RAPID: Effects of an Extreme Rain Event in the Boulder Creek CZO

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This RAPID project centers on LiDAR data collection plus water sample analysis following the September 2013 storm in the Colorado Front range. In areas identified as being most highly impacted, post-storm LiDAR data will be differenced with data collected for the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory three years earlier using the same protocols. The LiDAR will provide a unique data set with which to quantify hillslope and channel change with sufficient spatial resolution to reveal (1) the locations and sizes of hillslope failures and the transport paths of these failures and their depositional zones, and (2) channel changes on all streams including sites of both vertical and lateral scour and deposition. In addition to the LiDAR data analysis, the project will analyze the chemistry of water delivered from the landscape since the first day of the storm. This will enable a quantitative assessment of the sources and transport dynamics of major elements, organic molecules, and isotopes. The long duration, widespread area, and severe magnitude of the storm (70% of mean annual precipitation) is exceptional and provides a rare opportunity to address fundamental questions about the effects of severe storms in a semi-arid mountainous wildland-urban interface. The affected region includes the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Big Thompson River. Since the storm impacted areas burned in recent large wildfires, including the Fourmile Canyon fire of September 2010 in Boulder Creek, the opportunity exists to probe the role of such one-two punches in landscape evolution. Graduate and undergraduate students will be engaged in the project, and the data will be made available to test models of how landscapes respond to rare precipitation events. In addition, the team plans to infuse storm-related data and insights into its ongoing collaborations with local schools through its K-12 curriculum of the Science Discovery program, and through teaching at the college level.