous forest, 2) Great Plains prairies, 3) arid southwest, and 4) relicts of northern species from the Pleistocene Ice Age. Also contain in the OPHO is a diverse and unique array of mussels, an imperiled river organism (38 species), and crayfish. In the extensive karst regions of the OPHO are found largely endemic subterranean organisms also dependent on good water quality: for example, the Ozark Cavefish, Bristly Cave Crayfish and the recently federally- listed Tumbling Creek Cave Snail. Mantled karst aquifers characteristic of the Ozark Plateaus Region represent a coupled atmospheric/surface water/groundwater system that is highly susceptible to external forcing. Little attenuation of contaminants occurs as water moves from surface sources into and through the mantled karst aquifer to discharge naturally at springs and streams throughout the Ozark Plateau Region, and to wells. Because of the very open character of the aquifer, extremely dynamic biogeochemical cycling of nutrients occurs. Upper White River Reservoir development, filling and operation historically have altered and continue to alter the hydrologic and ecosystems within the Ozark Plateaus Region. Additionally, large-scale animal production (poultry, swine, and cattle) results in forcing that causes negative surface water and groundwater quality impacts within the Ozark Plateaus Region. While, a rapidly expanding urban/suburban population is creating a new set of forces with feedbacks that impact the quantity and quality of surface water and groundwater in the Ozark Plateau Region which are only now beginning to show, and may not be fully realized for decades.
H31C-0387 INVITED 0800h
Overview of the Proposed Mississippi Headwaters - Red River Hydrologic Observatory
A consortium of universities, led by The Ohio State University and the University of North Dakota, in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy - Minnesota and the Dakotas Chapter, are proposing to develop the Mississippi Headwaters - Red River (MHRR) Hydrologic Observatory (HO). The region encompassed by the observatory includes the Red River watershed, the Upper Crow Wing River, the headwaters of the Mississippi River above Leech Lake, the closed Devils Lake basin and the central portion of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). The MHRR HO covers about 101,000 km2 and straddles the continental divide. The large size will permit the study of unique science problems and will provide a large contiguous region suitable for coupled large-scale climatic/hydrologic/ecological investigations. Although not part of this proposal, we are also organizing a consortium of primarily Canadian universities interested in carrying out complementary studies on the large Assiniboine basin in Manitoba and Saskatchewan with funding from Canadian sources. The combined study areas will facilitate climate/hydrologic/ecological studies on a broad scale, together with much more focused local scale studies. The research plan focuses on (i) climate variability and future climate change, (ii) wetland dynamics, restoration, and policy considerations associated with global climate change, (iii) carbon, nutrient, and contaminant cycling in complex systems, (iv) assessment and modeling of large, coupled climate/water systems, and (v) new and emerging technologies for near real-time monitoring and assessment. The science themes focus explicitly on exploring the interfaces among traditional science disciplines (hydrology, ecology, climatology) and implicitly on the atmosphere/land surface/subsurface interfaces that are part of the hydrologic cycle. The location of the MHRR HO was purposely selected as one of the most promising areas to pursue these science and technology themes. The region is distinguished by broad climate variability, which has been manifested by extreme swings from drought to deluge. Lake and river systems are considered to be extremely vulnerable to effects related to global climate change. This HO is a place where wetlands and small lakes still remain as an important component of hydrologic/ecological settings and have important implications for carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas production, and recycling of water between terrestrial and atmospheric systems.
H31C-0388 INVITED 0800h
Yazoo River Basin (Lower Mississippi River) Hydrologic Observatory
The proposed Yazoo River Basin Hydrologic Observatory consists of the 34,000 square km Yazoo River watershed in northwestern Mississippi and a 320 km segment of the Mississippi River separated from the watershed by a manmade levee. Discharge from the basin flows from the Yazoo River into the Mississippi River north of Vicksburg, MS. Major streams within the basin include the Yazoo, Tallahatchie, Yalobusha, Coldwater, Yocona, and Big Sunflower Rivers. Four large flood control reservoirs (Arkabutla, Enid, Sardis, and Grenada) and two national forests (Delta and Holly Springs) are also located within the basin. The watershed is divided between upland forested hills and intensively cultivated lowlands. The lowland area, locally known as the "Delta", lies on the ancestral floodplain of the Mississippi River. Flooding by the Mississippi River was once a common event, but is now limited by the levee system. Abundant wetlands occupy abandoned stream channels throughout the Delta. The Yazoo River Basin has many unique features that make it an attractive site for an Hydrologic Observatory. Example features and issues of scientific interest include: 1) Extensive system of levees which have altered recharge to the regional aquifer, shifted population centers, and created backwater flooding areas. 2) Abundant wetlands with a century-long history of response to agricultural sediment and chemical fluxes. 3) Erosion of upland streams, and stream sediment loads that are the highest in the nation. 4) Groundwater mining in spite of abundant precipitation due to a regional surface clay layer that limits infiltration. 5) A history of agricultural Best Management Practices enabling evaluation of the effectiveness of such measures. 6) Large scale catfish farming with heavy reliance on groundwater. 7) Near enough to the Gulf coast to be impacted by hurricane events. 8) Already existing network of monitoring stations for stream flow, sediment-load, and weather, including complete coverage by four NWS NEXRAD Doppler radar systems. 9) Long history of national interest and investment including flood control projects, wetland restoration, and dredging by the US Army Corps of Engineers, an intensively instrumented national watershed observatory by the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Goodwin Creek, and numerous other projects by over 20 federal and state agencies. 10) Availability of a 2300 square meter research facility within the watershed for housing research and administrative activities.
