HR: 0800h
AN: H31A-0130    [Abstracts]
TI: Integrating Remotely Sensed Data for Water Budget Studies in the San Luis Basin, Colorado
AU: * Bauer, J P
EM: bauerjp@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, 450 Serra Mall, Building 320, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AU: Winfrey, B K
EM: winfrey@gmail.com
AF: Stanford University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AU: Grunewald, E D
EM: elliotg@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Geophysics Department, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AU: Lakshmi, V
EM: vlakshmi@geol.sc.edu
AF: University of South Carolina, Department of Geological Sciences, Columbia, SC 29208, United States
AB: Water budget analyses are frequently used to examine long-term trends in the freshwater cycle at the regional scale. We have investigated the water balance in the San Luis Basin, CO for the years 2001-2006 by integrating data from a combination of direct measurements, satellite observations, and land surface models. The water budget was calculated using a basic mass-balance approach. Average monthly precipitation values were derived from measurements taken by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The monthly flux of surface water runoff was calculated using USGS stream gages along the Rio Grande. Monthly changes in groundwater storage, determined from the Rio Grande Water Conservation District well network, and changes in soil moisture storage, derived from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) soil moisture model, were also considered. Monthly values of Evapotranspiration (ET) were calculated for the time period using latent heat flux data from the North American Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) 1997-2000 model record. A relationship between calculated ET (1997-2000) and direct measurements of average monthly temperatures for the same time period in Alamosa, CO was then derived and used to calculate representative ET values for the period 2000-2006. The final water budget for the San Luis Basin is balanced within 10% when examined over the entire study period. The main limitations of our approach include the coarse resolution of the satellite data used in this analysis, TRMM's limited sensitivity to snowfall, and uncertainties in the model used to calculate ET. Nonetheless, this approach of integrating freshwater observations from a variety of data sources and scales shows promise for improving future water budget analyses.
DE: 0480 Remote sensing
DE: 1876 Water budgets
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting