WATER INITIATIVE
2013 SPRING RUNOFF CONFERENCE Water, People and Sustainability: Integrating Physical, Social and Ecological Dimensions
Utah State University supports a broad community of students and faculty engaged in Water Education, Research and Outreach. The USU Water Initiative provides an overarching umbrella for the activities of this community aimed at fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and collegial sharing of ideas related to water across the departments and colleges of Utah State University. The Spring Runoff Conference, so named because it is held at the end of winter and in anticipation of spring’s runoff season—a time of anticipation and excitement in hydrology, provides an opportunity for the sharing of ideas and scholarly debate.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE : David Tarboton (Chair), Civil and Environmental Engineering | Scott Jones, Plants Soils and Climate | David Stevens, Civil and Environmental Engineering | Rita Teutonico, Utah EPSCoR | Joanna Endter, Sociology, Social work and Anthropology | Chuck Hawkins, Watershed Sciences| Nancy Huntly, Ecology Center | Carri Richards, Utah Water Research Laboratory | Andrea Armstrong, Sociology, Social work and Anthropology | Adel Abdallah, Civil and Environmental Engineering| Thomas Reuben, Civil and Environmental Engineering
http://water.usu.edu Acknowledgements: Sponsored by USU Ecology Center and Utah Water Research Laboratory CONFERENCE CENTER LAYOUT WIRELESS CONNECTION The Eccles Conference Center provides free wireless internet for your convenience. The password for the entire conference is - username: springrunoff | password: klewqish
See http://water.usu.edu/htm/conference/program for presentation abstracts
Cover photo courtesy of Judy Stokes http://judystokesphotography.wordpress.com THE JUNCTION
AGGIE ICE CREAM 800 N
800 E BIG BLUE PARKING TERRACE 1200 E
700 N 700 E
600 N TO Ropes Course
ECCLES CONFERENCE 500 N CENTER UNIVERSITY INN
89 HWY PARKING Parking for the conference is available in the Big Blue Parking Terrace at 850 E. 700 N. 8:30 Plenary Session - Moderator: David Tarboton Auditorium 8:30 Welcome - Mark McLellan, Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate School 8:35 Hydrologic and Meteorologic Conditions That Shaped Utah’s Runoff of 2013 - Brian McInerney (National Weather Service) Insects, Fires, and Climate Change: Implications for Snow Cover, Water Resources, and Ecosystem Recovery in Western North America - 9:10 Paul Brooks (University of Arizona) 9:45 Data & Modeling - Connected to - Policy & Law: Is it a Dovetail or Ruffled Feathers? - Gary Spackman (ID Dept of Water Resources) 10:20 Break Parallel Sessions Hydrologic Modeling Urban Water Session 2: Auditorium, Chair Jeffery Horsburgh Session 3: Room 307/309, Chair Karin Kettenring Uptake of Stormwater Nitrogen in Bioretention Systems High Performance Computing of Hydrologic Models Using Determined from 15N Tracer Techniques - Dasch Houdeshel 10:40 HM1 HTCondor - Spencer Taylor, Norman Jones, Jim Nelson UW1 (University of Utah), Kevin Hultine (Desert Botanical (Brigham Young University) Gardens), Christine Pomeroy (University of Utah) Applications of GSSHA in Real World Situations - Jeff Plant Performance Considerations for Semi-Arid Bioretention 11:00 HM2 McCarty, Norman Jones, Jim Nelson, David Merrell (Brigham UW2 & Bioinfiltration System Design - Austin Orr, Christine Young University) Pomeroy (University of Utah) A Plan for the Conversion of Stormwater to Groundwater Recharge on the Utah Valley University Main Campus,
Day 1 - Tuesday April 9, 2013 April 9, 1 - Tuesday Day A Software Stack for Water Resources GIS Web Apps - Orem, Utah - Daniel Zacharias, Dylan Dastrup, Gabriela 11:20 HM3 Nathan Swain, Kilisimasi Latu, Norman Jones, Jim Nelson UW3 Ferreira, Daniel Natter, Lawrence Kellum, Steven Emerman, (Brigham Young University) Brandon Davis, Michael Alexander, Jeff Selck (Utah Valley University) Games Teaching Hydrologic Concepts to High School Water-Smart Growth: Integrating Water Management and 11:40 HM4 Students - Jocelynn Anderson, Herman Dolder, Jim Nelson, UW4 Land Use Planning - Enjie Li, Shujuan Li, Joanna Endter-Wada Norman Jones (Brigham Young University) (Utah State University) Using the Utah Energy Balance Snow-Melt Model to Quantify Development of a Web-based Interactive Fully Integrated 12:00 HM5 Snow and Glacier Melt in the Himalayan Region - Avirup Sen UW5 Flood Early Warning System (Wi-Fi FEWS) - Fidel Perez Gupta, David Tarboton (Utah State University) (Brigham Young University) 12:20 LUNCH on own Parallel Sessions Aquatic and Wetland Ecosystems Water Resources Management Session 4: Auditorium, Chair Lexine Long Session 5: Room 307/309, Chair Adel Abdallah Extremophile Dormancy: Using Targeted Metagenomics to Identifying Stability, Topological Significance, and Identify Microbial Community Composition in Hypersaline Redundancies in Water Resource Networks Using Parallel 1:30 AE1 WM1 and Freshwater Lakes - Joshua Vert, Alan Harker, Zachary Coordinate Plotting - Leah Meeks, David Rosenberg (Utah Aanderud (Brigham Young University) State University) Multi-Scale Drivers of Riparian Vegetation Across the Interior Policy Debates over the Southern Nevada Water Authority Pacific Northwest: A Case from the Interior Columbia River 1:50 AE2 WM2 Pipeline Project - Lisa Welsh, Joanna Endter-Wada (Utah State Basin - Nate Hough-Snee, Brett Roper (US Forest Service), Joe University) Wheaton (Utah State University) Wavelet-Based Cross-Correlation Analysis and a Hybrid Are Phragmites Invasions Dynamic through Time? - Eric Wavelet-Multivariate Bayesian Model for Short-Term Hazelton, Karin Kettenring (Utah State University), Melissa 2:10 AE3 WM3 Streamflow Forecasting using Local Climatic Data - Andres M McCormick, Matthew Sievers, Dennis Whigham (Smithsonian Ticlavilca, Mac McKee (Utah State University), Inga Maslova Environmental Research Center) (American University) Assessing the Ecological Condition of Emergent Wetlands in a Hydrologically Dynamic, Ecologically Unique and Extensively Near-Optimal Management to Improve Water Resources 2:30 AE4 WM4 Managed System - The Great Salt Lake, Utah - Rebekah Decision Making - David Rosenberg (Utah State University) Downard, Karin Kettenring (Utah State University) The Influence of Upstream Lakes on Rates and Stability of Whole Stream Metabolism in Subalpine Watersheds Water-Saving Infrastructure Investment Under Uncertainty - 2:50 AE5 of the Sawtooth Mountains, Central Idaho - Scarlett WM5 Augustina Odame, Charles Sims (Utah State University) Vallaire, Michelle Baker, Wayne Wurtsbaugh (Utah State University) Exploring the Potential for Biological Control of an Explosive Systems Modeling to Improve the Hydro-Ecological Prey Base by a Suite of Three Predatory Fishes in a High 3:10 AE6 WM6 Performance of Diked Wetlands - Omar Alminagorta, David Elevation, Western Reservoir - Lisa Winters, Phaedra Budy, Rosenberg, Karin Kettenring (Utah State University) Gary Thiede (Utah State University) 3:30 Break 3:45 Poster lightening session, Chair Scott Jones Auditorium 4:30 Poster viewing 201/203 & 205/207 6:00 Reception/hors d’oeuvres Movie Watershed, Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West, Executive produced & narrated by Robert Redford 7:00 (www.watershedmovie.com) Auditorium, Moderator Todd Crowl 7.30 Graduate student networking breakfast with invited speakers Room 201/203 9:00 Plenary Session - Moderator: Chuck Hawkins Auditorium 9:00 The Five Myths of Ecological Flows Science - Daren Carlisle (US Geological Survey) Thinking Outside the Channel: Optimal Flow Regimes that Favor Salmon Populations and Energy Value - Henriette Jager (Oak Ridge National 9:35 Laboratory) Understanding Landscape Scale Controls on Groundwater Quality: How does Participatory Investigation Help to Address Environmental 10:10 Problems Associated with Land Management? - Stephanie Ewing (Montana State University) 10:45 Demand Management to Sustain Urban Water Supplies: Conservation Works, But for How Much Longer? - Peter Mayer (Aquacraft Inc.) 11:20 Break/Lunch Seminar of interest Evolution of Climate Change Science and Attitudes of the Public Over 24 (New Agricultural Science building 11:30 Years. AGRS 141 - Brian McInerney (National Weather Service) adjacent to conference center) 12:30 Parallel Sessions GROUNDWATER CLIMATE AWRA Student Paper Competition Session 8: Room 303/305 Session 9: Room 307/309 Auditorium Chair Richard Peralta Chair Jiming Jin Chair Darwin Sorensen Arsenic and Other Heavy Metals in Shallow Groundwater in Utah 12:20 Welcome and Conference Valley, Utah - Adam Homer, Jona- Improving Regional Climate Model- Introduction - Darwin Sorensen (AWRA- than Hilbert, Devin Howard, Daniel ing of the North American Monsoon 12:30 GW1 CL1 Utah, Executive Committee Member for Zacharias, Preston Colledge, Bran- - Jonathan Meyer, Jiming Jin, Ripley Student Affairs) don Davis, Ryan McNamara, Daniel McCoy (Utah State University) Day 2 - Wednesday April 10, 2013 April 10, 2 - Wednesday Day Natter, Steven Emerman (Utah Valley University)
Infiltration and Potential Groundwater 12:30 Development of Sub-Seasonal Drought Characteristics in the Cen- Recharge Performance of Stormwater Remote Sensing Chlorophyll Detection tral Plains: Putting the 2011-2012 12:50 GW2 Bioretention Designed for Semiarid CL2 Models - Carly A. Hansen, K. Munson, Drought in Perspective - Daniel Baran- Climates - John Heiberger (University Z. Adjei, and N. Swain (Brigham Young diaran (Utah State University) of Utah) University) UNDERGRADUATE Comparison of the NLDAS Weather 12:50 Temporal Expansion of Clean Utah’s Groundwater: How is it Af- Forcing Model with Ground-Based Water Act Section 404(c) Authority: fected by Climate? Can we Predict Measurements over Agricultural Can the EPA Retroactively Protect Our 1:10 GW3 CL3 Groundwater Levels? - Kirsti Hakala Areas Throughout the Western United Nations Water from Mountain Top Coal (Utah State University) States - Clayton Lewis (Utah State Mining? - Jason D. Steiert (University of University) Utah) An Automated, Web-based Groundwa- Regional Climate Modeling of the ter Mapping and Visualization System West African Monsoon Using the 1:10 Phosphorus Mobility in the Shal- - Norman Jones, Scott Christensen, Weather Research and Forecasting low, Unconfined Aquifer at Pineview 1:30 GW4 CL4 Michael Burns, Nathan Swain, Kris Model - Rong Li, Jiming Jin, Shih-Yu Reservoir - Christine Rumsey (Utah
Latu (Brigham Young University), Gil Wang, Robert Gillies (Utah State MASTERS/PROFESSIONAL State University) Strassberg (Aquaveo) University) Assessing climate change risks to a municipal water supply: A pilot project incorporating downscaled climate 1:50 Break CL5 projections, operational hydrologic 1:30 Break modeling, and a systems planning model - Tim Bardsley (Western Water Assessment) MEASUREMENTS & DATA MANAGEMENT WATER QUALITY AWRA Student Paper Competition Session 10: Room 303/305 Session 11: Room 307/309 Auditorium Chair Scott Jones Chair Beth Neilson Chair Darwin Sorensen iUTAH Cyberinfrastructure to Sup- 1:45 A Hydrologic Analysis of a Decen- port Large Scale Collaborative Water The Movement of Brines in the Great tralized Municipal Rainwater Harvesting 2:10 MD1 Research - Jeffery Horsburgh, Amber WQ1 Salt Lake - J Wallace Gwynn (J Wallace Program Targeting Watershed-Scale Storm- Spackman Jones, Juan Caraballo (Utah Gwynn Consulting, LLC) water Runoff Volume and Rate Reductions State University) - Thomas Walsh (University of Utah) iUTAH Cyberinfrastructure to Support
