WATERS Network enabling sustainable water resources in a changing world


Supported by the National Science Foundation.

WATERS Test Bed Site — Clear Creek Environmental Hydrologic Observatory

WATERS Test Bed Site Clear Creek Environmental Hydrologic Observatory

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The CUAHSI WATERS Test Bed project—Clear Creek Environmental Hydrologic Observatory. The Test Bed Project aims at establishing of a cyberinfrastructure-enabled ecohydrological observatory for investigating fundamentals of runoff-driven processes as well as providing sound science for the decision-making process. The main thrust of the project is to demonstrate how information and communication technologies can support in unprecedented ways water-related science and engineering at watershed-scale level. Building on previous experience and infrastructure, third party and in-situ observations and measurements will be linked with simulation models in an operational continuum for understanding processes and predicting water quantity and quality in the watershed.

Contact Information
Site Contacts Address
Principal Investigator:
Craig L Just
Email: craig-just@uiowa.edu
Phone: (319) 335-5051

Co-Principal Investigators:
Anton Kruger
Email: anton-kruger@uiowa.edu
Phone: (319) 335-6287
Marian Muste
Email: marian-muste@uiowa.edu
Phone: (319) 384-0624

Data Manager(s):
Dongsu Kim
dongsu-kim@uiowa.edu
Marian Muste
marian-muste@uiowa.edu
Nick Arnold
nicholas-arnold@uiowa.edu

IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering
The University of Iowa
C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1585

Site History
The Clear Creek watershed is an intensively managed 270 km2 area of the Upper Mississippi River Basin comprising wetlands, agricultural and urbanized catchments. The downstream flux of nitrogen and phosphorus originating in the basin has been linked to eutrophication and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, a pressing national environmental concern. The Clear Creek watershed is an important location for studying nutrient transport phenomena associated with heavy row cropping because this area has the highest erosion rates in Iowa. The watershed is currently a focal observational point whereby intensive measurements are acquired by federal and state agencies as well as by watershed-coalition groups to understand and promote positive land use practices. The present project will establish a blueprint observatory whereby remote sensed data acquired by third parties (e.g., USGS, NOAA, EPA) will be real-time fusioned with in-situ measurements collected with wireless sensor networks in a geodabase. The stored data will be ingested in specialized simulation models (QUAL2K and WARMF) to enable new scientific and engineering insights into the runoff-drive processes. The small size of the watershed and its proximity to The University of Iowa makes it ideal for a pilot study where research and education can be seamlessly integrated. The observatory design includes machine-to-machine communication through web services enabling networked collaboration and education activities.

Research Topics
The end-to-end engineered ecohydrological observatory will enable us to:
  1. answer key questions regarding the role played by cyberinfrastructure in advancing scientific understanding and knowledge discovery;
  2. address specifics aspects of the design, implementation, and operation of scalable ecohydrological observatories;
  3. predict E. coli outbreaks in surface waters based on surrogate measurements such as turbidity and nutrients: and,
  4. investigate subtle diurnal fluctuations in water quality parameters (e.g., total suspended solids and dissolved oxygen) that may have a significant effect on ecosystem health.
Institutional Affiliations Research Web pages