Contributor

Andrew Quicksall

Subject Area

Civil Engineering

Abstract

Socioeconomic growth and stability in rural regions of the United States where agriculture is the dominant industry are highly reliant on access to sufficient surface water supplies. The water quantity crisis experienced worldwide in recent years has introduced questions about how to best maintain the quality of our remaining resources. Ensuring adequate access to drinking and irrigation water mandates that we protect existing surface water sources and anticipate future threats to quality. The impact of climate change on surface water quality is not spatially uniform, introducing the need to study the water-atmosphere-land system comprehensively.

This research aims to study the impact of environmental variability on climate-surface water interactions Taos County, New Mexico. This county contains three distinct physiographic regions, each with varied elevations, land cover types, and geologies. This analysis explores the relationships present between climate and water quality in each region. The objectives of this study are as follow: (1) characterize the climate of Taos County, New Mexico; (2) describe the relationships present between climate and dissolved water chemistry/carbonate mineral stability; and (3) forward model the impact of future climate trends on surface water quality.

Degree Date

Summer 7-31-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Advisor

Andrew Quicksall

Number of Pages

125

Format

.pdf

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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