Comparative Analysis of Eutrophica- PH.D. Data Collection and Management for 2:05 A Comparative Study of Two Geo- tion in Three Bays of the Great Salt the GAMUT Monitoring Network - Amber chemical Modeling Simulators for CO2 2:30 MD2 WQ2 Lake - Wayne Wurtsbaugh (Utah State Spackman Jones, Jeffery Horsburgh, Sequestration - Vivek Patil (University of University), Amy Marcarelli (Michigan Stephanie Reeder, James Patton (Utah Utah) Technological University) State University) Day 2 - Wednesday April 10, 2013 Poster Session 3:10 2:50 3:30 3:50 4:00 P20 P19 P18 P17 P16 P15 P14 P13 P12 P11 P10 P9 P8 P7 P6 P5 P4 P3 P2 P1 Tower ofPower -Calculating Power Budgets forRemoteIutah EpscorWeather Balam(UtahState University) Stations- Harsha scape Architecture andEnvironmental Planning), Enjie Li(UtahStateUniversity) Water Water intheWest: Conserving onaCampusResearch Farm -Pamela Blackmore, Devon Gibby, ScottKrumm, Gordon Wood (Land- ofUtah) (University The Water BalanceoftheUrbanSalt Lake Valley: Strong AMultiple-BoxModelValidated Courtenay -CarolynStwertka, by Observations ChangeDetectionusingMulti-Beam Sonar-JamesGeomorphic Hensleigh(UtahStateUniversity) JoanXianyu McLean(UtahStateUniversity) Meng, AquiferofSemi-AridCacheValley, SolubilityinaShallowBasin-Fill Redox ControlledBiogeochemical ProcessesAffectingArsenic Utah- (Utah StateUniversity), Trenton Franz of (University Arizona) A Cosmic-Ray EstimatesofSoilMoistureattheT.W. NeutronProbeforIntermediate-Scale DanielExperimentalForestJones, -LingLv, Scott Harker, Tylan Magnusson, Joshua (Brigham Vert Young University) Aanderud,Seasonal FluctuationsofMultipleLake intheGreatSaltLake CharacteristicsInfluenceBacterialDormancy -Zachary (Utah StateUniversity) Estimating Potential Savings ofWater fortheBearRiverCanalCompany usingSpatialAnalysisTools -Jonna VanOpstal, Liisa Piiparinen, Ayman AlAfifi, SarahStander, RussellBabb, David Rosenberg(UtahState University) Measuring theEco-HydrologicalPerformance oftheLower -TheBearRiverFellows BearRiverBasinthroughExperientialLearning Program- Rittenour (UtahStateUniversity) Wash Utah:AStudyfromKitchenCorral EventsinSouthern Controlling MechanismsforLateHoloceneArroyoCut-Fill -WillHuff,Tammy Scott Jones, Helga Van Miegroet(UtahStateUniversity), Joshua of Leffler(University Alaska, Anchorage) Effects ofPlantFunctionalType andInterannual PrecipitationVariability onLong-Term SoilMoistureResourcePool Trends -LaurenDucas , University), ChrisCox, ScottJones, Jobie Carlisle, MichelleBaker(UtahStateUniversity), David Eiriksson, David Bowling ofUtah) (University Introducing iUtah’s(Brigham Young GradientAlongMountaintoAanderud UrbanTransitionsZachary -Joseph (Gamut)Network Crawford, Karin Kettenring, EricHazelton(UtahStateUniversity) What areEffectiveTreatments forControllingSmall, DensePatches ofPhragmitesAustralisinGreatSaltLake Wetlands? -ChristineRohal, State University), Markus Tuller of (University Arizona) Emissions ofCarbonDioxide, andBeefManure-EnzhuHu, MethaneandAmmoniafromFresh Dairy Pakorn Sutitarnnontr, ScottJones (Utah Smith (UtahStateUniversity) The Efficiency-Ecosystem aDatabaseof Tradeoff: Constructing ChangesinUtah-AndreaArmstrong,Water Infrastructure University), Markus Tuller of (University Arizona) inReducingGasEmissions-PakornEffectiveness ofManureIncorporation Sutitarnnontr, EnzhuHu, RhondaMiller, ScottJones (UtahState (Utah StateUniversity) Predicting AnnualVariation -Jongho ofSalinityProductionfromtheUpperColoradoRiverBasinUsingSparrow Keum, Jagath Kaluarachchi University) GreenRoofInitiative-ChrisBinder,Utah StateUniversity NicholasDecker, StephenPeaden, Sam Taylor, Jordan Ward, Bo Yang (UtahState Steven Emerman(Utah Valley University) Team-Based - Courses BridgingtheGapfromClassroomDiscussiontoCommunityEngagementinUndergraduateHydrology Learning: Tulley-CordovaHigh Frequency MonitoringofStableIsotopesinanUrbanStream-Crystal ofUtah) (University Presentation ofAwards -J. andClosingRemarks Paul Riley (Past President of AWRA) Break MD4 MD3 MD5 MEASUREMENTS &DATA MANAGEMENT tion, Israel) Center, OrganizaAgricultural Research - University), ShmulikFriedman (Volcani Kashifa Rumana, ScottJones (UtahState pulse Probe(PHPP)-Pawel Szafruga, with anImproved Penta-needle Heat- Measuring mm/dWater FluxDensities Valley University) Devin Howard, Steven Emerman(Utah Ivie, DylanDastrup, Andrew Simister, Slots-Holly Slot Canyons andArtificial mate StreamDischargethroughNatural Use oftheManningEquationtoEsti- sity), Markus Tuller of (University Arizona) Rumana, ScottJones (UtahStateUniver - with HeatPulseTechnology -Kashifa In-situ SoilWater ContentEstimation Session 10:Room303/305 Chair ScottJones WQ4 WQ3 WQ5 ment ofEnvironmental Quality) - Nicholas vonStackelberg(UtahDepart Bethany Neilson(UtahStateUniversity), Criteria withQUAL2K-AndrewHobson, A Tool toIdentifyNumericNutrient Technology, Stockholm) Anders Wörman (TheRoyal Instituteof Bethany Neilson(UtahStateUniversity), tions -NoahSchmadel, Justin Heavilin, on StreamSoluteTransport Predic- tial ResolutionParameter Information Investigating theImpactofHigherSpa- John Loomis(ColoradoStateUniversity) of Wyoming), Jo Kealy Mary (CH2MHill), , NanetteNelson(University University) reation inUtah-Paul Jakus (UtahState Nutrient Pollution andWater-Based Rec- Session 11:Room307/309 Chair BethNeilson WATER QUALITY 3:30 Break/Evaluator’s Retreat PH.D. (University ofUtah) - ZahraZahmatkesh (University Runoff Model’s Parameters andStructure AssociatedWithRainfall ering Uncertainty 2:25 IntegratedRunoffSimulationConsid- (University ofUtah) (University a Semi-AridClimate-DaschHoudeshel in LandscapingAlternative No-Irrigation as 2:45 Stormwater GreenInfrastructure State University) to ProduceMethane-Yousef Soboh(Utah mass andaHighCarbonSourceMaterial 3:05 AnaerobicCo-digestionofAlgalBio- AWRA StudentPaper Competition Chair DarwinSorensen Auditorium Christopher Neale Douglas Jackson- Alan Auditorium INDEX A H M Sigler, Adam - I6 Aanderud, Zachary - AE1, P14, P9 Hakala, Kirsti - GW3 Magnusson, Tylan - P14 Simister, Andrew - MD3 AlAfifi, Ayman - P12 Hansen, Carly A. - AWRA1 Marcarelli, Amy - WQ2 Sims, Charles - WM5 Alexander, Michael - UW3 Harker, Alan - AE1, P14 Maslova, Inga - WM3 Soboh, Yousef - AWRA8 Alminagorta, Omar - WM6 Hazelton, Eric - AE3, P8 Mayer, Peter - I7 Spackman, Gary - I3 Anderson, Jocelynn - HM4 Heavilin, Justin - WQ3 McCarty, Jeff - HM2 Spackman Jones, Amber - MD2 Armstrong, Andrea - P6 Heiberger, John - GW2 McCormick, Melissa - AE3 Stander, Sarah - P12 Hensleigh, James - P17 McCoy, Ripley - CL3 Steiert, Jason D. - AWRA2 B Hilbert, Jonathan - GW1 McInerney, Brian - I1 Strassberg, Gil - GW4 Babb, Russell - P12 Hobson, Andrew - WQ4 McKee, Mac - WM3 Strong, Courtenay - P18 Baker, Michelle - AE5, P9 Homer, Adam - GW1 McLean, Joan - P16 Stwertka, Carolyn - P18 Balam, Harsha - P20 Horsburgh, Jeffery - MD1, MD2 McNamara, Ryan - GW1 Sutitarnnontr, Pakorn - P5, P7 Barandiaran, Daniel - CL2 Houdeshel, Dasch - AWRA7, UW1 Meeks, Leah - WM1 Swain, Nathan - GW4, HM3 Bardsley, Tim - CL5 Hough-Snee, Nate - AE2 Meng, Xianyu - P16 Szafruga, Pawel - MD4 Binder, Chris - P3 Howard, Devin - GW1, MD3 Merrell, David - HM2 Blackmore, Pamela - P19 T Hu, Enzhu - P5, P7 Meyer, Jonathan - CL3 Bowling, David - P9 Tarboton, David - HM5 Huff, Will - P11 Miller, Rhonda - P5 Brooks, Paul - I2 Taylor, Sam - P3 Hultine, Kevin - UW1 Budy, Phaedra - AE6 N Taylor, Spencer - HM1 Burns, Michael - GW4 I Natter, Daniel - GW1, UW3 Thiede, Gary - AE6 Ivie, Holly - MD3 Neale, Christopher - P13 Ticlavilca, Andres M - WM3 C Neilson, Bethany - WQ3, WQ4 Tuller, Markus - MD5, P5, P7 Caraballo, Juan - MD1 J Nelson, Jim - HM1, HM2, HM3, Tulley-Cordova, Crystal - P1 Carlisle, Daren - I4 Jackson-Smith, Douglas - I6, P6 HM4 Carlisle, Jobie - P9 Jager, Henriette - I5 V Nelson, Nanette - WQ5 Christensen, Scott - GW4 Jakus, Paul - WQ5 Vallaire, Scarlett - AE5
Colledge, Preston - GW1 Jin, Jiming - CL3, CL4 O Van Miegroet, Helga - P10 Odame, Augustina - WM5 Cox, Chris - P9 Jones, Amber - MD1 Van Opstal, Jonna - P13 Orr, Austin - UW2 Crawford, Joseph - P9 Jones, Clain - I6 Vert, Joshua - AE1, P14 Jones, Norman - GW4, HM1, HM2, von Stackelberg, Nicholas - WQ4 P D HM3, HM4 Patil, Vivek - AWRA5 Dastrup, Dylan - MD3, UW3 W Jones, Scott - MD4, MD5, P15, P7, Patton, James - MD2 Davis, Brandon - GW1, UW3 P9 Walsh, Thomas - AWRA4 Peaden, Stephen - P3 Decker, Nicholas - P3 Wang, Shih-Yu - CL4
K Perez, Fidel - UW5 Dolder, Herman - HM4 Ward, Jordan - P3 Kaluarachchi, Jagath - P4 Piiparinen, Liisa - P12 Downard, Rebekah - AE4 Welsh, Lisa - WM2 Kealy, Mary Jo - WQ5 Pomeroy, Christine - UW1, UW2 Ducas, Lauren - P10 Wheaton, Joe - AE2 Kellum, Lawrence - UW3 Whigham, Dennis - AE3 E Kettenring, Karin - AE3, AE4, P8, R Reeder, Stephanie - MD2 Winters, Lisa - AE6 Eiriksson, David - P9 WM6 Rittenour, Tammy - P11 Wood, Gordon - P19 Emerman , Steven - GW1, MD3, P2, Keum, Jongho - P4 W_rman, Anders - WQ3 UW3 Krumm, Scott - P19 Rohal, Christine - P8 Endter-Wada, Joanna - UW4, WM2 Roper, Brett - AE2 Wurtsbaugh, Wayne - AE5, WQ2 L Ewing, Stephanie - I6 Rosenberg, David - WM1, P12, Latu, Kilisimasi - HM3 Y WM4 Yang, Bo - P3 Latu, Kris - GW4 F Rumana, Kashifa - MD4, MD5 Ferreira, Gabriela - UW3 Leffler, Joshua - P10 Rumsey, Christine - AWRA3 Z Franz, Trenton - P15 Lewis, Clayton - CL1 Zacharias, Daniel - GW1, UW3 S Friedman, Shmulik - MD4 Li, Enjie - P19, UW4 Zahmatkesh, Zahra - AWRA6 Schmadel, Noah - WQ3 Li, Rong - CL4
G Selck, Jeff - UW3 Li, Shujuan - UW4 Gibby, Devon - P19 Sen Gupta, Avirup - HM5 Loomis, John - WQ5 Gillies, Robert - CL4 Sievers, Matthew - AE3 Lv, Ling - P15 Gwynn, J Wallace - WQ1 AQUATIC AND WETLAND ECOSYSEMS
PRESENTATION INFO
'Extremophile Dormancy: Using Targeted Metagenomics to Identify Microbial Community Composition in Hypersaline and Freshwater Lakes'
From acid seeps and deep-sea thermal vents to glacial ice and hypersaline lakes, extreme environments contain relatively simplified communities consisting of organisms that evolved to survive and thrive under adverse environmental conditions. Although microbial dormancy is thought to be a survival mechanism for microbes in extreme environments, it is unclear if microbial dormancy rates differ between extreme and neutral environments. Using salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen levels as measurements of ‘extreme,’ we hypothesized that bacterial and archaeal taxa in hypersaline lake communities will exhibit lower levels dormancy than bacterial and archaeal communities in geologically similar freshwater lake controls. For our study, we defined dormancy as the difference between DNA-based communities (i.e., all microorganisms present in the community) and RNA-based communities (only the microbes which are active) and used targeted metagenomics to analyze the 16S rDNA and rRNA extracted from five hypersaline and freshwater lakes across the western United States. We also hypothesized that dormancy of the communities will be contingent on the extremity of the environment. As hypothesized, DNA-based and RNA-based bacterial communities were more similar in hypersaline (F =1.121; P =0.09) than freshwater lakes (F =19.605; P
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Joshua Vert - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Alan Harker - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Zachary Aanderud - Brigham Young University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Multi-scale drivers of riparian vegetation across the interior Pacific Northwest: a case from the interior Columbia River basin.'
Riparian vegetation both shapes and responds to physical processes and instream properties that are also driven by larger-scale climatic, hydrologic and geomorphic processes. These processes may be thought of as environmental filters that restrict local riparian vegetation to those species that can colonize and persist through multiple and sometimes hierarchical filters. Accordingly, riparian vegetation is frequently monitored as an indicator of watershed integrity as the environmental filters that shape riparian vegetation may shift rapidly following land-use changes and/or disturbance. When assessing riparian vegetation across broad spatial scales, it is often difficult to decouple variation in vegetation communities caused by local filters such as fluvial disturbance and channel form from variation that is attributable to larger scale filters such as geology, climate and local plant species pools. We used low-order stream riparian vegetation data from across the interior Columbia River (CR) and Missouri River (MR) basins to ask four questions: (1) are there distinct riparian plant communities within low-order streams of the interior CR and upper MR basins? (2) What environmental filters correspond to these identified plant communities? (3) Of these filters, are large-scale processes more responsible for shaping the composition of riparian communities than watershed and stream level filters? (4) Do identified riparian plant communities correspond to distinct channel conditions? Clustering methods, indicator species analysis, PERMANOVA and ordination techniques were used to quantify how vegetation communities were correlated to landscape- and reach-scale variables, including channel habitat, watershed land-use and climate attributes. Landscape scale variables such as elevation and climate and watershed management parameters such as grazing and forest cover were strongly correlated to vegetation community composition. A suite of instream habitat variables was correlated to vegetation community composition while unique vegetation communities generally corresponded to unique channel forms and instream habitat. These vegetation-stream habitat relationships may be a product of vegetation itself or vegetation and filters that also shape geomorphic process. Based on the observed relationships between riparian vegetation and environmental filters, we conclude that when monitoring riparian status and trend or setting riparian management and restoration objectives, managers should attempt to account for multiple interactions between regional species pools, regional environmental variability and stream physical habitat.
AUTHOR(S) INFO Nate Hough-Snee - Utah State University [email protected]
Brett Roper - US Forest Service [email protected]
Joe Wheaton - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Are Phragmites Invasions Dynamic Through Time?'