H31C-0389 INVITED 0800h
The Platte River Hydrologic Observatory (PRIVHO)
The Platte River Hydrologic Observatory (PRIVHO), located within the Platte River Basin, of the U.S. central Great Plains, affords excellent interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research opportunities for scientists to examine the impacts of scaling, to investigate forcing feedbacks and coupling of various interconnected hydrological, geological, climatological and biological systems, and to test the applicability and limits of prediction in keeping with all five of CUAHSI's priority science criteria; linking hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles, sustainability of water resources, hydrologic and ecosystem interactions, hydrologic extremes, and fate and transport of contaminants. In addition, PRIVHO is uniquely positioned to investigate many human dimension questions such as those related to interstate and intrastate conflicts over water use, evolution of water policy and law in the wake of advancing science, societal and economic changes that are driven by water use, availability and management, and human impacts on climate and land use changes. The Platte River traverses several important environmental gradients, including temperature and precipitation-to-evaporation ratio, is underlain by the High Plains Aquifer under much of its reach, crosses a number of terrestrial ecoregions, and in central Nebraska, serves as a vital link in the Central Flyway, providing habitat for 300 species of migratory birds and many threatened or endangered species. The Platte River flows through metropolitan, urban and agricultural settings and is impacted by both point and non-point pollution. The Platte River is one of the most over-appropriated rivers in the country with 15 major dams, hundreds of small reservoirs, and thousands of irrigation wells. The river provides municipal and industrial water supplies for about 3.5 million people, irrigation water for millions of acres of farmland, and generates millions of dollars of hydroelectric power. PRIVHO will allow researchers to address science questions related to; the impacts of drought, managed agriculture, and water resource development and use on riparian ecosystem health, hyporheic flow dynamics and contaminant attenuation within braided streams, groundwater-surface water interaction, and the influences of climate modes such as ENSO, NAO, PDO, etc. on river hydrological dynamics. Infrastructure is in place within PRIVHO to collect core hydrologic data including precipitation, stream discharge, groundwater levels, precipitation, surface and groundwater quality, soil moisture, remotely sensed water quality, vegetative cover data, soil moisture and vegetative wetness data, and information related to migratory waterfowl, terrestrial animals and aquatic organisms.
H31C-0390 INVITED 0800h
A Concept for a Long Term Hydrologic Observatory in the South Platte River Basin
The intersection between: (1) the Rocky Mountains and developments occurring in high altitude fragile environments; (2) the metropolitan areas emerging at the interface of the mountains and the plains; (3) the irrigation occurring along rivers as they break from the mountains and snake across the Great Plains; and (4) the grasslands and the dryland farming that covers the vast amount of the Great Plains, represents a dynamic, complex, highly integrated ecosystem, stretching from Montana and North Dakota to New Mexico and Texas. This swath of land, and the rivers that cross it (headwaters of the Missouri , the Yellowstone, the North Platte , the South Platte, the Arkansas , the Cimarron, the Red and the Pecos Rivers ), represent a significant percentage of the landmass of the United States. Within this large area, besides tremendous increases in population in metropolitan areas, there are new energy developments, old hard rock mining concerns, new recreation developments, irrigation farms selling water to meet urban demands, new in-stream flow programs, struggling rural areas, and continued "mining" of ground water. The corresponding impacts are creating endangered and threatened species conflicts which require new knowledge to fully understand the measures needed to mitigate harmful ecosystem conditions. Within the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains interface, water is limiting and land is plentiful, presenting natural resource managers with a number of unique problems which demand a scale of integrated science not achieved in the past. For example, water is imported into a number of the streams flowing east from the Rocky Mountains. Nitrogen is deposited in pristine watersheds that rise up high in the Rocky Mountains. Cities capture spring runoff in reservoirs to use at a steady rate over the entire year, putting water into river systems normally moving low flows in the winter. Irrigation of both urban landscapes and farm fields may be at a scale that impacts climate patterns in the region. Government programs, to help manage natural resources in the region, have fractured jurisdiction over the area. With a detailed integration of data sets the South Platte Hydrologic Observatory will address the above water issues, which are representative of many of the scientific hydrologic issues facing the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains interface watersheds, advancing the science of hydrology and producing sound science findings to assist natural resource decision making in the region.
