The Great Salt Lake Basin Hydrologic Observatory
David G Tarboton (1), William P Johnson (2), Danny Marks (3), Charlie Luce (4), Tim Link (5) and others on the GSLBHO planning group
(1) dtarb@cc.usu.edu, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84321, (2) wjohnson@mines.utah.edu, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, (3) USDA-ARS Northwest
Watershed Research Center, Boise, ID, (4) USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise, ID 94701, (5) University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.
Abstract
Through the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic
Sciences, Inc. (CUAHSI), NSF plans to establish a network of hydrologic
observatories. The mountain west is a high priority area for detailed
observations because of the sensitivity, uncertainty and vulnerability of
mountain systems and rapid human population growth with critical
dependence of human and natural ecosystems on mountain water
resources. The Great Salt Lake basin serves as a microcosm for much of
the western U.S. in that the hydrologic system is driven by snowmelt in the
mountains that supplies water to the relatively arid valleys. The region is
dominated by nonlinear interactions between snow deposition and loss in
the mountains, streamflow and groundwater recharge at high and midelevations, and evaporation from the desert floor. A planning group is
working on a multi-million dollar long term plan and proposal for the Great
Salt Lake Basin Hydrologic Observatory which would include a focus on
mountain and snow hydrology. Hydrologic Observatories would be shared
national facilities and our planning group welcomes participation and
suggestions from the wider community with a stake in mountain and snow
hydrology and related fields.
A Hydrologic Observatory to measure the
Hydrology of the Modern West focused on
the interactions between human influences
and hydrologic processes
What is a Hydrologic Observatory?
A principal goal of CUAHSI is the development of the observational
and data systems infrastructure necessary to acquire knowledge
sufficient to address large scale hydrologic science problems. The
global scale and complexity of hydrologic processes requires an
open and integrated community effort.
2
A Hydrologic Observatory (HO) is a large scale (>10,000 km )
experimental watershed designed to integrate observations of water
processes, fluxes and flow paths at an unprecedented scale to
provide a richly detailed observational basis for breakthroughs in
understanding of the large scale interactions that control the
hydrologic cycle.
Why locate a Hydrologic Observatory in the Great Salt
Lake Basin?
The steep topographic, climatic, and land-use gradients in the
Great Salt Lake Basin provide the opportunity to examine hydrologic
processes across a wide range of elevations, precipitation values,
vegetation, and land uses. The Great Salt Lake Basin has a
compactness that is unparalleled in the U.S., and that is more
proximal to logistical support than any other comparable location in
the U.S. For example, a 30 km transect can span from regional
base-level to alpine catchment while remaining within 50 km of major
research universities, an international airport, and major government
agencies.
Located in one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States,
the Great Salt Lake Basin provides the opportunity to observe
climate and human-induced land-surface changes affecting
water availability, water quality, and water use.
The Great Salt Lake Basin is tractable as a hydrologic observatory
because it is closed and the lake serves as an integrator. The
vast majority of inflow to the lake is contributed by the three major
subwatersheds to the east, and characterization of the major fluxes
in the basin can be accomplished with high density monitoring to the
east of the lake with lower density monitoring to the west.
The Great Salt Lake Basin Hydrologic Observatory development team is highly committed to the concept of
openness. It is our hope that researchers from across the United States will involve themselves and even lead
aspects of the proposed observatory. Please contact us if you would like to become part of the Great Salt Lake
Basin Hydrologic Observatory Team or for more information regarding the Proposed Great Salt Lake Basin
Hydrologic Observatory
A Community Research Platform for Mountain Climate Sciences
Hydrologic scientists working together for the greater good in the intermountain region
http://greatsaltlake.utah.edu
Science Themes
Measurement Approach
Overarching Questions
• How do climate variability and human-induced landscape
changes affect hydrologic processes, water quality and
availability, and aquatic ecosystems over a range of
scales?
• What are the resource, social and economic consequences
of these changes?