Biological invasions cause changes to the communities and environments they invade, and the invader itself can change during invasions. Resulting changes to the environment may include altered nutrient cycling, hydrology, substrate, or other factors. Community composition is often altered by competitive exclusion of native species previously present at the invaded site. Changes to an invader may result from either successional or density-dependent processes and may include increased reproductive output or changes in vigor. We investigated intrinsic and extrinsic changes in Phragmites invasions over several decades in two Chesapeake Bay subestuaries. We used historic vegetation maps to locate Phragmites patches that were present prior to 1970 and aerial imagery to locate patches that established after 1990. We compared Phragmites germination rates, flowering rates, clonal richness, and herbivory rates and plant community composition between old and young stands. Our results indicated that none of the Phragmites vigor metrics changed as the invasion aged, nor did the plant community composition. This implied that Phragmites invasion progressed from the initial colonization to a stable, invaded state rapidly and the new state persisted through time. Clonal richness did differ significantly between the young and old stands and was the only significant metric. The old stands had significantly lower clonal richness and genetic diversity than the young, which may be the result of intraspecific competition extirpating clones through time, or the evidence of density dependent Allee effects early in the invasion. In conclusion, our findings suggest that Phragmites invasion rapidly creates a stable invaded state that persists through time, after which only intraspecific changes occur.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Eric Hazelton - Utah State University [email protected]
Melissa McCormick - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center [email protected]
Matthew Sievers - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center [email protected]
Karin Kettenring - Ecology Center and the Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University [email protected]
Dennis Whigham - Smithsonian Environmental Research Center [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Assessing the ecological condition of emergent wetlands in a hydrologically dynamic, ecologically unique and extensively managed system - the Great Salt Lake, Utah. '
The hydrology of the rivers that supply the Great Salt Lake (GSL) and associated wetlands has been significantly altered for irrigated agriculture and urban development. Many of the wetlands that rely on these rivers have been impounded to maintain as much migratory bird habitat as possible, in the face of these hydrologic changes. However, while the discharge of rivers and the elevation of the GSL are well known, the hydrology of the emergent wetlands that lie between is unknown. Further, the impact of impoundment and water management on wetland function is also unknown, despite the critical habitat, flood buffering, and water quality improvement functions these wetlands perform. GSL wetlands are ecologically unique and require a regionally specific wetland assessment method that recognizes natural variability in salinity, an overall lack of species richness, and that is impoundment is an intentional management tool rather than a stressor, as it is considered elsewhere. In 2012, we conducted an assessment of emergent GSL wetlands to characterize the hydrology of the wetlands and determine the impact of hydrologic change on wetland condition. We gathered data on vegetation, soils, and sources of disturbance as ll d t il d h d l i i f ti f 43 d l l t d t tl d d l l t d t ti b d t i well as detailed hydrologic information from 43 randomly selected emergent wetlands and calculated vegetation-based metrics to determine the condition of the wetlands and an index to determine the degree of human disturbance at each site. Hydrologic assessment indicated that hydroperiods are variable in both impounded and un-impounded sites; water level in wetlands declined, rose, or fluctuated throughout the growing season and the range of hydrologic change varied significantly regardless of the presence of impoundment. Preliminary condition assessment results suggest that hydrologic variability (determined by the range of water depth, change in area inundated during the growing season and distance to a water control structure) had the most significant impact of wetland condition (measured by the degree of invasiveness, presence of disturbance-tolerant taxa, and ratio of annual to perennial species). Condition was highest in wetlands with moderately declining water regimes, which represents the likely natural hydroperiod. The results of hydroperiod characterization and wetland assessment indicate that the decisions wetland managers make, whether to impound a wetland and how water levels are manipulated, are as important in determining wetland condition as the other disturbances the wetland experiences. Further, the sustainability of wetland functions depends on these management decisions. Results also suggest that trade-offs between maintaining wildlife habitat and other ecosystem functions depend on how water level is managed, and that sites can be managed to maintain all functions. This research will be conducted for three more years to monitor multi-year dynamics in hydrology and vegetation response.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Rebekah Downard - Utah State University [email protected]
Karin Kettenring - Ecology Center and the Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'The influence of upstream lakes on rates and stability of whole stream metabolism in subalpine watersheds of the Sawtooth Mountains, central Idaho. '
Lakes within mountain watersheds provide a source of nutrients and organic matter to downstream reaches and can significantly alter downstream hydrology, geomorphology, and temperature. Lake outflows may therefore represent biologically important sites of ecosystem production and stability, especially in seasonally dynamic, snowmelt-driven systems. Whole stream metabolism was monitored within paired inflow and outflow reaches of 5 subalpine watersheds in the Sawtooth Mountain Lake District (central Idaho) from snowmelt through baseflow of 2008. Results show significantly higher rates of gross primary production (GPP) in lake outflows during both snowmelt and baseflow seasons, and lakes also appeared to reduce variation in outflow GPP during periods of high flows associated with peak snowmelt flood pulses. Distinct snowmelt controls on GPP were unclear, but rates were likely limited by a combination of temperature and bed dynamics, and following snowmelt disturbance, baseflow rates of GPP across all sites were largely explained by stream-water total phosphorous concentrations. Rates of ecosystem respiration (ER) varied by watershed but not by landscape position, and were most strongly related to watershed hydrogeomorphic parameters throughout both seasons. Net ecosystem productivity was largely driven by ER, and while most sites remained net heterotrophic, differences in process response resulted in outflows that tended more towards autotrophy.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Scarlett Vallaire - Utah State University [email protected]
Michelle Baker - Utah State University [email protected]
Wayne Wurtsbaugh - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Exploring the potential for biological control of an explosive prey base by a suite of three predatory fishes in a high elevation, western reservoir' In western reservoirs, the rapid spread of introduced species into an already artificial species assemblage can alter trophic interactions in ways that can be difficult to predict, creating challenges for fisheries management. In Scofield Reservoir, Utah, the unintentional introduction of Utah chub and subsequent potential for a population explosion has prompted managers to shift the stocking program from exclusively rainbow trout, to include tiger trout and Bear Lake cutthroat trout as potential biological controls, as well as to enhance angling opportunities. However, unintended consequences of these introductions are likely, and could include reduced catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) and condition in preferred sport fishes. We initiated a multi-faceted study consisting of field observations, theoretical comparisons of gape limitation, and bioenergetic simulations, to investigate interspecific interactions between the top predators and infer predator demand versus prey supply. Our results suggest that a substantial portion of chub outgrow the gape limit of trout predators; 16% of chub (those greater than 250 mm in length) are not susceptible to predation. Furthermore, stable isotope and diet analyses demonstrate considerable trophic niche overlap suggesting the potential for competition among these trout species is high. Large cutthroat and tiger trout occupy a top piscivorous trophic niche with both species consuming large amounts of prey fish throughout all age classes. In addition, the trophic niche space of rainbow trout overlaps considerably with Utah chub, with both species relying heavily on invertebrate consumption. Relative weight and Fulton’s condition factor for all three species are all below average (100 and 1, respectively). Moreover, there is a significant decline of rainbow trout catch (CPUE) in recent years, which could potentially be due to competition for shared food resources and or the preferred littoral feeding space. Collectively, this research will aid managers in designing and implementing the best stocking strategy to optimize sport fish growth and survival, control chub, and, in turn, enhance and maintain angler satisfaction.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Lisa Winters - Utah State University [email protected]
Phaedra Budy - USGS Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Utah State University [email protected]
Gary Thiede - Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University [email protected]
CLIMATE
PRESENTATION INFO
'Improving Regional Climate Modeling of the North American Monsoon'
This project investigates the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) used as a regional climate model (RCM) to simulate summertime precipitation associated with the North American Monsoon (NAM) for the 1990’s. Summertime precipitation associated with the NAM provides more than 50% of the annual precipitation in southern Arizona and New Mexico; an arid and semi-arid region. Changes to the onset, intensity, and duration of the NAM are expected to occur under a global warming background, and an understanding of these changes in summertime precipitation in this region is important. While RCM simulations conducted using observation-based National Center for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis I data (NCEP-R1) produce accurate precipitation patterns, simulations driven with general circulation model (GCM) data provided by the Community Climate System Model (CCSM) performed poorly due to biases in the CCSM forcing data. While this study focuses on historical time periods where observation-based data is available as forcing data, future predictions rely on GCM data to drive the model. To improve the CCSM data’s ability to accurately resolve the NAM, a simple linear regression technique employing the NCEP-R1 data was used to reduce the biases in CCSM temperature, specific humidity, and sea-level pressure. In order to maintain physical consistency among atmospheric variables, physical equations and the bias-corrected variables were used to calculate the remaining dependant variables needed by the WRF model. This study presents an evaluation of simulations driven by 1) NCEP-R1 data, 2) original CCSM data, and 3) bias-corrected CCSM data. This evaluation highlights strengths and weaknesses of the WRF model to resolve various NAM controlling factors using the CCSM forcing data, which gives insight into future predictions of the NAM, using these global model data.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Jonathan Meyer - Utah State University [email protected]
Jiming Jin - USU Dep of PSC [email protected] Ripley McCoy - USU Dep of PSC [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Drought characteristics in the Central Plains: putting the 2011-2012 drought in perspective'
This study characterizes the Central/Southern Plains drought during the years of 2011 and 2012. Using EOF analysis on seasonal precipitation we decompose the annual cycle into various seasonal components, and define the analysis region based upon where a distinct spring maximum is present – i.e. Oklahoma & NE Texas. Focusing on this region, we find that drought occurrences possess a mixture of signals. Annual and spring components dominate the region, and are accompanied by smaller contributions coming from fluctuations in fall and winter precipitation. The circulation anomalies associated with these seasonal drought patterns exhibit the distinct form of a “short-wave train” that stretches across North America and adjacent oceans. This circulation pattern is distinct from the common Pacific-North America (PNA) pattern consisting of longer atmospheric waves and triggered by La Nina conditions. In 2011 there was a persistent precipitation deficit for the whole year, while during 2012 the winter season was actually wetter than normal but the spring was considerably drier. We also evaluate the performance of the NMME models in forecasting these drought events. Dissemination strategies to appropriate management and government agencies of information such as the possibility of further back-to-back drought will be discussed.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Daniel Barandiaran - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Comparison of the NLDAS Weather Forcing Model with Ground-Based Measurements over Agricultural Areas Throughout the Western United States'
Clayton S. Lewis, Hatim M. E. Geli, Christopher M. U. Neale, James P. Verdin, and Gabriel Senay This analysis is being conducted in the context of standardizing and providing guidelines for evapotranspiration (ET) maps of crop water use estimates for the Western United States, a project funded by the USGS. ET estimate maps can be obtained using remote sensing-based methods at field/local scales and can be achieved with a reasonable accuracy. There are presently different remote sensing methods in the literature that provide reasonable levels of accuracy at these scales. Most of these methods use weather forcing data from ground-based weather stations with the assumption of being reasonably representative of the local conditions. Ground-based stations are generally sparse in nature for various reasons. However, at regional/continental scales this assumption will not be applicable and requires the use of other approaches to account for the variability of the near surface weather conditions. The North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), a gridded weather forcing dataset, can potentially provide this information. These NLDAS data are available at 1/8th of a degree (~ 6.8 miles × 8.6 miles), a relatively coarse resolution considering the requirement of estimating ET at field scales. In order to use the NLDAS weather forcing data in remote sensing of ET at field to regional scales with increased confidence it is important to compare it with ground-based observations. Such comparison will help to identify the associated uncertainties and biases. It can also help to quantify the uncertainties in the remote sensing-based model estimates of ET. This study presents a preliminary result of the comparison between ground-based weather data to the NLDAS gridded products. Ground-based, hourly data drawn from 16 networks throughout the West are used in the analysis. The comparison considered hourly temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, and solar radiation data. Stations that were operated over non irrigated surfaces were thrown out as the study concentrates on those stations located in irrigated agricultural areas.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Clayton Lewis - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Regional Climate Modeling of the West African Monsoon Using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model' In West Africa, food security and economy are based on agricultural production that is strongly dependent on monsoon precipitation. Therefore, accurately simulating the West African Monsoon (WAM) is vital to the well-being of the region. Regional climate models are valuable tools to simulate and predict WAM and provide useful information to local water managers. Previous studies showed considerable sensitivity of WAM to different land surface, convection, and planetary boundary layer schemes in regional climate models. In this study we used the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to further explore the sensitivity of simulated WAM to physical schemes and improve our understanding of WAM predictions. Through a large number of modeling experiments, we found that the different radiation schemes embedded in WRF led to significant differences in simulated precipitation and the related dynamics of WAM. These considerable differences resulted from the differences in the simulated surface temperature gradients that are closely associated with the surface radiative budgets. Additional tests of microphysics, land surface, convection, and planetary boundary layer schemes were also performed for July 2002 when monthly precipitation pattern is closest to the 30-year climatology of the major monsoon season (June, July, and August) over 1981 through 2010. The optimal combination of the physics schemes identified through the sensitivity tests were used to simulate WAM for the period from 1981 to 2010, and the WRF model realistically reproduced the observed climatology and evolution of WAM.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Rong Li - Utah State University [email protected]
Jiming Jin - Utah state university [email protected]
Shih-Yu Wang - USU Dep of PSC [email protected]
Robert Gillies - Utah Climate Center [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Assessing climate change risks to a municipal water supply: A pilot project incorporating downscaled climate projections, operational hydrologic modeling, and a systems planning model'
Assessing regional risks that climate change poses to the long-term reliability of municipal water supplies requires hydrologic modeling efforts specific to local watersheds and infrastructure to ensure that results and products are compatible with existing planning frameworks. This study utilizes the modeling capacity of an operational streamflow forecasting center to quantify projected changes to hydrology and subsequent impacts to the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU) water system and planning processes. Previous study explored the basic sensitivities of runoff to changes in temperature and precipitation; here, we present a more in depth analysis for a portion of the SLCDPU watershed area. We use climate scenarios selected from the bias corrected and statistically downscaled projections from the Climate Model Intercomparision Project, as well as high-resolution dynamically downscaled climate change projections, to develop a projected hydrologic ensemble over the proposed study area. The resulting ensemble is then used to force a recently developed SLCDPU systems planning model, in combination with future demand scenarios, to evaluate potential impacts to water supply and infrastructure, and implications for management.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Tim Bardsley - Western Water Assessment [email protected]
GROUNDWATER
PRESENTATION INFO
'Arsenic and other Heavy Metals in Shallow Groundwater in Utah Valley, Utah' American Fork, Provo River and Spanish Fork flow westward across the Wasatch Range and heavily-populated Utah Valley to drain into Utah Lake. Within Utah Valley the average fluvial As concentrations for American Fork (As = 0.152 mg/L) and Provo River (As = 0.342 mg/L) exceed the EPA standards for freshwater streams for chronic exposure (As = 0.150 mg/L) and acute exposure (As = 0.340 mg/L), respectively, but which are not unusual for rivers affected by mine tailings. On the other hand, As measurements in wells in Utah Valley with depths exceeding 36 m have shown no As levels exceeding As = 0.002 mg/L. The objective of this study is to determine whether elevated levels of As occur in shallow groundwater in Utah Valley. The objective is being addressed by analyzing water samples from the “pioneer wells” in Utah Valley, shallow (depths < 10 m), hand-dug, brick-lined wells constructed in the 19th century, which many residents still maintain as their “emergency water supply.” The database of Utah Division of Water Rights lists only 26 shallow wells in Utah Valley. Other pioneer wells are being sought through conversations with water departments, historical societies and local residents. Since many pioneer wells have been located in the floodplain of Spanish Fork, fluvial samples from Spanish Fork are being analyzed also. Samples are being analyzed for As and the transition metals normally associated with As (Fe, Cu, Mn, Ni, Co, Cr, Zn) using the PerkinElmer Optima 8000 ICP-OES. Results will be reported at the meeting.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Adam Homer - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Jonathan Hilbert - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Devin Howard - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Daniel Zacharias - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Preston Colledge - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Brandon Davis - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Ryan McNamara - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Daniel Natter - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Steven Emerman - Utah Valley University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Infiltration and Potential Groundwater Recharge Performance of Stormwater Bioretention Designed for Semiarid Climates'
Bioretention is a structure that captures runoff from small catchments and stores it in porous vegetated areas with the intent of infiltrating all or a large fraction of the annual runoff volume. In practice, the effects of bioretention on potential groundwater recharge are oftentimes unknown because of varying storage capacities and infiltration rates. This study examined the infiltration performance of a field facility on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. Data were collected over the course of nine months between March, 2012 and November, 2012. Soil moisture sensors were installed at six, nine, and twelve foot depths within the bioretention cell to measure the volumetric soil water content as the infiltrating wetting front advanced. Six pressure transducers and three lysimeters provided complementary infiltration data. Overall, the site demonstrated substantial improvement in volume retention and infiltration over the prior conditions. The average storm event produced approximately 5.6 mm (0.22 in) of precipitation. For all storm events examined, nearly all of the inflow volume was retained and either infiltrated, lost through evapotranspiration, or utilized by plants. Average vertical and horizontal infiltration rates ranged between 0.5 cm/hr and 20 cm/hr for the sandy loam subsoils. The wetting front beneath the bioretention took 1 to 2 days (24 to 48 hrs) to reach the 1.8 m (6 ft) depth and 7 to 14 days to reach the 3.7 m (12 ft) depth depending on the spatial location. At depths of 1.8 m (6 ft), 3.7 m (12 ft) and 4.6 m (15 ft) outside the basin, the wetting front was shown to progress at least 3 m (10 ft) laterally in three days (72 hrs) time, but without additional sensors located at larger lateral distances from the basin, it remains unclear exactly where the lateral extent of the wetting front ceases. Without additional engineering to protect infrastructure such as building foundations and retaining walls, it is recommended that bioretention cells constructed in semiarid climates and with similar subsoils be located at least 6.1 m (20 ft) from the infrastructure to prevent unintentional damage. Overall, this research indicates that bioretention is a viable stormwater best management practice in Utah. It was shown that with proper design and sizing, nearly all annual runoff volume can be controlled on site and either infiltrated or utilized by native plant species. As measured infiltration data were limited to the vadose zone, the infiltrated volume was considered potential recharge; future work may include modeling and installation of deeper sensors as a means of approximating actual recharge.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
John Heiberger - University of Utah [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Utah's groundwater: How is it affected by climate? Can we predict groundwater levels?'
