New award supports upgrade for unique SAFL experimental facility
The St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) was recently awarded funding from the 2020 Research Infrastructure Investment Program in the Office of the Vice President for Research. These awards facilitate interdisciplinary partnerships and strengthen University research infrastructure, and this award will benefit one of SAFL’s most publicly visible and distinctive experimental facilities – the Outdoor StreamLab (OSL).
The Outdoor StreamLab (OSL) is a unique research facility developed by the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) and the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED). The OSL is a 20 m x 60 m outdoor laboratory space adjacent to SAFL designed to conduct applied and basic research on stream and floodplain hydrology, geomorphology, and ecology. The OSL is located across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis. This publicly visible location enables direct and indirect public engagement in stream science. The public is able to see the space and the research happening in it from the popular Stone Arch Bridge, Water Power Park, and many other locations in downtown Minneapolis. Enhancing this facility will not only improve research outcomes for the researchers using it but enables the public to see UMN research progress.
The OSL was constructed in 2008 and the experimental stream has been running year-round for over 12 years. In this time, the OSL has not seen significant retrofits or upgrades. The OVPR Research Infrastructure funds will improve operational capacity, safety and accessibility, and research and data collection capabilities for all OSL researchers. Highlights include redesigning the sediment feeder and recirculation systems, upgrading and enhancing the datalogging system, and building infrastructure to move heavy instrumentation within the OSL safely and efficiently.
“The OSL is a shared resource for interdisciplinary stream science researchers across the University, our state, the nation, and globally,” says Jessica Kozarek, a SAFL Research Associate and OSL Manager. “These upgrades will facilitate new collaborative research and enable a new generation of researchers to discover the OSL.”