Data Collection, Panama Flood of December, 2010

2010年12月，巴拿马运河流域发生了有史以来最严重的洪水。调查人员在巴拿马工作了大约10年，研究水文气象学、水文学、河流内木材运输和命运以及山体滑坡，并协助巴拿马运河管理局建立实时天气和洪水预报系统。这一极端事件的回复期被认为在100到200年之间，这为创建与此次洪水相关的水文气象、水文和地貌特征数据库，以及极端事件期间热带山区流域大型木质碎片的碳循环提供了绝佳的机会。我们的项目包括现场收集活动、大气模拟和数据库创建组件。实地研究将记录414平方公里范围内的滑坡、大量木质碎片堆积、高水位标志和地貌变化。Chagres流域。天气研究与预报（WRF）的大气模型将模拟导致洪水的风暴。巴拿马运河管理局提供的雨量计数据将与WRF模型输出结合使用，生成地面真实的时空降雨序列。与史密森尼热带研究所（STRI）和巴拿马理工大学的合作将有助于收集来自不同来源的数据。美国垦务局是一个合作者，因为他们有兴趣了解他们在20世纪20年代设计的马登大坝的性能。在2010年12月的洪水中，马登大坝被推到了设计的极限，尽管它最初的设计是为了抵御一万年一遇的洪水。我们将探讨流域的土地利用变化是否对洪水频率的变化负责。由于巴拿马运河的存在，加上现有的水文和水文气象网络，长期的历史数据集将使这一事件成为迄今为止在任何热带山区流域记录最好的极端洪水事件之一。短期、密集的一次性现场活动也将补充2011年5月1日开始的EAR-1045166项目。

In December, 2010, the flood of record occurred in the Panama Canal Watershed. The investigators have been working in Panama for approximately 10 years studying the hydrometeorology, hydrology, in-stream wood transport and fate and landslides, and assisting the Panama Canal Authority in setting up a real-time weather and flood forecast system. This extreme event, with a return period thought to be between 100 and 200 years, provides an excellent opportunity to create a database of hydrometeorological, hydrological, and geomorphic features associated with this flood, as well as carbon cycling by large woody debris in a tropical mountainous watershed during an extreme event. Our project consists of field collection campaign, atmospheric simulations, and database creation components. Field studies will document landslides, large woody debris accumulations, high water marks, and geomorphic changes within the 414 sq. km old-growth upper Rio Chagres watershed. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) atmospheric model will simulate the storms that caused the floods. Rain gage data provided by the Panama Canal Authority will be used in conjunction with the WRF model output to generated ground-truthed space-time rainfall series. Collaborations with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and Technological University of Panama will assist in assembling data from disparate sources not readily available. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is a collaborator, as they have an interest in understanding the performance of the Madden Dam, which they designed in the 1920's. During the flood of December, 2010, the Madden dam was pushed to the limits of its design, even though it was originally designed to pass a 10,000-year flood. We will explore whether land-use changes in the watershed are responsible for this change in flood frequency. The long-term historical dataset owing to the existence of the Panama Canal, in addition to the existing hydrological and hydrometorological network will make this one of the best documented extreme flood events in any tropical mountainous watershed to date. The short-term, intensive once-off field campaign will also complement project EAR-1045166 that started on May 1, 2011.