In Utah, the declining trend of groundwater level, combined with the rapid growth of urban population and water withdrawal, are already a cause for concern for water planners throughout the state. An article published in the Salt Lake Tribune in September 2012 cited instances where groundwater wells have already run dry. Therefore, developing a reliable future groundwater assessment for Utah in light of expanding human needs and climate change is crucial. Previous research done by the Utah Climate Center at USU has identified a significant link of the Great Salt Lake level, as well as northern Utah climate, to the Pacific climate oscillations. Upon further comparing these findings to groundwater levels, we find groundwater also contains a link to Pacific climate oscillations. Using this newly found cohesion in spectral characteristics, we further involve the use of global climate models to predict groundwater levels for expected future climate. This study strives to facilitate the planning of groundwater resources and to aid policy makers in their endeavor to allocate groundwater in the most appropriate way.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Kirsti Hakala - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'An automated, web-based groundwater mapping and visualization system'
In response to the record one-year drought in 2011-2012, a Texas Drought Technology Steering Committee (TDTSC) consisting of academics and water managers was formed to develop new tools and strategies to assist the state in monitoring, predicting, and responding to drought events. Conjoining with this effort, as part of the CI-WATER initiative to advance cyber infrastructure in water resources we developed a cloud-based water level mapping system for generating and visualizing changes in groundwater levels over time. To accurately assess impacts and trends in groundwater levels requires the development of detailed water level maps at various scales. Creating such dynamic maps can be challenging due to the massive amounts of data and processing required. Furthermore, wells are not typically sampled at the same points in time, and so developing a spatial water table map for a particular date requires both temporal and spatial interpolation of the observed water elevations. The process for performing this dual interpolation was automated in a geoprocessing script and placed on a server to form a cloud-based water level mapping system. The user-interface, accessible via the web, uses a Google Earth plug-in to visualize the results. The system is based on the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) groundwater database, but can be adapted to use other regional databases. As part of this system we created a temporal interpolation geoprocessing tool to estimate the piezometric heads for all wells in a given region at a specific date using a regression analysis. This interpolation tool is coupled with other geoprocessing tools to filter data and interpolate point elevations spatially to produce water level, and depth to groundwater maps. The web interface allows users to generate these maps at locations and times of interest. A sequence of maps can be animated to visualize how water levels are changing in time. Short-term predictions of future water levels can be made using the same time series regression analysis.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Scott Christensen - Brigham Young University [email protected] Norman Jones - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Michael Burns - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Gil Strassberg - Aquaveo [email protected]
Nathan Swain - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Kris Latu - Brigham Young University [email protected]
HYDROLOGIC MODELING
PRESENTATION INFO
'High Performance Computing of Hydrologic Models Using HTCondor'
“Big Iron” super computers and commercial cloud resources (Amazon, Google, Microsoft) are considered the most prominent resources considered for high performance computing (HPC) needs. These resources have many advantages; however the limited access of supercomputers and the cost associated with cloud resources may prohibit many water resource engineers and planners from pursuing HPC methods to improve design and decision-making. The goal of this presentation is to provide a model of HPC for water resource stakeholders who would benefit from an autonomous pool of free and accessible computing resources. To demonstrate this concept, a system called HTCondor was used at Brigham Young University in conjunction with the scripting language, Python, to parallelize intensive stochastic computations done with Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analyst (GSSHA) models. HTCondor has been included in the image of each CPU in all of computer labs associated with the BYU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering so that the pool of idle resources can contain from 100 to 200 processors. HTCondor is open source software developed by the University of Wisconsin - Madison, which provides access to the processors of idle computers for performing computational jobs on a local network. The GSSHA model is a fully distributed physics-based model that can predict runoff in a watershed. Stochastic simulations with GSSHA could overwhelm any lone CPU, but in the HTCondor environment, all of the heavy lifting is done in parallel and distributed among potentially hundreds of onsite processors. With HTCondor, computation times can be reduced by 90% over a single computer. HTCondor could be a viable solution to many computational needs under different circumstances using various water resource modeling software.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Spencer Taylor - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Jim Nelson - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Norman Jones - Brigham Young University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Applications of GSSHA in Real World Situations' Governmental agencies have a vested interest in maintaining the statistical integrity of protection provided by their constructed flood mitigation infrastructure. In addition, water supply officials need to be able to understand the full hydrologic cycle including snow melt. Hydrographs are significantly changed due to modifications of hydrologic parameters such as land use, vegetation, snow depth, topography, and soil type. Therefore modeling the changes in the hydrograph due to these alterations allows the owners to understand potential loads on existing infrastructure. In addition water resources planners are more capable in their understanding of available water volumes and extreme rain events. As part of the CI-WATER project funded by National Science Foundation, natural and urban watershed are being modeled and calibrated by a team of BYU researchers to reflect the existing hydrologic state. These models will be used in web applications that can modify hydrologic parameters to determine changes in the hydrograph. The models are being developed using the Gridded Surface and Subsurface Hydraulic Analysis (GSSHA) model. GSSHA is a physically based, two-dimensional hydrologic modeling program that can be used without the need of historical hydrologic data. This makes it possible to run simulations in ungaged watersheds. These models, in connection with the web applications of CI-WATER, will allow government agencies to plan, make decisions, and set policy to maximize the benefit of infrastructure investment and water resources.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Jeff McCarty - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Norman Jones - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Jim Nelson - Brigham Young University [email protected]
David Merrell - CI-WATER BYU [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'A Software Stack for Water Resources GIS Web Apps'
The purpose of this presentation is to review existing technologies that can be used in developing water resources web modeling applications. The mobile web revolution is making it possible to bring high performance computing to palm-sized mobile devices. This has exciting implications for water resources and engineering—especially in the field of hydrologic modeling. Moving common modeling scenario exploration analyses from a desktop environment to a web-based platform has several advantages. Some of these advantages include: • a user interface built with familiar web form elements • access to distributed cloud and super computing resources • data sharing • preventing loss of organizational knowledge There are a number of hurdles hydrologic web modeling developers will face. One of these is how to work with the geospatial data inherent with this class of models. Supporting geospatial data in a website is beyond the capabilities of typical web frameworks because it requires the use of additional software. The functionality needed for a web modeling applications can be achieved with three elements: 1. a geospatially enabled database 2. a map server 3. a geoprocessing toolbox. ESRI has developed the most popular set of tools that can be used to this end. The Python scripting module, ArcPy, allows developers to script to the extensive ESRI geoprocessing library. The data can be served using ArcServer and users can even build custom webpages using ArcGIS.com As a proof-of-concept, a well-permitting web application was developed for the Utah Division of Water Rights by researchers at Brigham Young University using some elements of the ESRI framework. The model uses an existing geodatabase MODFLOW model of aquifers in the state of Utah to predict the drawdown in the aquifer due to a new well. This system is now being implemented for all of the aquifers in the state. While ArcGIS may provide a robust and rich set of tools they are proprietary and for many organizations the cost barrier is high. In response to this concern a number of open source alternatives have emerged and the most mature will be presented. We have conducted an extensive review of these alternatives in conjunction with the Cyber Infrastructure Water project. We recommend a software stack for geospatial web application development comprising: MapServer, PostGIS, and 52 North with Python as the scripting language.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Nathan Swain - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Kilisimasi Latu - Brigham Young University [email protected] Norman Jones - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Jim Nelson - Brigham Young University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Games Teaching Hydrologic Concepts to High School Students'
Games Teaching Hydrologic Concepts to High School Students Author: Jocelynn Anderson Coauthors: Herman Dolder, Dr. Jim Nelson, Dr. Norm Jones In the United States there is an increasing shortage of skilled workers in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To counter this trend, increased emphasis is being placed by school districts and the government to improve STEM education in the K-12 school system. This requires teachers to find new ways to present these subjects in order to get students interested in these fields. An area of study in STEM that is becoming increasingly important is hydrology. As the world’s population increases and the amount of available water per person is decreasing, understanding water management and water issues is essential. For this reason, a collection of games designed to teach high school students basic hydrologic concepts are being created by the Outreach team at Brigham Young University as part of the CI-WATER project funded by the National Science Foundation. These games, paired with lessons on subjects such as the water cycle, are intended to engage students in the learning process and increase their knowledge of various aspects of hydrology. The games are designed to be fun, while using what was taught in class in practical applications. The collection of games will reinforce several concepts including weather, snow runoff, irrigation requirements, evaporation, and reservoir management. From playing these games, students will have a more in depth understanding of basic hydrologic concepts and an increased interest in water issues around them. Additionally, after learning more about water issues, some students may develop a desire to pursue hydrology as a career.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Jocelynn Anderson - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Herman Dolder - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Jim Nelson - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Norman Jones - Brigham Young University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Using the Utah Energy Balance Snow-Melt Model to Quantify Snow and Glacier Melt in the Himalayan Region'
Quantification of the melting of glaciers in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is important for decision making in water sensitive sectors, and for water resources management and provide flood protection. Access to and monitoring of the glaciers and their melt outflow is challenging, thus modeling based on remote sensing offers the potential for providing information to improve water resources decision making and management. In this paper we report on a distributed version of the Utah Energy Balance (UEB) snowmelt model, referred to as UEBGrid, which was adapted to quantify the melting of glaciers taking advantage of NASA remote sensing and earth science data products such as, satellite data, reanalysis data and climate model outputs. The representations of surface energy balance fluxes in the UEB snowmelt model have been extended to include the capability to quantify glacier melt. To account for clean and debris covered glaciers, substrate albedo, determined from remote sensing and glacier mapping is taken as an input. Representation of glacier within the model involves inclusion of glacier ice as a substrate and generation of melt from the ice substrate when seasonal snow has melted. In UEBGrid, a watershed is divided into a mesh of grid cells and the model runs individually for each grid cell. Users have control to provide separate inputs for each grid cell, or spatially constant inputs for the entire domain. Therefore, regional variability in snow and glacier melting is computed. Outflow can be aggregated over subwatersheds defined, for example, from a digital elevation model, and input into other hydrologic models. UEBGrid was tested using weather, climate and hydrologic data at Langtang Khola watershed, Nepal. UEBGrid is being included into the EPA BASINS software to facilitate this linking to other models and to take advantage of BASINS' capability to manage input data and visualize results. This capability for using gridded NASA Earth Science data, and the associated data model and workflow for storage and processing of data into and out of models linked in BASINS advances hydrologic information science. The capability for estimating the melt from glaciers and snow in a data sparse region will help water managers in decision making and management of water resources in areas impacted by li d lt glacier and snow melt.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Avirup Sen Gupta - Utah State University [email protected]
David Tarboton - USU [email protected]
MEASUREMENTS/DATA MGMT
PRESENTATION INFO
'iUTAH Cyberinfrastructure to Support Large Scale Collaborative Water Research' iUTAH (innovative Urban Transitions and Aridregion Hydro-sustainability) is a statewide effort dedicated to maintaining and improving water sustainability in Utah. Synthesis of diverse data collection and modeling to support cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional research teams working on the iUTAH project requires a facility with adequate storage, networking, computational, and human resources. The iUTAH Cyberinfrastructure Team (CI Team) is building the iUTAH Modeling and Data Federation (MDF) to support the full data life cycle and increase capacity for data collection, organization, management, sharing, synthesis to higher-level products, and integration with models. The iUTAH MDF is an online system for iUTAH researchers and partners to share data, models, and other digital resources. The iUTAH CI Team is focused on developing hardware and software systems that will improve iUTAH participants’ capacity for data collection, organization, management, sharing, synthesis to higher-level products, and integration with models. The iUTAH MDF is coordinating across Utah universities, including provisioning hardware that enables hosting of data publication and sharing services as well as data storage resources for redundancy and for High Performance Computing support. The CI Team is also leveraging development of enhanced optical network connectivity through the Utah Education Network and the recent EPSCoR Cyberconnectivity project as well as computational resources through the recent Utah/Wyoming EPSCoR CI-WATER award. In this presentation, we describe ongoing work to develop the hardware and software platforms that will create better access to data and new tools for collaboration among iUTAH participants.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Jeffery Horsburgh - Utah State University [email protected]
Amber Jones - Utah Water Research Laboratory [email protected]
Juan Caraballo - Utah Water Research Laboratory [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'iUTAH Cyberinfrastructure to Support Data Collection and Management for the GAMUT Monitoring Network ' iUTAH (innovative Urban Transitions and Aridregion Hydro-sustainability) is a statewide effort dedicated to maintaining and improving water sustainability in Utah. As part of the iUTAH project, researchers from multiple Utah universities are developing a new sensor network called GAMUT (Gradients Along Mountain to Urban Transitions). The objective of GAMUT is to measure aspects of water inputs, outputs, and quality along a mountain-to-urban gradient in three Utah watersheds that share common water sources (winter-derived precipitation) but differ in the human and biophysical nature of land-use transitions. GAMUT will deploy sensors at aquatic and terrestrial sites for real-time monitoring of common meteorological variables, snow accumulation and melt, soil moisture, surface water flow, and surface water quality. The multiple watershed, multiple institution, and scale of the GAMUT network present unique challenges for managing and publishing the data that will be produced. The iUTAH Cyberinfrastructure Team (CI Team) is building cyberinfrastructure to support management of the streaming sensor data. In this presentation, we will describe the cyberinfrastructure systems that we are developing to store, manage, and share the streaming data from the GAMUT sensor network. This framework includes tools for automated loading of streaming data into relational databases, data models for storing and accessing the data, software tools to facilitate the data quality control process, applications to support data management and equipment tracking by iUTAH field technicians, and t l f bli hi th d t th I t t tools for publishing the data on the Internet.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Amber Spackman Jones - Utah State University [email protected]
Jeffery Horsburgh - Utah State University [email protected]
Stephanie Reeder - USU/UWRL [email protected]
James Patton - USU/UWRL [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Use of the Manning Equation to Estimate Stream Discharge through Natural Slot Canyons and Artificial Slots'
Stream discharge through narrow, deep slot canyons can be a major source of groundwater recharge in the arid Southwest U.S. However, the discharge is nearly impossible to measure as most slot canyons are dry except when filled with dangerous short-lived floods. The objective of this research is to determine whether the empirical Manning Equation gives an acceptable estimate of discharge through natural slot canyons and artificial slots. The advantage of the Manning Equation is that it estimates discharge without the need to directly measure stream velocity on-site. However, it is not obvious that the Manning Equation could be applied to natural slot canyons or artificial slots as the database used for development of the Manning Equation did not include either natural streams or artificial structures for which most of the friction occurs along the sides of the channel. The objective is being addressed by studying natural slot canyons and artificial slots that are fed either by perennial springs or rivers or by dam or mine drainage outlets so that it is possible to directly measure discharge at a wide range of stream depths throughout the year. Field sites for natural slot canyons within and outside of Zion National Park in southern Utah include Kanarraville Falls, Kolob Reservoir, The Narrows, The Right Fork, The Subway, Taylor Creek, and Water Canyon. Field sites for artificial slots include outlets for monitoring coal mine drainage constructed by Utah DNR in the Wasatch Plateau / Book Cliffs area. Results will be reported at the meeting.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Holly Ivie - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Dylan Dastrup - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Andrew Simister - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Devin Howard - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Steven Emerman - Utah Valley University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Measuring mm/d water flux densities with an improved penta-needle heat-pulse probe (PHPP)' Growing populations have led to increased concern about water availability and efficient agricultural practices. The necessity for a system to instantly and accurately measure soil water and solute transport is greater than ever. However, even though advancements in instrumentation have improved measurement capabilities, there is still a lack of an accurate, in-situ method to measure soil water flux at a resolution sufficient for capturing naturally occurring processes. These processes occur at rates down to around 1 mm/d and include deep percolation, evaporation and redistribution. Evolving work over the last few decades has shown that the heat-pulse (HP) method is capable of measuring in-situ water flux in soil, and has shown the capability to measure water flux densities as low as 1 cm/d. Recently, a penta-needle heat-pulse probe (PHPP) has been developed which is based on the HP method and allows for water flux measurements in a plane normal to the heater needles. Further, the PHPP is capable of internally calculating thermal properties and heat velocities, allowing for near instantaneous soil water flux calculations. By combining recent improvements to the PHPP mathematical algorithms and several programming and design modifications, it may be possible to improve the resolution of water flux density determination to 1 mm/d. Presented is a background of the methods and theories, as well as preliminary results.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Pawel Szafruga - Utah State University [email protected]
Kashifa Rumana - Utah State University [email protected]
Shmulik Friedman - Volcani Center, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel [email protected]
Scott Jones - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'In-situ Soil Water Content Estimation with Heat Pulse Technology'
Scientists from a wide range of disciplines – agriculturists, environmentalists, meteorologists, ecologists – are interested in monitoring and managing the soil hydrologic regime in the vadose zone. Soil moisture influences the exchange and partitioning of water and energy fluxes at the land surface from regional to global scale. Time- and frequency-domain electromagnetic methods are commonly used for soil water content measurements in laboratory and field applications. In order to improve the characterization and quantification of soil hydraulic parameters and hydrologic fluxes, we attempted to measure soil moisture variation with heat pulse probes on a millimeter scale. In-situ soil water dynamics were measured using a heat pulse probe designed to determine soil temperature and thermal properties. The probe consists of a heater needle and five or six thermistor needles. A small heat input is applied to a resistance wire in the heater needle, while the remaining thermistor needles measure the temperature response at fixed distances of 6.5mm from the heater. The heat pulse probe is rotated 27.3° from a vertical orientation yielding measurements every 3mm within the soil profile. The system-on-chip embedded design of the heat pulse probe facilitates real-time optimization of soil thermal properties – thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity – using an inverse-fitting algorithm. Soil water content at the receding drying front is a function of soil heat capacity and soil bulk density. The soil water content has a commensurate effect on thermal conductivity; as the water content increases, thermal conductivity increases due to improved thermal contact between the soil particles. Volumetric heat capacity is determined from the ratio of thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity in soil; hence, leading to water content estimates in a drying medium. Further investigation is ongoing to validate and understand the accuracy and benefit of using heat pulse probe method for soil hydraulic properties assessment at an unprecedented resolution.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Kashifa Rumana - Utah State University [email protected]
Markus Tuller - Dept. of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona [email protected]
Scott Jones - Utah State University [email protected] URBAN WATER
PRESENTATION INFO
'Uptake of stormwater nitrogen in bioretention systems determined from 15N Tracer Techniques '
Bioretention stormwater management systems are engineered ecosystems that capture urban stormwater in order to reduce the harmful effects of stormwater pollution on receiving waters. Bioretention systems have been shown to be effective at reducing the volume of runoff, and thereby reduce the nutrient loading to receiving waters from urban areas. However, little work has been done to evaluate the treatment processes that are responsible for reductions in effluent nitrogen (N). We hypothesize that the pulses of inorganic nitrogen associated with urban runoff events are captured in the plat tissues within these systems and not adsorbed to the soil media, thus creating a long-term, sustainable treatment approach to reducing the total nutrient loading to receiving waters. Nitrogen treatment performance was tested on two bioretention systems in Salt Lake City, UT: 1) an upland native community that does not require irrigation in semi-arid climates, and 2) a wetland community that requires 250 l of daily irrigation to offset the relatively high evaporative demand in the region. Each cell is sized to treat a 2.5 cm storm from a 140 m2 impervious surface: the area of the bioretention system is 10 m2. To test the N removal performance of each system, runoff events were simulated to represent an average precipitation regime using a synthetic stormwater blend starting in January, 2012. Effluent was collected from an underdrain and analyzed for total nitrogen (TN); mass removal was calculated for each month by subtracting the TN mass added to the garden minus the TN mass that flowed out of the garden. To test the hypothesis that plants assimilate stormwater N, 4 g of 100 atom% 15N NH4NO3 tracer was used as the N source in the synthetic stormwater during the first 2,000 l synthetic storm event in May. This isotopic label was calculated to enrich the total N pool of each garden to 100‰ 15N/14Nair. New growth was harvested from each plant in both cells and analyzed for 15N before the isotopic label was introduced and weekly thereafter. In May 2012, the upland garden captured 6.2 grams of TN from the added stormwater (55% of TN added), and the wetland garden captured 7.1 grams of TN from the added stormwater (67% of TN added). Within two weeks of adding the label, the 15N ratio increased 500‰ to 3,000‰ in all plant tissues tested in both systems. The results of the isotopic labeling experiment support the hypothesis that the plants used in both vegetated bioretention systems directly contribute to stormwater N treatment through N assimilation.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Dasch Houdeshel - University of Utah
Kevin Hultine - Desert Botanical Gardens [email protected]
Christine Pomeroy - University of Utah [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Plant performance considerations for semi-arid bioretention & bioinfiltration system design'
Bioretention and bioinfiltration are stormwater best management practices that have the potential to enhance the hydrologic performance of urban areas throughout the semi-arid American West. The University of Utah Urban Water Group is conducting a study to begin to characterize the hydrologic performance of these BMP’s in a xeric climate. A bioretention system composed of a native upland plant community has been established on campus and is designed to require no supplemental irrigation. Water tanks are used to simulate storm event volume and frequency corresponding to monthly averages. The research team has documented leaf level transpiration response to these simulated storm events throughout the summer growing season using a Licor 6400 portable photosynthesis system. The leaf area and gas-exchange measurements demonstrate plant responses to water availability, an understanding that is critical for the design and operation of engineered ecological systems in arid climates. Notably, shallow-rooted grasses demonstrate dramatic increases in transpiration rate following storm events, especially during times of drought, that contrast the modest change in transpiration rate observed for the deep-rooting shrubs with access to more persistent moisture. Following July, Utah’s hottest and driest month, total daily volume transpired is observed to increase by 10-50% percent for individual shrubs in response to summer storm events, but increases of over 100% are observed for the grass species. In the course of a week, the total volume transpired from this system may represent over 20% of the volume delivered during a single simulated storm event. Most importantly, these characterizations provide engineers with the information necessary to use natural plant behavior to meet engineering goals such as promoting infiltration, increasing topsoil residence time to encourage nutrient removal, tuning plant composition to accommodate drainage and/or system size constraints, and meeting the aesthetic needs of a site.
