Water Resources IT challenges Problem how to modernize

Water Resources & IT challenges Problem: how to modernize California’s water information systems, from field sensors to decision support Challenges: – widely dispersed decision making & growing, heterogeneous demand for information – decades old technology in use, with only modest, limited programs underway to upgrade systems Opportunity: develop & deploy prototype infrastructure to support research & decision making, with integration from sensor technology to information systems Benefit: enhance billions of dollars of decisions annually by reducing uncertainty & enabling efficient water management Partners: CA Resources Agency, CA-CEC, US Do. I & DOE, MWD, ACWA, PGE, SCE, NASA, NSF (CLEANER, CUAHSI, NEON)

Research projects & contributions Integration of satellite remote sensing, ground-based embedded sensor networks, heterogeneous information systems & next-generation hydrologic modeling – Sierra Nevada water cycle – Central Valley water quality Integration of water data & information with distributed decision-support systems – Support current decision making tools – Stimulate development & adoption of new systems

Measuring mountain water cycle at the basin scale satellite remote sensing multiple instrument clusters in a basin flux tower Instrument cluster Flux tower or meteorological station Embedded sensor network Sap flow array Stream & groundwater sensors Data & communication hub Roger Bales, Sierra Nevada Research Institute, UC Merced

Embedded sensor network for mountain water cycle signal/data to/from other nodes One node Sensors snow depth air temperature relative humidity solar radiation soil moisture soil temperature … Pod microcomputer data storage radio battery solar cell signal/data Mother pod microcomputer radio battery solar cell data logger & IP connection via phone, radio or direct network data & control signal/data to/from UC Merced Roger Bales, Sierra Nevada Research Institute, UC Merced

Pod & snow pinger at Gin flat sensor network Roger Bales, Sierra Nevada Research Institute, UC Merced

Mother pod, data logger & snow pinger at Gin flat embedded sensor network SNOTEL Snowcourse Roger Bales, Sierra Nevada Research Institute, UC Merced

Integration of satellite & ground-based measurement systems & modeling Some opportunities: – snowcover extent & water equivalent – soil moisture – precipitation – streamflow/runoff forecasting

Energy balance modeling scheme data cube SWE albedo SCA incident solar air relative wind longwave temp humidity speed t y x vegetation energy balance LSM topography soils basin potential runoff pixel by pixel SWE & SCA SWE Time pixel by pixel runoff potential Time

Scaling mountain water balance plot/hillslope soil moisture basin remote sensing SCA albedo vegetation snow distribution melt timing snow distribution partitioning infiltration ET runoff micromet recharge ground/RS SWE precip radiation EB topography fluxes Blending measurements from multiple scales ground soil moisture infiltration & recharge micromet bedrock soils

How can CITRIS help? Embedded sensor networks – critical need for prototype deployments – develop communications & systems for data integration Data & information systems – address need for user-oriented integration of heterogeneous data for decision support applications – develop digital watershed tools & technologies Each project has a threshold to initiate & sustain