Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2013ND279B

Improved Overland Flow Modeling for Hydrologic Connectivity Analysis of Potholes

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2013 Start Date: 2013-03-01 End Date: 2014-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $6,915 Total Non-Federal Funds: $16,619

Principal Investigators: Xuefeng Chu

Project Summary: The objectives of this study is to improve the Puddle to Puddle (P2P) overland flow model developed earlier by this group and apply the P2P model to investigate hydrologic connectivity of potholes for the selected sites in the Prarie Pothole Region(PPR). Specific research tasks are: 1) development of an improved P2P overland flow model by incorporating a two-dimensional diffusion wave equation as an alternative method; 2)development of new methods to accurately estimate the relationships between pothole storage and pothole ponded area, and DS and pothole depth to investigate the hydrotopographic properties of potholes; and 3) Analysis of the hydrologic connectivity and threshold behaviors of potholes under various meteorological conditions for watershed-scale testing sites in PPR. The proposed research and the developed model have the potential to be used to address the following regional hydrologic issues: (1) understanding potholes in PPR, and (2) predicting water levels in potholes and runoff.