C. E. Hatch

University of Massachusetts Amherst | UMass Amherst · Department of Geosciences

One of the key metrics for the effectiveness of wetland restoration is whether a restored wetland behaves hydrologically like a natural wetland. Restoration is designed to increase the water residence time on the surface of the site in order to capture and process nutrients, mitigate the impact of local flooding and drought, and provide a habitat f...

Freshwater wetlands are groundwater-dependent ecosystems that require groundwater for saturation, for wetland plants and creatures, for maintenance of wetland soils, and thermal buffering. With worldwide wetland area in decline for decades if not centuries, finding and restoring wetlands provides enormous ecosystem and public benefits, yet so often...

Fluvial geomorphic risks are rarely incorporated into and mitigated by river flood management in the United States. Identifying where such risks exist is difficult and there is much scholarly debate on how best to do it. We incorporate this debate into a stakeholder‐driven process to assess its viability in translational fluvial geomorphology. Focu...

Learning from the Restoration of Wetlands on Cranberry Farmland: Preliminary Benefits Assessment

We define the river process corridor (RPC) as the area adjacent to a river that is likely to affect and be affected by river and floodplain processes. Here we present a novel approach for delineating the RPC that utilizes widely available geospatial data, can be applied uniformly across broad and multi-scalar spatial extents, requires relatively lo...

Peatland environments provide important ecosystem services including water and carbon storage, nutrient processing and retention, and wildlife habitat. However, these systems and the services they provide have been degraded through historical anthropogenic agricultural conversion and dewatering practices. Effective wetland restoration requires inco...

The role of geomorphic processes in flood risk is understudied in the management context. In the United States, only nine states have explored this role and only two—Vermont and Washington State—have developed and implemented legally binding geomorphic-based flood risk management; both rely on the concept of geomorphic assessment, through which flu...

In New England (United States) climate change models forecast increasingly intense, frequent floods. Communities in this region are already experiencing these changes, along with the negative consequences associated with them, such as inundation, erosion, natural habitat destruction, and property damage. As it is in many places around the world, ag...

Peatland environments provide important ecosystem services including water and carbon storage, nutrient processing and retention, and wildlife habitat. However, these systems and the services they provide have been degraded through historical anthropogenic agricultural conversion and dewatering practices. Effective wetland restoration requires inco...

We evaluated the potential of a fiber optic cable connected to distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technology to withstand wildland fire conditions and quantify fire behavior parameters. We used a custom-made ‘fire cable’ consisting of three optical fibers coated with three different materials—acrylate, copper and polyimide. The 150-m cable was d...

This study demonstrated a new method for mapping high resolution (spatial: 1 m, and temporal: 1 hour) soil moisture by assimilating distributed temperature sensing (DTS) observed soil temperatures at intermediate scales. In order to provide robust soil moisture and property estimates, we first proposed an adaptive particle batch smoother algorithm...

Use of heat-as-a-tracer is a common method to quantify surface water-groundwater interactions (SW-GW). However, the method relies on assumptions likely violated in natural systems. Numerical studies have explored violation of fundamental assumptions such as heterogeneous streambed properties, two-dimensional groundwater flow fields and uncertainty...

Core Ideas Soil moisture sensors have varying accuracies that can be improved with calibration. In situ sensors require scaling to improve their representativeness of large areas. Soil moisture sensors in profile have decreasing ability to accurately represent the surface soil moisture. In situ soil moisture monitoring networks are critical to the...

This report aims to help New England’s communities and their residents, as well as the governments that serve them, to better deal with and adjust to river floods. It points to practical policy solutions at federal, state and regional levels that can support New England communities to become what we call river-smart.

the Snake Range in eastern Nevada, including the management of Great Basin National Park by the National Park Service, need to understand the potential extent of adverse effects to federally managed lands from nearby groundwater development. As a result, this study was developed (1) to attain a better understanding of aquifers controlling groundwat...

Groundwater–surface-water (GW-SW) interactions in streams are difficult to quantify because of heterogeneity in hydraulic and reactive processes across a range of spatial and temporal scales. The challenge of quantifying these interactions has led to the development of several techniques, from centimeter-scale probes to whole-system tracers, includ...

Distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technology offers a viable alternative for accurately measuring wildland fire intensity and distribution in real time applications. We conducted an experiment to test the use of DTS as an alternative technology to monitor prescribed fire temperatures in real time and across a broad spatial scale. The custom fib...

Statistical and heat budget methods for analyzing temperature dynamics of creeks are limited by the ability to resolve thermal processes and fine-grained thermal structures, respectively. Here we describe a hybrid method that identifies distinct thermal components in a stream's heat budget using only temperature data and an algorithm that employs m...

Experimental data will be used to illustrate how Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) can be used to study spatial and temporal variability in heat and moisture fluxes in the shallow subsurface. In DTS, fiber-optic cables are used as temperature sensors. Temperature can be measured at resolutions of 25cm to 1m along cables several kilometers in le...

Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) is presented as a novel experimental technique to monitor soil temperature, moisture and heat flux from the meter to kilometer scale. In DTS, fiber optic cables are used to measure temperature at a resolution of ~1m in cables up to 5km in length. Two strategies, Active and Passive DTS, can determine the soil th...

Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) allows for the nearly continuous measurement of temperature over both a spatial and temporal scale by use of standard fiber optic cables. Theoretically, measurement of temperature progression throughout a soil column can lead to estimates of bulk soil thermal properties. From these thermal properties, soil mois...

As part of the calibration and validation program for the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission, an ambitious intercomparison study was initiated to determine how soil moisture sensors vary with respect to measuring a long term in situ time series. The Marena Oklahoma In Situ Sensor Testbed (MOISST) was installed in May of 2010, with other in...

Fiber optic based temperature sensing has gained attention in the last 5 years for geophysical monitoring tasks. For hydrological applications, multi-scale observation of soil moisture and soil water is helpful to close the water balance and identify the processes that are controlling fluxes to the atmosphere and aquifers. In this paper we present...

The MOISST site in Central Oklahoma is home to over 200 soil moisture sensors to support the calibration and validation program of NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission. In October 2010, we installed fiber-optic cables along a 630m track at the site to make "Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS)" measurements at 5cm, 10cm and 15cm. DTS...

Streambed seepage can be predicted using an analytical solution to the one-dimensional heat transport equation to take advantage of the relationship between streambed thermal properties, seepage flux, and the amplitude ratio and phase shift associated with streambed temperature signals. This paper explores the accuracy of streambed-seepage velocity...

Distributed fiber-optic temperature sensing (DTS) of snow and ice has gained significant interest in recent years for its ability to continuously measure cryogenic temperatures over large spatial areas with high precision. In this work, we summarize several seasons of monitoring both basal snow temperatures and within-snowpack temperatures in the m...

In the early 1980's, water ``prospectors'' around the state of Nevada applied for groundwater rights on the fringes of large basins, predicting that population growth and diminishing resources from the Colorado River system would soon be insufficient to supply municipal from the south. Owners of senior water rights sought to quantify how groundwate...

The use of Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) for varying environmental applications has steadily increased in recent years. DTS directly provides a nearly continuous measurement of temperature over wide spatial and temporal scales by measuring Raman backscatter over standard fiber-optic cables. Theoretically, measurement of temperature progress...

We gauged and instrumented an 11.42-km long experimental reach of the Pajaro River, central coastal California, to determine rates of streambed seepage (loss and hyporheic exchange) using reach averaged and point specific methods. We used these data to assess changes in streambed hydraulic conductivity with time, as a function of channel discharge...

1] In recent years, applications of distributed temperature sensing (DTS) have increased in number and diversity. Because fiber‐optic cables used for DTS are typically sheathed in dark UV‐resistant materials, the question arises as to how shortwave solar radiation penetrating a water column influences the accuracy of absolute DTS‐derived temperatur...

Being a major driving force for snow metamorphism, thermal properties and temperature gradients in an alpine snow pack influence both, spatial distribution and temporal evolution of its stability throughout a winter season. In avalanche research and forecasting mainly weather station networks and models are employed for temperature-data collection...

The use of heat as a tracer of shallow groundwater movement has expanded rapidly in recent years. Several solutions to the advection-dispersion equation are commonly used to determine infiltration into the shallow subsurface using temperature data. One approach is based on the changes in amplitude and phase shift with depth in thermal time series d...

Temperature has long been used as an indicator of ecosystem health and suitability for aquatic species, particularly in sensitive areas crucial to the survival of declining important fish populations. Typically, temperature surveys are of long duration but very limited in spatial extent. In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to asse...

Overwinter Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) measurements of snow/soil interface temperatures as well as temperatures in the snowpack were conducted throughout 2009 at the CRREL/UCSB research site on Mammoth Mountain. Snow basal temperatures recorded along an 800m transect of varying aspect and slope were found to be insensitive to slope and as...

Groundwater in alpine headwater catchments provides a year-round water source that supplies residential and recreation development, and sustains riparian and aquatic ecosystems with stream baseflow. The age of groundwater in these systems has implications for predicting the impact of climate changes that may include an increase in the rain to snow...

The major ion chemistry of water from an 11.42-km reach of the Pajaro River, a losing stream in central coastal California, shows a consistent pattern of higher concentrations during the 2nd (dry) half of the water year. Most solutes are conserved during flow along the reach, but [NO3−] decreases by ~30% and is accompanied by net loss of channel di...

1] Raman spectra distributed temperature sensing (DTS) by fiber-optic cables has recently shown considerable promise for the measuring and monitoring of surface and near-surface hydrologic processes such as groundwater–surface water interaction, borehole circulation, snow hydrology, soil moisture studies, and land surface energy exchanges. DTS syst...

