Kevin Donegan '07 (Oneida, New York) applied for and received an Emerson Foundation grant to work on a summer research project in geosciences with Associate Professor of Geology Todd Rayne. Donegan's project is titled "Determining the special and temporal variability of recharge in the Sauquoit Creek Basin (Oneida County)."
The land within the basin has seen a change in land use over the last decade from predominantly agricultural to suburban and commercial, Donegan writes in his project proposal. These changes, which are accompanied by an increase in impermeable surfaces such as roads, sidewalks and parking lots, could have a major impact on ground-water resources in the communities that are part of the basin. Donegan will be focusing on the rate of recharge, or the quantity of water that falls as precipitation and infiltrates through the soil to replenish ground water. Because the new paved surfaces are much less permeable to water than agricultural fields, recharge rate in the Sauquoit Creek Basin could decline and result in a decrease in available ground water, which is used in some communities for drinking water and in domestic wells.
Donegan will be using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software to study recharge. "There is usually not a good way of measuring [recharge] on a smaller scale, but this model allows us look at it on a much smaller scale," said Donegan. Using the GIS, Donegan will create a hydrogeologic computer model of the Sauquoit Creek watershed to predict the effects of future development on recharge rates throughout the watershed. "We will alter the land use inputs into the model to examine the effects of future residential and commercial development in the watershed," writes Donegan in his proposal.
Donegan, a geosciences major at Hamilton, hopes to use some aspects of this research in his senior thesis during the upcoming academic year. "I have always been interested in hydrogeology, and [Professor Rayne] suggested this model [for research]," said Donegan. "I was looking for more career-related experience, to help decide if I want to be a working geoscientist."
-- by Laura Trubiano '07
