RESEARCH LANDSCAPES: Measuring Utah's Water with Beth Neilson

As concerns about water supply in the West have grown in recent years, the value of good water data has become more evident.
The latest USU Research Landscapes event, hosted September 12 in Salt Lake City, featured a discussion about current water data collection efforts in northern Utah. The presentation, titled “Measuring Utah’s Water: Lessons from the Logan River Observatory,” featured the observatory’s director, Dr. Bethany Neilson, presenting to a crowd of legislators, researchers, educators, and members of the public.
“Water in the West is limited and uncertain in the face of climate change,” Dr. Neilson said. "There are many competing interests. This includes agriculture versus development versus environmental requirements.”
The Great Salt Lake, a terminal lake, also demands additional water in northern Utah, Dr. Neilson said.
Part of the challenge of managing these different interests, Dr. Neilson explained, is the limited understanding of water availability.
“We can’t manage what we don’t measure,” she said. “We really need to know where water is and how much water we have.”
Enter the Logan River Observatory. The observatory is a government-funded research center at Utah State University tasked with monitoring the Logan River and collecting data. They establish and monitor gauging stations throughout the river to collect data about water levels, quality, temperature, and more.
Once the Logan River Observatory collects measurements, the small team is responsible for distributing them and educating individuals who will do additional work with the data. The observatory works with other researchers, in addition to local, state, and federal agencies, to share data. The observatory is tasked with helping those entities make data-informed decisions about projects involving water.
During the presentation, Dr. Neilson showed how the observatory’s measurement efforts have clarified how water moves through a hydrologic system. She also shared numerous examples of how findings from the observatory were used to inform local leaders and to shape how decisions were made.