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~ramirez/SouthPlatte_LTHO.htm
H31C-0391 0800h
Hydrologic Observatory for the Republican River Basin/High Plains Aquifer: A Barometer for Global Climate Change
The proposed Hydrologic Observatory (HO) for the Republican River Basin/High Plains Aquifer is an interconnected river basin and regional aquifer in an area of irrigated and dryland agriculture of substantial importance to the U.S. economy. The purpose of this observatory is to determine impacts of global climate change on the hydrologic cycle and ecosystem of a region that is particularly susceptible to such change. The HO includes a representative portion of the High Plains aquifer (the largest ground-water system in North America) and the largest river basin, the Republican River, which is entirely enclosed within that aquifer. The basin area of the Republican River included in the HO is 54,000 km$^{2}$. The area of the High Plains aquifer within the HO is larger than that of the Republican River watershed in order to include aquifer areas that interact with those within the HO. The HO can serve as a barometer for global climate change and concomitant land- and water-use responses because it includes a single physiographic province (Great Plains) and is located in a climatic transitional area where biomass response to moisture change is proportionately greater than in arid and humid climates. The HO has a surface- and ground-water system with easily definable boundary conditions allowing determination of an accurate water budget. It is a large enough area to allow averaging of local extremes, but small enough to permit detailed determination of the water budget given the funding level for HOs. Consumption of ground water in the aquifer, primarily for irrigation, has caused significant declines in water levels across large portions of the area. These declines and land conservation measures have caused appreciable long-term decreases in streamflow. Although the HO represents a hydrologic system where these human effects on the system have been substantial enough to be easily observed, the impacts are not so great that they cannot be managed to achieve a sustainable water resource. In some cases, these impacts have led to interstate disputes over the use of the water resources in the HO. The infrastructure in place to resolve these disputes ensures a long-term commitment to data collection that will greatly enhance efforts to establish a water balance for the HO.
H31C-0392 INVITED 0800h
High Plains Aquifer Hydrologic Observatory
The High Plains Aquifer encompasses 174,000 square miles in eight states and provides the primary source of potable water to the region. The hydrologic cycle exhibits great diversity across this geological basin, with significant expanses experiencing sustained declines in groundwater elevation (e.g., portions of the southern and central basins in Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) while other areas are experiencing rises (e.g., portions of the northern basin in central Nebraska). The proposed High Plains Aquifer Hydrologic Observatory would promote significant scientific advancement in hydrology related to: (1) Recharge and evapotranspiration, (2) Surface water-groundwater exchange in dynamic riparian corridors, (3) Ecological role of vegetation in the hydrologic cycle, (4) Human systems and the hydrologic cycle, (5) Multi-scale monitoring, modeling & analysis, (6) Climate change studies, and (7) Utilization of remote sensing technology
H31C-0393 INVITED 0800h
Unique Aspects of Proposed San Antonio/Guadalupe Hydrologic Observatory in Texas
The paired San Antonio/Guadalupe watersheds and underlying karst and porous media aquifers (26,800 km$^{2}$ area) are being proposed as a Hydrologic Observatory (HO) for the CUAHSI program (www.txh2o.org). This system has many unique attributes that would make it highly suitable as an HO: 1. Paired watersheds represent a range of land uses, from predominantly rural (Guadalupe watershed) to rapidly urbanizing (San Antonio watershed, including city of San Antonio). 2. The underlying karst aquifer is representative of karst systems in the US. Karst systems supply about 40% of groundwater for drinking in the US and 25% globally. Karst aquifers represent ideal systems for evaluating relationships between climate variability and land use/land cover on subsurface hydrology because of their dynamic nature. 3. The underlying karst system is ideal for evaluating surface water groundwater interactions because of direct connections between the two. About 85% of the recharge to the underlying Edwards aquifer is supplied by streams. The San Marcos springs system, located in the Guadalupe watershed, represents the second largest spring system in the SW US. 4. Caves, common in the region, provide an opportunity to directly monitor subsurface hydrology including recharge through dripwater monitoring. 5. Speleothems record system response to long-term climate change. High speleothem growth rates, recorded during glacial time, may correspond to cooler, wetter conditions in this region. Dye tracing allows flow paths to be mapped. 6. The combination of karst and porous media aquifers in this HO allow the dynamics of these systems to be integrated to address the feasibility of providing a reliable, sustainable water resource. 7. The region is highly vulnerable to hydrologic extremes: proximity to the Gulf of Mexico results in intense precipitation events and severe flooding. The region is also vulnerable to long-term droughts. 8. Hydrologic and ecosystem interactions are critical for endangered species and affect policies for regulating water use. In addition to these aspects of the system, examples of the infrastructure and support available to scientists interested in conducting research in the HO will include remote sensing support (Center for Space Research, UT), topographic mapping (Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping, UT), GIS (UT, Texas State, Texas A&M), and superconducting gravimeter for water storage measurements (UT). The proposed HO offers a wide variety of opportunities for scientists to advance our understanding of the hydrologic system.
