Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program in Water Research at  Colorado State University

Mentor Information

Name Timothy K. Gates

Title Professor

Department Civil Engineering

Work Phone (970)491-5043

FAX (970)491-6787

e-mail tkg@engr.colostate.edu

Project Abstract Saline high water tables pose a growing threat to the viability of the world's productive irrigated land. Much of this land lies along arid alluvial plains, where solutions must now be developed in the context of changing constraints on river management. This project is aimed at developing, through well-conceived data collection and modeling, strategies to sustain irrigated agriculture in the salinity-threatened lower Arkansas River Basin of Colorado.

Extensive field measurement and data collection are being conducted regarding water table depth and salinity, irrigation efficiency, salt loading, soil salinity, and other properties over a large representative subregion of the lower Arkansas River Valley, and their interrelationships explored. Plausible causes of the problems and promising directions for addressing them are considered through application of an unsteady flow and salt transport model.

REU participants will be involved in field data collection that includes monitoring of water-table depth and salinity; monitoring of surface water levels and salinity in the river, canals, and drains; monitoring of soil salinity in overlying fields; and measurement of land surface topography. They will be trained in the use of specific conductance meters, electromagnetic induction probes, soil-sampling equipment, survey-quality GPS equipment, and laboratory equipment for soil texture and salinity assessment.

This will require weekly to bi-weekly travel to two study sites in the Arkansas River Valley, one near La Junta and the other near Lamar, for a period of two to three days each trip. The students will also be given experience in building databases and analyzing data for both system characterization and system modeling.