AUTHOR(S) INFO Austin Orr - University of Utah [email protected]
Christine Pomeroy - University of Utah [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'A Plan for the Conversion of Stormwater to Groundwater Recharge on the Utah Valley University Main Campus, Orem, Utah '
At the present time the vast majority of the stormwater generated on the Main Campus of Utah Valley University is exported to Utah Lake, which is only 1.4 miles from campus. Although there is a large boulder-lined detention pond on campus, it is used only as a holding pond before the stormwater is exported. The objective of this study was to determine what percentage of the average annual stormwater and the stormwater generated by a 100-year 24-hour precipitation event could be retained on campus and used for groundwater recharge by constructing a series of French drains. It was determined that the Main Campus could be divided into 33 watersheds that currently export stormwater (72.8% of the surface area) and 28 additional self-contained watersheds. Using the NRCS Runoff Curve Method, it was determined that the Main Campus exports 0.4998 ac•ft of stormwater annually and would export 23.2969 ac•ft of stormwater following a 100-year 24-hour precipitation event, while the self-contained watersheds capture 0.0330 ac•ft annually and would capture 2.7913 ac•ft following a 100-year 24-hour event. The construction of nine French drains (including subsurface expansion of the existing detention pond with discontinuation of pumping) with a combined surface area of 0.9260 ac would convert to groundwater recharge 0.1402 ac•ft annually (28.1% of current export) and 6.2083 ac•ft following a 100-year 24-hour precipitation event (26.6% of current export). Further reduction of stormwater export could not be accomplished without disruption to current paved areas or other built infrastructure.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Daniel Zacharias - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Dylan Dastrup - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Gabriela Ferreira - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Daniel Natter - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Lawrence Kellum - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Steven Emerman - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Brandon Davis - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Michael Alexander - Utah Valley University [email protected]
Jeff Selck - Utah Valley University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO 'Water-Smart Growth: Integrating water management and land use planning'
Water and urban growth are inextricably interconnected, particularly in arid regions. Urban growth and water management have generated multi-dimensional conflicts. Growing cities that seek to quench their continuously increasing thirst with limited available water resources often have adverse impacts on the environment or region from which the water is drawn. Given that land use planning is an effective tool to control and manage urban growth and it has direct influence on urban water management, a holistic land-water planning approach is needed to cope with rapid growth and water scarcity in the arid western United States. However, this land-water planning approach is largely conceptual and its implementation in land use planning practices has yet to be realized. The authors coined the term “water-smart growth” for this integrated land-water planning approach and explored its application in the land use planning process in Cache County, Utah. SLEUTH, a cellular automata model, is adopted to simulate Cache County’s urban growth from 1984 to 2030. Three growth scenarios, conventional (sprawl) growth, compact growth, and “water–smart growth,” are investigated and visualized through urban growth simulations. The conventional scenario represents a current trend development where growth will occur under current land use regulations and management plans, without any further restrictions. The second scenario assumes a managed growth with high density infill development and low rates conversion of greenfield-to-urban. The last scenario, “water-smart growth,” simulates a managed growth with maximum protection on water resources and soil of high infiltration rates. This scenario maximizes the potential to conserve water-related land resources and minimizes the amount of developed land. Through comparing these scenarios and detecting the interactions between growth patterns and water use, water infiltration, and water runoff patterns in the urban environment, this study presents how different locality’s comprehensive plans may contribute to the sustainability of growth, land use, and development in the context of watershed health, maintenance of ecosystem integrity, and water conservation. This study also attempts to draw attention from urban governance, environmental politics, infrastructure engineering, and water management arenas, and to prompt collaborations among these disciplines toward a “water-smart” oriented growth. Discussion and conclusion are approached from different perspectives. From an urban planning standpoint, the “water-smart growth” concept connects an aspect of water sustainability to the current land use planning agenda by facilitating understandings of how land use decisions impact water resources. From a water management standpoint, the urban water environment is a complex and interconnected human and natural system, requiring water managers to take a holistic and systematic approach to examine all aspects of the urban hydrologic cycle, including the interactions between land, water, and the atmosphere, within both the natural and built environments. From a public policy standpoint, since the urban water environment is a system that encompasses hydrology, ecology, culture, land use, design, infrastructure, society, law, and economy, effective “water-smart growth” should incorporate multiple perspectives and varied expertise in an interdisciplinary and collaborative framework.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Enjie Li - Utah State University [email protected]
Shujuan Li - Utah State University [email protected]
Joanna Endter-Wada - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Development of a Web-based Interactive Fully Integrated Flood Early Warning System (Wi-Fi FEWS)'
Flood early warning systems (FEWS) are part of both flood preparedness and flood response actions within the emergency management context as a measure that can help save lives, and mitigate losses during floods. Considerable investment has been made in this field with the hope of providing assistance to emergency management agencies. Further improvement in cyber infrastructure is now making it possible to take advantage of the rapid development of web processing and web mapping services, geospatial information systems, open-GIS, and other open source computational. Fidel Perez, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Brigham Young University, [email protected] Jim Nelson, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Brigham Young University,[email protected] Norm Jones, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Brigham Young University, [email protected] This presentation describes CI-Water initiative, to link multipurpose Decision Support Systems with FEWS that runs in a cloud computing environment. The system will connect data streams (from satellite, radar or ground stations, and data repositories) and meteorological forecast products provided by NWS and NHC, to a cascade of models for hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) analysis. It will be hosted/supported in a cyberinfrastructure that provides network connectivity to high-performance computing capacity or any other adequate network configuration under open architecture that can be accessed via the web. It will allow emergency managers to use models under crisis situations and perform computational simulation in minutes with data-intensive modeling,. It will be an interactive system that does not require managers to know model intricacies while allowing experienced hydrologists to add watersheds and/or stream reaches, change model parameters, and couple H&H models with artificial neural networks in order to improve forecast accuracy. The ensemble of tools and models can be extended for use in regular monitoring and operations, such as those that can be applied in water management under drought situations Existing systems and approaches to FEWS are under revision for the purpose of bench marking the available technologies and system performance. The WiFi- FEWS will be developed from the ongoing components of CI-Water and will be against known phenomenon before used in a forecasting mode. AUTHOR(S) INFO
Fidel Perez - Brigham Young University [email protected]
WATER RESOURSES MANAGEMENT
PRESENTATION INFO
'Identifying stability, topological significance, and redundancies in water resource networks using parallel coordinate plotting'
The size and complexity of water resources networks typically require a large number of computationally intensive simulations to test effects of changes in network structure or management. Current tools can only visualize the effects of a few changes. Here, we introduce a new method and tool that uses parallel coordinate plotting to simultaneously visualize large water resources networks plus identify and rank nodes that are (1) stable (their connectivity does not depends on the existence of particular nodes), (2) topologically significant (when removed or added to the network, they cause other nodes to be unstable), and (3) redundant (a node pair that has similar connections). The tool works by calculating node centrality, creating a parallel coordinate plot, calculating pairwise differences between the elements comprising each plot trace, and calculating each node’s stability, topological significance, and redundancy. We apply the tool to the 56-node lower Bear River water system that stretches from southern Idaho to the Great Salt Lake, Utah. Nodes that are connected to only one other node are the least stable, including Great Salt Lake, Malad River, and Evaporation from Hyrum Reservoir. The three most topologically significant nodes are Cutler and the two junctions connecting the South Cache Valley and the Weber branches to the rest of the network. There are five highly redundant node pairs with over 96% of the same connections including the Cache Valley Irrigation and Cache Valley New Municipal and Industrial service areas. These results suggest that the redundant Cache Valley Irrigation service area is a promising source to transfer water from agriculture to urban use. The New Box Elder County Irrigation and South Cache Irrigation service areas have very low topological significance ranks and suggest that these irrigation areas may also be promising sources of water transfers. Results also identify candidate locations to (i) remove dams (reservoirs with low topological significance or high redundancy), (ii) implement conservation measures, develop new alternative supplies, or monitor flows (unstable nodes), and (iii) protect environmental and ecological services (nodes with high topological significance). Future work should incorporate flow direction and magnitude. The tool scales to very large networks and identifies the most promising nodes to subsequently focus computationally-intensive simulation and sensitivity analysis efforts.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Leah Meeks - Utah State University [email protected]
David Rosenberg - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Policy Debates Over the Southern Nevada Water Authority Pipeline Project'
In March 2012, Nevada's State Engineer released water right rulings for four valleys in eastern Nevada. The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) was awarded the majority of the water they applied for from Spring Valley, Cave Valley, Dry Lake Valley, and Delamar Valley. The SNWA plans to pump the groundwater and pipe it south to the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The State Engineer's decision followed a six-week water hearing and the submission of more than 23,000 public comments. Allocating scarce supplies is one of the most significant and contentious water issues facing the Western United States. As cities and population continue to grow in this region, people are seeking new approaches to increase the flexibility of existing water policies. This case study provides the opportunity to examine two dimensions of water conflict: the potential rural-to-urban water transfer and the increasingly common dilemma of how to equitably meet both human and ecological needs. Using semi-structured key-informant interviews and document analysis of the water hearing transcripts, submitted public comments, and hearing rulings, we examine the water policy debates in this highly controversial case of water allocation and transfer. In creating water policy, it is important to determine what the debates are about, who is engaged in the debates, and how various interests are being served. We analyze what happens to water policy rules in times of crisis and conflict by addressing questions about urban growth in the arid West and revisiting the rules behind the prior appropriation tenet of “beneficial use.” Our data reveal what people think about the idea of beneficial use when an urban area in the arid U.S. West continues to experience high growth rates that force it to seek additional water from surrounding and distant areas. Focusing on the rationales behind the water right rulings, we highlight how water policy decision makers try to reconcile the use of water that would serve a large number of people in Las Vegas with the much smaller numbers of ranchers and the ecological needs of the rural areas from which water would be diverted. AUTHOR(S) INFO
Lisa Welsh - Utah State University [email protected]
Joanna Endter-Wada - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Wavelet-based cross-correlation analysis and a hybrid wavelet-multivariate Bayesian model for short-term streamflow forecasting using local climatic data'
A new approach is presented for creating short-term forecasts of streamflow in a snowmelt-dominated watershed. The forecasting methodology relies on (1) wavelet-based cross-correlation analysis to study lead-lag relationships between streamflow and climatic time series data and (2) incorporation of the resulting information into a multivariate Bayesian regression model to develop short-term streamflow forecasts. The wavelet-based cross-correlation analysis is demonstrated with the use of daily local climatic data (in the form of precipitation, temperature and snow water equivalent) that are obtained from automated snowpack telemetry (SNOTEL) stations in the Bear River Watershed in Utah. Daily streamflow data is obtained from a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gage station located on the Logan River, near Logan, Utah. The data are decomposed into meaningful components formulated in terms of wavelet multiresolution analysis. Next, a computational intelligence modeling approach based on a multivariate Bayesian regression is used to produce daily streamflow forecasts up to seven days ahead. The results from the wavelet-based cross-correlation analysis are used to select the data to build the model. The proposed methods can incorporate important information from trends of the local climate time series into models that learn these patterns to produce improved streamflow predictions at different time scales.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Andres M Ticlavilca - Utah State University [email protected]
Inga Maslova - Department of Mathematics and Statistics, American University [email protected]
Mac McKee - Utah Water Research Laboratory [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Near-optimal management to improve water resources decision making'
Abstract: State-of-the-art systems analysis techniques unanimously focus on efficiently finding optimal solutions. Yet, water resources managers rather need decision aides that show multiple, promising, near-optimal alternatives. Why near-optimal? Because an optimal solution is optimal only for modelled issues; un-modelled issues persist. Early work mathematically formalized near-optimal as performance within a tolerance of the optimal objective function value but found computational difficulties to describe near-optimal regions for large linear programs. Here, I present simple, interactive algorithms that use parallel coordinates to identify and visualize high-dimension near-optimal regions for integer and continuous variable problems. First, describe the near-optimal region from the original optimization constraints and objective function tolerance. Second, determine the maximal extents of each decision variable within the region and plot the extents in parallel coordinates as the lower and upper bounds on parallel axes where each axis represents a decision variable. Third, choose a value for one decision variable within its maximal extent, reduce the problem dimensionality by one degree, find the allowable range for the next variable, and repeat. This process identifies a sub-region and is visually analogous to a control panel with parallel sliders, one for each decision variable. Adjust and set one slider; then determine the feasible ranges for remaining sliders. Extensions automatically identify the near-optimal region. I demonstrate the fast, new methods for integer and continuous variable problems for (a) supply/demand planning in Amman, Jordan, and (b) reducing phosphorus loads to Echo Reservoir, Utah. Keywords: optimization; near-optimal; water management; integer; continuous; Amman, Jordan.
