HR: 1400h
AN: H33B-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Challenges in Urban Hydrologic Modeling: A Baltimore Case Study
AU: * Bhaskar, A
EM: aditi.bhaskar@umbc.edu
AF: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education and Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering, TRC 102, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, United States
AU: Welty, C
EM: weltyc@umbc.edu
AF: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education and Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering, TRC 102, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, United States
AU: Maxwell, R M
EM: rmaxwell@mines.edu
AF: Department of Geology and Geologic Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, CO 80401, United States
AB: To effectively and sustainably manage water resources in urban areas we need to better understand the effects of urbanization on the hydrologic cycle and conversely, the ways that surface and groundwater quality and quantity can affect humans. We present work on coupled modeling groundwater and surface water in Dead Run, a small urban watershed in Baltimore, Maryland. We use ParFlow, which models three dimensional, variably saturated subsurface - surface flow. This poster reviews some of the challenges that have been encountered in modeling elevations and slopes for overland flow in the Dead Run case. Elevations from a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) in an urban landscape may not be able to adequately define surface flow paths as streams may have been moved, channelized, piped underground, or otherwise modified. Knowledge of the locations of streams may not be adequate, as the surface stream expressions may be disconnected due to piping in between. Here we present the beginnings of ways to deal with the challenges of modeling urban as well as future plans to incorporate urbanization within existing models. This work will be expanded to a regional hydrologic model, which will be coupled with an urban growth model of the Baltimore region to explore the predictions and feedbacks between the two models.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects (4802, 4902)
DE: 1805 Computational hydrology
DE: 1834 Human impacts
DE: 1847 Modeling
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2009 Joint Assembly