{"id":2806,"date":"2013-10-22T07:09:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=2806"},"modified":"2013-10-22T07:09:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-22T11:09:00","slug":"whats-in-our-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2013\/10\/22\/whats-in-our-water\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in our water?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chace,<\/a>
Associate Professor Jameson Chace, Salve Regina University, and Kelly Addy, a University of Rhode Island hydrologist, test out a state-of-the-art water sensor on Aquidneck Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

States design system to assess watershed health<\/h3>\n
\"sensor\"
A Track-2 water sensor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rhode Island researchers are collaborating with their counterparts in Delaware<\/a> and Vermont<\/a> to create\u00a0a network of high tech sensors in the watersheds of the three states.\u00a0The selection of equipment is part of the process in putting a $6 million National Science Foundation<\/a> grant to work, collecting real-time data to better preserve\u00a0and protect our water sources.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0sensors, placed in streams, measure baseline water quality parameters that help researchers determine the overall conditions of water bodies, much like\u00a0when people go to the doctor. \u00a0In a medical checkup, doctors assess certain basic parameters such as weight, blood pressure, heart rate, and reflexes to determine a patient’s overall health.<\/p>\n

These state-of-the-art water sensors similarly assess the health of the watersheds and how\u00a0extreme weather events may impact them. They are deployed continuously for weeks at a time, taking\u00a0a biogeochemical pulse of the watershed.<\/p>\n

The instruments measure a suite of parameters, including temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, suspended sediments, and organic materials that help scientists observe long-term changes in the\u00a0water.<\/p>\n

Beyond valuable observations of long-term trends, the sensors\u00a0provide a critical technological advantage by\u00a0giving scientists an inside look at water quality changes as extreme storm events take place.<\/p>\n

How watersheds respond will be key in addressing climate variability scenarios where more extreme events are predicted.\u00a0The water quality and quantity data gathered will help guide state leaders in crafting informed decisions and policies as climate variability and changing land use affect watersheds.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Dr. Emi Uchida, a URI economist, says she and her peers in the other two states are creating models to conduct experiments on the social dimensions.\u00a0They seek to understand how water resource users may respond to better information on water quality and with climate variability. The laboratory and field experiments will gauge how subjects will change decision rules, strategies, and preferences with different incentives, water quality information, and uncertainty in future climate.<\/p>\n

The three states formed the\u00a0North East Water Resources Network (NEWRnet) <\/a>to carry out the three-year project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement\u00a0Track-2 program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Bowden,<\/a>
Dr. William (Breck) Bowden, University of Vermont professor of watershed science and planning\u00a0(right),\u00a0looks at a point in the Aquidneck Island watershed with Dr. Jennifer Specker (center), URI oceanography professor and former project director and principal investigator for Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR, and\u00a0URI hydrologist Dr. Art Gold, RI Track-2 principal investigator.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Story and photos by Amy Dunkle<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

States design system to assess watershed health Rhode Island researchers are collaborating with their counterparts in Delaware and Vermont to create\u00a0a network of high tech sensors in the watersheds of the three states.\u00a0The selection of equipment is part of the process in putting a $6 million National Science Foundation grant to work, collecting real-time data […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}