AUTHOR(S) INFO David Rosenberg - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Water-Saving Infrastructure Investment under Uncertainty'
This study employs the real-options approach to evaluate the decision to invest in water-saving infrastructure in the face of socioeconomic and ecological uncertainty in the Wasatch Range Metropolitan Area (WRMA). An agent, who employs water as an input in the production of a marketable commodity, must determine whether and when to invest in water-saving technology in order to maximize his water-use efficiency and subsequent water savings gains. The agent’s decision to invest in water-saving technology and thus make a switch from his current (inefficient) technology depends on the trade-off between the expected value of the investment, and the cost of investment. The net-benefit of investing in water-saving infrastructure is estimated by the market-value of any water savings which may accrue to the investor minus the cost of investment. This net-benefit depends on the price of water which is determined by its availability relative to demand. Thus the evolution of investment benefits (V) depends on the evolution of water-price (P) and water-supply (W). The availability, and hence the price of water is uncertain due to changing hydro-climatic conditions in the region. Both water-price and water-supply are believed to evolve according to a Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM), a stochastic process employed in explaining uncertainty-laden evolutions over time. The two processes are related via a shared Weiner process associated with stochastic changes in water-supply. Infrastructure investments are considered largely irreversible due to the prohibitive costs of reversal and their limited use and resale value given the specialized nature of the technology. Considering the uncertainty of future water-supplies in the region and the largely irreversible nature of infrastructure investments, the option to delay investment in water-saving technologies may be valuable. By waiting to invest, an investor can observe whether water-prices increase or decrease before committing to the substantial sunk investment cost. This tends to delay investment longer than suggested by traditional cost-benefit analysis. Carey and Zilberman (2002) apply real-option theory to a farm’s decision to adopt new irrigation technology, and is the premise spurring this more general study. This study extends Carey and Zilberman (2002) in four ways: First, it generalizes their farm-specific model to allow consideration of infrastructure investments by other agents such as canal company operators. Second, it explicitly considers ecological uncertainty. Using hydrological stream-flow data to estimate trends and volatility in water-supplies that may compromise the ability of water-users to perceive predictable water-supplies, the study investigates how ecological uncertainty from uncertain future water-supplies impacts the potential benefits from investing in water-saving infrastructure and subsequently, the decision to invest in these infrastructures. Third, it allows for impulse-control where the agent may incrementally upgrade technology, investing where he can make the greatest efficiency-gains first, with possible future expansion. Finally, it considers the impact of policy-induced jumps in investment costs to verify the hypothesis that while policies like subsidies aim to hasten technology adoption, uncertainty about the timing of such policy may delay investment by increasing the value of waiting to invest. I shall present the general theoretical model and preliminary results.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Augustina Odame - Utah State University [email protected]
Charles Sims - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Systems Modeling to Improve the Hydro-Ecological Performance of Diked Wetlands'
We developed a systems model to recommend water allocations and invasive plant management to improve hydro-ecological performance of diked wetlands. Model recommendations are subject to constraints like water availability, spatial connectivity of wetland units, hydraulic infrastructure capacities, vegetation growth and responses to management, plus financial and time resources available to manage invasive vegetation and water. We developed a hydro-ecological performance metric which we call the weighted usable area for wetlands that represent the available surface area that provides suitable hydrological and ecological conditions for priority bird species. The metric combines habitat suitability indices, water depth, vegetation cover, weights by priority species and the wetted surface. We applied the model at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, which is the largest wetland complex on the Great Salt Lake, Utah. Stakeholders participated by helping to identify the problem through interpreting results. We ran the model for a base case representing hydrologic conditions in 2008 and seven scenarios that independently consider changes in water availability, financial budget, vegetation responses, and gate operation. We compared model-recommended management actions to past management activities and found that more dynamically managing water levels can increase by almost two-fold wetland hydro-ecological performance. Model results also show that wetland performance is more sensitive to changes in vegetation response, gate operation, and water availability than to changes in the financial budget. This participatory modeling effort demonstrates a framework to develop and apply hydro-ecological performance metrics for wetlands and embed those metrics in models that recommend management to improve wetland performance. AUTHOR(S) INFO
Omar Alminagorta - Utah State University [email protected]
David Rosenberg - Utah State University [email protected]
Karin Kettenring - Ecology Center and the Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University [email protected]
WATER QUALITY
PRESENTATION INFO
'The Movement of Brines in the Great Salt Lake'
Brine movements in Great Salt Lake go beyond the obvious ups and downs of the lake, which are governed by the balance between total inflow and evaporation, or even the wind tides or seiches that accompany strong winds. Large-scale, generally counterclockwise currents circulate slowly in both the north and south arms of the lake. Though south-to-north flows through the bridged openings in the railroad causeway are observed, the return flow of north-to-south brine that occurs at depth, within the same opening, is hidden from view. The existence or absence of this return flow is dependent upon the widely variable head differential between the north and south arms, and their respective but changing brine densities. When return flow from the north arm does enter the south arm, it first must flow into a closed basin in the northwest portion of that arm. Once the closed basin is filled, it spills over an eastern topographic low and then southerly into the depths of the main body of the south arm. Without this return flow, the south arm of the lake will decline in salinity. Tongues of south-arm brine extend through bridged openings into both Farmington and Bear River Bays. The distance that the tongues extend into the bays from the south arm is dependent upon the head differentials and the relative brine densities. During the 1980s flooding, a tongue of south-arm brine was found extending up the Weber River, beneath the flowing river water.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
J Wallace Gwynn - J. Wallace Gwynn Consulting LLC [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Comparative analysis of eutrophication in three bays of the Great Salt Lake.'
The Great Salt Lake is bordered by an extensive metropolitan area that discharges its secondary-treated wastewaters to the ecosystem. To compare how three bays of the lake respond to different levels of nutrient loading we measured eutrophication parameters over several years. Farmington Bay, which receives the most direct and highest nutrient loading, was hypereutrophic with mean summer total phosphorus levels of 0.4 mg/L and chlorophyll levels of 141 ?g/L. In contrast, Bear River Bay which receives less metropolitan wastes, had phosphorus levels of 0.21 mg/L and chlorophyll levels of 22 ?g/L. The largest part of the lake, Gilbert Bay, had high phosphorus (0.32 mg/L) and nitrogen concentrations (4.7 mg N/L—the limiting nutrient), but chlorophyll levels were only 17 ?g/L, in part because of strong top-down control on phytoplankton by brine shrimp grazers. Cyanotoxin concentrations in Farmington were extremely high (> 50 ?g/L) and far exceeded World Health Organization criteria when salinities were in the 2-5% range that permitted the cyanobacteria Nodularia spumigena to bloom. The toxin concentrations in Farmington Bay were well above those found to have caused bird mortalities in other systems. Farmington Bay’s high phytoplankton production led to super-saturated oxygen concentrations during the day, but very low oxygen concentrations at night as a result of respiration and phytoplankton decomposition. In Gilbert Bay, oxygen levels were near saturation and varied little over 24 hours. Additionally, the bottom waters of approximately 50% of the area of both Farmington and Gilbert Bays were devoid of oxygen, contained high concentrations of toxic hydrogen sulfide, and consequently could not support aquatic invertebrate life. These “dead zones” are due to the combined effect of the stable salt-stratification caused by diking, and the phytoplankton that fall into these lower layers and decompose. The implication of eutrophication in the bays is discussed relative to the Beneficial Uses of these distinct ecosystems.
AUTHOR(S) INFO Wayne Wurtsbaugh - Utah State University [email protected]
Amy Marcarelli - Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Investigating the impact of higher spatial resolution parameter information on stream solute transport predictions'
Transient storage processes in streams are well recognized as being spatially variable; however, this variability is commonly simplified by assuming reach averaged parameter values when predicting solute transport. Two main challenges arise when attempting to incorporate spatial variability into solute predictions: 1) observations may not be suited well for estimation of all relevant transport processes which makes characterizing the individual influences of storage parameters difficult, and 2) the resolution of spatial information necessary to appropriately capture the influence of variability is not clear. To address these challenges, we start by deriving analytical solutions to a two-zone solute transient storage model that accounts for both surface and hyporheic transient storage. Next, we evaluate temporal moments from these solutions to gain insight regarding the sensitivity of different storage parameters. Lastly, we use more spatially explicit parameter information acquired from high-resolution infrared imagery to better inform at what spatial resolution observations are necessary to capture bulk variability in transient storage processes. This was completed by convolving solutions of spatially distinct sub-reaches. We found that while reach averaged parameter values reasonably predict downstream solute concentrations, parameter sensitivity is highly dependent on appropriately incorporating spatial information. Further, a spatial resolution threshold was estimated through the convolution of solutions where no significant information was gained by increasing resolution beyond this threshold. This aids in determining the appropriate data collection resolution necessary to capture bulk variability.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Noah Schmadel - Utah State University [email protected]
Justin Heavilin - Utah State University [email protected]
Bethany Neilson - Utah State University [email protected]
Anders Wörman - The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'A tool to identify numeric nutrient criteria with QUAL2Kw'
With increased pressure from EPA to preserve ambient water quality by prescribing in-stream nutrient standards, there is a need to develop modeling methods to aid development of numeric nutrient criteria. In support of this effort, a nutrient criteria tool is presented that interfaces with QUAL2Kw models to globally read, write, and save results of nutrient-loading scenarios. This tool is tested on seven models using a consistent data collection and model calibration strategy representing sites throughout Utah. By implementing the tool on these models, input concentrations of ammonium (NH4+) ranging from 0.5 to 32 µg/L and inorganic phosphorus (PO4-) ranging from 0.07 to 4.4 µg/L were found to exceed bottom algae thresholds of 150 mg Ch-a/m2. Conversely, NH4+ concentrations above 6,700 µg/L and PO4- above 940 µg/L exceeded dissolved oxygen thresholds of 5-6 mg/L. Some limitations of using mechanistic models in this manner were identified including model capabilities (e.g., steady-state versus dynamic), inclusion of appropriate processes, uncertainty in calibrated parameters, and site-specific conditions. Overall, it was found the nutrient criteria tool was helpful in efficiently identifying nutrient concentration scenarios that trigger a violation, the longitudinal locations where these violations occurred, and characterizing information regarding possible mechanisms behind such violations.
AUTHOR(S) INFO Andrew Hobson - Utah State University [email protected]
Bethany Neilson - Utah State University [email protected]
Nicholas von Stackelberg - Division of Water Quality, Utah Department of Environmental Quality [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Nutrient Pollution and Water-Based Recreation in Utah'
An excess of nutrients in water can cause a host of problems that affect the quality of recreation. Algae blooms, changes in water color, odor problems, and damage to sensitive species can all influence where, when, and how often people choose to engage in water-based recreation. We develop a state-wide, 284 site model of water-based recreation for the state of Utah, finding that recreation behavior is negatively affected by excess nutrients. The model allows us to gauge the aggregate economic losses associated with excess nutrients, as well as identifying those sites which yield the greatest economic benefit if nutrients were to be reduced.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Paul Jakus - Utah State University [email protected]
Nanette Nelson - University of Wyoming
Mary Jo Kealy - CH2M Hill
John Loomis - Colorado State University
POSTER SESSIONS
PRESENTATION INFO
'High frequency monitoring of stable isotopes in an urban stream'
For several decades hydrologists have recognized that the stable isotope ratios of hydrogen and oxygen can be used to distinguish different sources of water contributing to stream discharge. The majority of these “isotope hydrograph separation” studies have shown that old water (water stored within the catchment prior to a precipitation event) is the dominant contributor to storm event runoff in most stream systems, with small contributions of new water (storm precipitation). 2,3 Limited data from urban systems show a stronger response to storm precipitation, but the main contributor to the stream continues to be groundwater.1 I propose to research the relationship between urban and natural systems by conducting isotopic research on Red Butte Creek. This work will address the following questions: Is the balance of old and new water contributions to runoff different in the pristine and urban stream sections? Is there a change in the balance of old and new water contributions throughout the seasonal cycle? 1Sidle, W. C. and P.Y. Lee. “Urban Stormwater Tracing with the Naturally Occurring Deuterium Isotope”Water Environment Research (1999) , Vol. 71, No. 6, pp. 1251-1256. Web. 8 Jan. 2013 2 Wels, C., C.H. Taylor, R.J. Cornett, and B.D. Lazerte. “Streamflow generation in a headwater basin on the precambrian shield.” Hydrological Processes (1991), vol. 5, issue 2, pp. 185-199. Web. 7 Jan. 2013 3Buttle, J. M., A. M. Vonk, and C. H. Taylor. 'Applicability of isotopic hydrograph separation in a suburban basin during snowmelt.' Hydrological Processes 9.2 (1995): 197-211
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Crystal Tulley-Cordova - University of Utah [email protected] PRESENTATION INFO
'Team-Based Learning: Bridging the Gap from Classroom Discussion to Community Engagement in Undergraduate Hydrology Courses'
Much recent practice of and scholarship on effective team-based learning has focused on the following principles: 1) Students should work in permanent (semester-long) teams. 2) All team problem-solving and discussion should occur in the classroom. 3) Teams should be expected to agree on a single solution to an assigned problem. The last principle is often regarded as the key principle of effective team-based learning as it forces the team members to fully interact with one another and does not allow them to divide-and-conquer a problem. In my three-semester hydrology sequence the students are expected to work in teams to solve a problem related to water supply, water quality or water conservation in cooperation with a community partner. Although these community engagement projects should involve semester-long terms, they also have the following aspects that could be in conflict with effective team-based learning: 1) Much of the teamwork (discussions with community partners, data and sample collection in the field, sample analysis in the laboratory) must occur outside of the classroom. 2) In most cases, the community partner is not asking for a single solution, but a range of options with associated costs and advantages and disadvantages. Over the past five years, I have noticed the following recurring problems with some team-based hydrology community engagement projects: 1) Semester projects are not pursued in earnest until near the end of the semester. 2) Levels of contribution by various team members are very uneven. 3) Students switch teams or do not join teams until late in the semester. The last problem is related to course attrition, which can cause some teams to partially or completely vanish. Although I have 30 years of professional experience in team problem-solving, I believe that, at the present time, very little of my experience is being transmitted to the students. My experience is that effective team problem-solving includes the following: 1) Face-to-face meetings must be kept to an absolute minimum. 2) Someone must take on the role of coordinator. 3) A project must be broken into a large number of minor tasks with clearly stated deadlines and responsible team members. In Spring 2013 I am re-organizing team-based community engagement projects in Hydrology I and Hydrology II in the following way: 1) Teams are being fully formed on the first day of class. 2) About 30 minutes of each 4.5 hour class is being spent on team meetings. 3) I am initially acting as coordinator of each team and gradually passing that responsibility on to another member of the team. The Hydrology II class will be surveyed as to how their present team-based community engagement experience compares with their experience in Hydrology I. Results will be reported at the meeting.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Steven Emerman - Utah Valley University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Utah State University Green Roof Initiative'
Low-impact landscape design is an area of study that presents vast opportunities for mitigating the negative effects of our stormwater management systems. Several relatively simple and cost-effective strategies for retrofitting the Utah State University campus with low-impact landscaping are available with current technology. Extensive, low maintenance green roofs are among the options at hand. Our research details the demonstrable benefits of implementing a green roof master plan for the USU main campus and provides a clear path for the realization of such a plan. Analysis of the USU main campus and the resulting pervious surfaces inventory allowed us to calculate how much impact roofs have on the total area of campus receiving rainfall. We proceeded by undertaking a suitability analysis of all the roofs on campus to determine the relative appropriateness of each for supporting an extensive green roof. We then translated this data into a temporal phasing plan that outlines which buildings would be easiest to retrofit and would experience the most benefits from a green roof. One of the most suitable roofs, a section of the Taggart Student Center, was chosen to act as a demonstration green roof. A planting plan for this area was developed. After a presentation of the general benefits of green roofs, our team determined some of the specific benefits our demonstration green roof would produce. This data was extrapolated to predict the specific benefits that implementation of each phase of our master plan would produce. Finally, future areas and opportunities for research are outlined.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Chris Binder - USU LAEP [email protected]
Nicholas Decker - USU LAEP [email protected]
Stephen Peaden - USU LAEP [email protected]
Sam Taylor - Utah State University [email protected]
Jordan Ward - USU LAEP [email protected] Bo Yang - USU LAEP [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Predicting Annual Variation of Salinity Production from the Upper Colorado River Basin Using SPARROW '
The Colorado River Basin has suffered high salinity from both natural conditions and anthropogenic activities which precipitate dissolving salts. The annual salt load at the Hoover Dam located in the lower part Colorado River recorded 9 million tons, and the economic damage is estimated at 383 million dollars based on 2009 salinity concentrations. In order to manage salinity in the Colorado River Basin, water quality standards given as TDS concentration are established at three monitoring stations. Therefore, efforts have been underway to study salinity generation and transport, and develop salinity mitigation strategies. As a part of these efforts, the SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes) surface water quality model developed by U.S. Geological Survey was applied in an earlier study to the Upper Colorado River Basin to predict salinity production and to estimate how the salinity-related parameters affect in the water year 1991. Since this application about 20 years ago, there is a need to extend this earlier work to evaluate the applicability of SPARROW in modeling salinity in the past two decades. Also hydrologic and climatic conditions together with land cover have changed since 1991. In this work, SPARROW modeling was extended up to 2011 with updated land cover, and hydrologic and climatic data. In addition, the observed salinity loads were updated at each monitoring station for each year as well. The results from this recent modeling effort revealed that the salinity loads generally follow the trend of stream discharge. From the SPARROW model, it is shown that geologic sources and point sources do not have any particular trend in the recent decade; however, irrigated lands that occupy a small percent of the total land area have increasing salinity production trends indicating that agricultural is producing significant amounts of salinity to the lower basin.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Jongho Keum - Utah State University [email protected]
Jagath Kaluarachchi - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Effectiveness of Manure Incorporation in Reducing Gas Emissions'
Gas emissions from animal feeding operations (AFOs) create detrimental impacts on air quality ranging from short-term local effects, particularly odor, to long-term regional and global effects as greenhouse gas emissions. Best management practices (BMPs) have been designed and implemented to mitigate gas emissions to assist animal producers in addressing air quality impacts from farm operations. We examined an emission control strategy widely practiced in AFOs, incorporating manure immediately after surface application. The primary objectives were to evaluate the efficiency and identify improvement of the current BMPs for sustainable manure management. We simulated manure application and incorporation in a greenhouse to maintain moderate summertime temperatures (20 - 40 C) while monitoring gaseous emissions through the course of investigation. The dairy farmyard manure was collected from Caine Dairy Teaching and Research Center (Wellsville, UT). Closed dynamic chambers (CDC) coupled with a multiplexed Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy gas analyzer (Gasmet DX-4030, Gasmet Technology Oy, Helsinki, Finland) provided gas emission estimates. The gas analyzer was capable of monitoring 15 pre-programmed gases simultaneously including typical gaseous compounds and greenhouse gases emitted from manure sources; namely, ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, oxides of nitrogen, and volatile organic compounds. In this presentation, we will discuss the experimental design and setup, as well as the efficiency of the current available BMPs implemented to reduce air emissions on dairy operations, based on the gaseous emission monitoring during the course of our experiment. Results from our study should enhance development and implementation of more flexible and more efficient air quality management approaches for AFOs.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Pakorn Sutitarnnontr - Utah State University [email protected]
Enzhu Hu - Utah State University [email protected]
Markus Tuller - Dept. of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona [email protected]
Rhonda Miller - School of Applied Sciences, Technology and Educatio, Utah State University [email protected]
Scott Jones - Utah State University [email protected] PRESENTATION INFO
'The efficiency-ecosystem tradeoff: Constructing a database of water infrastructure changes in Utah'
With increasing water demands and a changing climate, calls for improved water efficiency are ever-present. However, inefficient infrastructure supports, through seepage or return flows, many “natural” aquatic and semi-aquatic ecosystems in the Intermountain West. We put forth the hypothesis that, as infrastructure becomes more efficient, ecosystem services provided by “inefficient” waters will likely change or disappear. Our poster presents the efficiency-ecosystem tradeoff and our effort to document patterns of water infrastructure change in the state of Utah. We outline the goals of the database, potential research questions, and areas in which interdisciplinary collaborations may emerge.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Andrea Armstrong - Utah State University [email protected]
Douglas Jackson-Smith - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Emissions of Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Ammonia from Fresh Dairy and Beef Manure'
Gaseous emissions from animal manure are controversial sources for greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. There are an estimated 376,000 livestock operations in the United States. Over 9 million US dairy cows generate about 249 million tons of wet manure annually. We monitored emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and ammonia (NH3) from fresh dairy manure for two weeks at a time in a research greenhouse at Utah State University. The fresh dairy/beef manure was procured from the Caine Dairy Teaching and Research Center feedlot (Wellsville, UT, USA). A closed-dynamic chamber (LI-8100-101, LI-COR Biosciences, USA) coupled with a portable Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) spectroscope (Gasmet DX-4030, Gasmet Technology Oy, Helsinki, Finland) was employed for continuous measurements of gas concentrations and fluxes in addition to temperature. Six sets of data from fresh dairy manure and one set from fresh beef manure were obtained. Emission potentials (EP) and cumulative emissions (CE) for each gas from different data sets were compared. The annual emissions of CO2, CH4, and NH3 from fresh manure for a single animal were estimated.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Enzhu Hu - Utah State University [email protected]
Pakorn Sutitarnnontr - Utah State University [email protected]
Markus Tuller - Dept. of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona [email protected]
Scott Jones - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'What are effective treatments for controlling small, dense patches of Phragmites australis in Great Salt Lake wetlands?'
