Collaborative Research: New science, tools, and observations to couple geodesy with hydrology for modeling, water storage change, and streamflow forecasting in mountain watersheds

在水资源可获得性迅速变化的全球背景下，使社区能够更好地预测和管理其水资源的信息将对社会经济的可持续性变得越来越重要。该项目在地球科学和水科学的传统学科界限之间架起了一座桥梁，以产生关于通过山区分水岭的水的储存和流动的新知识。世界山区有大量降水，是人类人口和自然生态系统全年重要的淡水来源。估计山区流域内蓄水量的标准方法包括空间复盖面有限的单点测量或分辨率有限的数百公里的大范围平均测量。地球物理学的最新进展，包括全球导航卫星系统(全球导航卫星系统)的发展和扩大，测量了地下水和地表水的重量造成的地球形状的细微变化，改变了研究地球水循环的能力，特别是在与复杂的山区流域有关的空间和时间尺度上。通过精确观测和模拟由于山区积雪和水储存的波动引起的地球厘米级变形，该项目旨在对流域尺度的水文模型施加新的限制，创造增强的水资源管理操作工具，并开发一个原型水文预警系统，可以警告下游社区洪水风险或突发性干旱。此外，展示使用几个廉价的GNSS传感器估计单个流域的蓄水量的能力可能会改变通常测量和管理淡水资源的方式。该项目结合了实地考察、数据分析和建模，调查了美国西部三个水文上截然不同的山区流域。将在所有三个流域收集地壳位移、径流、雪深、降水和大气条件的高分辨率观测(在空间和时间上)。研究产品将包括：(1)将全球导航卫星系统(GNSS)推断的地表位移与径流和含水层补给等水文参数联系起来的经验校准；(2)用于对非均匀地球上非均匀载荷引起的三维地表位移进行正演模拟的数值工具，以及用于计算流域内蓄水量变化的反向建模工具；(3)包括固体-地球变形、蓄水、地表径流和地下水流动之间关键反馈的大地测量和水文耦合模型；和(4)水文预报的试点业务产品。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In a global context of rapidly changing water availability, information that allows communities to better predict and manage their water resources will become ever more critical to socioeconomic sustainability. This project bridges traditional disciplinary boundaries in Earth and water sciences to generate new knowledge about the storage and flow of water through mountain watersheds. Mountainous regions of the world receive extensive precipitation and serve as crucial year-round sources of freshwater for human populations and natural ecosystems. Standard methods for estimating the total amount of water stored within mountain watersheds involve single-point measurements with limited spatial coverage or large-scale averages over hundreds of kilometers with limited resolution. Recent advances in geophysics, including the development and expansion of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that measure subtle changes in the shape of the Earth caused by the weight of groundwater and surface water, have transformed the ability to study Earth’s water cycle, especially at space and time scales that are relevant to complex mountain watersheds. By precisely observing and modeling the centimeter-scale deformation of Earth due to fluctuations in mountain snow and water storage, this project aims to place new constraints on hydrologic models at the watershed scale, create enhanced operational tools for water-resource management, and develop a prototype hydrologic early-warning system that can alert downstream communities to flood risk or flash droughts. Furthermore, demonstrating the capability to make estimates of water storage at individual watersheds using a few inexpensive GNSS sensors could change the way that freshwater resources are typically measured and managed.This project combines fieldwork, data analysis, and modeling to investigate three hydrologically distinct mountain watersheds in the western USA. High-resolution (in space and time) observations of crustal displacement, streamflow, snow depth, precipitation, and atmospheric conditions will be collected in all three watersheds. Research products will include: (1) empirical calibrations that relate GNSS-inferred surface displacements to hydrologic parameters such as streamflow and aquifer recharge; (2) numerical tools for forward modeling of three-dimensional surface displacements due to heterogeneous loads on a heterogeneous Earth and for inverse modeling to calculate variations in water storage within the watershed; (3) coupled geodetic and hydrologic models that incorporate critical feedbacks between solid-Earth deformation, water storage, surface runoff, and groundwater flow; and (4) a pilot operational product for hydrologic forecasting.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.