Two-Zone Temperature and Solute Model Testing and Development
Location
ECC 303/305
Event Website
https://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
4-1-2008 11:30 AM
End Date
4-1-2008 11:45 AM
Description
Heightened demands for water in Washington County Utah, primarily due to population increases, have directly influenced the instream temperature regime of the Virgin River. Two endangered species that are unique to the Virgin River have historically suffered from elevated instream temperatures (Virgin River Chub (Gila seminuda) and the Woundfin (Plagopterus argentissimus) and therefore, are of chief management concern. An improved dynamic temperature model (Two-Zone Temperature and Solute Model) was necessary to enhance our comprehension of the local scale energy and mass exchange processes taking place within this river. Detailed and relevant data were required to populate, calibrate, and corroborate the model. These data included: temperature time series in the main channel flow, dead zone, and sediments; shortwave radiation penetrating the water column, being reflected off the water surface, and entering the bed substrate; tracer solute behavior in main channel and dead zones; and boundary condition information such as headwater temperatures and flow, lateral surface inflow rates and temperatures, and the appropriate weather data. In addition to these data, thermal imagery of the Virgin River was collected using a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) thermal imagery camera simultaneously in an attempt to improve model population, calibration, and corroboration by determining the ability of the model to predict spatially representative instream temperatures. With the development of this mechanistically advanced modeling approach and the ability to test the model performance with these detailed data, it is anticipated that the increased accuracy of instream temperature predictions will provide for improved water management decisions.
Two-Zone Temperature and Solute Model Testing and Development
ECC 303/305
Heightened demands for water in Washington County Utah, primarily due to population increases, have directly influenced the instream temperature regime of the Virgin River. Two endangered species that are unique to the Virgin River have historically suffered from elevated instream temperatures (Virgin River Chub (Gila seminuda) and the Woundfin (Plagopterus argentissimus) and therefore, are of chief management concern. An improved dynamic temperature model (Two-Zone Temperature and Solute Model) was necessary to enhance our comprehension of the local scale energy and mass exchange processes taking place within this river. Detailed and relevant data were required to populate, calibrate, and corroborate the model. These data included: temperature time series in the main channel flow, dead zone, and sediments; shortwave radiation penetrating the water column, being reflected off the water surface, and entering the bed substrate; tracer solute behavior in main channel and dead zones; and boundary condition information such as headwater temperatures and flow, lateral surface inflow rates and temperatures, and the appropriate weather data. In addition to these data, thermal imagery of the Virgin River was collected using a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) thermal imagery camera simultaneously in an attempt to improve model population, calibration, and corroboration by determining the ability of the model to predict spatially representative instream temperatures. With the development of this mechanistically advanced modeling approach and the ability to test the model performance with these detailed data, it is anticipated that the increased accuracy of instream temperature predictions will provide for improved water management decisions.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2008/AllAbstracts/43