Phragmites australis has been expanding rapidly in the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake (GSL). The dense and vigorous growth of this invasive plant make it inhospitable habitat for the waterfowl and shorebirds that rely on the hemispherically important GSL wetlands. Here we present our plan for a multi-year study, started in the summer of 2012, which will examine the effectiveness of six treatments for controlling dense, quarter-acre patches of Phragmites at six sites along the eastern shore of the GSL. A balanced incomplete block design will be employed across the six sites such that all treatments will be equally replicated. The treatments are 1.) a summer mow, followed by a fall glyphosate spray, 2.) a summer glyphosate spray, followed by a winter mow, 3.) a fall glyphosate spray, followed by a winter mow, 4.) a summer imazapyr spray, followed by a winter mow, 5.) a summer mow immediately covered by heavy-duty black plastic, 6.) an untreated control. Percent cover of Phragmites, density of Phragmites, species richness, and vegetation structure will be measured to understand the response of Phragmites and native vegetation to treatments. Changes in the seed bank will also be measured using a greenhouse, seedling emergence method. Environmental conditions including soil moisture, soil nutrients, and soil salinity will be monitored for their potential impact on treatment effectiveness. The findings from this multi-year study will be used to develop Best Management Practices for controlling Phragmites in GSL wetlands. AUTHOR(S) INFO
Christine Rohal - Utah State University [email protected]
Karin Kettenring - Ecology Center and the Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University [email protected]
Eric Hazelton - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Introducing iUTAH’s Gradient Along Mountain to Urban Transitions (GAMUT) Network'
The iUTAH project, funded by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR program, is a statewide effort that will research the short and long term impacts of population increase, land usage and climate change on Utah's water resources and the sustainability of natural and urban systems. iUTAH is an interdisciplinary project involving, Brigham Young University, Utah State University, the University of Utah, and several primarily undergraduate universities, as well as government agencies, and industry and non-profit partners. This interdisciplinary relationship will allow for research and educational opportunities for students and faculty from kindergarten through postgraduate school. To implement the iUTAH project this coming spring and summer we are developing on-site, real-time networks evaluating water quality and water quantity. These, gradient along mountain to urban transitions (GAMUT) networks will be located in three watersheds in Northern UT (i.e., the upper and middle Provo in the Heber Valley, Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City, and the Logan River in Cache Valley). These GAMUT stations will include a climate monitoring terrestrial station and an aquatic station. The climate stations will measure solar radiation, precipitation, snow depth, evapotranspiration, and other climate parameters. The aquatic monitoring stations will measure dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, nitrate and other aquatic factors. GAMUT will enhance Utah’s ability to monitor and understand the sustainability of natural and urban systems currently undergoing rapid changes due to anthropogenic and natural sources.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Joseph Crawford - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Chris Cox - Utah State University [email protected]
David Eiriksson - University of Utah [email protected]
Zachary Aanderud - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Scott Jones - Utah State University [email protected]
David Bowling - University of Utah [email protected]
Jobie Carlisle - Utah State University [email protected]
Michelle Baker - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Effects of Plant Functional Type and Interannual Precipitation Variability on Long-Term Soil Moisture Resource Pool Trends' Interannual fluctuations in resource availability, as mediated through variations in over-winter precipitation amounts and summer storms, may have an important effect in determining how the soil water resources vary under differing vegetation types. Water is supplied to the vegetation in two pools—a shallower growth pool restricted to the top 50 cm supplying water and used early in the growing season; and a maintenance pool of deeper water tapped to supply the transpiration demands of the warmest part of the year (Ryel et al, 2010). Four dominant Great Basin species exhibit differences in soil moisture trends based on two years of measured data. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) utilizes water stored in the top 50 cm of the profile before senescing in late spring and juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) depletes water stored in the top 50 cm of the soil, while deeper layers remain at relatively high water potential (Ryel et al, 2010). Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron desertorum) and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) draw down the soil moisture to moderately low water potentials to depths of 1.5 m (Ryel et al, 2010). Soil water resources under crested wheatgrass and sagebrush are possibly more variable from year to year due in part to these plants’ ability to extract most of the water from the rooting zone, leaving little in the profile as a buffer against years of low precipitation. Inverse numerical simulations provide estimates of soil hydraulic parameters under each of these vegetation types. Using the fitted hydraulic parameters, climate data (1954-2012), and measured and estimated plant physiological characteristics, trends in the duration of soil moisture pools can be simulated. For simulations, the numerical and boundary modeling tools in HYDRUS-1D are used under bare soil and four different plant functional types including an annual grass, perennial grass, semi-drought deciduous shrub, and evergreen tree. The project has basic and applied ecological applications to how plants influence the interannual accumulation and use of water in the growth and maintenance pools in the sagebrush-steppe. Ryel, RJ, AJ Leffler, C Ivans, MS Peek, and MM Caldwell. 2010. Functional differences in water use patterns of contrasting life forms in Great Basin steppelands. Vad. Zone J. 9:548-560.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Lauren Ducas - Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University [email protected]
Joshua Leffler - Environment and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska, Anchorage [email protected]
Helga Van Miegroet - Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University [email protected]
Scott Jones - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Controlling Mechanisms for Late Holocene Arroyo Cut-fill Events in Southern Utah: A study from Kitchen Corral Wash '
Arroyos, entrenched channels in valley-fill alluvium, from the semiarid southwestern United States are capable of capturing decadal- to centennial-scale fluctuations in watershed hydrology as evidenced by the Holocene cut-fill stratigraphy recorded within near-vertical arroyo channel walls. Kitchen Corral Wash (KCW), a tributary of the Paria River in southern Utah, has experienced both historic (ca. 1860-1910 AD) and prehistoric (Holocene) episodes of arroyo cutting and filling. During historic arroyo-cutting event, KCW and other regional drainages were entrenched up to 30m into their fine-grained alluvial fill, leaving former floodplains perched above new channel bottoms. Alluvial sediments preserved within the exposed arroyos walls record largely aggradational sequences interrupted by periods of incision. Although arroyo entrenchment and aggradation processes have been studied for over a century, exact causes of arroyo cutting are still not fully understood. Hereford (2002) argued that arroyo system dynamics over the last ~1000 years are climatically driven. This suggestion was based on the near-synchronous timing of arroyo cutting in drainages throughout southern Utah and the surrounding region. However, recent results from KCW and nearby drainages suggest a more complex pattern. While other studies have attempted to constrain the timing of arroyo cut-fill events in KCW, success has been limited by poor age control. In order to better understand the timing of arroyo events, this study aims to update and improve the existing arroyo cut-fill chronology from KCW using detailed alluvial stratigraphic descriptions and age control from optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and AMS radiocarbon dating. Preliminary results from twelve study sites suggest at least five arroyo cut-fill cycles over the last ~5 ka. The newly developed KCW cut-fill chronostratigraphy is compared to regional alluvial and paleoclimate records to test hypotheses on whether arroyo system evolution is controlled by to climate or non-climate related forcing mechanisms.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Will Huff - Utah State University [email protected]
Tammy Rittenour - Dept. of Geology, USU [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Measuring the eco-hydrological performance of the Lower Bear River Basin through experiential learning – the Bear River Fellows Program' Measuring and evaluating the performance of river systems necessarily requires understanding the variety of environmental and ecological variables driving the decision-making process in managing river basins. Such variables are best understood with field measurements, data analysis and computational modeling. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University (USU), through a National Science Foundation project, has partnered with the Outdoor Recreation, and Parks and Recreation programs at USU to offer the Bear River Fellows Program - a new, unique river-based experiential learning opportunity for 5 freshmen Fellows to receive first-hand experience in collecting, synthesizing and analyzing environmental and ecological metrics. The Fellows collected field measurements and examined environmental and ecological variables from three different sites along the Lower Bear River between the Idaho-Utah state line and Cutler dam. Data collected includes flow measurements, channel cross section topology, riparian vegetation, beaver activity, and human-caused inflows and diversions. This poster presents the findings of the data analysis for one site at the confluence of the Bear and Cub Rivers. Fellows provide their insights related to their hydrological and ecological observations.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
David Rosenberg - Utah State University [email protected]
Ayman AlAfifi - Utah State University [email protected]
Sarah Stander - Utah State University [email protected]
Russell Babb - Utah State University [email protected]
Liisa Piiparinen - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Estimating potential savings of water for the Bear River Canal Company using spatial analysis tools'
Water savings in irrigated agriculture can be significant under certain conditions as irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of water in the Western US. In a state such as Utah where the water supply is limited, it is essential to find methods of saving water while maintaining high productivity. Proper management of irrigation water can result in water conservation. For this study, an irrigation district in Northern Utah was selected as a case study called the Bear River Canal Company. The main canal command area encompasses 26500 hectares and the principal crops are alfalfa, corn, hay and small grains. The majority of the irrigators practice basin or border surface irrigation. The soils are mostly silty loam and silty clay loam, with 7 main soil classifications covering the irrigated area. Remote sensing with satellite and airborne imagery was used in an energy balance algorithm to provide crop evapotranspiration (ET) and water use estimates for the study area. Additionally, the remote sensing airborne imagery provides high resolution imagery and aids the distinction of spatial variability along an irrigation lateral. The ET estimation for the irrigation area provides information for the water balance of the irrigation system. Irrigation field evaluations on different soils provided insight on typical infiltration amounts during irrigation events. Bringing these results together will indicate the potential water savings of the irrigation district if changes in canal operations and water deliveries are made. The study of the water balance of this system can lead to improvements in farming practices with the goal of achieving higher productivities and simultaneously conserve water.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Jonna Van Opstal - Utah State University [email protected]
Christopher Neale - Dr. [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Seasonal fluctuations of multiple lake characteristics influence bacterial dormancy in the Great Salt Lake '
Bacteria in extreme environments often evolve to contend with one dominant stress, but may be exposed to huge temporal fluctuations and other environmental characteristics. In lake ecosystems, bacteria have developed life strategies, such as dormancy, to survive seasonal oscillations in temperature and C substrate quantity and quality. It remains unclear, however, if bacteria in extreme environments experience dormancy or how the community changes in response to seasonal fluctuations. We measured microbial dormancy patterns during one year in the northern ([salt]= 25855.0 ppm) and southern ([salt]= 20920.0 ppm) arms of the Great Salt Lake and related dormancy to seasonal fluctuations in the dominant stress factors: salinity, dissolved oxygen and temperature. For our study, we defined dormancy as the difference between DNA-based communities (i.e., all bacteria present in the community) and RNA-based communities (only the active bacteria) and used targeted metagenomics to analyze the 16S rDNA and rRNA extracted from lake water samples. We hypothesized that temporal variability in salinity will be the primary driver of microbial dormancy but temperature and dissolved oxygen will also relate to dormancy patterns. Seasonal variation in salinity strongly related to microbial dormancy in both arms of the Great Salt Lake demonstrated by a positive linear relationship (R2 = 0.98 P
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Tylan Magnusson - Brigham Young University [email protected]
Joshua Vert - Brigham Young University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'A Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probe for Intermediate-Scale Estimates of Soil Moisture at the T.W. Daniel Experimental Forest'
The cosmic-ray neutron probe (CRNP) provides intermediate-scale (~700 m diameter circle, 35 ha) area-average soil moisture measurements. A CRNP, whose footprint covers the entire T.W. Daniel Experimental Forest instrumented site, was installed in August 2011 as part of the COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS). Independent soil moisture measurements reveal CRNP is more sensitive to near surface soil moisture (0-10cm) than deeper layers. The CRNP response to summer-time soil moisture was compared with the TWDEF soil moisture measurement network containing 108 time-domain transmission (TDT) water content sensors. We also employed the Hydrus-1D model to numerically simulate soil moisture including the top 10 cm of the soil moisture profile. Comparison of these two estimates with CRNP revealed that the spatially averaged point measurements of soil moisture were less well correlated with cosmic-ray neutron counts during rainfall events that wetted the near-surface, not reaching the sensors at 10 cm. Simulations of near-surface soil moisture using Hydrus-1D showed improved correlation with CRNP response to precipitation events that trigger increased surface soil moisture. The sensitivity to near-surface soil moisture makes CRNP a powerful indicator of soil surface water status and could potentially be used to interpret soil water fluxes at this intermediate scale.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Ling Lv - Utah State University [email protected]
Scott Jones - Utah State University [email protected]
Trenton Franz - University of Arizona [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Redox Controlled Biogeochemical Processes Affecting Arsenic Solubility in a Shallow Basin-Fill Aquifer of Semi-Arid Cache Valley, Utah'
The poisoning of millions of people in South and Southeast Asia through the ingestion of As-laden ground water used for drinking water has focused attention on the sources and geochemistry of As in these humid regions. Elevated concentrations of As, however, are not limited to humid environments but are also observed in arid and semi-arid regions worldwide, including the Southwest US. The shallow aquifer throughout the Cache Valley, Utah, contains As concentrations that exceed EPA’s drinking water limit. Two continuous cores, from the soil surface to 1.5 m below the water table, were collected from the center of the valley in order to describe the biogeochemistry that controls the solubility of naturally occurring arsenic. General soil properties, pore water chemistry, and solid phase characterization of arsenic, using sequential extractions, have been determined. Geologic arsenic contents were present throughout the two profiles and arsenic was released into the pore water. The mineral association of arsenic changed with depth, with arsenic accumulating in the redox transition zone. The heterogeneity in the distribution of speciation and mineralogies of arsenic has been confirmed by synchrotron-base X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Reduced As species were identified in the vadose zone as orpiment. In the redox transition zone, As predominately exists as As(V) and co-occurs with Fe oxides. Deeper in the sediment profile, the depletion zone contains only reduced As species presumably realgar. The results also revealed an unanticipated zone of active As redox cycling between the vadose zone and redox transition zone, located within the seasonally oscillating ground water wetting front. The fluctuating redox conditions resulted in mixed oxidation states for As. The pore water from this zone has the highest As concentration within the profile. Understanding the behavior of geologic As in our study area is important because similar processes may also affect other regions that withdraw ground water from basin-fill aquifers including parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Xianyu Meng - Utah State University [email protected] Joan McLean - Utah water research laboratory [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Geomorphic Change Detection Using Multi-beam SONAR'
