Watershed Symposium 2022

Brenda Bowen and Kerry Case, co-chairs of the University of Utah's Climate Commitment Task Force, will share an overview of the University of Utah's first Climate Resilience Assessment and ongoing work to develop an equity-centered Climate Change Action Plan.

In 2020, the University of Utah launched its first Climate Resilience Assessment as part of the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment, which President Taylor Randall re-committed to in 2021. This Climate Change Resilience assessment examined the institution’s ability to respond to climate threats in our community including risks associated with changes in temperature and seasonality (e.g., heat waves, megadroughts, dust storms, wildfires, changes in phenology) and changes in precipitation (e.g., flooding, megadroughts, reduced snowpacks). This work identified climate related vulnerabilities and strengths, developed indicators of resilience, and compiled baseline data and data gaps for key indicators. This assessment considered indicators of resilience related to social equity and governance, health and wellness, ecosystem services, infrastructure, and economics. Several the key climate change resilience indicators relate to systems that include the University and the broader watershed and ecosystem, such as water system stability and efficiency, ecosystem health and diversity, land and soil functionality, and management of campus-related ecosystems.

Now, with leadership from the Sustainability Office, the University is in the process of developing a new Climate Change Action Plan identifying how the institution will respond to changing climate. Recognizing that climate change is a threat multiplier, worsening existing problems of inequity and injustice in our society and systems, the University has chosen to center equity in this work. This new plan will outline priorities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from operations, prepare for the current and future impacts of climate change, educate all students with skills and knowledge to work toward a sustainable future, and research effects of and solutions to climate change. In this presentation we will share an overview of this work and highlight key partnerships and opportunities for collaboration and engagement within the watershed.

Changing winter rain/snow partitioning and increased April to October evapotranspiration from warmer temperatures poses a challenge to the Salt Lake City water system. We develop a comprehensive understanding of the driving climate, hydrological, and water system dynamics influencing seasonal to decadal planning and management activities.

Changing winter rain/snow partitioning and variable winter water storage coupled with increased April to October evapotranspiration from warmer temperatures in the Western US challenges water resources management from basin to municipal domains. In Salt Lake City, Utah, population growth further compounds these hydroclimate challenges. Addressing the supply-demand challenges with a climate resilience action plan, this work highlights the benefits of a collaborative research-to-operations (R2O) partnership between the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU), the University of Utah, and the University of Alabama. We develop a comprehensive understanding of the driving climate, hydrological, and water system dynamics influencing seasonal to decadal planning and management activities. This involved five years of extensive stakeholder engagement that led to key scientific discoveries surrounding winter precipitation anomalies, hydro-geophysical attributes improving surface water yield estimates, and key hydroclimate mechanisms influencing municipal demands.

Leveraging a systems model to replicate the SLCDPU water system and operations, we integrated the discoveries into the water systems setting to identify vulnerabilities and create preemptive (vs. reactionary) mitigation protocols at multiple forecasting horizons. This includes the development of a decision-making timeline with operational tools to prevent system deficits, characterize source vulnerabilities, and estimate conservation measures to mitigate supply deficits. The case study analyses highlight the decision-making influence the R2O workflow provides the utility, spotlighting the capacity to guide water resources decision-making over a range of hydroclimate phenomena to build water system-climate resilience.

Understanding the effect of cloud-based illumination on ET estimation is crucial for the wider application of drone based image collection. We tested the ET estimation under partial cloud and cloud free condition using the image collected by drone and found that the ET are overestimated on the pixel superimposed over cloud shadows.

