T196 Faults and Floods in Western North America: In Memory of the Outstanding Contributions of Dr. Ralph E. Klinger (Posters)

Tuesday, 24 September 2024
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Hall D

MODELING FLOOD RESPONSE IN ARID WATERSHEDS: GLEN CANYON TRIBUTARY WATERHOLES, ARIZONA, USA

Paper number: T196-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

Quantifying the hydrologic response of arid watersheds is valuable for the future of agriculture, land management, and hazard assessment. Modeling arid and semi-arid watershed hydrology currently presents many challenges, including dynamic infiltration, spatially and temporally distributed storm cells, and vertical slopes. These challenges require novel techniques and remotely sensed data to adequately model arid watersheds. Our research seeks to create a physically based, spatially distributed hydrological model to evaluate watershed hydrology under different land cover and climate scenarios in arid regions. Our flow model, desertHydro, uses R software and CRAN packages including whitebox and terra. The desertHydro package facilitates creating and modifying hydrological simulations with GIS applications. The Waterhole's watershed, located south of the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, serves as a case study for integrating hydrological and remotely sensed data. The study location has over 20 years of discharge and rain gauge data with more than 70 recorded events. The model is used to test the effects of different rainfall methods, land cover classification, and soil characteristics within the watershed. Preliminary results from the study indicate that spatially distributed rainfall produces the most accurate discharge for the watershed. Utilization of remotely sensed data can improve the understanding of these arid regions and increase the model’s effectiveness in predicting discharge.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 56, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2024AM-404281

© Copyright 2024 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.