http://www.txh2o.org
H31C-0394 0800h
A Semiarid Long-Term Hydrologic Observatory at the Continental Scale: The Upper Rio Grande Basin
Water availability is critical in arid and semiarid regions, which comprise 35 percent of the land area of the globe. In the Southwestern US, climate variability and landscape heterogeneity lead to strong gradients in hydrological processes, which in turn impact land-atmosphere interactions, ecological dynamics, biogeochemical cycles and geomorphic change. This complexity presents a fundamental challenge to our understanding of hydrology, one that is best addressed through long-term, systematic field and remote-sensing observations and numerical-model investigations. In this poster, we will present our plans to study the interaction of climate-landscape-vegetation and water using a nested set of instrumented sites within the Upper Rio Grande, a continental-scale semiarid watershed. This complex watershed extends from the snow-dominated headwater basins in San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, through the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico, to the desert valley alluvial basins southeast of El Paso, Texas. As part of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) plan for a network of Long-Term Hydrologic Observatories (LTHOs), the Upper Rio Grande would represent the combination of mountain landscapes, semiarid to arid alluvial basin aquifers and riparian corridors that are characteristic of the Western United States. We will describe existing hydrologic, ecologic and atmospheric measurement infrastructure in the watershed and discuss plans for integrating these into a coherent network that provides a core set of scientific data products for the hydrologic community. Data products generated by the Upper Rio Grande LTHO will also aid in the testing of coupled numerical models of the atmosphere-surface-groundwater system applied at high resolution over the region. The Upper Rio Grande presents unique opportunities to test hydrologic hypotheses concerning surface water-groundwater interactions and their control on runoff response, solute transport and reactivity, and riparian ecological communities
http://www.ees.nmt.edu/cuahsi/riogrande.htm
H31C-0395 INVITED 0800h
Flathead River Basin Hydrologic Observatory, Northern Rocky Mountains
We are proposing the 22, 515 km2 glacially-sculpted Flathead River Basin located in Montana and British Columbia as a Hydrologic Observatory. This hydrologic landscape is diverse and includes large pristine watersheds, rapidly developing intermountain valleys, and a 95 km2 regulated reservoir and 510 km2 lake. The basin has a topographic gradient of over 2,339 m, and spans high alpine to arid climatic zones and a range of biomes. Stream flows are snow-melt dominated and underpinned by groundwater baseflow. The site headwaters contain 37 glaciers and thousands of square kilometers of watersheds in which fire and disease are the only disturbances. In contrast, the HO also contains watersheds at multiple scales that were dominated by glaciers within the last 100 years but are now glacier free, impacted by timber harvests and fires of varying ages to varying degrees, modified by water management practices including irrigation diversion and dams, and altered by development for homes, cities and agriculture. This Observatory provides a sensitive monitor of historic and future climatic shifts, air shed influences and impacts, and the consequences of land and water management practices on the hydrologic system. The HO watersheds are some of the only pristine watersheds left in the contiguous U.S.. They provide critical habitat for key species including the native threaten bull trout and lynx, and the listed western cutthroat trout, bald eagle, gray wolf and the grizzly bear. For the last several thousand years this system has been dominated by snow-melt runoff and moderated by large quantities of water stored in glacial ice. However, the timing and magnitude of droughts and summer flows have changed dramatically. With the information that can be gleaned from sediment cores and landscape records at different scales, this HO provides scientists with opportunities to establish baseline watershed conditions and data on natural hydrologic variability within the system. Such a context frames the current and further observations and assists with translating measured changes into links with the varied HO ecosystems.
