Alpine Hydrogeology
Hydrogeology Research at the
Lake O’Hara Watershed
Masaki Hayashi
Dept. of Geoscience, Univ. of Calgary, Canada
Alpine Hydrogeology Research Group
Current: Larry Bentley, Andrius Paznekas, Sasha Mozil,
Barret Kurylyk, Jordan Harrington, Craig Christensen,
Laura Beamish
y Alastair McClymont,
y
Jaime Hood,
Graduated: James Roy,
Greg Langston, Danika Muir
Funding Support
Biogeoscience Institute (Univ. of Calgary)
Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Water Research
Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric
p
Science (IP3 Network)
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
Logistical Support
Lake O’Hara Lodge, Parks Canada
Lake O’Hara Hydrological Observatory (14 km2)
Elevation: 2000-3500 m
glacier melt
summer
rain/snow
Lake O’Hara
snow melt
BioGeo Inst.
water input
snow melt
rain
glacier melt
time (month)
flux (m3/day
y)
flux (m3/day
y)
Water Input and Output in Alpine Catchments
basin discharge
time (month)
Groundwater provides temporary storage.
Lake O’Hara Hydrological Observatory (14 km2)
Elevation: 2000-3500 m
• 2 weather stations
• 3 lake WL gauges
L. Louise
• 6 stream
t
fl
flow gauges
• Other instruments
L. O’Hara
N
2 km
Image from Google Earth
Opabin Sub-Watershed (5 km2)
Lake
O’Hara
O
Hara
Source spring
N
500 m
Opabin
Creek
moraine
Opabin Glacier
Characterizing Snow Distribution
2008
500 m
July 24
2008
Ground-based
Ground
based photograph.
Ortho-rectify using high-res
DEM, every week.
Back-calculate pre-melt SWE
using a snowmelt model.
weekly
series
Shortwave radiation
June 21, 13:00
Radiometer
(W/m2)
300
600
900
2008
data gap
SWE (snow water equivalent)
1 km
(mm)
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Snowmelt model
• Utah Energy Balance
• Hourly time step
• 50 m grid cells
cumulative flu
ux (mm)
hydro. flux (mm/d)
Opabin Basin Water Balance (2008)
30
20
snow melt
rain
discharge
glacier melt
< 0.3 mm/d
10
0
4/18
5/8
5/28 6/17
7/7
7/27 8/16
9/5
9/25 10/15
1000
total input
total output
800
600
100 mm
400
200
0
Hood & Hayashi (2015, J. Hydrol. 521:482-497)
Opabin
p
Glacier
electrical resistivity
seismic refraction
Opabin Lake
Source spring
Seismic Refraction
bedrock
buried
ice
Electrical Resistivity
ground ice
bedrock
Langston et al. (2011, Hydrol. Process. 25: 2967)
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Blue colour indicates water molecules
bedrock surface
(seismic imaging)
Lehmann et al. (2012. Geophysics, 76: B165)
Emerging Conceptual Model
Langston et al. (2011, Hydrol. Process. 25: 2967)
Helen Creek Watershed – Banff National Park
Size: 2.5 km2, Elevation: 2300-2900 m
Spring
Rock glacier
Alpine Talus-Meadow-Lake Complex:
Fortress Ski Area
Spring
Linking Observations to Basin Hydrograph
field observation
physically-based model
Q
river-basin model
grid-scale function
Q
Storage