Weber Basin
6,400 km2
Frost
Canyon
9 km2
Bear Canyon
11 km2
White Pine
Canyon 15 km2
3000
2500
Full Basin
Bear
Weber
Jordan/Provo
West Desert
2000
Integration through co-location of measurements for different
disciplines of hydrologic science
1500
Snow and Mountain Processes
Examples of some of the planned additional
measurement infrastructure
1.0
Fraction of area above elevation
Dots show elevations of SNOTEL
stations in each Watershed
36 SNOTEL Stations
NOHRSC Flightlines
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Water and Mass
Balance Closure
The terminal Great Salt Lake
Basin presents a unique
opportunity to close the water,
solute and sediment balances
that is rarely possible in a
watershed of a size sufficient
for the study of land surfaceatmosphere interactions.
• SNOTEL Upgrades to provide soil moisture, solar
radiation, Soil temperature, relative humidity, wind speed
and direction.
• Flux towers to measure above and below canopy ET
fluxes
• Tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer to measure
stable oxygen isotope content of atmospheric water vapor
to allow tracking of the components of the vapor flux.
• Continuous streamflow and water quality stations
• Spread-Spectrum communications network
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80
1970-2000 PRISM Annual
Precipitation
50 100
Source: Baskin, R. L, et al., (2002), USGS Water-Resources Investigations Report 02–4115
http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/wri/wri024115/.
SNOTEL Maximum Snow Water Equivalent average
of stations within each basin
NOHRSC gamma Snow Water Equivalent average
of flight lines within each basin each year
800
#
0
mm mm
600
400 800
600
0.8
400
200
0.6
Bear
Weber
Provo/Jordan
0
The Great Salt Lake acts as a
collector and integrator of
hydrologic signals from the
surrounding basin providing the
opportunity to investigate
fundamental hydrologic processes
at scales that have been previously
unexplored. Lake sediments in
closed basin lakes extend our
knowledge of hydrologic processes
and water quality
1992
1994
1996
1998
year
2000
2002
1980
SNOTEL date of Maximum Snow Water Equivalent
average of stations within each basin
1990
year
1995
2000
2005
800 1000
Bear
Weber
Jordan/Provo
200
400
1995
2000
1950
2005
1960
1970
1980
1990
Water year
300
Annual per unit area streamflow (USGS gages)
200
250
Bear R near Corinne
Weber River near Plain City
Provo River at Provo UT
Spanish Fork at Castilla, UT
100
50
0
1990
year
mm
150
1985
West Desert
Lake
0
Jordan/Provo
West Desert
PRISM Unit
Precip Runoff
1970-2000
(mm) (mm)
Bear
563
93
Weber
679
90
West Desert 351
Strawberry
484
Jordan
540
127
Salt Lake
308
Total
493
1940
1950
1960
1970
year
1980
1990
2000
Nonlinear Dynamics and Mountain Front Processes
1284
How does the aggregate water balance reflect the integrated effect of
nonlinear dynamic interactions among runoff, vegetation, mountain
block groundwater, urbanization and water use?
1880
1900
1920
1940
Year
0 20 40 60 80 110
Bear River Flow m3/s
Lake (south arm)
Bear River Flow
Logan Precipitation
Logan Precipitation cm
0 20 40 60 80
Lake Level m
1278
1280
1282
How do hydrologic fluxes,
flow paths, and residence
times change in response
to land use change and
development that is
prevalent in much of the
western U.S.
How are aquatic and terrestrial
species and resources related
to topography and geology,
and how will these systems
respond to changes in the
magnitude and timing of
seasonal hydrologic processes
1985
2005
600
mm
Bear
Weber
Mar 1
Sustainability and
Human Dynamics
1990
year
Jordan/Provo
West
1995Desert2000
University of Washington Gridded Precipitation
(Maurer, et al., 2002, J. Climate 15: 3237-3251)
May 1
Apr 1
Jordan/Provo
West Desert
Bear
Weber
1985
Jun 1
1980
Fragile Mountain and
arid Ecosystems
1980
2004
Source: Waddell, K. M., et al., (2004), U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1236.
Source: http://www.doi.gov/water2025/
Bear
Weber
200
0
0.4
0
0.2
300
0.0
mm
200
How does complex terrain
affect the spatial patterns and
dynamics of hydrologic
processes? How well can we
quantify the spatial and
temporal fluxes, storages and
flow paths of water in all its
phases (vapor, ice/snow and
liquid) in complex terrain?
Great Salt Lake Basin
58,000 km2
Hypsometric Area-Elevation Distribution
Elevation
Complex Terrain
Deseret Ranch Paired
Watersheds 20 km2
Multi-Scale Nested Sampling Design
1960
1980
2000