The emergence of multi-beam echo sounders (MBES) as an applicable surveying technology in shallow water environments has expanded the extent of geomorphic change detection studies to include river environments that historically have not been possible to survey or only small portions have been surveyed(Hazel, Grams et al. 2010). Much attention has been given to the topic of uncertainty propagation in the context of the construction of DEM and their use in geomorphic change detection studies, however little work has been done specifically with applying spatially varying uncertainty models for MBES data in shallow water environments (Wheaton 2008; Wheaton, Brasington et al 2010; Milan, Heritage et al. 2011). To address this need this report presents a review of literature and methodology of the pertinent steps to limit and quantify uncertainty in a geomorphic change detection study using data collected with MBES. Idaho Power Company (IPC) has provided data collected from MBES surveys from their ongoing development of a long-term monitoring program of sediment fluxes below Hells Canyon Complex. This data is used as a case study to illuminate and expand upon examples from the literature as well as to act as a template to demonstrate best practice methodologies for the use of MBES data for a geomorphic change detection study in river environments.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
James Hensleigh - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'The water balance of the urban Salt Lake Valley: a multiple-box model validated by observations'
A main focus of the recently awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR Track-1 research project 'innovative Urban Transitions and Arid-region Hydro-sustainability (iUTAH)' is to quantify the primary components of the water balance for the Wasatch region, and to evaluate their sensitivity to climate change and projected urban development. Building on the multiple-box model that we developed and validated for carbon dioxide (Strong et al 2011), mass balance equations for water in the atmosphere and surface are incorporated into the modeling framework. The model is used to determine how surface fluxes, ground-water transport, biological fluxes, and meteorological processes regulate water cycling within and around the urban Salt Lake Valley. The model is used to evaluate the hypotheses that increased water demand associated with urban growth in Salt Lake Valley will (1) elevate sensitivity to projected climate variability and (2) motivate more attentive management of urban water use and evaporative fluxes.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Carolyn Stwertka - University of Utah [email protected]
Courtenay Strong - University of Utah [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Water in the West: Conserving water on a campus research farm'
The south farm experiment station was audited by the state Division of Water Quality. During the audit, it was discovered that during storm events, manure runoff was entering a nearby ditch which is a water of the State. This contaminated ditch drained into a creek, which then entered a river. The discharge rate of the runoff into the ditch at the time of audit was estimated to be 5 gallons per minute for several hours. This project addresses this issue with manure runoff using green infrastructure such as bioswales and constructed wetlands to clean and infiltrate stormwater runoff. The innovative design removes stormwater from corrals quickly, improving living conditions for animals. While maintaining all site functions (agriculture, residential and educational) it also uses strategic plantings to enhance aesthetics of the site, buffer unsightly views and increase visibility to the access drive. Recreational amenities are improved by connecting to a trail network. This project identifies ten ecosystem services that are enhanced on site through implementation of the design including: erosion control and sedimentation, water supply, waste treatment, water regulation and pollination. Because of its holistic approach, this project will improve all aspects of the site.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Pamela Blackmore - Utah State University [email protected]
Devon Gibby - Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning [email protected] Scott Krumm - Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning [email protected]
Gordon Wood - Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning [email protected]
Enjie Li - Utah State University [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Tower of Power - Calculating Power Budgets for Remote iUTAH EPSCoR Weather Stations'
A Power budget is an analysis of how much power is required by a remotely located data collection site for its functioning. It tells us how long the data collection site will run on batteries without recharging and the appropriate size of the solar panel necessary to sufficiently charge the batteries. The first step in calculating a power budget is to identify the sensors that will be used, the power they draw in different operating modes, the time they are operated in each of these modes and the amount of available sunlight at the site. The power used by a sensor in a day is calculated by taking the product of current, voltage and the time for which it is used. This gives us the daily power requirement in Watt-Hours. Summing up the power consumed by all the sensors gives the total power needed on a daily basis at the site. Using this number we determine the size of the batteries and the solar panel required for the site to function properly accounting for the number of days the batteries need to last without sunlight to recharge them. For example in winter time when daylight is minimum and cloudy conditions are common. As a part of the iUTAH EPSCoR project, remote weather stations will be set-up and operated in the TW Daniel Experimental Forest, Beaver Mountain, Tony Gove Ranger Station, USU Campus and Mendon Road. The sensors that will be used on each of these towers are identified in terms of their power requirements and the power budget for each individual site was calculated with the necessary approximations taken into consideration. The average available sunlight data was used and the appropriate battery size and solar panel sizes were determined. An accurate power budget will help maintain monitoring activities for optimal sensor function and in the future make it easier to integrate additional sensors, increasing the data collection capabilities of weather stations.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Harsha Balam - Utah State University [email protected]
AWRA Student Paper Competition
PRESENTATION INFO
'Welcome and Introduction to the AWRA Student Paper Competition'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Darwin Sorenson - AWRA-Utah, Executive Committee Member for Student Affairs
PRESENTATION INFO
'Development of Sub-Seasonal Remote Sensing Chlorophyll Detection Models'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Carly A. Hansen - Brigham Young University
PRESENTATION INFO
'Temporal Expansion of Clean Water Act Section 404(c) Authority: Can the EPA Retroactively Protect Our Nation's Water from Mountain Top Coal Mining? '
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Jason D. Steiert - University of Utah
PRESENTATION INFO
'Phosphorus Mobility in the Shallow, Unconfined Aquifer at Pineview Reservoir'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Christine Rumsey - Utah State University
PRESENTATION INFO
'A Hydrologic Analysis of a Decentralized Municipal Rainwater Harvesting Program Targeting Watershed-Scale Stormwater Runoff Volume and Rate Reductions'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Thomas Walsh - University of Utah
PRESENTATION INFO
'A Comparative Study of Two Geochemical Modeling Simulators for CO2 Sequestration'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Vivek Patil - University of Utah
PRESENTATION INFO
'Integrated Runoff Simulation Considering Uncertainty Associated with Rainfall Runoff Model's Parameters and Structure'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Zahra Zahmatkesh - University of Utah
PRESENTATION INFO
'Stormwater Green Infrastructure as No-Irrigation Landscaping Alternative in a Semi-Arid Climate'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Dasch Houdeshel - University of Utah
PRESENTATION INFO
'Anaerobic Co-digestion of Algal Biomass and a High Carbon Source Material to Produce Methane'
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Yousef Soboh - Utah State University
KEYNOTE (INVITED) SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS
PRESENTATION INFO
'Hydrologic and Meteorologic Conditions That Shaped Utah's Runoff of 2013' Brian McInerney, Hydrologist with the National Weather Service will discuss the hydrologic and meteorologic conditions that shaped Utah's runoff of 2013. From the lack of any major storm cycles, to the weather phenomenon that graced valley and bench areas with copious amounts of snow leaving mountain terrain barren. He will also review and discuss the overall flow patterns of this winter's weather and why certain areas did not fare very well with regard to snowpack and resultant runoff.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Brian McInerney - National Weather Service [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Welcome - Mark McLellan, Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate School'
PRESENTATION INFO
'The five myths of ecological flows science'
There is increasing demand for freshwater to satisfy the needs of society--including healthy rivers and streams. The need as never been greater for quantitative understanding about the flows needed to sustain healthy stream ecosystems and the ecological services they provide. Unfortunately, the science of ecological flows and its application in water management are currently hindered by persistent dogma. These 'myths' foster fragmentation of scientific inquiry and have led to onerous prescriptions for managers seeking to develop and implement ecological flow standards. Each of these myths will be explored and evidence offered to either debunk or clarify misconceptions. Ideas for a more unified and simple way forward will be offered.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Daren Carlisle - US Geological Survey [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Demand Management to Sustain Urban Water Supplies: Conservation Works, But for How Much Longer?'
This presentation will explore changes in urban water use that have occurred over the past 20 years and will assess potential for demand reductions - both technological and behavioral - in the future. Water demand data clearly shows the impacts of water conservation efforts at both the national and local levels. Average per person water use has declined steadily in the US at least since the early 1990s, but how much longer will this continue? How much further can we expect urban water use to decline? What is the remaining conservation potential? This paper will review recent results from the Residential End Uses of Water Update study (Water Research Foundation), and other recent research to examine both the effectiveness of urban water efficiency efforts and to explore the ongoing potential for demand reductions in the coming years.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Peter Mayer - Water Demand Management [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Thinking Outside the Channel: Optimal Flow Regimes that Favor Salmon Populations and Energy Value'
Two common assumptions are 1) that seasonal flow releases from reservoirs requires compromise between fish and energy producers and 2) that natural flows are best for fish. This study identified exceptions to these rules while optimizing seasonal flows for salmon and energy value in a tributary of the San Joaquin River in California. I developed a quantile recruitment model in which flow influences on salmon were mediated by temperature and prey availability. Cohorts of salmon from nests constructed in the same space-time quantile were tracked by the model until they exited the tributary. One feature of this study was the explicit consideration of the benefits of higher, floodplain-inundating flows on salmon growth, permitting faster rearing and out-migration with the same amount of flow. Using this quantile model, I sought a Pareto-optimal frontier, where the magnitude, timing, and duration of seasonal pulse flows maximized salmon production and the value of energy from hydropower. Solutions that shaped flows to favor salmon highlighted the importance of indirect effects of flow, mediated by temperature and access to productive floodplain habitat during late winter and early spring. However, they deviated from the natural flow regime in this river. Solutions that shaped flows to favor energy value were timed to meet demand during extreme temperatures. Optimal flow regimes were similar to those favoring salmon production in that both called for pulse flows in late spring. However, solutions favoring energy production shifted the second pulse to winter and the magnitude of pulse flows for energy was sensitive to the maximum generation capacity. This analysis revealed areas where economic and salmon objectives were aligned and where they differed.
AUTHOR(S) INFO Henriette Jager - Oak Ridge National Laboratory [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Insects, Fires, and Climate Change: Implications for Snow Cover, Water Resources, and Ecosystem Recovery in Western North America '
An extended period of snow cover is a dominant climatic characteristic of montane environments in western North America. Recent research has demonstrated that the water stored in this seasonal snow cover is the primary source not only of river discharge but also groundwater recharge and plant available water during the growing season. Although the recorded interannual variability of snow cover is quite large, ongoing changes in climate, combined with accelerating rates of forest disturbance from insects, fire, and drought, differentially are affecting the amount, timing, and partitioning of snow cover to an extent not captured in the instrumental record. A critical knowledge gap exists in predicting how these concurrent changes in climate and vegetation in topographical complex mountain environments will affect future water resources both for society and for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This presentation addresses that knowledge gap through a meta analysis recent work on snowpack dynamics, runoff generation, catchment biogeochemistry, and ecosystem productivity from seasonally snow-covered forests along a gradient of snow depth and duration in the Intermountain West. Observations include long-term SNOTEL monitoring stations, CZO, LTER, and USDA observations of landsurface-atmosphere water and carbon exchange, and post disturbance observations from recently burned forests, and areas of extensive insect-induced forest mortality. Together these observations can be used to identify landscapes most at risk to climate change as well as to develop management alternatives that minimize the effects of climate change on high elevation forests and the services of water provision and carbon storage they provide
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Paul Brooks - University of Arizona [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Data & Modeling - Connected to - Policy & Law: Is it a Dovetail or Ruffled Feathers? '
Idaho law requires that the director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources conjunctively administer the delivery of hydraulically connected ground water and surface water. The water rights are administered pursuant to the prior appropriation doctrine. The prior appropriation doctrine was established for the delivery of surface water in times of shortage. The doctrine presumes a real-time ability to determine how much water is available, to compare the flow to existing water rights authorizing diversion of available water, and to curtail junior priority water rights if there is insufficient water to satisfy senior priority water rights. The time and quantity relationships between ground water and surface water are much more uncertain. As a result, the relationships must be modeled, and model simulations must be the basis for administration. In Idaho, holders of senior priority surface water rights authorizing large diversions from the Snake River derive their water supply from (1) natural flow in the river; (2) springs that discharge into the river; and (3)reservoirs operated by the US Bureau of Reclamation. Many factors affect spring flows to the river. Some of these include reduced recharge because of improved irrigation practices and ground water pumping by the holders of junior priority ground water rights. The courts have held that the director must predict, before the irrigation season begins, what the water supply will be for the holders of the senior surface water rights. The director must then determine how much will be needed for the lands irrigated with the surface water, and whether there will be sufficient supply for the the surface water irrigation. If not, the director, must require mitigation from the holders of junior ground water rights or curtail the ground water diversions. Predicting a water supply several months ahead of the irrigation season is challenging. In addition, predicting the water need is difficult. Finally, ground water model simulations determine which water rights should be curtailed to provide benefits to the senior priority surface water rights. The overlay of the predictive modeling with the policy/legal requirements is not always smoothly layered. My presentation will discuss the difficulties encountered when the predictions are imperfect and the director must make discretionary policy decisions that may conflict with differing interpretations of scientific information and interpretations of the law.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Gary Spackman - ID Dept of Water Resources [email protected]
PRESENTATION INFO
'Understanding landscape scale controls on groundwater quality: How does participatory investigation help to address environmental problems associated with land management?'
Rising levels of nitrate in groundwater across the US endanger human and ecological health and are associated with increasing agricultural fertilizer application. Yet increasing N fertilizer use is also a response to decreased soil fertility with duration of cultivation in many former grassland ecosystems. Costs of N fertilizer now figure strongly in the economics of contemporary food production, in the context of global markets that dictate prices and consequently the economic and environmental health of local communities. In the Judith River watershed of central Montana, high nitrate levels in domestic wells pose multiple challenges for communities whose economies depend on dryland cereal production. Our participatory work with local producers seeks to identify both sources of groundwater nitrate and management practices that contribute to nitrate leaching from soils. Active and ongoing collaboration between producers and a multidisciplinary team of university researchers has led to unexpected insight about both controlling processes on the landscape, and ways to investigate and identify causes and solutions for increased sustainability of human food dti production.
AUTHOR(S) INFO
Stephanie Ewing - Montana State University [email protected]
Adam Sigler - Montana State University [email protected]
Douglas Jackson-Smith - Utah State University [email protected]
Clain Jones - Montana State University [email protected]