Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2012IN334B

Monitoring and Modeling of Hydrodynamic Processes at the Wabash-Tippecanoe Confluence

Institute: Indiana
Year Established: 2012 Start Date: 2012-03-01 End Date: 2014-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $22,114 Total Non-Federal Funds: $44,228

Principal Investigators: Venkatesh Merwade, Indrajeet Chaubey, Reuben Goforth

Abstract: Flooding is the major natural disaster affecting the state of Indiana. With growing concerns related to climate and land use changes, there is a need to develop sustainable approaches towards floodplain management. The objective of this proposal is to set-up an instrumentation network at the confluence of Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers to monitor the hydrodynamics of high flows including velocity, stage, groundwater level and sediments. It is expected that such monitoring will create data that will enable to develop better understanding of the behavior of Wabash River for different flow conditions. This understanding will in-turn will enable addressing other environmental and ecological issues related to flooding along Indiana rivers. PI Merwade has already acquired all the instruments necessary for the project including: (i) four pressure transducers for measuring ground water levels in the floodplain, (ii) four side looking velocity meters for measuring horizontal velocities in a river and its floodplain; (iii) one vertical profiler for measuring vertical velocities; and (iv) one radio master network and satellite telemetry station for data recording and transmission. IWRRC funding is requested to support one student to help install the monitoring network, analyze initial data, and develop a hydrodynamic model that can be used for hydraulic, ecological and geomorphologic applications by faculty at Purdue and other institutions. The outcome from this project will include a data portal to view the hydrodynamics at Wabash-Tippecanoe confluence in real-time, and a paper outlining the data collection and modeling efforts.