Regional Climate Variability and Patterns of Urban Development – Impacts on the Urban Water Cycle and Nutrient Export
Location
ECC 216
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
4-3-2012 9:10 AM
End Date
4-3-2012 9:45 AM
Description
An overview of the Baltimore NSF Water Sustainability and Climate project initiated in January 2011 will be presented. The goal of the project is to evaluate the interactions between urban development patterns and the hydrologic cycle and its associated nutrient cycles, within the context of regional and local climate variability. Our specific objective is to create a modeling system capable of simulating the feedback relationships that control urban water sustainability. Core elements include spatial modeling of urban development patterns and individual land use and location processes at parcel and neighborhood scales and for different policy scenarios; three-dimensional modeling of coupled surface water-groundwater and land surface-atmospheric systems at multiple scales (including consideration of the engineered water system), where development patterns are incorporated as input; and field work and modeling aimed at quantifying flow paths and fluxes of water and nitrogen in this system. The project team is evaluating linkages among (1) how human locational choices, waterbased ecosystem services, and regulatory policies affect the supply of land and patterns of development over time; (2) how the changing composition and variability of urbanizing surfaces affect local and regional climate; and (3) how patterns of development (including the engineered water system) and climate variability affect fluxes, flow paths and storage of water and nitrogen in urban areas. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER (http://beslter.org) is being used as a platform to carry out the work. This capability enables us to take advantage of a 14-year database of hydrologic and chemical characterization data; high-resolution land-cover, land use, and socio-demographic information; and a high-density hydrologic observing system.
Regional Climate Variability and Patterns of Urban Development – Impacts on the Urban Water Cycle and Nutrient Export
ECC 216
An overview of the Baltimore NSF Water Sustainability and Climate project initiated in January 2011 will be presented. The goal of the project is to evaluate the interactions between urban development patterns and the hydrologic cycle and its associated nutrient cycles, within the context of regional and local climate variability. Our specific objective is to create a modeling system capable of simulating the feedback relationships that control urban water sustainability. Core elements include spatial modeling of urban development patterns and individual land use and location processes at parcel and neighborhood scales and for different policy scenarios; three-dimensional modeling of coupled surface water-groundwater and land surface-atmospheric systems at multiple scales (including consideration of the engineered water system), where development patterns are incorporated as input; and field work and modeling aimed at quantifying flow paths and fluxes of water and nitrogen in this system. The project team is evaluating linkages among (1) how human locational choices, waterbased ecosystem services, and regulatory policies affect the supply of land and patterns of development over time; (2) how the changing composition and variability of urbanizing surfaces affect local and regional climate; and (3) how patterns of development (including the engineered water system) and climate variability affect fluxes, flow paths and storage of water and nitrogen in urban areas. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER (http://beslter.org) is being used as a platform to carry out the work. This capability enables us to take advantage of a 14-year database of hydrologic and chemical characterization data; high-resolution land-cover, land use, and socio-demographic information; and a high-density hydrologic observing system.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2012/AllAbstracts/9