In recent years, distributed temperature sensing (DTS) has enjoyed steady increases in the number and diversity of applications. Because fiber optic cables used for DTS are typically sheathed in dark materials resistant to UV deterioration, the question arises of how shortwave solar radiation penetrating a water column influences the accuracy of ab...

Detailed knowledge of inflows and outflows in stream systems is crucial to understanding the hydrology of river basins and accurate assessment and management of water resources therein. Interaction between surface waters and groundwater can be accurately quantified using heat as a tracer, taking advantage of the naturally occurring thermal signal p...

We explored surface water - ground water (hyporheic) exchange processes in multiple reaches of two streams in central coastal California, the Pajaro River and Corralitos Creek, using 28 tracer discharge tests at flow rates of 100 to 1200 L/s. Many earlier studies have quantified hyporheic exchange in streams using tracer discharge testing, but most...

We evaluate downward streambed seepage in Corralitos Creek, a second-order stream in central coastal California, using differential gauging and time-series analysis of long-duration, streambed temperature records. Discharge and thermal data were collected throughout the water year at multiple locations along a 9.73-km experimental reach. Differenti...

Temperature is routinely collected as a water quality parameter, but only recently utilized as an environmental tracer of stream exchanges with ground water (Stonestrom and Constantz, 2003). In this paper, water levels and seasonal temperatures were used to estimate streambed hydraulic conductivities and water fluxes. Temperatures and water levels...

We use multiple methods simultaneously to characterize streambed seepage along an 11.42-km experimental reach of the Pajaro River, a strongly-losing stream in central coastal California, during the 2002-06 water years. Differential discharge values, measured directly and estimated using continuous stage gauges calibrated with rating curves, indicat...

The Pajaro River, central coastal California, consistently loses 0.2–0.4 m3/s of discharge along an 11.42-km experimental reach late in the water year, when discharge is ⩽4.5 m3/s. Channel loss occurs throughout this reach, but is greatest in magnitude near the bottom of the reach. Water isotopic data and other observations suggest that channel los...

1] We present a method for determining streambed seepage rates using time series thermal data. The new method is based on quantifying changes in phase and amplitude of temperature variations between pairs of subsurface sensors. For a reasonable range of streambed thermal properties and sensor spacings the time series method should allow reliable es...

Established methods for estimating seepage from streambed thermal methods, including the use of forward models, can be time consuming, generally include relatively short time periods, and may require independent determination or calibration of hydraulic properties. We apply a newly developed method for interpretation of streambed thermal data, usin...

The Sonoma County Water Agency extracts water from the alluvial aquifer adjacent to and beneath the Russian River via large-volume Ranney-type collector wells. To aid in this extraction, the stage of the river is increased approximately 3 meters by an inflatable dam. In addition, raising the dam allows water to be diverted into infiltration basins...

The interface between surface water and ground water in stream systems has been shown to exert strong control over the quality and quantity of waters at the surface and recharging to aquifers. We are investigating the removal of nitrate in a river draining the Pajaro Valley, a coastal, agriculturally-rich watershed that features elevated nitrate le...

Field observations at the Russian River Bank Filtration Facility in Sonoma County, California indicate that an unsaturated region exists below the streambed near two adjacent groundwater pumping wells located along the riverbank. Understanding the conditions that give rise to unsaturated flow below the streambed is critical for improving and optimi...

Textures and mineral assemblages of metamorphic rocks of the Tobacco Root Mountains are consistent with metamorphism of all rocks during the Big Sky orogeny (1.77 Ga) at relatively high pressure (P >1.0 GPa) followed by differential reequilibration on a clockwise P-T path at lower pressures (0.6-0.8 GPa). The highest pressures are documented by coa...

The interface between surface water and ground water in riparian zones influences the quality and quantity of waters moving between linked reservoirs. Microbial respiration along this interface, for example, can act as a sink for dissolved nitrate, organic carbon, oxygen, and sulfate. We are investigating the removal of nitrate in a river draining...

Heat has been used as a natural tracer in groundwater studies for decades to quantify surface water-groundwater (SW-GW) interactions. In this study we develop a new method that uses temperature records from multiple depths to estimate seepage rates independently. As daily temperature fluctuations propagate downward through streambed sediments, the...

The interface between surface water and ground water in riparian zones exerts a strong control over the quantity and quality of water moving between these coupled reservoirs. We have investigated the dynamics and impacts of surface water - ground water interaction, with an emphasis on nitrate loading and cycling, within Pajaro Valley, a coastal wat...

Heat has been used as a natural tracer for decades, generally using forward models to simulate thermal conditions within the stream and streambed. We are developing a new method for analysis of streambed thermal records from multiple depths to estimate seepage rates. This approach differs from those developed previously in that we use models of hea...

Both the measurement of temperature and the simulation of heat and water transport have benefited from significant recent advances in data acquisition and computer resources. This has afforded the opportunity for routine use of heat as a tracer in a variety of hydrological regimes. Heat is particularly well suited for investigations of stream/groun...

Typescript. Thesis (B.A. with departmental honors)--Amherst College, 1998. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110).