H31C-0396 0800h
Proposed Great Salt Lake Basin Hydrologic Observatory
The dynamic physiography and population growth within the Great Salt Lake Basin provide the opportunity to observe climate and human-induced land-surface changes affecting water availability, water quality, and water use, thereby making the Great Salt Lake Basin a microcosm of contemporary water resource issues and an excellent site to pursue interdisciplinary and integrated hydrologic science. Important societal concerns center on: How do climate variability and human-induced landscape changes affect hydrologic processes, water quality and availability, and aquatic ecosystems over a range of scales? What are the resource, social, and economic consequences of these changes? The steep topography and large climatic gradients of the Great Salt Lake Basin yield hydrologic systems that are dominated by non-linear interactions between snow deposition and snow melt in the mountains, stream flow and groundwater recharge in the mid-elevations, and evaporative losses from the desert floor at lower elevations. Because the Great Salt Lake Basin terminates in a closed basin lake, it is uniquely suited to closing the water, solute, and sediment balances in a way that is rarely possible in a watershed of a size sufficient for coupling to investigations of atmospheric processes. Proposed infrastructure will include representative densely instrumented focus areas that will be nested within a basin-wide network, thereby quantifying fluxes, residence times, pathways, and storage volumes over a range of scales and land uses. The significant and rapid ongoing urbanization presents the opportunity for observations that quantify the interactions among hydrologic processes, human induced changes and social and economic dynamics. One proposed focus area will be a unique, highly instrumented mountain-to-basin transect that will quantify hydrologic processes extending from the mountain ridge top to the Great Salt Lake. The transect will range in elevation from about 1200 m to 3200 m, with a corresponding range in precipitation from about 15 cm/yr to 150 cm/yr, range in evapotranspiration regimes from semi-arid to alpine, range in groundwater residence times from 10 to 10,000 years, and ranges in biome type from semi-arid shrubland to alpine tundra, all within a 30 km distance. Atmospheric and surface fluxes and stores (precipitation, evapotranspiration, snow, soil moisture) will be quantified using an array of in-situ surface stations and remote sensing platforms. Deep (greater than 300 m) multilevel sampling wells will be used to measure ground water levels, fluxes, and for sampling of age dating and environmental tracers. Another proposed focus effort will involve lake sediment core analyses complemented by monitoring of dissolved and suspended constituents in surrounding tributaries, to provide a basis for examination of closed basin lakes as integrators and recorders of biogeochemical signals that would otherwise not be discerned based on discreet measurements made in individual tributary watersheds. Core-derived climate and contaminant-nutrient trends through time will be investigated at locations distributed from the top to the bottom of the hydrologic system.
http://greatsaltlake.utah.edu
H31C-0397 0800h
Understanding Hydrologic Processes in Semi-Arid Cold Climates
Water shortages destabilize economies and ecosystems. These shortages are caused by complex interactions between climate variability, ecosystem processes, and increased demand from human activities. In the semi-arid region of the northwestern U.S., water availability during drought periods has already reached crisis levels and the problems are expected to intensify as the effects of global climate change and population growth continue to alter the supply and demand patterns. Many of the problems are critical to this region because hydropower, agriculture, navigation, fish and wildlife survival, water supply, tourism, environmental protection, and water-based recreation are vital to state economies and our way of life. In order to assess the spatial and temporal nature of hydrologic responses, consistent and comprehensive long-term data sets are needed. In response to these needs, we would like to propose the Spokane River drainage basin as a long-term hydrologic observatory. The Spokane River basin is located in eastern Washington and northern Idaho and is a tributary of the Columbia River. The watershed consists of several major surface water tributaries as well as natural and man-made lakes and reservoirs. With headwaters beginning in the Rocky Mountains, the drainage area is approximately 6,640 mi2. In addition to providing an excellent study area for examining many conventional water resource problems, the Spokane River watershed also presents a unique opportunity for investigating many of the hydrologic processes found in semi-arid cold climates. Snowfall in the watershed varies spatially between 35 inches near the mouth of the basin to over 112 inches at the headwaters. These varied hydrologic uses provide a unique opportunity to address many common challenges faced by water resource professionals. This broad array of issues encompasses science, engineering, agriculture, social sciences, economics, fisheries, and a host of other disciplines. In addition, because precipitation patterns in this semi-arid region tend to be temporally distributed, storage and global climate change issues are significant.
