Cleveland High (35)

The Cleveland High team (#35) is from Rio Rancho. This year they've submitted a project titled Modeling Changes In Aquifer Water Levels.

Proposal
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_proposal1112.php?team_id=35

The Southwestern United States have experienced periods of drought throughout history. As human populations increase, the question of water availability for survival becomes critical. Therefore, modeling the rate of ground water resource use, opposed to recharge is valuable information for city planners and state governments, to use as the future unfolds. The goal of this project is to accurately model the rate of change in the Rio Grande Aquifers due to the imbalance between the rates of discharge and recharge. This project is important because New Mexico, especially large cities, most of the water is produced by aquifers. If we can accurately model the aquifers and show the change in the water levels, then this model could be used to predict future water level problems with the aquifers, such as drought. We plan to use NetLogo to model this, considering how NetLogo is very useful to model changes in the environment.

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=35

Modeling Changes in Aquifer Water-Levels in New Mexico Due to the Imbalance Between Discharge and Recharge Team 1025 problem definition The Southwestern United States have experienced periods of drought throughout history. As human populations increase, the question of water availability for survival becomes critical. Therefore, modeling the rate of ground water resource use, opposed to recharge is valuable information for city planners and state governments, to use as the future unfolds. The goal of this project is to accurately model the rate of change in the Rio Grande Aquifers due to the imbalance between the rates of discharge and recharge. This project is important because in New Mexico most of the water use, especially in large cities, is provided by aquifers. If we can accurately model the aquifers and show the change in the water levels, then the model could be used to predict future water available from current aquifers. We plan to use NetLogo to model this problem, because net logo provides instant visual feed back to the user. Progress to date We have found many variables that affect the rate of recharge. They are “precipitation and irrigation-return recharge”. The variables that effect discharge are evapotranspiration, especially from “Phreatophyte” (a deep rooted plant), surface water evaporation, and withdraw from wells ” (USGS GROUND WATER ATLAS of the UNITED STATES). We are planning to use a population growth model to keep track of the aquifer level. At the moment, we have decided to focus on five main variables; rainfall, rate of evapotranspiration, rate of ground absorption, human withdrawal, and human recharge. What we need to do In our planed population growth model, we will apply the main five variables (rainfall, rate evapotranspiration, rate of ground absorption, human withdrawal, and human recharge) into the rates of recharge and discharge. We have found real world variables, to the San Luis Valley; we still need to find the variables to the rest of the area, above the aquifer. "HA 730-C Rio Grande Aquifer System Text." USGS Publications Warehouse. USGS. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. . López, Daniel H., Peter A. Scholle, and Peggy S. Johnson. "Aquifer Mapping in." Geoinfo.nmt.edu. New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resourses. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. . "WATER RESOURCES ASSESSMENT 2001." Geology and Major Aquifers. NEW MEXICO, 2001. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. .

Team Members

 * Louis Taylor
 * Benjamin Fowler
 * patrick McPherson
 * Korbyn Spooner

Sponsoring Teacher
Debra Loftin

Interim Comments
Introduction

Hello,

My name is Dennis Trujillo a Physics and Mechanical Engineering student at New Mexico State University, and previous intern at Los Alamos National Labs. See the biography listed on my User Page. If there are any questions relative toward your project feel free to contact me at dptru10@nmsu.edu.

Progress

Based on your report it seems some progress has been made relative to conducting research in your given field. This is evident through a general knowledge displayed in your report, although few external references are listed, please fix this. Further research would be great as well. There is a general problem statement and means of addressing this problem defined however you provide little in terms of defining whether you have working code. There is mention of modelling with Netlogo, this is a good approach given your particular problem and current approach. Please define however your method for solving the problem; will turtles be defined and made to interact in order to show the effect of their interaction (i.e. water supply sources or deminishers interacting with environment)?

Mentors

From your page it seems you don't have a listed mentor, if necessary the Challenge might be able to recommend someone who might be of help in terms of modelling your particular problem or the physics in occurence (consult@challenge.nm.org). Likewise I would be happy to provide recommendations.

References

In general you would benefit from adding additional references; there is a single reference through USGS which is good however if more research were completed it might provide inferences relative to better modelling your project or considering fators which might have an impact on the aquifer in addition to the variables you listed. Please conduct further reseach in order to better understand the phenomenon you are considering.

Model

The model you are trying to construct should visually demonstrate the effectt of certain sources or deminishers on an aquifer, there is little mention of how you plan to do this however. A better means of defining how you intend to solve your problem or express your model is necessary. Likewise if able it would be great to statistics relative to replenish rate of the aquifer in certain conditions, deminsh rate given an object removing water, and what effect a population of a certain number might have on these rates in consideration.