Legacy Data in the Minnesota Spring Inventory

Proceedings of the 15th Multidisciplinary Conference on Sinkholes and the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst and the 3rd Appalachian Karst Symposium, 2018

Minnesota karst related information has been made electronically accessible through three interrelated databases, the Minnesota Karst Feature Database (KFD), the Minnesota Groundwater Tracing Database (MGTD), and the Minnesota Spring Inventory (MSI). Collectively, this information is a significant asset for use in water resource planning and management in the State of Minnesota. The KFD and MGTD focus primarily on the karst regions of southeastern Minnesota while MSI has extensive coverage within the karst regions of Minnesota, but also extends to all other areas of the state. Reporting associated with four decades of collaborative work pertaining to karst is also available via the Dye Trace Reports Collection on the University of Minnesota Library's Digital Conservancy.

Sinkholes and the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Multidisciplinary Conference, 2015

day range in all of the bedrock aquifers tested. The width and duration of tails of breakthrough curves in these conduit flow systems vary with the bedrock aquifers. The Galena Group has Full Widths at Half Maximums (FWHMs) of a few hours and tails that are down to background in a few days. The Prairie du Chien Group also has FWHMs of hours but has tails that continue for weeks. The St. Lawrence and Lone Rock Formations have FWHMs of months to years.

Journal of Hydrology, 2007

A study was conducted to examine if and how streamflow in the state of Minnesota has varied over the period of available records. Streamflow records from 36 USGS gauging stations in five major river basins of Minnesota were studied. Seven annual streamflow parameters were extracted (up to the year 2002) and analyzed: mean annual flow, 7-day low flow in winter, 7-day low flow in summer, peak flow due to snow melt runoff, peak flow due to rainfall as well as flood large flood durations (number of days with flow rates greater than the mean plus one or two standard deviations, respectively).

2005

Pigeon Point lies along the Sheyenne River in the west-central part of the Sheyenne Delta Aquifer, southeastern North Dakota. Groundwater discharges along a north-facing bluff at Pigeon Point and forms springs, seeps, and fens \u27hosting atypical boreal species. The Nature Conservancy owns 231 ha at Pigeon Point, a tract that also includes the largest and least disturbed spring-fed stream in the region as well as some of the finest riparian forest in the state. In response to possible future groundwater diversion, the objectives of this study are: 1) to characterize the Sheyenne Delta Aquifer up-gradient from Pigeon Point, 2) to define the recharge capture zone for the springs and seeps, and 3) to estimate the wetland water budget. Nineteen new and existing water table wells were used to map the configuration of the water table above Pigeon Point. The capture zone is about 3.5 km at its widest and extends southward with decreasing hydraulic gradient to an indeterminate distance. Fl...

Scientific Investigations Report, 2016

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Nature Precedings, 2009

ABSTRACT Sustainable management of water resources requires quantitative description of spatio-temporal variability, and the map is a universal medium to reflect the spatio-temporal distribution of water resources. The long history of cartography and the recent digital revolution have culminated in the Google Earth web portal with unprecedented frequency of daily use. System analysis with combination of a cyber model of landscapes, multidimensional methods of data analysis, and GIS cartography of water resources in Minnesota started in 1996 with support from faculty of Department of Geology University of Minnesota-Duluth and has continued ever since. The “Water Resource Sustainability” project, funded by the Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources (2007-2009) was the most resent phase of the research. Research using river flow monitoring data available from USGS for Minnesota and bordering areas of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin was completed for the territory. Analysis of landscapes properties for watersheds taken from maps - Bailey’s Ecological Provinces, Soil Taxonomy Order, topographic characteristics (average altitude, average watershed slope, total, intermittent, and perennial drainage density), thickness of quaternary sediments, and Hydrogeological Hierarchical Regionalization - revealed control of geological conditions on water resource variability. The trends of interannual patterns and seasonality of river runoff depend on bedrock type and presence or absence of thick depositions of quaternary sediments in NE and SE of research territory and also on thickness of quaternary sediments in NW. The same parts of territory have main differences in annual and February monthly yields for interval of observations 1955-1978. The numbers of river discharge yield reach difference from 5 to 20 times. The control over water resource distribution and variability belongs to geological boundaries for types of bedrocks, lithology, and thickness of quaternary sediments. Groups of watersheds recognized by mutual landscape properties (geological conditions) with statistically proven influence on hydrologic characteristics provide a basis for regionalization and creation of a water resource map. The regionalization on the water resource map opens the way to study and climate change for regional level.

Hybrid deterministic and stochastic hydrostratigraphic modeling of a complex glacial aquifer system 11:00 11:15 15 Discussion

This study was funded by the Water Resources Research Council at the the University of Minnesota. It investigates the distinct elements of the hydrologic cycle and the related information available from government agencies for each item. It then performed a case study analysis of the Swan River watershed in Itasca County, MN. using this water resources information in the Minnesota Land Management Information System of computerized land and water use information.

2012

Cl/Br ratio data. This source of contamination of the groundwater can be expected to decrease as the mining and redevelopment replaces agriculture as the dominant land use in the area.