SANTA FE WATERS Test bed 

 

The CUAHSI WATERS Test Bed project—Design and Demonstration of a Distributed Sensor Array for Predicting Water Flow and Nitrate Flux in the Santa Fe Basin. The study site is the Santa Fe River watershed in north-central Florida.  The Santa Fe River is a major tributary to the Suwannee River and the watershed has similar characteristics to the Suwannee River Basin, but at a smaller scale, making it an ideal test-bed for developing new sampling and analytical capabilities required for observatory science.  Both rivers cross the Cody escarpment (scarp), which marks the boundary between geologically confined and unconfined portions of the Floridan Aquifer, and the change from a surface water to ground water dominated system.  The entire region is undergoing a transition from minimal anthropogenic impact to multiple stressors from land-use practices making predictive basin-scale science essential.  Science questions to be addressed include improving understanding of water and nitrate fluxes, determining the spatial and temporal variability of basin-scale regulators of nitrate load, assessing the influence of landscape factors on nitrate load and delivery dynamics, and determining predictive relationships between nitrate flux and various surrogates.

 

Map images

Santa Fe Maps

 

See other maps and data at Santa Fe Critical Zone Observatory page


Deployed Sensors

Two nitrate sensors are being tested in the Millpond Spring (W 082 45' 35.9" and N  029 58' 00.1") of the Ichetucknee system of Springs.  Both have associated CTD sondes and use telemetry via cell phone to deliver data back to a computer at UF including hourly battery volts, barometric pressure, water depth, temperature, conductivity and nitrate.

 

The YSI 9600 sensor uses flow injection technology and works on standard cadmium reduction/diazotization principles (lab in a can), while the Satlantic In-Situ Ultraviolet Spectrometer (ISUS) uses ultraviolet absorption spectrometry.

 

CTD sondes are also deployed at NWIS stations along the Santa Fe river including: 1000, 1500, 2500, 2700, 2800. They are downloaded manually every 2 months.

 

If you have a gatorlink ID, you can view the raw, provisional, uncalibrated nitrate sensor hourly data here: http://plaza.ufl.edu/rgthomas/

 

A phosphate sensor is currently being tested.

 

Hydrologic Information System

We are beta testing the HIS system developed by a CUAHSI team (headed by David Maidment) which consists of

·        a MS Windows server

·        a SQLServer2005 database with a standardized database schema for observational water data

·        ArcGIS Server software which supports the geographic interface called DASH

·        We have imported 7 datasets for investigator and regional data.

§         Investigator Datasets:

·         Nitrate data for 2 sensors collected by Santa Fe Testbed investigators

o        YSI cadmium reduction nitrate sensor

o        ISUS ultraviolet absorption spectrometry nitrate sensor

·         Microwave data from UF investigator Jasmeet Judge

§         Regional Datasets:

·         Daily rainfall from Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD)

·         Nitrate and phosphorus data from Florida DEP STORET database

·         Groundwater levels from SRWMD

·         Groundwater levels from USGS

Download Time Series Data (Feb 21 2008)

·        A Geographic interface for finding these data collection stations - DASH – is available on the web at

o       http://ees-his06.ad.ufl.edu/dash

·        Another way to access the data in our database is through MS Excel 2003.  Here are 6 spreadsheets for the investigator and regional datasets mentioned above. In them you can see sites, dates of record, variables recorded and time series.

o        YSI

o        ISUS

o        Microwave data in Citra Florida

o        Daily Rainfall in Santa Fe basin

o        Florida DEP Storet - N03 and P in streams

o        GWL in all SRWMD

o        GWL in 22 counties from USGS

 

Surface water time series: comparing flow and water quality:

After careful analysis, these flow stations (NWIS) and Water Quality stations (2nd column) were selected and geographically/hydrologically matched for comparison.

Water Quality data from FL DEP STORET  and Flow Data from USGS

          Flow Metadata (.doc) – discusses the NWIS station selection and parameters etc.     

Water Quality Metadata (.doc) – discusses the STORET station selection and parameters and matching between river flow and wq stations.

Access Database (.mdb à .rar) – has time series data and shapefiles of USGS flow data and STORET water quality data for USGS gages paired to STORET by sample date (12/22/06) click here to download RAR utility http://www.rarlab.com/

 

Groundwater time series: levels and quality

Santa Fe groundwater quality and levels – raw data from SRWMD Nov 2006 (.xls à .zip)

Santa Fe Groundwater Quality data and Graphs (.xls - nov. 29)

 

 

Last updated by K. McKee 8-7-07