Endreny's Research Post

Research Project Profiles

Ecological Engineering a Community Water Supply

• Target:
  Using ecological engineering design to maintain stream hyporheic exchange flow during a dewatering regime for community water supply in Buena Vista Honduras. Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) is used to assess changes beyond the science scope.
• Summary:
  Research in the design of Buena Vista's CWS addresses the coupled objectives that 1) create a robust gravity driven waterworks to deliver adequate volumes of potable water, and 2) conserve the remaining stream flow so it is adequate for ecological services. Fortunately, the stream source is at 1017 m elevation, more than 80 m above the highest point in the village, making gravity based supply feasible and precluding any need for pumps and a non-renewable energy source. Unfortunately, the Buena Vista source stream is under the influence of a distinct dry season from late spring through the summer and has extended periods of low flow (75 liters per minute, roughly equivalent to open flow from 4 U.S. faucets). Typical CWS design procedures take the stream low flow as the safe yield, delivering that entire amount to the village and disrupting key ecological services in the stream. The stream riparian and hyporheic zones serve as natural water filters through physical and biochemical processes. Flows of dissolved and suspended solids in the near-stream soils (i.e., riparian and hyporheic zones) are affected by hydraulic gradients and biogeochemical processes, which subsequently modulate stream water chemistry (Harvey and Wagner, 2000). Dewatering of the stream could alter the drinking water quality, stress in-channel aquatic communities, and affect important ecosystem services along the stream bank riparian zone and the below channel hyporheic zone. The research objectives are addressed with the question, What degree of dewatering will trigger changes in hyporheic and riparian hydraulic gradients, flows, and nitrate concentrations in a dry tropical mountain stream?
• Sponsor:
  National Science Foundation CBET Small Grants for Exploratory Research
• Dates:
  2007-2009
• Results:
  Mark Fabian MS Thesis, Paper in progress, Community Water Supply guidelines, Engineers without Borders training
• Collaborator:
  Don Siegel, Stew Diemont, Laura Lautz, Fito Steiner, Tian Zhou, Pepe Herrero
• Illustrations:
  Research Photos

Training in Ecological Engineering of Stream Restoration

• Target:
  In Syracuse, teachers will investigate the processes needed to restore an urban river. The project aims to increase teachers' understanding of ecological engineering through gathering and analyzing field and laboratory data in order to design and restore an ecosystem.
• Summary:
  The two teachers are participating in one of two ecological engineering restoration design projects at SUNY ESF. One project will be local, in Syracuse, and the other will be located primarily in Mexico. Both projects aim to increase teachers' understanding of ecological engineering through gathering and analyzing field and laboratory data in order to design and restore an ecosystem. In Syracuse, teachers will investigate the processes needed to restore an urban river. In Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, teachers will investigate the restoration of ecosystems in Mesoamerica that incorporate agricultural and forestry practices of the area's indigenous groups. The intellectual focus of these research activities includes discovering and testing variables within undisturbed, degraded and restored ecosystems, and engaging in the design process to create restored ecosystems. This information will be published and used for the restoration of other urban rivers and Mesoamerican ecosystems.
• Sponsor:
  National Science Foundation CBET Research Experience for Teachers
• Dates:
  2008-2009
• Results:
  Teacher training to Ken Keech and Cheryl Spada
• Collaborator:
  Anna Endreny, Rick Beal, Jeff Errington, Tian Zhou, Colin Gleason