Agriculture is the largest user of water in Utah and throughout most of the world but you can’t effectively manage what you don’t accurately measure. UAV based imagery are increasingly used for mapping Evapotranspiration (ET) from agricultural fields as they can produce flights on demand and provide higher resolution images. Numerous literature claims that their flexibility to fly on cloudy days and the possibility of capturing higher variability of ET is the added advantage over similar other remote sensing techniques. However, little is known about how cloud based illumination impacts on the ET mapping from agricultural field. Although drones can be flown under the cloud, the sensor's perception of ground data might be impacted by the varying weather conditions. Therefore, understating the effect of cloud on drone based ET estimation is critical for mapping ET. In this research, we estimated and compared the ET under cloudy and non cloudy condition using the images collected by Mica Sense Altum sensor mounted on DJI Matrice 210 Quadacopter on same day. ET was estimated using the Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) model over three irrigated agricultural fields alfalfa, corn, and peas. Our result shows that ET values are estimated to be higher in the areas superimposed over cloud shadows compared to cloud-free areas. This information will be precious for better and more efficient water management, including precision agriculture.

The Provo River Delta Restoration Project is one of the largest river and lake restoration projects in the region and is focused on providing juvenile rearing habitat for June Sucker in the face of changing hydrology. Come visit with us to find out how to plan and implement large-scale restoration projects that benefit both wildlife and people.

The Provo River Delta Restoration Project is one of the largest river and lake restoration projects in the region. URMCC has worked with countless partners and agencies to develop the vision for reconnecting a bay of Utah Lake to the main body of the lake through this project. It has involved the development of over 22,000 linear feet of new river channel on the delta where the Provo River historically entered Utah Lake into Skipper Bay. This project took more than a decade to plan and has taken more than two years to implement. The main focus for the project is to provide rearing habitat for the threatened June Sucker, found only in Utah Lake, but the variety of water depths will also help Utah Lake adapt to a changing climate. Additional benefits will include additional recreation access to the Lower Provo River and the newly reconnected Skipper Bay and Provo River Delta. There are many opportunities to get involved with planting and stewardship starting next spring.

What are the observed trends and future projections of the climate signals? And how would the snowpack, soil moisture, and streamflow change in the future? Let's discuss results using climate and hydrologic models (i.e., VIC, and RAPID) for the Jordan river basin (i.e., Spanish Fork, Provo, Utah Lake, and Jordan River).

In the recent years, we have witnessed mega-drought events and stresses on precious water resources and the environment. The observed climate and hydrologic data show changing patterns in rain and snowpack, record high summer temperatures, variation in soil moisture contents, very low water reservoir levels, lowered groundwater, and resulting streamflow. The consequences of events have resulted in observed historical low water levels in the Great Salt Lake. For policymakers and water professionals, it is important to answer some of the key questions such as (1) what are the observed climate change signals in water basins in the state of Utah, and (2) what are the potential future projections of the climate change and hydrological responses, (3) how resilient are our water resources against changing climate and extreme events, and (4) what are potential adaptation strategies to achieve the goals of water resilience.

This presentation attempts to answer part of those questions in two parts. The first part of the presentation will include an analysis of historical data on the observed temperature, precipitation, snowpack, and streamflow in several parts of Utah. The analysis results will reveal the rate and trends in the changes of climate stressors on water resources. The second part of the presentation will cover future climate projection and impacts on water resources, including precipitation, snowpack, soil moisture, and streamflow. The analysis will be based on multiple Global Climate Model results statistically downscaled in the finer resolutions of 6.25 km, forced run the Variable Infiltration Capacity model (VIC), and Routing Application for Parallel computation of Discharge (RAPID) models.

This presentation covers the larger Jordan river basin (includes Spanish Fork, Provo, Utah Lake, Jordan River), one of the most populated basins in the state and one of the primary sources of water supply to the Great Salt Lake. The models were calibrated from 1980 to 2004 and validated for 2005 to 2020. It includes continuous daily simulations of multiple climate projection inputs until the end of the 21st century. This presentation is based on one of the ongoing and in-house modeling projects of the Utah Division of Water Resources to evaluate the impact of climate change in GSL watersheds. Water policy professionals will have an opportunity to get informed about signals and trends of climate change and its impact on water resources at the regional level. Technical water professionals will have an opportunity to learn the type and sources of data, methods, and models that can be applied to large basin-level water resources assessment.

