Susquehanna River Basin Hydrologic Observing System (SRBHOS)

In response to the NSF-CUAHSI initiative for a national network of Hydrologic Observatories, we propose to initiate the Susquehanna River Basin Hydrologic Observing System (SRBHOS), as the northeast node. The Susquehanna has a drainage area of 71, 410 km2. From the headwaters near Cooperstown, NY, the river is formed within the glaciated Appalachian Plateau physiographic province, crossing the Valley and Ridge, then the Piedmont, before finishing its' 444 mile journey in the Coastal Plain of the Chesapeake Bay. The Susquehanna is the major source of water and nutrients to the Chesapeake. It has a rich history in resource development (logging, mining, coal, agriculture, urban and heavy industry), with an unusual resilience to environmental degradation, which continues today. The shallow Susquehanna is one of the most flood-ravaged rivers in the US with a decadal regularity of major damage from hurricane floods and rain-on-snow events. As a result of this history, it has an enormous infrastructure for climate, surface water and groundwater monitoring already in place, including the nations only regional groundwater monitoring system for drought detection. Thirty-six research institutions have formed the SRBHOS partnership to collaborate on a basin-wide network design for a new scientific observing system. Researchers at the partner universities have conducted major NSF research projects within the basin, setting the stage and showing the need for a new terrestrial hydrologic observing system. The ultimate goal of SRBHOS is to close water, energy and solute budgets from the boundary layer to the water table, extending across plot, hillslope, watershed, and river basin scales. SRBHOS is organized around an existing network of testbeds (legacy watershed sites) run by the partner universities, and research institutions. The design of the observing system, when complete, will address fundamental science questions within major physiographic regions of the basin. A nested system of observations, will intersect the important landforms, climate zones, ecology, and human activities of the basin. Characterizing how humans and climate impact the sustainability of water resources in the Susquehanna River Basin will require an evolutionary approach, involving coordination of historical information and a phased-design for the new observing system. Detecting change (past and present) requires that the atmosphere, vegetation, geochemistry, and hydrology of the Susquehanna, are all observed coherently from the headwaters to the Chesapeake, from the boundary layer to the water table. The River Basin Adaptive Monitoring and Modeling Plan (RAMP) represents the design strategy to coherently select and assess core monitoring sites as well as new sites targeted for both short-term and long term scientific campaigns. Rich in historical research and infrastructure, SRBHOS will serve as a fundamental resource for the hydrologic science community into the future, while providing a "characteristic" hydrologic node in the national network.