Stormwater Ecological Engineering and the Near West Side

• Target:
  Examining the impacts of Green Infrastructure on directly connected impervious cover, water quality, and changes in remote sensing spectral signatures, through laboratory and field studies with several ESF colleagues and students. The porous pavement approach is now practiced on the ESF campus, and in other northeastern sites, given sand is not likely to clog the pores.
• Summary:
  The Syracuse Center of Excellence is involved in an urban renewal project in the Syracuse Near West Side and asked for help in understanding the water resources impacts of changing from asphalt impervious cover (rock, polymer) to Flexi Pave (rubber, rock, polymer). One study measures changes in directly connected impervious area (DCIA), another on the leaching of polymer from the porous pavement from acid rain, and the third on spectral differences between asphalt and flexi-pave and the feasibility of detecting Flexi Pave using remote sensing data.
• Sponsor:
  Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems
• Dates:
  2008-2009
• Results:
  Estimates of DCIA by Dr. Quackenbush and students, and preparedness for post restoration estimates. Spectral analysis of in-situ and laboratory porous surfaces with a high resolution reflectance spectrum capturing 1 to 3 nm in the region from 400 to approximately 2400 nm.
• Collaborator:
  Drs. Lindi Quackenbush, Jungho Im, Ivan Gitsov, and Flexi Pave
• Illustrations:
  Research Photos

Ecological Engineering of Stream Restoration

• Target:
  Stream thermal loading through impervious surface runoff and the influence of hyporheic flow on stream temperature. Can stream restoration designs incorporate adjustments to enhance hyporheic exchange and maintain scour protection?
• Summary:
  High stream temperatures are theorized to be the limiting factor affecting trout growth in the streams of the Schoharie Reservoir basin, in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Outfalls of storm drains collecting runoff from impervious surfaces such as roads and parking lots during the summer may heat stream habitat to temperatures above the levels tolerated by trout (Figure 1) and other organisms. Colder patches of water within streams, termed thermal refugia, may allow trout to survive when average stream temperatures rise above tolerable levels. Geomorphic complexity (Figure 2) within streams increases stream flow through streambed sediments, termed hyporheic flow, which may maintain thermal refugia and increase thermal heterogeneity within streams. This research investigated the temperature effects of heated stormwater on the thermal dynamics of stream habitat on a pool and riffle scale. We conducted this research during the summer of 2007, in cooperation with the Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District (GCSWCD) and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). The questions are: 1.) Hyporheic zone and water column temperatures downstream of thermal loading stormwater outfalls will have temperature fluctuations that are significantly different than similar pool or riffle features upstream of the outfalls. 2.) Reaches with greater geomorphic complexity, and therefore higher rates of hyporheic exchange flow, will lessen the effects of storm sewer outfalls described in Hypothesis 1.
• Sponsor:
  Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems
• Dates:
  2006-2008
• Results:
  Jill Crispell MS Thesis (w. Edna Baily Sussman Award), Hydrological Processes Paper, Restoration design guidelines
• Collaborator:
  Laura Lautz, Chuck Kroll, Mark Fabian, Tian Zhou, Mark Vian

Watershed Restoration and Urban Heat Island

• Target:
  Investigating linkages between vegetation and hydrology in the urban environment and developing components of a watershed model to simulate vegetative controls on water quantity and quality.
• Summary:
  Resetting the fundamental hydrological processes of infiltration and evapotranspiration within the urban environment will help mitigate the human and ecological stress of the urban heat island (UHI) (Oke, 1973). In our accelerated rate of urban growth (Beach, 2002; Elvidge et al., 2004), we are building streets which shed stormwater and absorb solar radiation. Not only are new population records continually set in these urban areas (United Nations, 2004), but air temperatures are also setting new records (Hansen et al., 2005). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 3rd Assessment estimates increases in air temperature from 1.4°C to 5.8°C from 1990 to 2100 (McCarthy et al., 2001), and separate studies show UHI processes cause additional temperature increases for cities, of 0.1°C to 0.4°C per decade (Akbari et al., 2001). In UHI characterization work by Rosenzweig et al. (2005) in Newark, NJ minimum temperatures were 3°C higher than surrounding nonurban minimums, and Akbari (2006) has noted for 10 US regions urban-nonurban differences can range from 2.5°C to 4.5°C. With the increase in heat, humans suffer from heat stress (McCarthy et al., 2001), and chemical reactions accelerate to increase human exposure to elevated levels of atmospheric pollutants (Taha et al., 1996).
• Sponsor:
  United States Department of Agriculture - Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Urban Forestry Unit
• Dates:
  2003-2009; renewing
• Results:
  Jun Wang Post Doc, Yang Yang PhD work, several student projects, Papers in Journal of AWRA, UFORE-Hydro components into i-Tree
• Collaborator:
  David Nowak, Chuck Kroll, Jun Wang, Yang Yang, Euna Kim, Andy Lee, Satoshi Hirabashi, Davies, John Dougherty
• Links:
  Forest Service Office

