At the core of the Edwards Aquifer Authority is the science and research we engage in daily. This work provides us with the basis for understanding and insights that are vitally necessarily in planning the future wellbeing of the Edwards Aquifer. Here are some of the opportunities in hardware that currently present themselves.
Monitoring/research Equipment & Computer Systems
In addition to the weather stations, funding for various monitoring/research equipment purchases would accelerate research in key areas, including land management practices throughout the Aquifer Region. These key pieces of equipment are meant for field use, and in-house. They range from Evaporative Transpiration Towers, to stream gauges, and new computer systems to more effectively analyze the millions of points of data we collect daily.
- Cluster computer – desired to take tremendous amounts of data captured from monitoring stations and perform various analytical correlation studies.
- Research monitoring wells
- Evaporative Transpiration Measuring Stations
- Steam gauges – to measure stream water flows in the protected areas
Weather Stations
- We currently have 22 stations throughout the region and are attempting to place five more when the funding makes itself available.
- Moreover, in addition to rainfall, the new weather stations are envisioned to measure and display (via internet) temperature, solar radiation, soil moisture, wind speed. (current stations collect the same parameters).
- We have an additional 74 rain gauges, that only collect rainfall.