Water Resource Management Commons^™

Enhancing Agricultural Sustainability Under Climate Change: A Multi-Scale Framework Integrating Climate Extremes, Resource Efficiency, And Data-Driven Modeling, Shahryar Fazli

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Agricultural systems are increasingly challenged by climate variability, where shifting temperature regimes, hydrological variability, and the rising frequency of compound and cascading extremes threaten global food security and resource sustainability. Addressing these challenges requires integrated frameworks that bridge biophysical monitoring, predictive modeling, and adaptive decision-making. This dissertation develops a data-driven, multi-scale framework to quantify and enhance agricultural resilience by integrating remote sensing, climate analytics, and machine learning across the United States, with a focus on California and the Western U.S.

First, hyperspectral and thermal remote sensing data from EMIT and OpenET are integrated to characterize crop nitrogen–water interactions and assess …

Agrivoltaics: Combining Food And Solar Power On Agricultural Lands, Dharla Soteros, Kendall Becker, Spencer J. Good, Ngoni Mufute, Matt Yost, Logan Mitchell, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Utah’s ranchers and farmers face pressure to sell land to developers, conserve water, and manage increasing production costs (Li et al., 2019). One way producers can keep growing food while diversifying and increasing revenue is by integrating agriculture and solar electricity generation on the same land, a practice known as agrivoltaics. In this fact sheet, the authors describe agrivoltaic setup options, summarize agrivoltaics' impacts on livestock and crop production, and discuss implementation economics.

Wilson's Phalarope, A Migratory Bird, Depends On The Declining Great Salt Lake, William Christenson, Kendall Becker, Spencer J. Good, T.J. Clark-Wolf, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes how declining water levels and increasing salinity degrade habitat for brine flies and other prey Wilson’s phalaropes rely on. Because human use drives low water levels, changes to water management could reverse the lake’s decline and improve habitat quality for Wilson’s phalaropes and other species that depend on the Great Salt Lake.

How Water Banking Can Help Refill The Great Salt Lake, Avery Truman, Kendall Becker, Matthew Behrens, Sarah Null, Matt Yost, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Concern about low water levels in the Great Salt Lake has contributed to the development of water markets in Utah. Water markets enable the voluntary transfer of water or water rights from right holders to other people or entities in exchange for compensation. In general, these transfers are more likely to occur if a water rights holder can make more money by selling their water (or water rights) to another user rather than using it themselves. Willingness to engage in water transfers also depends on the ease of transactions, confidence in the water market, and confidence in the ability to …

Web-Mapping Viewers To Enhance Environmental Education And Watershed Planning, Austin L Holland, John Strauser, Eric Olson

Journal of Extension

Extension professionals have been using web-based geographic information system (GIS) viewers to aid in education, outreach, and planning. This article highlights the Center for Land Use Education's new Watershed & Conservation Planning Web-Viewer, which was created in collaboration with Extension Lakes using publicly available GIS data. The tool has two objectives: to enhance public education on the relationship between land and water resources and to support the use of geospatial data in conservation planning. This article outlines the justification for the tool, its usefulness, and a path forward for those who can create their own version for their region or …

Community-Based Well Testing And Outreach To Mitigate Human Health Risk From Unsafe Drinking Water, W. Adam Sigler, Katharine Sutphen, Margaret J Eggers, Kaleena Miller, Michelle Grocke-Dewey

Journal of Extension

Twenty-two percent of groundwater wells tested nationwide have one or more contaminants above a health threshold, yet many private well owners are unaware of these risks because they have not tested their water. Researchers piloted a community well testing clinic for education/outreach and surveyed participants about outcomes. Two months later, 75% of participants with high or intermediate health risk water quality results had taken action or intended to, indicating that community private well testing clinics can be effective in mitigating human health risks from contaminated drinking water.

Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring In South Florida Using Water And Aerosol Payloads On Uncrewed Aircraft, Kayla D. Taylor, Justin Fratto, Avinash Muthu Krishnan, David Zink, Blake Neal, Jose Cabrera, Emel Sen-Kilic, Marc Compere, Kevin Adkins

Student Works

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) threaten aquatic ecosystems, public health, and tourism and fishing industries throughout the United States, including Florida. Because HABs can develop and spread rapidly, geographically representative sampling efforts can be very difficult and labor-intensive, and traditional monitoring methods, such as satellite-based remote sensing, often lack the spatiotemporal resolution needed to characterize bloom dynamics. This project, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (Grant No. 05D36825), aims to develop an uncrewed aircraft (UA)-based water and aerosol sampling approach to improve HAB monitoring and support prediction and mitigation efforts. One year into our funding period, we have integrated a multi-depth, …

Understanding The Role Of Data Science Applications In Soil And Water Health, Payton Davis, Debabrata Sahoo, Dara Park, Brook Russell

Forestry and Natural Resources

Data science is an emerging field that can be incorporated into many disciplines, including environmental science. Data science can provide valuable information from data, enhancing the understanding of systems and environments. This publication is intended to give an overview of the different aspects of data science and how data science can be leveraged into and applied to soil and water health.