H31C-0398 INVITED 0800h
The Pacific Northwest Hydrological Observatory (PNW HO): Hypothesis and model testing power through diversity
The Pacific Northwest Hydrological Observatory (PNW HO) is a proposed national facility for the examination of the linkages between hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles, sustainability of water resources in the face of increasing human demands and climate change, hydrologic and ecosystem interactions, and hydrologic extremes. The PNW HO infrastructure will support research that examines forcings, feedbacks and couplings across hydro-eco-climatic interfaces, process scaling, and development of new predictive schemes and methods to reduce predictive uncertainty. Much of the data collection infrastructure is already in place, in the form of USGS gauging, local and State data recording. The PNW HO includes a novel experimental design that twins two neighboring watersheds-the humid Willamette and arid Deschutes River Basins-that represent a full range of landscape gradients and societal problems relating to water quantity and quality. Workers at the PNW HO will be able to build upon existing synthesis documents in the form of the Willamette River Basin Planning Atlas and recent AGU Monograph on the Deschutes River Basin. The PNW HO design builds upon the HJ Andrews LTER site in the headwaters and recent listing of the Willamette River Basin as a UNESCO HELP international observatory. The PNW HO has access to one of the richest SNOTEL datasets in North America along the divide between the Willamette and Deschutes Basins. The Willamette is a USGS NAWQA basin and the Deschutes has been the focus of a major USGS groundwater investigation, and is one of five sites nationally in the Fire Learning Network. Finally, and perhaps most importantly for technology transfer of HO science to policy and practice, the PNW HO enjoys a rather unique combination of Oregon's state-based land use planning and doctrine of prior appropriations water law (land use planning and water rights). While there are certainly areas in the West where human populations are growing as fast or faster, none of these places have the institutional constructs of powerful state-level ability to steer growth the way Oregon does. This will enable the PNW HO to have direct feedback into State and regional planning in the lower Columbia River Basin.
H31C-0399 INVITED 0800h
Plan for a Sierra Nevada Hydrologic Observatory: Science Aims, Measurement Priorities, Research Opportunities and Expected Impacts
In response to NSF's plans to establish a network of hydrologic observatories, a planning group is proposing a Sierra Nevada Hydrologic Observatory (SNHO). As argued in multiple consensus planning documents, the semi-arid mountain West is perhaps the highest priority for new hydrologic understanding. Based on input from over 100 individuals, it is proposed to initiate a mountain-range-scale study of the snow-dominated hydrology of the region, focusing on representative 1,000-5,000 km$^{2}$ river basins originating in the Sierra Nevada and tributary to the Sacramento-San-Joaquin Delta. The SNHO objective is to provide the necessary infrastructure for improved understanding of surface-water and ground-water systems, their interactions and their linkages with ecosystems, biogeochemistry, agriculture, urban areas and water resources in semi-arid regions. The SNHO will include east-west transects of hydrological observations across the Sierra Nevada and into the basin and range system, in four distinct latitude bands that span much of the variability found in the semi-arid West. At least one transect will include agricultural and urban landscapes of the Great Central Valley. Investments in measurement systems will address scales from the mountain range down to the basin, headwater catchment and study plot. The intent is to provide representative measurements that will yield general knowledge as opposed to site-specific problem solving of a unique system. The broader, general science question posed by the planning group is: \"How do mountain hydrologic processes vary across landscapes, spanning a range of latitudes, elevations and thus climate, soils, geology and vegetation zones?\" Embodied are additional broad questions for the hydrologic science community as a whole: (i) How do hydrologic systems that are subjected to multiple perturbations respond? (ii) How do pulses and changes propagate through the hydrologic system? (iii) What are the time lags and delays of stresses in different systems? (iv) How can the predictive ability for these responses be improved? The water resources question is then "how can new information inform decision-making aimed at achieving water resources sustainability?" The planning group is soliciting participation from the wider community with a stake in mountain hydrology and related fields, in order to develop a focused yet broadly useful infrastructure that will accelerate science scientific progress for years and decades to come.
http://ucmeng.net/snri/snho
H31C-0400 INVITED 0800h
Kuparuk River Watershed: A Proposed Hydrologic Observatory (HO) in the Arctic
We propose that the Kuparuk River and some surrounding nested drainages on the North Slope of Alaska be considered as an area of intense hydrologic study (Hydrologic Observatory, HO). The Kuparuk River is a north-draining river that empties into the Arctic Ocean. It originates in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range (Rocky Mountains) and flows out of the foothills onto the coastal plain before emptying into the ocean. Some of these nested watersheds are presently being studied. In expanding the present research program to an HO, we intend to focus upon facets of arctic hydrology that interplay strongly with ecosystem dynamics, climate change, geophysics, near shore estuarine processes, energy dynamics and geomorphology. The climate is currently undergoing significant, broad scale change in the Arctic. The hydrological cycle is an integral component of the climate system, both moderating and driving changes in meteorology, coastal processes, and terrestrial and aquatic ecology (freshwater and marine). Warming of permafrost, a decrease in sea ice extent, thinning of the sea ice, later freeze up and earlier breakup of lakes, reduction of snowcover extent in northern hemisphere and shorter season of snow on the ground are a few indications of warming in the Arctic and targets of important hydrological research. The importance of the high latitudes in the global climate must be emphasized. It is apparent that climate driven changes are presently ongoing. This is impacting the hydrologic cycle, not only through the land/atmosphere interactions, but also the physical structure of the basin. The development of thermokarst, deeper active layer and an increase in shrubs (vegetative shift) are changes that will be reflected in the hydrologic response of these catchments. Quantifying the role of hydrology in a changing climate is critically important for U.S. and global science policy.