The following are learning objectives from these presentations: 1. Basic understanding of main climate signals and trends considered in water resources assessment. 2. Become informed about climate model projections at the basin level. 3. Gain an understanding of how large-scale hydrological models are developed to simulate climate change impact at the basin level. 4. Understand how resilient our local water bodies are against the changing climate.

Granger-Hunter Improvement District, in times of extreme drought, may find it’s water supply cut. The District’s customers have responded with significant water use reductions, but in order to have a resilient supply, groundwater sources with higher levels of manganese and iron will need to be developed.

Granger-Hunter Improvement District serves West Valley City, the second largest city in Utah. Most of the District’s water comes from the Wasatch Mountains, and with Utah in a prolonged drought, surface water supplies are being impacted. District customers have conserved incredible amounts of water, mostly by reducing outdoor irrigation, but with future supplies of surface water at risk, the District has embarked on a multi-year program to develop and improve groundwater in the Salt Lake Valley. The District relies on a water wholesaler for approximately 75% of its water supply. In times of extreme drought, it is possible that supply could be cut by as much as 30%, leading to potential shortages. While District customers have reduced consumption by over 15% in the last couple of years, higher-density future growth will require a drought-resistant high-quality supply. Additional challenges include revenue shortfalls due to increased conservation, conservation-oriented rate design, and a shrinking Great Salt Lake that is directly impacted by increased outdoor water use and reduced snowfall. In order to develop groundwater for a drought-resistant supply, higher levels of iron and manganese must be removed. One treatment plant is under construction with two additional plants planned, but the cost of construction is substantial and additional funding sources, including SRF and WaterSMART grants, are being explored with some success. There is also risk of overdrawing groundwater surface water sources are also reduced to neighboring communities. The long-term plan is to encourage appropriate outdoor water use with tiered rates, and to develop reliable, clean groundwater sources if the drought continues. This session will discuss the Utah drought and the challenges that a reduced water supply will bring to residents of West Valley City, Utah, the second largest city in Utah. Future planning challenges include reduced consumption (and revenue) due to drought messaging, fixed wholesale water contracts, and higher-density growth. To plan for potential shortages, Granger-Hunter Improvement District has embarked on a long-term plan to develop and treat groundwater impacted by iron and manganese. The District has also pursued SRF loans and grants in order to reduce the cost burden on its customers.

Frequent wildfires affect streamflows which influences estimates of water budgets. It is a complex effort to accurately estimate river discharges. So, determining how well National Water Model predicts streamflow in burned areas during peak Spring and late-season low flows will help access required improvements in the model.

Research studies have found that climate change influences wildfires. Wildfires in the western United States alter the landscape and overall hydrological cycle, altering the timing and magnitude of the streamflow response to snowmelt and high intensity precipitation events. The National Water Model (NWM) is a tool to anticipate hydro-meteorological influences on streamflow and fill the gaps between coarse USGS streamflow monitoring locations, providing a decision-making tool to guide the domestic, agricultural, recreation, power generation, and flood control components of water resources management. To assess the NWM v2.1 predictive performance surrounding spring melt and supply-limiting low-flow events in recently burned catchments, we use the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations for Hydrology (CIROH) Land Use Land Cover (LULC) Streamflow Evaluation tool. We evaluate multiple catchments in the intermountain west, and collocated with USGS monitoring stations, evaluating predictive performances using Kling Gupta Efficiency metric (KGE), coefficient of determination (R2) and Percent Bias (PBIAS). Given the observed prediction errors, determining the accuracy of streamflow predictions of NWM v2.1 in burned catchments provides a benchmark to quantify future model improvements as well as an opportunity to enhance existing predictions with new post-processing methods. As much of the drinking water for the Salt Lake area comes from these fire-vulnerable watersheds, improved modeling will help regional water prediction studies for Utah.

Salt Lake County Watershed has been collecting water quality data in streams since 2010 with an aim to learn more about the relationship between water quality and the changes happening in our valley. Over a decade later, we are still collecting data and have learned quite a few things. This presentation will give a brief overview on everything water quality-related that SLCo Watershed is currently working on, with a deeper look into how long-deploy water quality sondes can fill gaps in data and track acute stream events.