Yu Zhang

Mentors: William Shuster1, Hale Thurston1, Matthew Heberling2,

Kenneth Fritz2
1NRMRL, Cincinnati, OH; 2NERL, Cincinnati, OH

Effectiveness of best management practices in mitigating storm
Research Goals

•	Determine the processes controlling the differences in runoff response
characteristics of catchments.

•	Separate transient stream flow features due to rainfall variability from the
inherent difference in catchment physiology.

•	Develop process-based modeling framework for projecting the hydrologic
impacts of best management practices (BMPs) and the associated
uncertainties

Projects	n

I

Climate variability



Runoff
Model

w

i v

•	Examine climate variability of rainfall BMP
and establish the response
characteristics of neighboring
catchments independent of rainfall

•	Incorporate BMPs in
modeling frameworks and
determine the accuracy in
the model predictions by
comparing the model
results with observed
stream flow data

•	Characterize
uncertainties in the
projected impacts of BMPs
by incorporating climate
variability

Anticipated Outcomes

•	Physically based modeling framework for projecting the impacts of
BMPs with readily available GIS data as input

Guidelines for decision making concerning the BMPs given uncertainties
stemming from the variability and trends of climate

Impacts of BMPs?

-------