Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID ND_2023_Chu_2

Development of a Joint Modeling Framework for Assessing the Impacts of Wetland Restoration on Hydrologic Processes in an Impaired Wetland-Influenced Watershed in North Dakota

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $3,615 Total Non-Federal Funds: $3,627

Principal Investigators: Xuefeng Chu

Project Summary: Wetland loss and water body deterioration are two water problems in North Dakota (ND). Wetland restoration is a method to address these issues. Assessing the impacts of wetland restoration is crucial because of the significant role of wetlands in hydrologic processes. Watershed hydrologic models are useful tools to assess the impacts of wetlands. However, it is difficult to directly apply watershed-scale hydrologic models to a depression-dominated watershed with numerous wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region, which is a typical topography in ND. To address this issue, a joint modeling framework will be developed to couple a surface delineation algorithm with a watershed-scale hydrologic model. The new modeling approaches will be applied to an impaired watershed in ND to assess the impacts of wetland restoration on hydrologic processes. This study will provide an integrated approach for wetland-hydrology modeling that can be used to improve the water environment in ND.