HR: 0800h
AN: H31C-0380 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Connecticut River Hydrologic Observatory
AU: * Ballestero, T P
EM: tom.ballestero@unh.edu
AF: University of New hampshire, 238 Gregg Hall, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AB: The Connecticut River basin possesses some characteristics that make it unique for studying hydrologic issues that transcend scale. The watershed was first dramatically altered through natural processes (glaciation) and then heavily impacted by human stresses (dams, deforestation, acid precipitation/deposition), only to exhibit recent decades of return to a more natural state (reforestation, land conservation, stream restoration, pollution abatement, and dam removal). The watershed is sufficiently north to be classified as a cold region. More specifically to hydrology, the watershed exhibits the spectrum of flooding problems: ice dams, convective storms, hurricanes, rain on melting snow, and low pressure systems. The 28,000 square kilometer Connecticut River Watershed covers one third of the states of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The >640-km long rivers' headwaters start on the Canadian border at the Fourth Connecticut Lake, and flows southward to discharge in Long Island sound. The lower 100 km of river are tidally influenced. The Connecticut River is responsible for 70 % of the freshwater inflow to Long Island Sound. The Connecticut River is a sixth order stream that exhibits a dendritic pattern in an elongated scheme. This setting therefore affords many first and second order streams in almost parallel fashion, flowing west or east towards the central Connecticut River spine. There are 38 major tributaries to the mainstem Connecticut River, and 26 of these tributaries drain greater than 250 square kilometers. There is in excess of 30,000 km of perennially flowing stream length in the watershed. For more information, see: http://www.unh.edu/erg/connho/
UR: http://www.unh.edu/erg/connho/
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1694 Instruments and techniques
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting