CSDMS 2016 annual meeting poster MistyPorter
Methods for Visualizing Landscape Desiccation as a Result of Over-pumping with Application to the High Plains Aquifer in Western Kansas
Mary Hill, University of Kansas Lawrence Kansas, United States.
Abstract:
Resource scarcity is becoming ever-more pertinent as environmental assets like arable land and water have been developed extensively. For example, major agricultural centers in western Kansas have seen the saturated thickness of the High Plains Aquifer (HPA) decline rapidly, which has resulted in landscape desiccation. Yet even in such a dramatically affected area, many people are still unaware of the consequences of large-scale groundwater depletion. Combining open data sources with modern computer technology will enable the development a visual representation of data that will aid in understanding the impacts of historical, current, and future decisions of pumping. An online, time-evolving, interactive map correlating climatic conditions and pumping the HPA with the timing of the conversion of perennial streams to ephemeral will be an effective platform for portraying receding streams as groundwater is depleted without the recharge necessary to replenish it. Interactive aspects will include control of the spatial and temporal display, along with selection of point-specific series plots, which will allow the evolution of this resource to be more visceral than has previously been possible. The methods developed for this work will result in a fluid interface to improve community education and an effective tool to assist in policy-making as stakeholders are enabled to clearly see the relations between data and landscape.
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