NSF Science and Technology Center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas

www.sahra.arizona.edu520-626-6974

Ephemeral FlowA NEWSLETTER ABOUT SAHRA

W elcome to the third 2008 issue of Ephemeral Flow, a newsletter for sharing information within the SAHRA community. Ephemeral Flow is sent to

SAHRA researchers, staff, and students at all participating institutions every few months. Your contributions and suggestions are always welcome. Please send items to Mary Black at mblack@sahra.arizona.edu.

FEATURES

UPCOMING EVENTS

2008, no. 3

Sept. 4-5, 2008: SAHRA Executive Committee in-person meeting, Marshall Bldg., UA campus, Tucson

Oct. 15-17, 2008: SAHRA’s 8th Annual Meeting, Biosphere 2, Oracle, AZ. See feature article for details.

SAHRA Unites and DiscussesWant to hear what your fellow SAHRA researchers have learned in the past year? Want some real input into SAHRA’s future? SAHRA’s 8th Annual Meeting will have a different focus, format, and physical location than in years past. If you attend only one SAHRA annual meeting this year, this should be the one! While priority will be given to assessing and furthering progress toward the Center’s signature achievements, significant discussion will revolve around the nature, form, and focus of the Center following NSF funding, which will end in December 2009. We’d like to have your considered opinions!

The meeting will be held October 15-17 at Biosphere 2 in Oracle, north

of Tucson. Tread in the footprints of past Biospherians! Dine in a rainforest! An evening icebreaker and dinner will kick off the event Wednesday evening, followed by overview presentations Thursday morning on SAHRA’s activities and achievements. Thursday afternoon’s agenda will focus on recent results, short presentations, and poster sessions. Friday will be devoted to next-stage activities, provision of signature products, and potential post-NSF opportunities.

All active SAHRA researchers, students, and staff are highly encouraged to attend. Continuing SAHRA students are expected to submit posters (guidelines are available at www.sahra.arizona.edu/events/meetings/2008_ann_meeting/poster.html, with abstracts due September 15).

Stop reading this newsletter and REGISTER NOW for the meeting at www.sahra.arizona.edu/SahraAnnualMeeting2008/faces/index.jsp!

Please let us know when you have news

to share or a reason to brag. Students,

let us know for example when you have

completed your oral exam, defended your

thesis/dissertation, or accepted a position

in the real world (or even academia).

Faculty members, are you offering a new

course, hosting a workshop, leading a

panel, editing a new journal? Anonymous

or second-party tips on newsworthy

announcements are also gratefully accepted.

Send comments, information, suggestions

to mblack@sahra.arizona.edu.

CONTACT US!

ICIWaRMs UpSAHRA has received a $100,000 Retention and Recruitment Initiative grant for 2008/09 from the UA Water Sustainability Program to help establish the UA as the lead institution in the multi-university consortium component of the new International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM).

GRANTS/LEVERAGING

ICIWaRM will be the only comprehensive UNESCO training center to span multiple water and science topics in the area of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and the only UNESCO-IHP (International Hydrology Programme) center based in North America. ICIWaRM will focus on the development, testing, and

implementation of a broad array of innovative and practical ideas, methods, and models to promote sound water management and effective delivery of services. Additionally, it will focus on developing IWRM strategies, methods, and procedures for developing nations and nations in transition, with a particular emphasis on Latin America.

PAGE 2 2008, no. 3

RESEARCHWelcome News from IraqA recent SAHRA grad is helping improve the dismal state of Iraqi surface water resources. Jesse Roach and colleagues at Sandia National Laboratories have been working with Iraqi engineers and modelers in developing a computer model of Iraq’s surface water and related systems. The model is improving understanding of the transboundary flow of water in the Tigris-Euphrates system from Turkey through Syria to Iraq, and helping to address restoration of the Mesopotamian marshes, which were partially drained by Saddam Hussein in the 1990s and are further threatened by increased upstream water use.

