Doctoral Dissertation Research in Geography and Regional Science

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In order to better understand complex hydrologic processes and to test hypotheses regarding hydrologic responses to changing physical or climatic regimes, many hydrologists have organized their research around development and testing of physically based, distributed-parameter models. These models are founded on a number of assumptions, one of the most important of which is that spatially distributed data on crucial variables and parameters is available. In high alpine systems, the storage of water in snowpacks and the release of that water through snowmelts is a major component of hydrological systems. Alpine snowpacks are spatially heterogeneous, however, with their distribution and rates of accumulation and melting a function of the influences of rugged topography on precipitation, the redistribution of snow by winds, and surface radiative energy fluxes. This doctoral dissertation project will develop and test a dynamic snowpack initialization model, which will provide improved data on the spatial and temporal patterns of snowpacks and meltwaters for use in hydrologic models of alpine regions. The model will be tested using data for three watersheds in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Data scanned from aerial photographs will be used in conjunction with data acquired within snowpacks and in downstream portions of watersheds to provide more reliable hydrological information about the water content of snow and the spatial and temporal patterns of melting. Analyses of these data will permit refinement of models related to meltwater inputs from snowpacks into hydrologic models for the watersheds. This project will provide valuable new information from a number of different perspectives. Through exploration of the potential for using new photogrammetric techniques to infer snowpack characteristics from aerial photographs and development of a dynamic snowpack initialization model, the project will advance research methodologies. The project also will make substantive contributions as it enhances understandings of the complex factors that affect the geographic and temporal distributions of snow and meltwaters in alpine areas. As a doctoral dissertation improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.