Category: Research Sponsored by GWRI

The FY 2014 state funding (104B) provided to the Georgia Water Resources Institute from the United States Geological Survey through the National Institutes for Water Resources will be used to support critical research needs, graduate education, and information dissemination in the State of Georgia. Four sub‐grants will support the following projects:

1. Validation of Oysters as Biomonitors of Pharmaceutical Pollution in Georgia; M. Black; University of Georgia.
2. The effect of salt marsh hydrodynamics on estuarine flow; Improvement and Uncertainty Assessment; K. Haas and D. Webster; Georgia Institute of Technology.
3. Implications of eutrophication and climate change in promoting toxic cyanobacterial blooms inagricultural ponds across Georgia; S. Wilde and D. Mishra; University of Georgia.
4. Baseline Conservation Analysis for Agricultural Irrigation in Priority Watersheds of the Lower Flint River Basin; M. Masters; Albany State University.

The FY 2013 state funding (104B) provided to the Georgia Water Resources Institute from the United States Geological Survey through the National Institutes for Water Resources was used to support critical research needs, graduate education, and information dissemination in the State of Georgia. The two sub‐grants were awarded to support the following projects:

1. Tracking the impact of on‐site wastewater treatment systems on stream water quality in the Metro‐Atlanta area; M. Hubteselassie and D. Radcliffe Co‐PIs; University of Georgia. 
2. Unimpaired Flows for the ACF River Basin; Improvement and Uncertainty Assessment; M. Kistenmacher and A. Georgakakos Co‐PIs; Georgia Institute of Technology.

Additionally, GWRI co-sponsored the Georgia Water Resources Conference held in April 2013.

The FY 2012 state funding (104B) provided to the Georgia Water Resources Institute from the United States Geological Survey through the National Institutes for Water Resources was used to support critical research needs, graduate education, and information dissemination in the State of Georgia. The following projects were funded as part of the program:

1. Impact of Upstream Water Use on Salinity and Ecology of Apalachicola Bay; P. Roberts; Georgia Institute of Technology.
2. Monitoring Diurnal and Seasonal Cycle of Evapotranspiration over Georgia using Remote Sensing Observations; J. Wang; Georgia Institute of Technology.

The FY 2011 state funding (104B) provided to the Georgia Water Resources Institute from the United States Geological Survey through the National Institutes for Water Resources was used to support critical research needs, graduate education, and information dissemination in the State of Georgia. Four sub‐grants supported the following projects:

1. Flood Risk and Homeowners’ Flood Risk Perceptions: Evidence from Property Prices in Georgia; S. Ferreira; University of Georgia
2. Assessment of endocrine disruption in fish and estrogenic potency of waters in Georgia; R. Bringolf, C. Jennings, J. Zuiderveen; University of Georgia and Columbus State University.
3. Impact of Upstream Water Use on Salinity and Ecology of Apalachicola Bay; P. Roberts; Georgia Institute of Technology.

Additionally, GWRI co-sponsored the Georgia Water Resources Conference held in April 2011.

The FY 2008- FY 2010 state funding (104B) provided to the Georgia Water Resources Institute from the United States Geological Survey through the National Institutes for Water Resources was used to support critical research needs, graduate education, and information dissemination in the State of Georgia.

The research projects supported during this time span can be found in the three year Evaluation Report.

Principal Investigator: Boris Mizaikoff (Georgia Tech)

Sponsor: GWRI
Start Date: 2002-09-01; Completion Date: 2004-09-01;
Keywords: Water Quality, Surface Water, Toxic Substances

Problem and Research Objective:

Increasing pollution of water resources has stimulated the development of sensor systems capable of screening organic pollutants in the aquatic environment. Especially in urban areas, increasing concentration of volatile organic compounds in surface and ground water threaten primary sources of drinking water. Hence, there is a substantial demand for in-situ, continuously operating and reliable analysis methods emphasizing selective determination of abundant pollutants, such as chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs), pesticides or the broad class of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs).

The main goal of this research project is the optimization, application and validation of infrared chemical sensor systems for the determination of organic pollutants such as chlorinated hydrocarbons, pesticides or endocrine disrupting compounds in the Rottenwood Creek stream, an urban stream located in the metro Atlanta area. This stream is affected by residential, commercial and industrial land use. Synthetic sensing interfaces (‘biomimetics’) based on sol-gels and imprinted polymers emphasizing selective analyte recognition will be combined with existing infrared sensor systems already established by our research group. Following optimization of the instrument in the laboratory and validation with real-world samples, measurements at Rottenwood Creek are envisaged as representative example of an urbanized water resource.

