Lamprey River Hydrologic Observatory (LRHO)

Urbanization and intensive agriculture have been shown to have negative impacts on water quality, but the impacts of suburbanization are less well known. In New England, the pressure of suburbanization is large and land use patterns are often rapidly changing with interspersed agriculture, active forest management and human habitation. To address the effects of suburbanization on water quality, we established a long-term study of the Lamprey River basin (479 km²) in SE New Hampshire in 1999. The entire Lamprey River basin is referred to as the Lamprey River Hydrologic Observatory (LRHO) and serves as a platform to study the hydrology and biogeochemistry of a suburban basin. The LRHO is used as a focal point for student and faculty research, teaching and outreach in the Departments of Natural Resources, Earth Science and Civil Engineering.

The Lamprey River Hydrologic Observatory provides an ideal area to examine the impacts of suburbanization for many reasons. The LRHO is close enough to UNH that it can be intensively studied by faculty, students and researchers in several departments. There are also a number of current water resources issues occurring in the basin such as with water withdrawals and transfers for public drinking water supply, wastewater disposal, numerous dams, low dissolved oxygen levels, arsenic contamination of groundwater, and pressures from population growth. The LRHO covers several towns and is primarily located in Rockingham county where a 53% growth in population is expected from 1998 to 2020 (Sundquist and Stevens 1999). Currently, the Lamprey watershed has an overall population density of 53 people km^-2 and is 68% forested, but this varies throughout the basin.

A large portion of the Lamprey River Hydrologic Observatory project is funded by the Connecticut River Airshed-Watershed Consortium (CRAWC). CRAWC is a consortium of environmental research faculty from the four land-grant universities in the four states, which share the Connecticut River basin and was formed to study the transport of contaminants along interfacial pathways. The  University of New Hampshire is responsible for studying the interface between the land surface and groundwater.  Specific UNH objectives are to: 1.) develop the LRHO infrastructure; 2.) develop regression models that link groundwater and surface water quality to landscape characteristics quality 3) document changes in contaminant concentrations along flow paths 4.) apply regression models developed for the LRHO to sub-basins of the Connecticut River watershed.  For more information, visit the CRAWC website at www.crawc.org.