The proposed research is directed toward 1) identifying patterns of landscape properties including soil texture; vegetation and micro- and macro-topography and 2) determining the way in which these patterns influence hydrologic behavior of a semi-arid catchment in eastern Washington state. Because variations in these landscape properties occur at various scales, observations of the distributions will be made at scales ranging from field mapping to low-and high-altitude aerial photography. Spatial analysis techniques will be applied to mathematically characterize patterns in the distributions of the hydrology-affecting properties. Patterns at successive scales will then be superimposed in an effort to determine how the interacting processes and their scale dependencies reflect the basin hydrologic response. The distributions of the hydrology-affecting properties on the landscape will be correlated to measured hydrologic performance, emphasizing infiltration and soil moisture because runoff is rare in the region. It is expected that these combinations of patterns at various scales will be reflected in the dynamics of the hydrologic processes; including infiltration, evapotranspiration, runoff, and recharge. Description of landscape patterns and their properties at different scales, along with their relationship to hydrologic processes, should provide insight into the mechanisms by which landscape features and hydrologic processes interact.