Oco-3 Meets Ecostress: Insights Into Ecosystem Diurnal Water-Use Efficiency From Co-Located Solar-Induced Fluorescence And Thermal Observations, Zoe Amie Pierrat, Thomas P. Kurosu, Abhishek Chatterjee, Joshua B. Fisher, Maggie Johnson, Le Kuai, Kanishka Mallick, Nicholas Parazoo, Benjamin Wiebe, Kerry Cawse-Nicholson

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Terrestrial ecosystem regulation of carbon and water fluxes is critical for constraining climate–biosphere feedbacks but remains poorly quantified across space and time. Here, we evaluate whether co-located observations from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) and the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) can reproduce ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) dynamics observed at FLUXNET sites across temporal scales, vegetation types, climates, and drought conditions. We created the ECOCO3 data set, which harmonizes OCO-3 and ECOSTRESS observations in space and time. ECOCO3 captures broad seasonal and diurnal carbon and water flux patterns including midday drought responses. Sampling sensitivity analysis …

"The Course Of The Tennessee River", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Research Articles

The article describes the usual course of the Tennessee River and various geological theories for the direction of its course. In addition, it explores the specific geomorphology of the Muscle Shoals and its impact on North Alabama.

Hydro-Chemical And Bacteriological Assessment Of Zanzibar Groundwater Resources, Subira Munishi, Andrew Kimati

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Groundwater is the primary freshwater source in Zanzibar, sustaining domest ic, agricultural, and tourism needs. Increasing demand has intensified the pressure on this limited resource and has led to over-abstraction and contamination. Amid the growing demand and contamination pressures, this study examines the quality of groundwater in Zanzibar to clarify current conditions and emerging risks, and inform resource management and public health priority interventions. Particularly, the present hydro-chemical and bacteriological quality and variability was examined for both Unguja and Pemba Islands. A total of seventy-two samples were collected using a stratified random sampling approach, with the first field campaign focusing …

Citizen Science As A Long-Term Environmental Baseline: Assessing Impacts Of A Small Dam Removal In Montana, Usa, Bethany Blakey, Natalie Bursztyn

Watershed Sciences Student Research

As dam removals increase in frequency across Europe and North America, most research has focused on the impact of larger dam removals, despite the removal of small dams being much more common. There are hundreds of small dams in Montana, USA, and this research investigates impacts on stream ecology and morphology using citizen science data collected over eight years spanning before and after a 2020 small dam removal in Rattlesnake Creek. We analyzed pebble count grain size distributions and aquatic macroinvertebrate biotic indices from 2017 to 2024 to assess changes in sediment transport and macroinvertebrate population as well as evaluate …

Multiple Secondary Risks Triggered By Rapid Rising Of Groundwater Level And Corresponding Tactics In The North China Plain, Yanjun Shen, Fubao Sun, Congqiang Liu, Fengchang Wu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In recent years, following the implementation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and comprehensive control of groundwater over-exploitation, coupled with natural factors such as more frequent and intensified extreme rainstorms, the groundwater level at large extent of the North China Plain has stopped declining and even started rising, with gradual recovery of groundwater storage. Nevertheless, the rapid rise in groundwater levels has disrupted the long-standing hydrological-geological-ecological balance shaped by prolonged over-extraction, triggering multiple secondary risks. The rebounding water level markedly exacerbates potential seismic liquefaction hazards at construction sites and raises risks of water seepage, anti-float failure, and structural damage for …

Investigation Of Yy Production Methods For Invasive Channel Catfish Ictalurus Punctatus Population Management, Andrew M. Wisniewski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Aquatic invasive species are one of the leading causes of native fish declines in the Southwestern United States. Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus were introduced into the Colorado River Basin, including the San Juan River, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah for fishery enhancement during the 20th century. This introduction has contributed to the decline of native species and despite intensive mechanical removal efforts, the Channel Catfish population has persisted in the San Juan River. The Trojan Sex Chromosome approach is a promising eradication strategy that proposes the production and release of Trojan sex chromosome carriers (YY) to skew a targeted population’s …

