Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2020IL212B

Illinois Water Resources Center Research for Future Generations

Institute: Illinois
Year Established: 2020 Start Date: 2020-03-01 End Date: 2021-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $27,386 Total Non-Federal Funds: $8,736

Principal Investigators: Dr. Maryam Ghadiri

Project Summary: The purpose of this IWRC research is to initiate seed development for future generations within the broader impact of surface and subsurface hydrology on agriculture and urban applications, such as Food-Energy-Water nexus and urban resilience with climate uncertainty. During 2020 and 2021, our proposed research will be focused on 1) Sustainable groundwater management by creating an accurate groundwater flow model in intensively managed landscapes using probabilistic machine learning tools, and 2) Investigating the relationship between hydrogeological parameters and thermal properties of the geological layers in a major watershed in Illinois using Distributed Temp Sensing (DTS) technology. This innovative research will establish the connection between hydraulic properties and thermal signals as an economically effective approach to characterizing the hydrogeological parameters where traditional observation data are limited. One of the major applications of this seed research is to enhance the understanding of surface water and groundwater interactions.