HR: 0800h
AN: H31C-0393 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Unique Aspects of Proposed San Antonio/Guadalupe Hydrologic Observatory in Texas
AU: * Scanlon, B R
EM: bridget.scanlon@beg.utexas.edu
AF: Jackson School of Geosciences, Bur of Econ Geol, Univ of Texas at Austin, 10100 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX 78758
AU: Musgrove, M
EM: mlm@mail.utexas.edu
AF: Jackson School of Geosciences, Dept of Geol Sciences, Univ of Texas at Austin, C1140, Ausitn, TX 78712
AU: Sansom, A
EM: andrewsansom@swt.edu
AF: Intl. Inst. for Sustainable Water Resources, Texas State Univ, 601 University Dr, San Marcos, TX 78666
AU: Xie, H
EM: hjxie@nmt.edu
AF: Dept of Earth and Environmental Science, Univ of Texas at San Antonio, 6900 N Loop 1604 W, San Antonio, TX 78249
AU: Wilcox, B
EM: bwilcox@tamu.edu
AF: Dept Rangeland Ecology and Management, Texas A&M Univ, MS 2126 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843
AU: Sharp, J
EM: jmsharp@mail.utexas.edu
AF: Jackson School of Geosciences, Dept of Geol Sciences, Univ of Texas at Austin, C1140, Ausitn, TX 78712
AU: Alexander, C
EM: alexa001@umn.edu
AF: Dept of Geology and Geophysics, Univ of Minnesota, 310 Pillsbury Dr SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
AU: Vieux, B
EM: bvieux@ou.edu
AF: Dept of Civil Eng & Environmental Science, Univ of Oklahoma, 202 W Boyd St, Norman, OK 73019
AU: Jackson, R
EM: jackson@duke.edu
AF: Dept of Biology, Duke Univ, PO Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708
AU: Archer, S
EM: sarcher@email.arizona.edu
AF: School of Natural Resources, Univ of Arizona, PO Box 210043, Tucson, AZ 85721
AU: Keese, K
EM: keese@mail.utexas.edu
AF: Jackson School of Geosciences, Bur of Econ Geol, Univ of Texas at Austin, 10100 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX 78758
AU: Reedy, R
EM: bob.reedy@beg.utexas.edu
AF: Jackson School of Geosciences, Bur of Econ Geol, Univ of Texas at Austin, 10100 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX 78758
AB: The paired San Antonio/Guadalupe watersheds and underlying karst and porous media aquifers (26,800 km$^{2}$ area) are being proposed as a Hydrologic Observatory (HO) for the CUAHSI program (www.txh2o.org). This system has many unique attributes that would make it highly suitable as an HO: 1. Paired watersheds represent a range of land uses, from predominantly rural (Guadalupe watershed) to rapidly urbanizing (San Antonio watershed, including city of San Antonio). 2. The underlying karst aquifer is representative of karst systems in the US. Karst systems supply about 40% of groundwater for drinking in the US and 25% globally. Karst aquifers represent ideal systems for evaluating relationships between climate variability and land use/land cover on subsurface hydrology because of their dynamic nature. 3. The underlying karst system is ideal for evaluating surface water groundwater interactions because of direct connections between the two. About 85% of the recharge to the underlying Edwards aquifer is supplied by streams. The San Marcos springs system, located in the Guadalupe watershed, represents the second largest spring system in the SW US. 4. Caves, common in the region, provide an opportunity to directly monitor subsurface hydrology including recharge through dripwater monitoring. 5. Speleothems record system response to long-term climate change. High speleothem growth rates, recorded during glacial time, may correspond to cooler, wetter conditions in this region. Dye tracing allows flow paths to be mapped. 6. The combination of karst and porous media aquifers in this HO allow the dynamics of these systems to be integrated to address the feasibility of providing a reliable, sustainable water resource. 7. The region is highly vulnerable to hydrologic extremes: proximity to the Gulf of Mexico results in intense precipitation events and severe flooding. The region is also vulnerable to long-term droughts. 8. Hydrologic and ecosystem interactions are critical for endangered species and affect policies for regulating water use. In addition to these aspects of the system, examples of the infrastructure and support available to scientists interested in conducting research in the HO will include remote sensing support (Center for Space Research, UT), topographic mapping (Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping, UT), GIS (UT, Texas State, Texas A&M), and superconducting gravimeter for water storage measurements (UT). The proposed HO offers a wide variety of opportunities for scientists to advance our understanding of the hydrologic system.
UR: http://www.txh2o.org
DE: 1899 General or miscellaneous
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting