Next CoGO meeting January 31st (Thursday) in Denver

The next Colorado Geomorphology Organization (CoGO) meeting is on Thursday, January 31, 2013 in Denver. We will be meeting at 7:00 pm on the campus of the University of Colorado at Denver (Room #3617 in the North Classroom Building - see attached map for building and parking lot locations).

Francis Rengers will be the speaker for the evening. Mr. Rengers is a PhD student at the University of Colorado in Boulder. His main research focus is the evolution of disturbed landscapes, in particular wildfire areas and gullies. He will be giving a talk titled: Using Terrestrial LiDAR to Explore Post-Wildfire Erosion.

Abstract:
The Fourmile Canyon wildfire started on September 6, 2010 and was contained on September 13, 2010. During these few days it became one of the costliest fires in Colorado history, with $217 million in damages. This talk will focus on the post-wildfire erosional response following the Fourmile Canyon wildfire. The objective of our study was to understand the centimeter to meter scale spatial distribution of erosion on a hillslope following a wildfire. We wondered if there would be uniform erosion or distinct erosional patters, and how different hydrological events would influence erosion. Our study site is a hillslope plot in a zero-order basin that experienced a high-severity burn during the Fourmile Canyon wildfire. We used terrestrial LiDAR to collect centimeter scale topography of the field site between hydrologic events. This technique allows fine scale analysis of the spatial distribution of erosion. We found that erosion is typically concentrated in topographic swales, and that erosional response changes with hydrological forcing and the change in surface material following a wildfire.

We will be meeting prior to the talk for dinner at Euclid Hall (1317 14th St) in Denver at 5:30 pm. We will walk from the restaurant to the North Classroom building at UCD for the talk at 7pm. If you plan on coming for dinner, please let us know so we can make reservations [coloradogeomorph @ gmail.com].

Next Meeting: November 14 - Hydrologic Impact of Wildfires

The next Colorado Geomorphology Organization (CoGO) meeting is on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 in Denver.  We will be meeting at 7:00 pm on the campus of the University of Colorado at Denver (Room #3523 in the North Classroom Building - see attached map for building and parking lot locations). 

Ian Paton will be the speaker for the evening. Ian Paton is a Senior Water Resources Engineer with Wright Water Engineers in Denver, where he has worked for over 12 years.  He has a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Colorado, a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control and a Certified Floodplain Manager.  He has worked on post-fire projects in both California and Colorado and most recently worked on the Fourmile Canyon burn area west of Boulder, where he was the Project Manager in charge of developing post-fire hydrologic models and developing measures to mitigate debris flows  He will be speaking about the hydrologic impacts of wildfires, with a case study from the Fourmile Canyon burn area.

We will be meeting prior to the talk for dinner at Euclid Hall (1317 14th St) in Denver at 5:30 pm.  We will walk from the restaurant to the North Classroom building at UCD for the talk at 7pm. If you plan on coming for dinner, please let me know so I can make reservations. 

Also, please mark your calendars for the Spring 2013 events:

March 6, 2013 (Wednesday) in Fort Collins at CSU - Speaker:  Dr. Lee MacDonald.

May 4, 2013 (Saturday) - Field trip led by Dave Rosgen to a stream restoration in progress in the Hayman burn area.

Next Meeting: September 27th - Adaptation in River Management

The next Colorado Geomorphology Organization meeting is on Thursday, September 27, 2012 in Denver.  We will be meeting at 7:00pm on the campus of the University of Colorado at Denver (Room #3523 in the North Classroom Building). 

Herve Piegay will be the speaker for the evening.  Herve Piegay is the Director of Research at CNRS (National Center of Scientific Research) at the University of Lyon, France.  His talk is titled:

"Adaptation in river management : what can we learn from human perception?"

We will be meeting prior to the talk for dinner at Euclid Hall (1317 14th St) in Denver at 5:30 pm.  We will walk from the restaurant to the North Classroom building at UCD for the talk at 7pm. 

