HR: 08:00h
AN: H31J-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Evolution of the Hydro-Kansas Research Program to Test Two Integrative Scaling Hypotheses in the Whitewater Basin, Kansas
AU: * Gupta, V K
EM: guptav@cires.colorado.edu
AF: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Campus Box 216, CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: * Gupta, V K
EM: guptav@cires.colorado.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AB: The Hydro-Kansas (H-K) research program represents an illustrative example of the Water, Earth, Biota (WEB) report to develop an integrated hydrologic science involving new theories and observations (http://cires.colorado.edu/hydrology). The main objective of the H-K research program is to test two integrative scaling hypotheses in the 1100 sq. km. Whitewater Basin, KS: Fundamental statistical scale invariant relationships exist for floods and riparian vegetation evapotranspiration (ET) with respect to complete Horton-Strahler order streams. The biophysical origins of scaling can be tested from biophysical processes that couple water, energy, terrain and vegetation on time scales of individual rainfall-runoff events. The long-term goal is to extend these hypotheses to seasonal, annual and inter-annual time scales. The H-K research program requires developing new analytical theories and numerical models, and taking new integrated core observations in the Whitewater basin. Several academic institutions and federal agencies are cooperating and supporting the H-K program, which has been developing in several phases since 2001. The first phase (2001-present) has developed a digital watershed environment for numerical modeling and for data archiving. The first set of results to test the physical basis of statistical scaling flood hypothesis on two Agriculture Research Service (ARS) basins will be presented in a companion talk in this session. We developed and tested a new steam gauging methodology on the Whitewater basin during the second phase of the project (2003-2004). Initial results are very promising and are comparable to or better than the well-established, USGS stream-gauging methodology. The third phase (2005-06) consists of a pilot project to install 12 stream flow gauges at the end of complete Horton-Strahler streams. In addition, 14 rainfall-gauging sites are being installed and will be used in tandem with NEXRAD at Wichita for estimating space-time variable rainfall. A network for automated data acquisition and transmission to a central facility is being designed and implemented. The fourth phase (2006-2009) will focus on testing the riparian vegetation ET scaling hypothesis. A network of piezometers is being designed for estimating evapotranspiration rates as a closure term in the water balance for a single hillslope-link system. Details will be presented in a companion talk in this session.
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0560 Numerical solutions (4255)
DE: 1821 Floods
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005