Water in a Changing West: The Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics

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This Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 award establishes the Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics (WyCEHG), a center based at the University of Wyoming and involving Wyoming's community colleges, the Wind River Tribal College, the Arapaho Ranch, Jackson State University (Mississippi), and several federal, state and private business partners. The specific focus is to improve the understanding of the mechanisms by which water is transformed from precipitation (snow and rain) into river flow, groundwater recharge, or soil moisture, and how these mechanisms respond to natural and anthropogenic changes. Intellectual MeritThis project focuses on developing a multidisciplinary center to enable a comprehensive research program linking surface and subsurface watershed hydrology, geophysics, remote sensing, and computational modeling. Scientific goals include improving the understanding of mountain front hydrology, the mechanisms by which disturbances affect water flux, and the integrated modeling of the fate and transport of water. Realistic computer models of hydrological systems are being generated, informed by geophysical data of the subsurface acquired at the watershed scale, and validated by geochemical, hydrological, and ecological monitoring data. The project team is developing an open-access, national facility for hydrogeophysics that includes state-of-the-art instrumentation, to be sustained after the award ends by an industry endowment.Broader ImpactsWyCEHG is designed to address pressing water-related issues in WY. It supports water research in areas of key importance to the state, generating products and tools of use to water resource managers charged with allocating scarce resources and forecasting water deliveries in an environment of profound hydrological change. Methods, models, observational platforms, and information relevant to decision support are shaped by, and communicated to, decision makers. A major focus of the project is to meet educational and outreach needs in WY through an integrated program fully coupled to the scientific agenda. The project encompasses education initiatives, diversity programs, workforce development, public forums, and stakeholder engagement. Graduate student training includes the new Ph.D. Program in Hydrologic Sciences at the University of Wyoming. Also included is a vigorous mentoring and recruitment effort to attract Native American, Hispanic, African-American, and female students, along with persons with disabilities, to the STEM workforce.