http://www.uaf.edu/water/ArcticCUAHSIindex.html
H31C-0401 0800h
Reynolds Mountain East and Upper Sheep Creek: Experimental Catchments for Cold Season Hydrologic Research
Two snow-dominated, headwater catchments within the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed (RCEW) were established and in the mid-1960's and continue to be maintained for long-term cold season hydrologic research. Reynolds Mountain East (RME) is a 39 ha in extent ranging in elevation from 2024 to 2139 m in elevation with a mean annual precipitation of about 994 mm, and 523 mm of stream discharge. Streamflow monitoring at RME has been continuous since 1963. Upper Sheep Creek is 26 ha in extent ranging in elevation from 1836 to 2015 m with a mean annual precipitation of 435 mm, and 91 mm of stream discharge. Streamflow was monitored from 1970 to 1975 and from 1983 to present. Precipitation in both catchments is predominately snow. They represent conditions at the source area for stream flow in the semi-arid intermountain west of the USA. Since 1996 more than 60 research papers have been published, and 20 PhD and masters thesis completed describing a broad range of cold season hydrologic process investigations. Current research is directed toward detailed analysis of snow deposition and melt processes as affected by topography and vegetation, and linkages to both atmospheric and below ground water and energy fluxes, groundwater recharge and streamflow generation. The instrumentation and measurement plan, and results from past and current research will be presented. In the near future a prescribed fire at USC will be used to study fire effects on snow hydrology. These experimental catchments represent extensive and carefully instrumented facilities for cold season hydrology research, and can be used as examples for the development of new experimental watersheds.
H31C-0402 0800h
The Mica Creek Experimental Watershed: An Outdoor Laboratory for the Investigation of Hydrologic Processes in a Continental/Maritime Mountainous Environment
Experimental catchments have proven to be extremely useful for investigations focused on fundamental hydrologic processes and on the impacts of land cover change on hydrologic regimes and water quality. Recent studies have illustrated how watershed responses to experimental treatments vary greatly between watersheds with differing physical, ecological and hydroclimatic characteristics. Meteorological and hydrological data within catchments are needed to help identify how hydrologic mechanisms may be altered by land cover alterations, and to both constrain and develop spatially-distributed physically based models. Existing instrumentation at the Mica Creek Experimental Watershed (MCEW) in northern Idaho is a fourth-order catchment that is undergoing expansion to produce a comprehensive dataset for model development and testing. The experimental catchments encompass a 28 km$^{2}$ area spanning elevations from 975 to 1725 m msl. Snow processes dominate the hydrology of the catchment and climate conditions in the winter alternate between cold, dry continental and warm, moist maritime weather systems. Landcover is dominated by 80 year old second growth conifer forests, with partially cut (thinned) and clear-cut sub-catchments. Climate and precipitation data are collected at a SNOTEL site, three primary, and seven supplemental meteorological stations stratified by elevation and canopy cover. Manual snow depth measurements are recorded every 1-2 weeks during snowmelt, stratified by aspect, elevation and canopy cover. An air temperature transect spans three second-order sub-catchments to track air temperature lapse rate dynamics. Precipitation gauge arrays are installed within thinned and closed-canopy stands to track throughfall and interception loss. Nine paired and nested sub-catchments are monitored for flow, temperature, sediment, and nutrients. Hydroclimatic data are augmented by LiDAR and hyperspectral imagery for determination of canopy and topographic structure. Results will serve as a key dataset to assess how canopy conditions affect surface hydrology in complex snow-dominated catchments in the intermountain western U.S.
H31C-0403 0800h
Wolf Creek Research Basin Cold REgion Process Studies - 1992-2003
The development of hydrological models in northern regions are complicated by cold region processes. Sparse vegetation influences snowpack accumulation, redistribution and melt, frozen ground effects infiltration and runoff and cold soils in the summer effect evapotranspiration rates. Situated in the upper Yukon River watershed, the 195 km2 Wolf Creek Research Basin was instrumented in 1992 to calibrate hydrologic flow models, and has since evolved into a comprehensive study of cold region processes and linkages, contributing significantly to hydrological and climate change modelling. Studies include those of precipitation distribution, snowpack accumulation and redistribution, energy balance, snowmelt infiltration, and water balance. Studies of the spatial variability of hydrometeorological data demonstrate the importance of physical parameters on their distribution and control on runoff processes. Many studies have also identified the complex interaction of several of the physical parameters, including topography, vegetation and frozen ground (seasonal or permafrost) as important. They also show that there is a fundamental, underlying spatial structure to the watershed that must be adequately represented in parameterization schemes for scaling and watershed modelling. The specific results of numerous studies are presented.
