Potomac River Basin Western Shore Chesapeake Bay Hydrologic Observatory

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Potomac River Basin/ Western Shore Chesapeake
BayHydrologic Observatory

• Andrew J. Miller1, Claire Welty1 and James Smith2
• 1UMBC
• 2Princeton University
• September 23, 2004

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Background

• What is CUAHSI/CUAHSI activities
• Design Concepts for Hydrologic Observatories
• HO Science Topics/Cross-cutting Themes
• Hydrologic Characterization
• HO Development and Evaluation Criteria
• Timelines

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What is CUAHSI?

• A consortium of 95 research universities and 2
  affiliate members
• Incorporated June, 2001 as a non-profit
  corporation in Washington, DC
• Funded by National Science Foundation
• http//www.cuahsi.org

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CUAHSI activities

• Core Funding -- HQ in Washington, DC
• Hydrologic Information Systems (HIS)
• Hydrologic Measurement Facility (HMF)
• Hydrologic Observatories (HOs)
• Hydrologic Synthesis Center (NACHOS)
• Education and Outreach

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CUAHSI activities
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Design Concepts for HOs

• Community Resource
• Core data available to all through common
  interface
• Equal access to site
• Support for remote investigators
• Sufficiently Large
• Explore all interfaces, include LS/Atm (order
  10,000 sq km)
• Contribute to hydrologic improvement in GCMs
• National-scale Network
• Comparable data across observatories
• Test hypotheses in different hydrologic settings
• Initially 5 HOs to be funded by NSF -- each 10M
  over 5 yrs

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HO Science Topics

• Linking Hydrologic and Biogeochemical Cycles
• Hydrologic Extremes
• Sustainability of Water Resources
• Transport of Chemical and Biological Contaminants
  and Sediment
• Hydrologic Influence on Ecosystem Functions

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HO Cross-cutting Themes

• Scaling
• Forcing, Feedbacks, and Coupling
• Predictions and Limits-to-Prediction

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Hydrologic Characterization

• Three fundamental properties
• Fluxes between stores
• Residence time within stores
• Flowpaths among stores
• Stores include surface, subsurface and
  atmosphere.

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HO Development

• Local perspective
• Design data necessary to address chosen
  hypotheses
• Designate core data and first-publication
  data
• Network perspective
• Provides common data model
• Determines metadata standards
• Influences core data collection

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Evaluation Criteria1

• Hypotheses Posed
• Meet at least 3 of 5 topics
• Interdisciplinary
• Innovative
• Design
• Provides characteristics across range of scales,
  including largest
• Combination of nested, intensive basins with
  broader surveys

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Evaluation Criteria2

• Leveraging of Existing Data
• Intensive studies (LTER, USGS, ARS, USFS)
• Monitoring data sets (Federal, state and local)
• Institutional support
• State/Local support
• Stakeholder organizations
• Educational/Outreach Opportunities

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Steps to funding HOs

• Aug. 1, 2004 10-page prospectus due
• gt 24 submitted posted on CUAHSI web site
• Aug. 24-25, 2004 National Workshop gt 5 HOs
  selected for discussion
• Feb, 2005 NSF Program Announcement
• May, 2005 Proposals Due
• Sep/Oct 2005 NSF awards 2 HOs
• 2008 Competition for 3rd HO

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Steps  Organizational meeting held 5/4/04
 Prospectus submitted to CUAHSI 8/1/04
 National meeting attended 8/24-25  Material
to be presented at fall AGU mtg  Weekly
conference calls now ongoing  RFP expected
February 2005  Proposal submission due May
2005 http//www.umbc.edu/cuere/potomac
miller_at_umbc.edu
weltyc_at_umbc.edu
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The Potomac as an HO
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Spatial Extent and Site Characteristics

• Area 52,000 km2
• Relief 1200 m
• 5 Physiographic provinces, multiple hydrologic
  landscape types
• Population (2000) 8.26 million
• Land use (2000) 45 forest, 32 agriculture,
  5.7 urban, 4.8 open water
• Mean annual precipitation 750 - 1250 mm
• Mean annual runoff 230 - 560 mm

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Why the Potomac? The Nations River
 Water supply for 5 million people
 Largely unregulated  Frequent droughts and
floods  Issues of sustainability
 Second largest source of fresh water to
the Chesapeake Bay Currently the largest
source of fluvial sediment to tidewater
 Nutrient delivery associated with
algal blooms and hypoxia in Potomac
estuary
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Why the Potomac?  Richness of existing data
infrastructure  Streamflow records dating
back to 1890s  Drains 5 physiographic
provinces with diverse hydrogeology  Four
centuries of land use change  Diverse pattern
of existing land use  Opportunity to study
hydrologic extremes  National site for
studies of urban hydrology  Includes NAWQA,
ARS, USFS, LTER sites  17 CUAHSI schools
within driving distance
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• Partners
• USGS district offices, EPA, USFS, USDA,
• State, county, and city govts
• UMBC, Princeton, UM College Park,
• Inst. of Ecosystem Studies, Johns Hopkins,
• UMCES AL and CBL, UNC-Chapel Hill,
• NC State, Drexel, Delaware, Temple,
• Villanova, Rutgers, UVa, Howard,
• James Madison, Wisconsin-Madison
• ICPRB
• Smithsonian Environ. Research Center
• Baltimore Ecosystem Study
• EPA Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment

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Research thrusts

• Orographic precipitation mechanisms, runoff
  generation and groundwater recharge
• Sediment sources, storage, and delivery
  floodplain processes and fate of
  sediment-associated contaminants
• Biogeochemical cycling and sources and sinks of
  nutrients and contaminants in the landscape

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Research thrusts

• Defining water needs to support ecosystems and
  moving the science of restoration to an
  integrated biophysical enterprise
• Urban development, infrastructure, and
  transformation of hydrologic landscapes and
  processes

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WSR-88D Radar Sites
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Radar Sites
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Sustainability of water supply

• Importance of Great Valley gw storage fractured
  carbonates w/karst draining quartzites on w.
  flank of Blue Ridge sustain late summer base flow
• Rapid urbanization of southern Maryland counties
  w/drawdown of Coastal Plain confined aquifers
• Evidence of hysteretic behavior in gw recharge
  under Piedmont saprolites following drought

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Hydrologic extremes Potomac River at Chain
Bridge
Flood (Jan 1996 300,000 cfs) Drought (July
1999 600 cfs)
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Extreme flooding from an upslope thunderstorm,
Rapidan River basin
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Rapidan River, Virginia Route 29 Bridge June
27, 1995
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Lidar topographic data
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Some technologies to be applied

• WSR-88D and TDWR weather radars, with bias
  correction using telemetered networks of rain
  gages and disdrometers
• LiDAR for characterizing topography, built
  environment and vegetation canopy
• Stable isotopes as tracers for groundwater flow
  paths, nutrient sources, sediment fingerprinting

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Some technologies to be applied

• Flux towers and eddy-correlation installations
  for ET and land/atmosphere interactions
• Remote sensing combined with telemetered field
  installations for soil moisture, land-cover
  characterization
• Continuous monitoring of surrogate measures for
  sediment concentration at selected USGS
  stream-gage sites

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Strategies for planning research agenda

• Application of hydrologic landscapes approach
  overlaid with land-cover types
• Initial phase of data mining and synoptic
  sampling to test hypotheses for stratification
  and nesting design
• Adaptive research plan following initial
  exploratory phase

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Strategies for planning research agenda

• Rapid-response planning for extreme events
• Importance of automated monitoring and telemetry
• Integration of measurement and modeling to fill
  gaps in coverage