Grantee Research Project Results
Integrated Urban Watershed Analysis: The Los Angeles Basin and Coastal Environment
EPA Grant Number: R825381Title: Integrated Urban Watershed Analysis: The Los Angeles Basin and Coastal Environment
Investigators: Turco, Richard , Fong, Peggy , Berk, Richard , Ambrose, Richard , Forrester, Graham E , Fovell, Robert G , Venkatesan, M. Indira , Orme, Antony , MacDonald, Glen , Walter, Hartmut , Suffett, Irwin , McWilliams, James , Feddema, Johannes , Stolzenbach, Keith , Raphael, Marilyn , Savage, Melissa , Stenstrom, Michael , Vance, Richard , Friedlander, Sheldon
Current Investigators: Turco, Richard , Friedlander, Sheldon , Berk, Richard , Ambrose, Richard , Fong, Peggy , Dracup, John A. , Feddema, Johannes , Forrester, Graham E , Fovell, Robert G , MacDonald, Glen , McWilliams, James , Orme, Antony , Raphael, Marilyn , Stenstrom, Michael , Stolzenbach, Keith , Suffett, Irwin , Vance, Richard , Venkatesan, M. Indira , Walter, Hartmut , Trimble, Stanley , Hamner, William M
Institution: University of California - Los Angeles
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: December 1, 1996 through November 30, 1999 (Extended to November 30, 2000)
Project Amount: $1,200,000
RFA: Water and Watersheds Research (1996) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water
Description:
This project will investigate the processes that control water availability and quality in a major urban watershed-the Los Angeles basin in Southern California. The study consists of a synthesis of data and models that bear on numerous aspects of the water resource problem, including: regional meteorology and climatology; basin hydrology, vegetation and land use; anthropogenic water consumption and disposition; runoff sources of sediments, toxics and nutrients; air pollutant transport, transformation and surface deposition; downstream wetlands ecology and impacts; and coastal water circulation, biogeochemistry and sediments. The various aspects of the problem will be addressed by members of the scientific team assembled through the recently organized UCLA Institute of the Environment. The effort consists of a broad synthesis of observational data-in situ measurements, remotely sensed data, and local geographical information-and model simulations of material flow, deposition, transformation and bioassimilation. Both the observational and computational data will be collected within a Geographical Information System (GIS) for analyses and applications. Models will be linked to provide a coupled simulation system for the watershed. Applications are to include: an assessment of sources and distributions of trace metals and other toxics in the L.A. watershed and their ecosystem effects; estimation of the contributions of anthropogenic water and waste treatment on the coastal environment; and the contributions of air transport and deposition to the burden of various compounds in different compartments of the watershed. The regional modeling consists of atmospheric, land, and coastal ocean components, which will be coupled to define physically consistent regional-scale factors that influence drainages within the watershed. A coupled regional model will provide a means for integrating diverse natural and anthropogenic sources of materials within the extended watershed environment, for investigating long range transport and deposition of pollutants, and for producing forecasts of watershed effects owing to changes in the regional setting, human activities within the basin, and so on. The problem is thus seen as a nesting of scales of influence, from the regional scale (the Los Angeles basin and Southern California Bight), to the watershed scale (a major drainage and its coastal receptor wetland and bay-such as the Ballona Wetlands and Santa Monica Bay), to the scales of local drainages (the Ballona Creek sources and estuary). Local sampling will define properties at the smaller scales, while regional modeling will describe the impacts on larger scales. The comprehensive data base developed under this project will include local measurements and time series, historical data bases, geological and hydrological data, relevant societal and demographic records, land use information, model simulated data, and remote observations, and will offer a resource to other studies aimed at scientific understanding of the watershed, environmental impact assessment, or restoration and mitigation schemes.
Publications and Presentations:
Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 91 publications for this projectJournal Articles:
Journal Articles have been submitted on this project: View all 23 journal articles for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
watershed, groundwater, land, sediment, wetland, estuary, meteorology, waste, hydrology, geology, remote sensing, west, Los Angeles, California., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Geographic Area, Water, Waste, Ecological Risk Assessment, State, Ecosystem Protection, Watersheds, Environmental Chemistry, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Contaminated Sediments, Geochemistry, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Hydrology, Nutrients, Water & Watershed, California (CA), coastal watershed, urban watersheds, climatology, contaminated sediment, water quality, aquatic ecosystem, coastal ecosystem, biogeochemistry, groundwater, remote sensing, coastal environments, ecological exposure, wetlands, land use, basin hydrology, meteorology, sediment, aquatic ecosystems, sediment runoff, nutrient supply, Los Angeles BasinProgress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.