Geochemistry of Watershed and Stream Restoration

• Target:
  Water Flux and Nitrogen Cycling in the Hyporheic Zones of a Semi-arid Watershed: Hydrologic and Geomorphic Driving Forces in a Transitional Climate.
• Summary:
  Hyporheic exchange, the temporary storage of surface water in stream bank sediments, affects the transport of solutes, including nutrients, through watersheds. Water diverted into the hyporheic zone has a longer residence time and more interaction with biogeochemically active sediments than water in other flow paths. Hyporheic flux rates and geochemistry have not been studied in semi-arid intermountain watersheds, transitional in climate between alpine catchments and desert lowlands. Hyporheic exchange in watersheds in humid regions is enhanced by stream meanders, variable flow rates, and sediment hydraulic conductivity. In water poor regions other geomorphic characteristics, particularly beaver dams, may equally influence hyporheic exchange.
• Sponsor:
  National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences - Hydrology
• Dates:
  2005-2009
• Results:
  Don Siegel mentored Laura Lautz Doctal Dissertation, Dr. Lautz produced several papers, Restoration design guidelines for The Nature Conservancy
• Collaborator:
  Led by Don Siegel and Laura Lautz, Myron Mitchell, many excellent graduate students
• Links:
  Lander CRN | Little Popo Agie River | Field Station

Watershed and Stream Restoration

• Target:
  Restoration of Urban Waterways: Coupling Engineering & Communities.
• Summary:
  Surveying existing conditions and the dimensionless ratios of pattern, profile, and dimension geometries; Mapping riparian vegetation through a combined remote-sensing and in-situ sampling protocol; Utilizing service learning to generate preliminary urban infrastructural data inputs for the model and design analysis; Establishing stormwater drainage patterns for catch basin watersheds and calibrating the hydraulics of stormwater runoff models to test sewer separation; Testing watershed model rainfall-runoff patterns and water quality loading with NEXRAD rainfall data; Designing a new channel based on Priority 1 guidelines to increase aquatic condition and maintain flood conveyance; Testing 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D models of river hydraulics and traditional hydraulic stability with new channel designs; Sediment experiments may use the USFS bedload trap, Helley-Smith and suspended-sediment samplers or other USGS tested, noting constraints, bed-load samplers. See Dr. T. Stott's tutorial on sediment; Suppliers for equipment include: Wildlife, Rickly,
• Sponsor:
  United States Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development; renewing
• Dates:
  2002-2009
• Results:
  MS Thesis for Jessica Black (with Edna Baily Sussman Award), Darin DeKoskie, Mike Higgins, and others, Papers in Journal of Hydrologic Engineering ASCE, Design guidelines for Onondaga Creek Restoration
• Collaborator:
  Don Leopold, Onondaga Environmental Initiative, Onondaga Nation, Onondaga Lake Partnership aegis

