Great Salt Lake Basin Hydrologic Observatory

Tractability

The Great Salt Lake Basin is tractable—the major attributes of the basin can be captured with relatively low-density monitoring to the west of the Great Salt Lake and more concentrated hydrologic and atmospheric monitoring to the east.

The three major watersheds to the east of the GSL (the Bear River, Weber River, and Utah Lake Watersheds) provide the vast majority of water, sediment, and contaminant flux to the Great Salt Lake. They also feature considerable fine-scale spatial variability in precipitation, temperature, snowpack characteristics, and surface fluxes compared to the desert west of the Great Salt Lake. Hence, the major attributes of the Great Salt Lake Basin can be captured with relatively low-density monitoring to the west of the lake and more concentrated hydrologic and atmospheric monitoring to the east.

The following figure shows the annual discharge to the Great Salt Lake from its major contributors. The majority of the surface inflow to the Great Salt Lake comes from the Bear River watershed, followed by the Weber River watershed and the Utah Lake watershed.

Click to enlarge

Source: USGS. 2002. Water-Quality Assessment of the Great Salt Lake Basins, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming - Environmental Setting and Study Design. U.S. Geological Survey. Water Resources Investigations Report 02-4114. National Water-Quality Assessment Program.

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TRACTABILITY. The Great Salt Lake Basin is tractable—the major attributes of the basin can be captured with relatively low-density monitoring to the west of the Great Salt Lake and more concentrated hydrologic and atmospheric monitoring to the east.