HR: 09:30h
AN: H11G-06    [Abstracts]
TI: HMF-Geophysics - An Update
AU: * Crook, N
EM: ncrook@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Geophysics Dept., Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AU: Knight, R
EM: rknight@pangea.stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Geophysics Dept., Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AU: Robinson, D
EM: darob@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Geophysics Dept., Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AB: There is growing recognition of the challenges we face, in many parts of the world, in finding and maintaining clean sources of water for human consumption and agricultural use, while balancing the needs of the natural world. Advancements in hydrologic sciences are needed in order to develop an improved understanding of the controls on the quantity, movement, and quality of water, thus enhancing our ability to better protect and manage our water resources. Geophysical methods can play a central role in these investigations. CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences) is developing, with the support of the National Science Foundation, a Hydrologic Measurement Facility (HMF), which contains a Geophysics module, referred to as HMF-Geophysics. The Geophysics module will support and advance the use of geophysics for hydrologic applications. Currently in second year of a 3 year pilot study, the main aim of HMF-Geophysics is to develop the infrastructure necessary to provide geophysical techniques and the expertise to apply them correctly for the hydrological community. The current working model consists of a central HMF-Geophysics facility and a number of volunteer nodes. The latter consists of individuals at universities who have volunteered to be part of HMF-Geophysics by using their equipment, and/or software, and expertise, in research partnerships with hydrologists. In response to an inquiry the central facility takes on the evaluation of the potential of geophysics to the area of research/watershed. The central facility can then undertake a feasibility study to determine how/if geophysical methods could be of use, and to evaluate the "value-added" by geophysics to the science. Once it is clear that the geophysics can contribute in a significant way to addressing the science questions the central facility works with the hydrologist to set up the next step. Our assumption is that at this point, the hydrologist (perhaps with a geophysics partner) will apply to NSF, or elsewhere, for funding. With the feasibility study complete, they will be in a position to show that geophysics can provide valuable information at their site. This is a very important step, and a key contribution that can be made by HMF-Geophysics. We present here some initial findings from 4 such feasibility studies conducted over summer 2007 in collaboration with a number of the WATERS test-bed sites. These were conducted in a range of environments, from urban to pristine headwater watersheds, with a range of differing hydrogeological aims.
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
DE: 1835 Hydrogeophysics
DE: 1879 Watershed
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting