Measuring and modelling hydrological parameter fields: strategies for sampling and integrating fine-scale surface and subsurface data in a spatial simulation framework

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The importance and the difficulty of measuring fine-scale spatial heterogeneity or 'patchiness' in hydrological systems is well recognized, especially for complex systems like wetlands. The goal of my research program is to a) uncover the relationship between field sampling strategies and their effectiveness for describing spatially complex hydrological systems, by example of b) developing and methods to determine subsurface hydraulic conductivity fields in wetlands. The proposed study will use a 'mixed-mode' approach, tightly integrating theoretical simulation experiments with lab and field investigations to drive parameter discovery models. The work will use a mixture of field data acquisition systems, geospatial and geophysical integration tools, and modelling frameworks developed by my research group over the past three years. I will develop methods to estimate electrical and hydraulic conductivity fields from GPR signals, validated in a 'sandbox' lab environment and in Fletcher Fen and Point Pelee Marsh. Parallel to the field-oriented aspects of the program, I will use simulation experiments to evaluate the effects that sampling strategies and varied measurement methods have on our ability to characterize wetland systems. These investigations use estimates of spatial, temporal, and measurement error distributions drawn from our field data to derive datasets with varying degrees of measurement uncertainty from representative hydrologic models implemented in our ECO-COSM simulation framework. The research is expected to reveal important insights into the fundamental spatial and temporal interactions between patterns of data sampling and the processes operative in natural systems. The work will lead to many applied developments including new, non-invasive methods for describing wetlands and sampling design methods that better quantify complex natural systems.