Water in a Changing World

Water in a Changing World. 1. Basic Principles of Hydrology and Water Resources Some examples and illustrations . i. Droughts: Discussion of the recent (2000-2005) drought in the western USA, reoccurrence and periodicity of droughts elsewhere. ii. Floods: Examples from the USA, including the 1993 upper Mississippi River basin floods. iii. The Complexity of Normal fluxes and flows, illustrated by the precedents and problems of the Colorado River Compact The Approach in this Book . i. Problem-driven. ii. Quantitative [physical process]. iii. Qualitative [social process]. iv. Transition to scale Importance of Scale in the Hydrology . i. Water budget analysis: P, ET at a point or plot scale. ii. Watershed: Discussion of input, output and storage of water & ways to measure or estimate fluxes. iii. Regional/global: Overview, with more detailed discussion of patterns of precipitation and runoff in North America. iv. Historical digression on updating Yi-Fu Tuan s Hydrologic Cycle and the Wisdom of God Water Resources General discussion of important issues surrounding water supply and demand, organized hierarchically by scale: . i. Site/community. ii. State/Interstate. iii. International. iv. Global. 2. Global Energy Balance and Basic Climatology. Preface: Expanding uses of climate information in water resource planning (case study of the Columbia River basin) Radiation balance . i. Description energy sources (shortwave and longwave radiation) and processes that redistribute that energy to drive the hydrologic cycle. Sources of moisture for precipitation . i. Role of quasi-stationary high pressure & low pressure systems. ii. Cyclic variations in climate: How do ENSO and PDO affect regional patterns of precipitation and runoff?. iii. Precipitation recycling. Exercises. 3. Precipitation. Preface: Discussion of past and ongoing attempts to better the human existence through the use of prayers, predictions, and weather modification Physics of precipitation . i. Discussion of conditions leading to precipitation (explanation of vapor pressure, adiabatic cooling, condensation, differences in lapse rates). ii. Uplift mechanisms: convergence, convection, orographic effects Measurements . i. Gauges and gauge networks. ii. Remote sensing Extreme precipitation . i. Wettest places on Earth. ii. Flash floods and application of probable maximum precipitation concept Precipitation augmentation (cloud seeding) Paleohydrology/Dendrochronology . Exercises. 4. Snow. Preface: The Inuit people and their indigenous knowledge of snow science Physical processes and properties . i. Formation, accumulation and redistribution of snow. ii. Snow metamorphism Measurements . i. Snow course surveys, real-time measurements (SNOTEL sites). ii. Remote sensing Snowmelt . i. Processes. ii. Approaches for estimating:. 1. Energy balance concepts and measurements. 2. Modeling. Exercises. 5. Evaporation and transpiration. Preface: Irrigation- from cotton to bluegrass. Physics of evaporation . - Introduce with quote from Montieth s paper ( evap. is like a commercial transaction ) Approaches for estimating . i. Water balance (watershed studies). ii. Mass transfer (lake studies). iii. Energy balance & Bowen ratio methods; Penman eqn. Transpiration . i. Processes. ii. Measurement and modeling; Penman-Montieth eqn. Exercises. 6. Soil Moisture. Preface: Review the history of settlement in the western US and the belief that rain follows the plow; conclude with discussion of recent work on land-atmosphere interactions. Soil Properties . i. Physical characteristics (bulk density, porosity, etc.), development of soil profiles and discussion of regional variations in soil properties (STATSGO). ii. Soil moisture states (saturation, field capacity, wilting point) Infiltration . i. Description of processes. ii. Modeling: Unsaturated flow and development of Green-Ampt equation Variations in Soil Moisture . i. Role of topography, discussion of the importance of scale (spatial averaging) Drought . Exercises. 7. Groundwater. Preface: The High Plains aquifer Overview of Processes . i. Hydrogeology, definition of terms (e.g. confined/unconfined aquifers). ii. Physics of groundwater flow (Darcy s law). iii. Review of work by Freeze and Witherspoon (1967) and Winter (1976), illustrating effects of topography & permeability on flow patterns Applications and Techniques for Evaluating Groundwater Flow . i. Flow nets, flow to a well. ii. Use of tracers Surface Water-Ground Water Interactions . Exercises. 8. Runoff. Preface: Use of controlled reservoir releases to improve habitats for fish and other aquatic organisms (discussion of experiments in the Grand Canyon, USA); and reference to downstream international struggles in the Colorado River delta. Hillslope hydrology . i. Description of processes (infiltration excess, saturation excess, etc.). ii. Overview of traditional vs. newer modeling approaches, e.g. SCS curve number & unit hydrograph vs. TOPMODEL Drainage basin hydrology . i. Description of basin and network properties. ii. Empirical vs. physically based models Floods . i. Open channel flow, flood routing. ii. Flood-frequency analysis Deltas and estuaries . i. Estuarine mixing models. ii. Discharge depletion and nearshore processes. Exercises