Speaker: Carolyn Voter
In the Water, Ecosystems, and People Research Group, we quantify and predict how water flows through our environment under a range of climatic conditions, interacting with ecosystems, communities, and built infrastructure along the way. In this presentation, I share examples of recent and ongoing research that exemplify each of these themes. My work to define the hydrologic regime of lakes in a manner that is relevant to ecosystems was foundational to the completion of the Wisconsin DNR’s Central Sands Lakes Study. By comparing five Wisconsin lakes with long term records in contrasting settings, I highlight the ecologically relevant insights that can be gleaned by analyzing key metrics of a lake’s hydrologic regime. Our group is working with communities by partnering with the RiverSmart Homes program in Washington D.C. to evaluate residential rain gardens 10+ years after installation. We are combining social surveys, ecological evaluation, and hydrologic modeling to understand what drives long-term green stormwater infrastructure “success”, as well as how “success” may vary across ecologic, hydrologic, and social definitions. Lastly, I illustrate a new modeling tool we are developing to enable explorations of how rising groundwater levels will interact with built infrastructure in the future, potentially impacting the performance of drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater systems.This seminar can also be viewed via our live stream.