Author Archives: Laura Toran

Fake rain for a geophysical survey

We don’t wait for rain if we don’t have to:  a sprinkler was used to create a rain event to monitoring using various geophysical techniques.  Grad student Vince Carsillo and undergrad assistant Tyler Wong are measuring the rain before the … Continue reading

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Assessing streams & teaching 3rd graders

Grad student Chelsea Kanaley and undergrad assistant Hayley Dashnaw were busy this month initiating a stream assessment campaign.  They will characterize 6 reaches of the Wissahickon for geomorphology, grain size, embeddedness, light, algae cover, and bank vegetation.  They also took … Continue reading

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Ken Schlosser defends his MS thesis

Ken Schlosser successfully defended his MS thesis “Monitoring infiltration from natural storms using time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography”.  Congratulations Ken!  He will be returning to Weston Solutions in West Chester PA where he has been working on geophysical surveys to characterize … Continue reading

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Presentation at EPA

I gave a presentation at EPA Headquarters this month as part of the webinar on STAR Performance and Effectiveness of Green Infrastructure Stormwater Management Approaches in the Urban Context: A Philadelphia Case Study Progress Review.  My talk summarized monitoring strategies … Continue reading

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Hormones in karst springs

Grad student Jim Berglund, undergrad Rachel Crowley, and I designed a sampling program for hormones in karst springs near Valley Creek just east of Philadelphia. We sampled springs varying distances from septic systems and roads, as well as in Valley … Continue reading

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PennDOT reporting

This has been a busy month for the PennDOT project on the I-95 corridor.  All of the co-PIs are writing progress reports about our monitoring of plants, stormflow, and baseline water levels and water chemistry.  Postdoc Rob Rossi and I … Continue reading

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Well-instrumented stream

We have 46 data loggers on the Wissahickon as of April 2017.  That is one well instrumented stream!  Postdoc Sarah Ledford and I also created a web site to share data with collaborators:  http://sites.temple.edu/wissdata

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Geopath activity for undergrads

This month saw a lot of projects for the Geopath project to help students enhance their preparation for careers: college approval of a new HAZWOPER course and associated certificate first set of internship applications sent to employers career night where … Continue reading

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Second postdoc, Rob Rossi, arrives

Dr. Rob Rossi, PhD from University of Pittsburgh, arrived March 13 (just in time for that snow day mentioned in the previous post).  He is working with Rob Ryan and me on modeling and monitoring in the Wissahickon and at … Continue reading

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Snow day interrupts field work

Over spring break we were supposed to do hormone sampling in Valley Creek Springs, install data loggers on the Wissahickon, put the ISCO samplers back out in Central PA , and do an infiltration test at the science building (SERC) … Continue reading

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