WCHRS Facilities
The Western Carolina Hydrologic Research Station (WCHRS) is located on the campus of 91女神 in Cullowhee, North Carolina.
There are four study areas, including three main sites (Cullowhee Creek, Long Branch, and Gribble Gap) and a fourth site, upper Long Branch, which has less instrumentation but serves as a reference, natural site. In contrast to the rest of the research station, Upper Long Branch is completely forested, has had minimally logging activity over the past 100 years, and was likely never logged extensively.
- Gribble Gap
- Long Branch
- Cullowhee Creek
- 3 primary sites with groundwater multiple well cluster
- 12 groundwater well nests (2-5 wells); 45 total
- Wells depths: ~1-7.6 m; Well screens: 0.3 - 1.5m
- 6 stream gages; one also collects turbidity, pH, & conductivity
- 9 soil moisture sites on 3 slopes
- 3 rain gauges
Slope Hydrology
Most of the groundwater wells are in clusters (nest) with three wells installed to different depths: shallow (s), intermediate (i), and deep (d). The station includes a wide variety of hydrologic equipment past groundwater wells鈥攆rom stream gages to soil moisture probes.
Slope hydrology is monitored at three locations, two in the Gribble Gap basin and one in upper Long Branch. The general equipment design to study slope hydrology is shown in the schematic 'Instrumentation for Slope Hydrology'. These sites are especially important for groundwater recharge studies.
Research Facility Locations
Explore our research locations in depth by using our interactive map. Each layer on the map includes images and details pertaining to that location and specific research.
Download the Google Maps KMZ file