Assessing Ecological Integrity Of Streams Across The Western U.S., Jennifer L. Courtwright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Large-scale assessments of stream health (ecological integrity) are required by policies such as the U.S. Clean Water Act and provide critical information needed to properly manage public lands. Our ability to quantify the ecological condition of streams in the western U.S. and identify the causes of degraded conditions has previously been impeded by a lack of standardized large-scale datasets, high natural temporal and spatial variability of ecological attributes, and poor-quality land use data. I compiled large-scale monitoring datasets and built models to predict the values of ecological attributes (metrics) at a given site in the absence of human impacts. In …

Leveraging Deep Learning Recurrence And Attention Mechanisms For Flood Forecasting And Assessment, Elnaz Heidari

All Dissertations

Predicting how much water will flow in rivers and streams is important for managing floods, water supply, and the environment. Traditionally, government agencies have used complex models, such as the National Water Model (NWM), which simulate how much water moves through landscapes using physical laws and real-world data. However, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have enabled new ways to make these predictions. This research explored whether AI-based models could predict river discharge more accurately. These AI models learn patterns from past data instead of relying only on physical rules. To find out how well they work, the AI models …

Evaluation Of Dredged Sediments As A Partial Replacement For Fine Aggregate In Mortar And Concrete, Ashish Gautam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

The feasibility of using dredged sediment from the Mobile River as a partial replacement for fine aggregate in mortar and concrete was investigated through a series of laboratory characterization and performance evaluation. Three dredged sediment samples (A, B and C) were initially examined, and Sample A was selected for further evaluation due to its closer resemblance to natural fine aggregate. This sample exhibited lower moisture content, higher sand equivalent values, higher specific gravity, and lower absorption. Mortar mixtures with 0, 10, 20, 30, 50, 75 and 100% dredged sediment replacement showed decreasing workability as the replacement level increased. The 20% …

Optimizing Urban Forestry Through Green Infrastructure: Tree Health And Water Retention In Ciudad Juarez Rain Gardens, Tomas Rogelio Lizarraga Ruiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Urban green spaces (UGS) in arid regions face significant challenges due to water scarcity and extreme thermal demand. This study evaluates the efficacy of Nature Based Solutions (NBS), rain gardens and median strips, in enhancing the physiological resilience of urban trees in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Using a comparative framework, the research monitored a native evergreen (Dermatophyllum secundiflorum) and an introduced deciduous species (Morus sp.) across six planting treatments. Statistical analysis reveals that green infrastructure (GI) acts as a critical physiological accelerant. Trees situated within rain gardens and medians significantly outperformed those in restricted pot and sidewalk settings, maintaining higher stomatal …

Variability In Nutrient And Enterococcus Concentrations In Tidal Floodwater Across Watersheds With Different Land Uses, Alyssa Bucci

OES Theses and Dissertations

Tidal flooding is an increasingly pressing hazard in coastal Virginia due to sea level rise and land subsidence. The Hampton Roads region of Virginia has the second-highest rate of relative sea level rise in the United States and experiences frequent tidal flooding, but the water quality impacts of this flooding on the Chesapeake Bay are not being accounted for. High concentrations of dissolved nutrients and Enterococcus bacteria (a fecal indicator) have been observed in tidal floodwater of the Lafayette River, a tributary of the James River and the lower Chesapeake Bay. This study investigates variability in dissolved nutrient and Enterococcus …

The Aggregation Of Microplastics By Enhancing Extracellular Polymeric Substance Production In Pseudoalteromonas Sp. Ncimb 2021 To Improve Removal Efficiencies In Environmental Matrices, Janelle L. Mercer

All Theses

Microplastics (MP) are ubiquitous in the natural environment and are a growing threat due to their small size and durability. Plastics are released into the environment through improper waste management, wastewater treatment outfalls, industrial spills, agricultural runoff, and landfills. These particles breakdown into secondary MP through degradation pathways. MP, less than 5 mm, require intricate removal techniques from water systems. Filtration techniques, though viable and effective, have implementation constraints due to high cost, maintenance demands, and filter fouling. By integrating coagulation and flocculation processes prior to filtration, MP removal efficiencies can increase, while minimizing operational challenges during filtration. Extracellular polymeric …