Wednesday, Aug. 30
Presenters: Associate Professor Aditi Bhaskar and Professor Michael Gooseff
Title: Welcome new CEAE graduate students and graduate program overview of the Hydrologic Sciences Program
During this one-hour session of the Boase water seminar series, Associate Professor Aditi Bhaskar welcomed new civil engineering graduate students and provided an overview of the Hydrology, Water Resources, and Environmental Fluid Mechanics graduate program. Also, Professor Michael Gooseff provided an overview of the campus-wide
Hydrologic Sciences Program.
Wednesday, Sept. 6
Presenter: Carli Brucker, PhD, CU Boulder
Title: Assessment of basin vulnerability to post-wildfire hydrologic and water quality effects through a multi-scale framework
Wildfires can significantly impact water quality and supply, presenting challenges for water treatment plants and freshwater systems. However, high variability and data scarcity in post-wildfire in situ water quality data have hindered previous analyses. Here, I present a unique multi-scale analysis of post-burn hydrologic and water quality effects, observing small-scale driving mechanisms as well as broad, large-scale responses across watersheds. Custom-designed laboratory-scale wildfire and rainfall simulation experiment apparati were first tested on 154 ~300 cm2 soil samples. Burn effects were observed in the context of other key drivers—rainfall intensity and terrain slope—to simulate variable conditions in natural settings. A synthesis of previous wildfire simulation methods was also completed, discussing benefits and limitations of different techniques. Next, broad changes in constituent responses in post-fire years were assessed for 241 forested watersheds across the U.S. West using machine learning and statistical techniques. Inter-basin variability in post-fire responses was also attributed to physiographic watershed variables and wildfire characteristics. By bridging multiple scales, this study strives to provide a holistic understanding of wildfires’ impacts on watersheds in the U.S. West.
Wednesday, Sept. 13
Presenter: Court Strong, associate professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah
Title: Emerging tools for prediction and management of water resources
Western-U.S. water managers facing changing climate and growing populations are seeking new tools to guide their planning and operational decision making. This presentation highlights two key tools that emerged from a five-year collaboration between university researchers and Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. Using a century-length, ten-catchment streamflow dataset we found that interannual variability in groundwater storage, inferred from winter baseflow, is a primary control on canyon runoff efficiency. Adding antecedent groundwater storage to a linear model with precipitation and melt dynamics reduces uncertainty in annual runoff from approximately 40% to 5%. Investigating the climate drivers of groundwater storage, we found an important role for an Atlantic Quadpole Mode (AQM) of sea surface temperature variability that modulates the winter precipitation patterns associated with the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The connection between the AQM and western-U.S. hydroclimate generates precipitation anomalies as large as 30%, and is robust in observations and a 10,000-year global climate model simulation with perpetually fixed modern greenhouse gas concentrations.
Wednesday, Sept. 20
Presenter: Manabendra Saharia, assistant professor of civil engineering, IIT Delhi
Title: India Water Model (IWM): Progress in Developing a Transboundary Water Modeling System over South Asia
Wednesday, Sept. 27
Presenter: Peter Mayer, principal engineer at WaterDM and Flume Data Labs
Title: TBA
Wednesday, Oct. 4
Presenter: Fred Tillman, research hydrologist, USGS
Title: The Potential for Effects from Breccia-Type Uranium Mining on Regional Water Sources in the Grand Canyon Region
Wednesday, Oct .11
Presenter: Rebecca Smith, civil/hydrologic engineer, US Bureau of Reclamation
Title: TBA
Wednesday, Oct. 18
Presenter: Homa Salehabadi, PhD candidate, Utah State University
Title: TBA
Wednesday, Oct. 25
Presenter: Josh Koch, research hydrologist, Alaska Science Center
Title: TBA
Wednesday, Nov. 1
Presenter: Jenny Pensky, post doctoral scholar, Ecohydrology Lab, CU Boulder
Title: TBA
Wednesday, Nov. 8
Presenter: David Woodson, PhD candidate, CU Boulder
Title: TBA
Wednesday, Nov. 15
Presenter: Ryan Currier, hydrologist, NOAA
Title: Future Hydroclimate Projections in the Western United States
Wednesday, Nov. 22
No seminar due to Thanksgiving
Wednesday, Nov. 29
Presenter: Julianne Quinn, University of Virginia
Title: TBA
Wednesday, Dec. 6
AGU conference presentation rehearsals
