Water Resource Systems Analysis - University of Kentucky, Lexington

Graduate course in water resource systems analysis offered at University of Kentucky, Lexington in Fall 2015

Kentucky River Basin: Unified Long-Range Water Resources Plan. Historic Water Supply Plans of the Kentucky River Basin

The Kentucky River Authority was mandated by regulatory statute 420 KAR I :030, Section 4 to develop a Unified Long-Range Water Resources Plan (ULRWRP) for the Kentucky River Basin. This summary document was written by the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute under a contractual agreement with the Kentucky River Authority in support of this plan. It addresses several required components of the ULRWRP, including: Acquisition and utilization of the Kentucky River Lock and Dam system; Construction, acquisition and control of projects and facilities; Regulation of flows and allocation of supplies; Basin-wide and specific local land and water conservation measures and practices; and Economic development. This report provides summaries of the numerous documents written about the water resources of the Kentucky River. Section 1.0 provides a chronological listing of these documents. Due to the fact that many of these reports were written upon the request of a local, state or federal agency, or were required by state or federal legislation, Section 2. 0 categorizes the historical documents by the agency or organization sponsoring the specific study. The document summaries in Section 3.0 are also categorized by the sponsoring entity. Reports written about the Kentucky River basin cover a variety of topics, but focus primarily on water supply issues and the potential for developing additional supplies in the basin. Many proposals are offered for ways to increase storage in the mainstem pools of the river, as well as for potential reservoir sites in various river tributaries. The summary table at the conclusion of the report (Section 4.0) lists historically proposed water supply alternatives, along with a notation of which projects were actually implemented. For those supply alternatives not completed, an attempt is made to explain why it was not pursued

Development of a Decision Support System for Drought Characterization and Management: Application to Lexington, Kentucky

This report presents the results of an investigation into the potential use of expert system technology as an effective tool for drought forecasting and management. Historical data derived from the Kentucky River Basin was used to test the resulting decision support system. This study has demonstrated that expert system technology can serve as an effective platform for use in assisting the decision maker in both characterizing the nature of an existing drought and in selecting and implementing the required management policy. The success of any decision making process will of course be dependent upon the quality of the data upon which those decisions are made. In the current study, the critical data were the forecasted streamflow and the forecasted system demand for the coming week. Several different model structures were investigated for use in forecasting both streamflow and system demand. While a reasonable level of accuracy was obtained for the demand forecasts, only limited success was obtained in forecasting future weekly average streamflows. As a result, a probabilistic model structure was developed for use with streamflow forecasts that allowed more interaction with the decision maker. Although the resulting model evaluations failed to produce what may be considered satisfactory results, the developed model structure does provide a flexibility that may lead to improved performance by augmentation with additional rule based heuristics. Although not fully explored, several potential heuristic structures are identified. Additional model improvement can be expected by further refinement of the underlying deterministic streamflow forecast model structure

Development of Dynamic Non-Hortonian Watershed Models for Steeply Sloping Forested Watersheds: Application to Eastern Kentucky

A comprehensive conceptual watershed model is developed to simulate the hydrologic response of steeply sloping forested watersheds. Two non-Hortonian and two Hortonian models were first tested with data from selected watersheds in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky in order to understand the different mechanisms of flow responsible for storm hydrograph generation in this type of watersheds. The two non-Hortonian models tested were the kinematic storage model (Sloan et al. 1983) and the saturation deficit model (Beven and Wood, 1983). Both models were unable to adequately reproduce the observed hydrographs in the four forested watersheds considered in this research. The two Hortonian models tested were Clark\u27s unit hydrograph model and Snyder\u27s unit hydrograph model. These two models were able to reproduce the observed hydrographs only through model calibration with unrealistic parameter values. Based on the conclusions from the testing of the two non-Hortonian and the two Hortonian models, a simple conceptual comprehensive watershed model was developed for predicting storm hydrograph from small, steeply sloping forested watersheds. The conceptual model incorporates all types of flow processes including macropore flow (quick response subsurface flow). An evaluation of the resulting model was made using the data from the previously mentioned four watersheds in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The model predicted with reasonable accuracy the response of these watersheds to precipitation. The results indicate that the model is capable of simulating the hydrologic response of this type of watersheds while at the same time depicting the actual flow mechanism in play