Jesse described the work in a recent article in Sandia Lab News (www.sandia.gov/LabNews/ln06-20-08/labnews06-20-08.pdf): “Our approach was to build the computer model in a collaborative fashion with the Iraqis. We could have built it for them and then handed it over, but we wanted them to have ownership — to understand how the model went together and how it works. At the end of the third workshop, our Iraqi colleagues presented the model to three high-level Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources officials. They presented it entirely in Arabic, explained how it worked, and answered questions about everything from input data to the scenario runs they were demonstrating. It was a powerful moment in a very successful capacity-building project.” The project was expected to enter phase two in July, pending funding availability. Phase one funding was provided by the U.S. Dept. of State.

As a UA doctoral student, Jesse worked closely with Vince Tidwell of Sandia on an integrated model of surface water and groundwater in the Upper Rio Grande Basin. He was the first recipient of a Sandia Fellowship and interned at Sandia for one semester during 2002/03 while taking classes at the University of New Mexico.

Ma’dan, residents of southern and eastern Iraq, pole a traditional mashroof through the marsh. Credit: USACE.

Young, carefree Jesse Roach (center) and friends entertain at SAHRA’s 2002 annual meeting.

Water Storage Changes in the Colorado BasinA new website, Terrestrial Water Storage Dynamics in the Colorado River Basin (http://voda.hwr.arizona.edu/twsc/sahra/index.html), provides near real-time information about water storage changes in the Colorado and its sub-basins. This effort was sponsored by SAHRA through a Water Sustainability Program Center-Directed Initiative grant, and is the work of UA/SAHRA faculty members and researchers Peter Troch, Matej Durcik, Hoshin Gupta, and Stuart Marsh, of UA Arid Lands Studies.

The monitoring system uses gridded meteorological data from the University of Washington, data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) project, remotely sensed monthly gravity variation data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), and in-situ data (precipitation, temperature,

snow, streamflow, groundwater levels, and reservoir storage). Daily and weekly terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes are then estimated using the Basin Scale Water Balance model forced with NARR data from 1979 to present and using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) land surface model forced with the gridded meterological

data from 1949 to 2005 at the spatial resolution of 1/8 degree. Results show the temporal and spatial variability of TWS in the form of graphs and maps. The site is presently in beta testing and the developers welcome your comments and suggestions.

Troch’s research group is the first to develop a real-time system to estimate TWS changes at the scale of large river basins or to use GRACE data. TWS consists of surface water in lakes, reservoirs and river channels, snow, soil moisture, groundwater, and water stored in vegetation. The goal is to improve seasonal to interannual predictions of water availability. Further investigations into possible links between TWS changes and sea surface temperatures from the Pacific Ocean, which affect seasonal temperature and precipitation in the subtropics and middle latitudes of the Earth, will help to improve predictions of water availability in drought-sensitive areas such as the U.S.

PAGE 3 2008, no. 3

KT NEWS

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES

Scott Estergard, a 2007 graduate of the UA Master’s in Engineering program in hydrology, was one of two recipients of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 2007 Outstanding Planning Achievement Award. The award was presented at the Corps’ Summer Senior Leaders Conference earlier this month to recognize his initiation and leadership of a multijurisdictional analysis of the Virgin River watershed in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The Virgin River is one of the largest free-flowing rivers in the western U.S., home to over 200 wildlife species, and its watershed is being rapidly impacted by burgeoning urban development.

In announcing the award in the Corps’ newsletter, Planning Ahead

(June 2008), the head of the Planning and Policy Division, wrote:

“This collaborative effort will produce a watershed plan that assists stakeholders within the Virgin River in successful management of the river and related resources, and has already led to completion of the Virgin River Watershed Floodplain Management Strategy, which is a powerful tool that is already being used by numerous stakeholders. Mr. Estergard’s diligence and passion on the issue of postwildfire impacts within the watershed and coordination between the Bureau of Land Management and Mohave County, Arizona led to the discovery that a manufactured home subdivision located in Beaver Dam, AZ was at severe risk. Mohave County

proactively implemented an advance flood warning system, evacuation plan, and risk communication plan that will undoubtedly save lives.”

Well done, Scott!

Congratulations also go to former SAHRA graduate student and postdoc Yuqiong Liu, who was recently selected by the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs) Board of Directors as a recipient of its Early Career Research Excellence (ECRE) Prize. The prize was awarded in July during the society’s 2008 annual conference in Barcelona, Spain, and was given in recognition of the excellence of Yuqiong’s work and to encourage her further involvement in the environmental modeling and software community.