Principal Investigator: Seth Rose (Georgia State University)

Sponsor: GWRI
Start Date: 2003-03-01; Completion Date: 2004-02-28;
Keywords: Base Flow, Isotope Hydrology, Georgia Piedmont Watersheds, Middle Oconee River basin, Age-dating of water

Abstract:

The proposed research addresses the scale problem in surface water hydrology; specifically it focuses upon using isotope and geochemical tracers to assess the effects of basin scale upon base flow generation. It is expected that the temporal and spatial varitions with respect to major ion concentrations, stable oxygen and strontium isotope ratios, environmental tritium concentrations will reveal useful information pertaining to how recharge is eventually processed as base flow within Piedmont Province watersheds. The key question is whether the contribution of water to a large watershed comes solely from small watersheds (i.e. local flow systems) or whether a regional flow system transports base flow to higher order Piedmont streams. The investigation of seasonal isotopic variability of base flow on different spatial scales along with rainfall and shallow ground water should provide a wealth of interpretable data that can be used to address this question. The proposed utilization of strontium isotope ratios (a tracer of the lithogenic contribution to water chemistry)likely represents the first such study of its kind in this setting. The proposed study area is the Middle Oconee River basin which is located in a relatively underdeveloped region between Atlanta and Athens, Georgia.

Principal Investigator: Stuart Pocknee (University of Georgia)
Principal Investigator: Calvin Perry (University of Georgia)
Principal Investigator: Craig Kvien (University of Georgia)
Principal Investigator: George Vellidis (University of Georgia)

Abstract:

Agricultural water use is a major portion of total water consumed in many critical regions of Georgia. Georgia has over 9000 center pivot systems, watering about 1.1 million acres (445,000 ha). Many fields irrigated by these systems have highly variable soils with areas ranging from very sandy to very heavy as well as non-cropped areas. Current irrigation systems are not capable of varying the water application rate to meet the needs of plants on different soil types nor capable of stopping application in non-cropped inclusions. This limitation results in over-applying or under-applying irrigation water. In addition, five years of drought and a lawsuit over Georgia water use by Florida and Alabama have prompted a renewed interest in water conservation methods by the general public, which is becoming increasingly insistent that agriculture do it’s part in conserving water.

The University of Georgia / NESPAL Precision Ag Team has developed a prototype method for differentially applying irrigation water to match the precise needs of individual sub-field zones. Recognizing that water is the major yield determiner in nearly all agricultural settings, the original interest lay in varying application rates from a precision crop production viewpoint. However, it was quickly apparent that a method for varying irrigation across a field could also lead to substantial water savings. The method is referred to as Variable-Rate Irrigation (VRI). This system easily retrofits onto existing center pivot irrigation systems.

This research is expected to accomplish the following:
To complete the development of the VRI system that will enable growers to conserve irrigation water while enhancing profitability – both accomplished through site-specific water management. To gather needed application data to verify uniform and variable application rates are being achieved. To gather data needed to verify calculated water savings are being achieved and yields are being enhanced. To gather the economic information needed to effectively manage and justify such variable-rate systems.

Sponsor: GWRI
Start Date: 2003-03-01; Completion Date: 2004-02-28;
Keywords: irrigation management, water use efficiency, agriculture

Principal Investigator: Kevin H. Barnes (University of Georgia)
Principal Investigator: Byron J. Freeman (University of Georgia)

Sponsor: GWRI
Start Date: 1996-04-01; Completion Date: 1996-04-01;
Keywords: suspended sediment, NTU, TSS, fish, biodiversity

Description:

Excessive sedimentation and high levels of turbidity threaten the native fish species of Georgia by destroying habitat and by impairing fish feeding and spawning. To propose water quality standards for suspended sediments that would be protective of Georgia’s diverse freshwater fish fauna (283 spp.), we have searched existing records of suspended sediment concentrations (measured as turbidity in NTUs) and fish collections taken throughout rivers and streams in Georgia. We focused our attention on rivers and streams above the fall line, where the greatest number of threatened fish species are found and where excessive sedimentation is the greatest problem. We searched 36 years of water quality data and over 20,000 records of fish collections in Georgia. Only 0 – 8% of the sediment sampling stations in four major river basins in this part of the state (Mobile, Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint, Altamaha, and Tennessee) have contemporaneous fish and sediment data. Hence we conclude that adequate measures of suspended sediment are lacking in areas of high fish diversity, and therefore field work in representative basins is needed to test the proposed relationships between suspended sediments and fish diversity that we developed from this very limited data base.We analyzed the existing fish and sediment data by examining the percentage of suspended sediment samples that exceed 25, 50, and 100 NTU and by comparing the feeding and spawning guilds of fishes at sites with different exceedence characteristics. We then used these data to hypothesize suspended sediment regimes that would be protective of the native fish assemblages. Based on fish and sediment data from Yellow River and Falling Creek, we hypothesize that in the Piedmont physiographic province, native fishes would be protected if random monthly samples of turbidity never exceed 100 NTU, if less than 5% of samples exceed 50 NTU, and if less than 20% of samples exceed 25 NTU. Based on fish and sediment data from three sites in the Conasauga River, we hypothesize that in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province, native fishes would be protected if monthly random samples of turbidity never exceed 25 NTU. These more stringent standards appear necessary because of the nature of the sediments in this physiographic province and because of the vulnerability of the fishes in this region to sedimentation. These hypotheses require field testing.