USGS 104(b) Grant Program: Kentucky’s FY 2018 Projects

The Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute (KWRRI) is one of 54 federally authorized water resource institutes or centers throughout the United States and its territories. It operates under the authority of the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-379 codified at 42 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) through the Water Resources Research Institutes Program administered by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). KWRRI’s annual base grant program under section 104(b) supports the following objectives specified in the Water Resources Research Act: 1. Plan, conduct, or otherwise arrange for competent applied and peer reviewed research that fosters: a. improvements in water supply reliability; b . the exploration of new ideas that address water problems and/or expand understanding of water and water-related phenomena; c. the entry of new research scientists into water resources fields; and d. the dissemination of research results to water managers and the public. 2. Cooperate closely with other colleges and universities from the State that have demonstrated capabilities for research, information dissemination, and graduate training in order to develop a statewide program designated to resolve State and regional water and related land problems. 3. Cooperate closely with other institutes and other organizations in the region to increase the effectiveness of the institutes and for the purpose of promoting regional coordination. Each year, proposals are submitted to further these objectives and promote the national mission and objectives of the USGS, which are focused on providing water quality and quantity information, understanding water availability, addressing the influence of climate on water resources, and responding to water-related emerging needs. This report summarizes the projects funded in FY 2018 through the section 104(b) annual base grant program

USGS 104b Grant Program: Kentucky’s Annual Report FY 2019

The Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute (KWRRI) is one of 54 Water Resource Research Institutes or Centers located throughout the United States and its territories. The state water resources research institutes are authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-379 codified at 42 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) through the Water Resources Research Institutes Program administered by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and organized as the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR). NIWR cooperates with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to support, coordinate and facilitate research. The KWRRI administers several state-level USGS grant programs for water research including the Annual Base Grants (104b) and National Competitive Grants (104g). The annual base grant program is authorized by the provisions of section 104b of the Water Resources Research Act. Under Section 104b, annual base grants are awarded to serve the needs of the state, region and nation by supporting and encouraging research and technology transfer in the area of water resources. KWRRI’s annual base grant program supports the following objectives specified in the Water Resources Research Act: 1. Plan, conduct, or otherwise arrange for competent applied and peer reviewed research that fosters: a. improvements in water supply reliability; b. the exploration of new ideas that address water problems and/or expand understanding of water and water-related phenomena; c. the entry of new research scientists into water resources fields; and d. the dissemination of research results to water managers and the public. 2. Cooperate closely with other colleges and universities from the State that have demonstrated capabilities for research, information dissemination, and graduate training in order to develop a statewide program designated to resolve State and regional water and related land problems. 3. Cooperate closely with other institutes and other organizations in the region to increase the effectiveness of the institutes and for the purpose of promoting regional coordination. Each year, proposals are submitted to further these objectives and promote the national mission and objectives of the USGS, which are focused on providing water quality and quantity information, understanding water availability, addressing the influence of climate on water resources, and responding to water-related emerging needs. This report summarizes the projects funded in FY 2019 through the section 104(b) annual base grant program. The technical reports and supporting information for each project are authored by the project’s PI. In FY 2019, five research projects were funded, three at the University of Kentucky, one at Eastern Kentucky University, and one at Western Kentucky University. An information transfer project managed by KWRRI was also funded in FY 2019. The current focus of the program is to support water-related research efforts in a wide range of disciplines conducted by students at universities and colleges in Kentucky. In FY2019, 11 undergraduate and 3 graduate students were supported through Kentucky’s 104b program