Whole Lotta Rainwater Harvesting Going OnSAHRA had more than a hand in helping kickoff a new rainwater harvesting demonstration site at The Nature Conservancy’s Tucson campus on August 8. SAHRA provided planning guidance, signage, brochures, and not just a little elbow grease for the site, and rounded up community leaders and media representatives for the christening of the site’s iconic, gigantic, fabulous cistern. Over the past year said cistern made its way, inch by inch, across America, towed on a Brobdingnagian skateboard by devoted environmentalists.

With support from the Bureau of Reclamation and in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Biosphere 2, SAHRA also developed a spanking new web portal on rainwater harvesting aimed at southern Arizona residents. Check it out at www.sahra.arizona.edu/rainharvesthelp.

As reported in the last issue of Ephemeral Flow, Jim Shuttleworth, who has done a super job of steering the SAHRA ship for the past four years, is stepping down as director on August 22. We are very grateful for his dedicated and able service, guiding the building of SAHRA, building and securing its legacy, wrestling with budget allocations, and directing it toward its future incarnation. Jim will be taking a six-month sabbatical from UA in Fall 2008, and he and his charming wife Hazel will be dividing their time from late August to mid-February between Australia, Tucson, and the U.K.

Giant cistern was installed at TNC on August 6.

New website promotes rainwater harvesting.

AWARDS AND HONORS

PAGE � 2008, no. 3

New SAHRA Students How will we ever fill the loss that will result from the impending graduation of UA doctoral student Julio

Cañon-Barriga this academic year? Not to worry. To help us cope, Julio is lending us his younger brother for a couple years. Camilo Cañon-Barriga, a resident of Bogota and a 2006 civil engineering graduate of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, will be pursuing an M.S. in civil engineering under the advisement of Juan Valdes. Welcome, Camilo! Any friend or relative of Julio’s is a friend or relative of ours.

Students Who Finished DegreesKudos to Mohammed Mahmoud, who quietly defended his UA Ph.D. defense, “Scenario development for water resources decision-making” on June 6 and skipped town. Advised by Hoshin Gupta, Mo was a key member of SAHRA’s scenario development team. He is transitioning to what is sure to be a stellar career in the real world or academia; the story is unfolding as you read.

Carlos Soto Lopez successfully defended his M.S. thesis in hydrology and water resources, “Spatial and temporal variability of vertical hydrologic fluxes at the San Pedro River, AZ,” at UA in May. We are happy to say that Carlos has re-upped and will stay with SAHRA for a while longer; he is going on for a Ph.D. under the direction of Tom Meixner.

In late July, Tucson television meteorologist Charlie George, better known as Chuck, defended his paper, “Data visualization of Rainlog.org and Pima County Regional Flood control data in a television news and weather environment, with applications to other media,” in pursuit of a Master of Engineering degree in hydrology and

water resources at the UA. His work will result in the direct application of SAHRA products to improved weather reporting in the southern Arizona region, incorporating RainLog.org data into one of the most widely used meteorological broadcasting programs.

Staff ChangesMelissa Higgins left in July for the Golden State, following her spouse’s work transfer to Fresno. Melissa had been working for the past two years in SAHRA’s Education section, coordinating the development of the watershed visualization program. Melissa, we miss you and wish you the best!

Mike Buffington is leaving SAHRA’s employment this month to begin life anew as a graduate student in industrial design at the Royal College of Art in London. Impressive! Due to the poor showing of the U.S. dollar vs. the British pound, donations to the Send Mike to London Fund will be cheerfully accepted at mike@mikebuffington.net. Mike is particularly famous at SAHRA not just for his outstanding design and illustration skills, but as the creator of a working replica of a theremin, shown above. Who knew that project was the clue to his future identity? Jolly good work, Mike, and cheerio. We already miss you!

Stepping in to pinch hit for Mike Buffington is another talented graphic designer, Shiloe Fontes, who will begin work at SAHRA on August 25. Shiloe received a BFA in graphic design and illustration from the UA in 2007 and has considerable experience as both a graphic designer and multimedia consultant. Drop by her office at 549A and say hello.

