Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2011NH148B

Nutrient Loading Coefficients for NH Watersheds: Development and Connectivity

Institute: New Hampshire
Year Established: 2011 Start Date: 2011-03-01 End Date: 2012-02-29
Total Federal Funds: $5,330 Total Non-Federal Funds: $26,554

Principal Investigators: Jeffrey Schloss

Project Summary: Through previous NIWR and EPA funded projects we have conducted cost-effective volunteer assisted watershed nutrient budget studies and catalogued those studies performed by other agencies/organizations. While these investigations have allowed us to document the range of nutrient export coefficients for particular land use/land covers that occur in our state and region, further analysis is needed to determine the influence of various factors such as percent imperviousness,riparian buffer extent and use of best management practices. In addition, past work also suggests an important influence of drainage conductivity at the local (subwatershed) scale. This long-term project will update the data-base to include the most recent studies since last compiled (2001) amd perform GIS aided analyses to develop loading coefficients for various land use/land covers and investigate the additional watershed characteristics that further influence the nutrient loadings. In addition, the project will continue to support our long-term monitoring program conducted through differing weather years at both shallow and deep lake and tributary sites that offer the potential to cost effectively estimate the lake response to the loadings due to increasing watershed devel-opment/use over time.