Watershed and Stream Restoration

• Target:
  Characterizing Stormwater Bioretention Processes to Restore Water Quality and Quantity in Cold Climate Regions
• Summary:
  Integrated design, build, manage approach to bioretention for stormwater improvement and watershed restoration at ESF in Onondaga Creek Watershed. Site selection in design and build stages moved from Moon Library rooftop capture to Illick Hall rooftop capture, keeping with Low Impact Development philosophy. Links of interest are at the EPA Factsheet on Bioretention, RainGarden Report
• Sponsor:
  United States Department of Agriculture / McIntire Stennis; renewing
• Dates:
  2005-2009
• Results:
  Seed grant work for additional funding, Papers in process, Design guidelines for Bioretention Basins in Cold Climates
• Collaborator:
  Annette Kretzer, Mark Fabian, ESF ATS Lab, ESF Soils Lab, Davis at UMD

Profiles on Completed Research

Stream Classification & Stormwater Engineering

• Target:
  Lecture and research on stormwater engineering and watershed restoration with stream classification for arid Cyprus, examining rainfall characteristics and reservoir impacts on geomorphology.
• Summary:
  This research also involved frequency analysis of 15 to 35 yrs of annual maximum rainfall data from 42 gages for construction of intensity-duration-frequency equations that will predict high intensity rains for engineering design. Teaching efforts that occurred in coordination with the research and included curriculum development, technical lectures, and class field exercises in Greek and Turkish Cypriot universities. Data may involve remotely sensed products as well as climate and weather predictions. Reports from our time in the field are online at ESF CYPRUS
• Sponsor:
  Fulbright Commission, Cypriot Meteorological Service
• Dates:
  2005-2006; continuing
• Results:
  Cross-cultural exchange, Papers in Journal of Hydrology, Urban Water Journal, Environmental Geology, Design rainfall design guidelines for Cyprus
• Collaborator:
  My family who joined me in Cyprus for 7 months, Stelios Pashiardis, P. Papanastasiou, M. Neophytou, H. Gokcekus, I. Yilmazer, Demetris Koutsoyiannis, Jonathan Hosking, and many excellent others.

Fluvial Geomorphology Training Modules National Weather Service and NE River Forecasting Center (w/ R. Shedd, J.M.Hassett, C. Spuches)

1. Analyzing the Rosgen Classification methodology for application in characterizing controls on river flood modeling
2. Constructing a training module for instructing forecast hydrologists on fluvial geomorphology

East of Hudson Modeling of Terrestrial Watershed Processes in Urbanizing Systems New York City Department of Environmental Protection (Lead Dr. J.M. Hassett, Co-PIs M. Mitchell, D. Siegel, J. Hassett, D. Burns, P. Heisig)

1. Assembling a spatial map library of inputs for hydrologic analysis of runoff patterns
2. Parameterizing rainfall-runoff models sensitive to urban infrastructural spatial arrangements
3. Investigating the feasibility of Low Impact Development stormwater controls within the developed landscape

Habitat for Humanity and Syracuse University Vision Grant, Syracuse University Chancellors Office (Lead, Habitat Students and Professor L. Elin)

Riparian Restoration Demonstration and Study in a Finger Lakes headwater Agricultural Stream, $150,000, U.S. Department of Environmental Protection (Lead Dr. R. Briggs)

1. Measuring water quality and quantity improvements through a willow (Salix spp.) riparian buffer between agricultural land and Spafford Brook, NY
2. Development of new hydrologic sensors and data logger configurations for the HWS Data Logger
3. Developing an object based VBA-Excel model to document field and tile drainage hydrology through the riparian buffer

Assessment of Lake Ontario Drainage Basin as a member in the United Nations Environment Program HELP (Hydrology for Environment, Life & Policy) Initiative, Great Lakes Research Consortium

1. Investigating the level of community participation in the water levels research of the International Joint Commission
2. Documenting the importance of, and opportunity for, stream restoration in urban communities dealing with flooding, water quality, and recreational issues

US – Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program: Sustainable Urban Design and Community-Based Resource Management, US Department of Education (Lead. C. Doble, PIs E. Carter, others)

1. Providing international faculty and student exchange to foster inter-disciplinary and global approaches to solving environmental resource problems in areas of urban poverty
2. Facilitating community involvement and design through service learning in addressing stormwater problems