Matt Garcia Is Here to Manage AHIS

SAHRA and the Arizona Water Institute welcome Matt Garcia, who now leads the Arizona Hydrologic Information System (AHIS) effort. Matt’s background is in

atmospheric science (M.S. at Colorado State University, 1999) and hydrology (M.S. in civil engineering, also CSU, 2003).

For the past four years Matt worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) on software for the spatial interpolation of precipitation for land surface modeling applications in its Land Information System, among other projects.

Matt writes, “At GSFC, my research interests developed further to include more detailed physical modeling of land surface hydrological processes, especially the more accurate representation of precipitation forcing and runoff and routing processes. I am interested in helping to solve the problems of remote sensing of precipitation, specifically precipitation rate retrievals over land areas and especially in complex terrain, using the modeling methods that I’ve researched and helped develop. Over the time I’ve been working in hydrology, I have also widened my scope to consider the global problems in water resources and hydrologic modeling, recognizing that the first step to helping solve those problems is in knowing the input rainfall and output stream and river flow quantities better.”

His well-crafted blog at http://hydro-logic.blogspot.com is oriented primarily toward his work and provides good insight into his interests and tastes. As the blog says, in reference to his transition to a new job and new home, “Look for a slow trickle of new posts as I get my things in order. Think of it as a ‘deterministic nonperiodic flow,’ something of a controlled chaos of information feed...” Something akin to an Ephemeral Flow, perhaps…

PEOPLE

Camilo Cañon

Garcia leads AHIS

Mike and theremin

PAGE � 2008, no. 3

What I Did On My Summer VacationBy Guillermo Ponce

From June 29th through July 5th two important congresses in HohHot, China took place, the XXI International Grassland Congress (IGC) and the VIII International Rangeland Congress (IRC). I had the opportunity to attend this event thanks to Dr. Dennis Ojima from Heinz Center and my advisor Dr. Alfredo Huete. During this event I had the opportunity to meet very interesting researchers in the field of information technologies applied to the study of grasslands and rangelands in relation to its impact on climate change.

My main interest was focused on those presentations, papers and posters related to the combination of science and technology as a synergy to study phenomena around grasslands and rangelands ecology. Also, as many presenters mentioned in relation to technology, the amount of information available today as a result of research outputs requires new approaches to handle and present results in a better and easier manner to those who are responsible for taking actions, policy makers. Therefore, this allowed me to better visualize the requirements that the scientific field has.

Another part of this experience was the opportunity to learn about scientific works of Inner Mongolia and also some of its rich culture. We visited different

experimental stations like the Experimental station of the Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences and also a very cultural area called the Gegentala, where we were able to see some experiments being conducted to study different aspects of this region, from seed production technology to the impact of climate change on the vegetation of the Desert Steppe. We visited the experimental station of germplasm resources and saw the amazing amount of grass types cultivated in this area used to evaluate different phenomena in

this region, like the impact of global warming or the breeding and cultivation techniques of the shrubs. We were able to learn the scientific names for several of these species and ask about topics such as irrigation regimes and characteristics of unknown species. In my opinion, these visits provided an excellent opportunity to find out more about what scientists are doing in this region.

Finally, in relation to the cultural aspects of this area, we were able to meet people from these areas and they were just amazing, very friendly and the reception that they had at the Gegentala area with all these costumes and demonstrations of some traditions revealed us the richness of this culture. It was not just about experimental stations or scientific works. We also learned about yurts or gers (traditional houses from there), Mongolian wrestling, horse racing, food, crafting and many aspects regarding the history of this incredible region.

Famous Quotes DepartmentGary Woodard: “The USPP rain gauge network won’t take more than three hours of Guillermo’s time, tops. Nothing else.”—uttered March 29, 2005, in reference to the monster that would become RainLog.

R & R

Baby Dall’erba Sees the LightWe’re delighted to report the June 17 arrival of a bundle of bliss named Amelie to the household of mother Francina Dominguez and doting father Sandy Dall’erba. Amelie’s vital statistics at birth were 7.7 pounds and 49 centimeters; that’s 19.213 inches to you unscientific types. Congratulations to the new, proud, exhausted parents!

Guillermo in downtown HohHot, China

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Gegentala residents in traditional garb, with yurts in background.