Next Talk May 23, 2012 Physical Models for Fluvial Systems

For the May 23 Colorado Geomorphology Organization meeting, Mitch Peters of ALDEN will be presenting a talk and discussion on Physical Modeling at ALDEN.  He will give a brief background of ALDEN (a Holden, Mass based Engineering company dating back to the 1890s).  General physical modeling will be discussed showing examples which illustrate the range of physical modeling that ALDEN provides, and larger scale long-term models featuring sedimentation components will be presented as well.  The discussion will wrap-up with a description of recent computational modeling efforts and how they compliment the physical modeling work.  We anticipate this to be an interactive session with plenty of opportunities for questions and answers.

Mr. Peters is a Professional Engineer with over 20 years of working experience on diverse water resources, stormwater, hydraulic and sedimentation engineering, power production, and environmental impact evaluation projects.  His work has largely been focused on computational river mechanics as applied to environmental and sedimentation impact studies on a wide range of riparian projects.  He has utilized extensive one-, two-, and three- dimensional CFD models to provide flow field visualization and quantification of design parameters for projects throughout the US and abroad. 

Mitch currently works for ALDEN in Fort Collins, Colorado and is a Colorado State University graduate with a B.S in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Hydraulic Engineering.

Next Talk February 16, 2012

Large Dams, Small Dams or No Dams
Speaker: Dr. George Annandale, Principal at Golder Associates Inc.

The construction, operation and decommissioning of dams used for water supply and power generation are controversial. In this talk Dr. Annandale will mainly focus on the issue of sustainable fresh water supply from rivers. He indicates where in the world it is necessary to construct large dams and where small dams or even no dams may suffice to reliably and sustainably supply fresh water from rivers. He will demonstrate that climate change will require increased storage to maintain water supply at desired levels of reliability. By making use of a case study it will be illustrated that the number of suitable sites where dams can be built to reliably supply water is limited and that reservoir sedimentation management is necessary to indefinitely maintain reservoir storage and sustainably supply water to current and future generations of man. It is concluded that economic evaluation techniques, environmental requirements and engineering design norms need to change to ensure sustainable supply of fresh water in a reliable manner.

Next Meeting November 17, 2011

Dr. Brian Ebel will be speaking on “Hydrologic Response After the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Wildfire”. Dr. Ebel is a Mendenhall Fellow at the USGS.

ABSTRACT:

Wildfire is one of the most significant disturbance regimes in the Rocky Mountains and can drastically alter hydrologic and geomorphologic processes. Flash floods and debris flows are known post-wildfire hazards to human lives and the built environment, yet process-based understanding of these events has proven elusive. This talk will present a synopsis of ongoing U.S. Geological Survey studies within the area burned by the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire near Boulder, Colorado. The primary objective of this work is quantification of changes in hydrologic states, properties, and fluxes following wildfire using field measurements, laboratory characterization, and numerical simulation.

Next Meeting Saturday, September 17th at Confluence Park

The CoGO Fall Fieldtrip will be happening this Saturday, September 17^th. The field trip will take place at Confluence Park in Denver, and will be led by Rick McLaughlin whose firm designed the park. Confluence Park is used for kayaking recreation, and is also utilized by the public as a natural asset. Rick will be discussing how they designed the kayak park, the geomorphic elements of the design, and their efforts to minimize flood risks.

We will meet at the Starbucks at REI in downtown Denver at 9:30 AM. See this map http://g.co/maps/dgnrx for directions. Parking will be problematic, so make sure to plan ahead on this. REI parking is for REI customers only, so we suggest that you try to park somewhere on Platte Street, 15^th street, or at the Aquarium (which is pay parking). Saturday is the REI member garage sale, at 10 am, so expect that there may be a long line outside of the door. We will be meeting outside the Starbucks, and will be walking over to the river to discuss the design from there (so if you are late you will find us near the river).