Project Description
Administered by the Berkeley Institute of the Environment, the Keck HydroWatch Center will dramatically expand the observations of all aspects of the water cycle by developing cost-effective, rapid-response, and accurate sensors and techniques to monitor water quality, quantity, and pathways. The center is initiating a prototype deployment of intensive environmental monitoring networks, resulting in the acquisition, synthesis, and analysis of new, large volumes of data. The first deployments will take place at two small (~10-102 km2), hydrologically different sites within the UC Natural Reserve System: the Angelo Coast Range Reserve and the Sagehen Creek Field Station.
One goal of the HydroWatch project is to create a model of the entire hydrologic system that integrates the atmospheric, surface, and below-ground variations of water. This model will allow researchers to address a number of long-standing questions about how the water cycle functions and how it may change.
(1) How is fresh water resupplied and recycled?
(2) What is the distribution of water vapor in the lowest kilometer of the atmosphere and of soil moisture across the landscape? How do atmospheric and land-surface processes alter these distributions?
(3) How long do watersheds store water in the subsurface, and by what combination of flowpaths does this water reach the stream?
Once the prototype network has been demonstrated, scientists expect that this model can be readily scaled-up and deployed at continental-scale (>104-105 km2) watersheds, creating a national and international standard for water-monitoring programs.
Online Information
Berkeley Institute of the Environment
http://bie.berkeley.edu
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