01 / Contract Profile

80NSSC23K0575 Federal Contract Award

Agency code 8000

THIS NOI DESCRIBES PROPOSED RESEARCH TO CONDUCT HIGH-FIDELITY MEASUREMENTS OF SURFACE WATER ELEVATIONS AND STREAM DISCHARGE FOR SWORD RIVERS IN SOUTHERN CHILE. THESE FREE-FLOWING RIVERS ARE HIGHLY VARIABLE TOPOGRAPHICALLY. THE RIO PETROHUE (41 S) DRAINS A NATURALLY FORMED LAKE AND FLOWS TO THE ESTUARY ROUGHLY 30KM DOWNSTREAM. OVER ITS COURSE THE RIO PETROHUE CHANGES FROM A NATURAL LAKE, TO A SERIES OF CATARACTS, CONSISTENT GRADIENT RAPIDS (10 TO 15M KM -1), AND FINALLY INTO TIDALLY INFLUENCED LOW-GRADIENT WATERS. THE SECOND STUDY AREA FOCUSES ON THE RIO CRUCE AND RIO CALLE-CALLE. ORIGINATING IN A SIMILAR TOPOGRAPHY AS THE RIO PETROHUE, THE CONFLUENCE OF THESE TWO RIVERS AT THE CITY OF VALDIVIA (39 S) REPRESENTS THE SECOND LARGEST VOLUMETRIC DISCHARGE IN CHILE. DESPITE THEIR ANNUAL DISCHARGE, RELIABLE ESTIMATES OF VOLUMETRIC DISCHARGE DO NOT EXIST FOR THESE SHORT, BUT LARGE VOLUME RIVERS. FLOODING IN VALDIVIA (POP ~150,000) IS A RECURRING PROBLEM COMPOUNDED BY URBANIZATION, WETLAND LOSS AND RISING SEA LEVELS. THESE SURFACE AND DISCHARGE MEASUREMENTS ARE INTENDED TO SUPPORT THE CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION OF SWOT. OUR PROPOSED RIVERS ARE FREE FLOWING, STEEP, AND CHARACTERIZED BY HIGHLY VARIABLE GRADIENTS. WE WILL AUGMENT WATER SURFACE AND DISCHARGE CALCULATIONS BY ANALYZING THE SUB-GRID VARIABILITY OF A SWOT PIXEL (~10KM) WITH THE GOAL OF OPTIMIZING SLOPE CALCULATION ALGORITHMS FOR SWOT. FROM A SOCIAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE, WE WILL COLLABORATE WITH CHILENO STUDENTS AND SCIENTISTS TO DEVELOP THEIR SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY AND WHILE ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CONCERNS REGARDING FLOODING.