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Nipissing Watershed Analysis Centre (NWAC)


Nipissing Watershed Analysis Center (NWAC)

The facilities (rooms-R219-R222) of the NWAC include field, laboratory and computing infrastructure supporting catchment-based environmental monitoring, laboratory analysis, computational analysis and modeling. The lab is supported by CRC and CFI funding awarded to Dr. April James.

WAC Catchment Monitoring Network
The catchment monitoring network supports the spatiotemporal monitoring of hydrologic response from catchments under varying environmental conditions. Field equipment includes a meteorological station, three streamflow monitoring station packages (Isco auto-sampler, raingage, pressure transducer, YSI EC/Temperature probe), groundwater recording (water level meters, capacitance rods) and sampling instrumentation (peristaltic pump, drive-point piezometers), soil moisture monitoring probes and lysimeters. Field and lab-based equipment support the sampling for a range of environmental tracers of water movement and sources within the landscape (temperature, EC, stable isotopes of 18O/16O, and D/H). Field infrastructure includes basic hydrometric equipment (pygmy meter outfit with Aquacalc 5000 guelph permeameter, soil auger kit) and transportation (pick-up truck) for field installation and maintenance.

WAC Water Isotope Lab
This laboratory provides in-house capacity to analyses water samples (liquid and vapor) for stable isotope ratios of 18O/16O, and D/H with a Picarro isotope liquid water system. Equipped with a Millipore DI water purification system and cold storage (fridge, freezer), the lab also supports preparation and storage of field samples for additional off-site analyses (e.g. cation, anion, trace element, TOC).

WAC Computing Facility
The Watershed Analysis Center provides computational infrastructure (five computing stations) to support data analysis, catchment modeling and requisite spatial analysis (i.e. GIS). A rugged field notebook supports field-based downloading and programming capabilities. Computing stations are outfitted with floating software licenses include MATLAB and ArcGIS and a range of freeware supporting catchment modeling.




 
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