News Release, Kansas Geological Survey, Aug. 24, 1998
The award, given for the best applied research paper in 1997, was presented to Survey researcher Marios Sophocleous for a study of the Great Bend Prairie aquifer, a water-bearing underground rock formation in south-central Kansas.
Sophocleous and Survey graduate students Alan Stern and Sam Perkins analyzed the flood's impact on recharge, water that enters the aquifer. The ample flood data allowed them to measure recharge using three different methods. They also demonstrated that a previously developed method for estimating recharge works well under extreme as well as normal conditions. The method was developed by Sophocleous in multi-year study of recharge of the Great Bend Prairie aquifer.
The award, the ASCE Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering 1997 Best Practice Paper Award, was presented at the International Water Resources Engineering Conference in Memphis in early August.
The paper, "Hydrologic Impact of Great Flood of 1993 in South-central Kansas," was published in the July-August 1996 issue of the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering.