The SEPHAS Project focuses on the spatial and temporal scaling
of subsurface and landscape-interface environmental processes.
The near surface represents a critical interface between the bio, hydro and geospheres. Mass and energy movement across the surface influences the carbon, water, and biogeomchemical cycles. Many of these processes are monitored and characterized at one spatial scale and applied at a different scale. Better understanding of these fundamental processes has direct and immediate applications to many environmental issues such as climate change, water recharge, flooding, and contaminant transport.
SEPHAS is a research program which focuses on the scaling of subsurface and landscape-interface environmental processes. Scaling of environmental processes, defined as the transfer of knowledge from one spatial or temporal scale to another, is often hampered by natural heterogeneity which typically is not limited to the experimental scale. The disparity between measurement scale and scale of interest limits our ability to characterize environmental processes and how the processes interact with one another.
The inability to upscale or downscale influences research in areas of hydrology, biogeosciences, mathematical modeling, and global environmental change, in part because facilities that permit multi-scale environmental research are either rare or non-existent. Thus, limited data are available to test hypotheses or make meaningful predictions.
"Predictions of contaminant transport behavior at scales of interest to environmental managers is currently
problematic because of a general lack of understanding of both theoretical and applied approaches to
scaling environmental phenomenon."
National Academy of Sciences, 2000. Research Needs in Subsurface Science, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