H31C-0404 0800h
ETRS Arrays: Boundary layer-to-water table total flux measurement system
Developing an observing system that will close the water and energy balance over a specified region (site, hill slope, catchment) in complex terrain is a difficult problem. In this research we propose to integrate three independent flux measurement systems for evapotranspiration, snowmelt, and infiltration/recharge, into a single coherent measurement platform. We refer to the measurement system as an ETRS Array (Evaporation, Transpiration, Recharge, Snowmelt). The goal of the ETRS measurement system is to close the vertical and horizontal energy and moisture flux in a finite volume of soil, snow, and atmosphere extending from the water table to the atmospheric boundary layer. The concept has recently been proposed to measure ET from shallow water tables at riparian sites in the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Here we extend the concept to include snowmelt processes. Eddy covariance (EC) systems with complete meteorological observations are used to monitor both above and below canopy fluxes of heat and moisture. Snowcover energy, mass balance and melt for the site volume are computed from above and below canopy precipitation, and canopy corrected radiation, temperature, humidity and wind. Validation of the snow energy and mass state is derived from continuously monitored snow depth, temperature and water equivalent (SWE) and is augmented with bi-weekly snow pits and courses, and a series of detailed snow surveys conducted during mid-winter, at peak accumulation, and during ablation. Concurrent soil temperature and moisture arrays and water table measurements are use to monitor the below ground portion of the volume. The experimental design requires sensor arrays to be deployed at the centroid and boundaries of the soil volume such that the net vertical flux (E, T, and R) through the soil column and lateral flow advected through the below ground portion of the volume can be formed along with the snowcover energy and mass balance and the EC data into a complete water and energy balance of the soil-snow-atmosphere volume. For the subsurface, a local, dynamic water balance is formed by direct integration of Richards' equation using a Finite Volume (FV) formulation of unsaturated-saturated moisture storage. The resulting dynamical system is continuous in time, discrete in space. Using field estimates of soil characteristic curves, the dynamical equations are solved numerically. An example design will presented for a field site in a small headwater catchment within the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in Idaho. This research will show how the theory can be used for optimal sensor design given soil conditions and approximate depth to water table.
H31C-0405 0800h
Toward a Continental-Scale Mesonet: USDA National Resources Conservation Service SCAN and SNOTEL System
Since 1978 snow deposition and SWE in the inter-mountain western US have been monitored by the NRCS SNOTEL (SNOwpack TELemetry) system. This revolutionary network utilizes Meteorburst technology to telemeter data back to a central location in near real-time. With a pilot program starting in 1991, NRCS introduced SCAN (Soil Climate and Analysis Network) adding a focus on soil moisture and climate in regions outside the intermountain west. In the mid-1990's SNOTEL sites began to be augmented to match the full climate instrumentation (air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind, and soil moisture and temperature in addition to precipitation, snow depth and SWE) of the SCAN system. At present there are nearly 700 SNOTEL sites in 12 states in the western US and Alaska, and over 100 SCAN sites in 40 states, Puerto Rico, and several foreign countries. Though SNOTEL was originally a western snow-monitoring network, differences between SCAN and SNOTEL have largely disappeared. The combined SNOTEL/SCAN system provides a continental-scale mesonet to support river basin to continental scale hydro-climatic analysis. The system is flexible and based on off-the-shelf data recording technology, allowing instrumentation, sampling and averaging intervals to be specified by site conditions, issues, or scientific questions. Because of the NRCS data management structure, all sites have active telemetery and provide near real-time access to data through the internet. An ongoing research program is directed to improved instrumentation for measuring precipitation, snow depth and SWE, and soil moisture and temperature. Future directions include expansion of the network to be more comprehensive, and to develop focused monitoring efforts to more effectively observe elevational and regional gradients, and to capture high intensity hydro-climatic events such as potential flooding from convective storms and rain-on-snow.
H31C-0406 0800h
Long-term Hydrologic Observatories and Water Resource Sustainability: Opportunities for Conjunctive Social and Biophysical Research on Flexible Water Management
The controls on common hydrological science research themes such as flood, drought, water quality and water resource management are both biophysical and social. To date, the emphasis of CUAHSI has been the advancement of hydrology as a physical science, and developing proposals for a network of hydrologic observatories (HOs) to test cross-cutting hypotheses has been central to recent community efforts. A recurring question in CUAHSI community discussions has been whether and how to include data collection relevant to social science questions in the HO designs. A second question has been whether sustainability is an appropriate cross-cutting theme to be addressed by HOs. These questions are addressed by presenting several examples of information useful to social science research on sustainable management of water resources. The Great Salt Lake Basin and the Suwannee River are used as examples to compare and contrast the biophysical and societal attributes pertinent to water sustainability, interpreted as flexible resource management.