Water Cycle Center - More Info
The Water Cycle Center is a cooperation between U.S. Geological Survey and academic partners in the Northeast that studies complete water cycles and watersheds, from mountaintops to shorelines, concentrating on freshwater ecosystems.
Information about funded projects includes a short description and lists all members involved: a principal investigator, co-investigators, and students.
Revolutionizing Understanding of Hydrologic Processes: Harnessing Computer Vision for Advanced Flood Forecasting in Urban Environments
Principal Investigator - Liz Carter (Syracuse University)
Dr. Liz Carter (M.S. environmental information science, Ph.D. environmental engineering, Cornell University) develops computational tools to automate the interpretation of global earth observations, particularly satellite imagery, to inform water resources management and response to hydroclimatic disasters. This project realizes a vision for a sensor network that was dreamed up during a joint NASA-USGS postdoctoral fellowship, when a lack of accurate ground-truthed maps of urban flood extents created a bottleneck to training an artificial intelligence to automatically map flooding impacts in real-time using satellite imagery.
Co-investigators
Dr. Senem Velipasalar (Syracuse University)
Dr. Carlos Caicedo (Syracuse University)
Dr. Steven Shaw (State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
Dr. Jonathan Aldrich (Carnegie Mellon University)
Students
Manudeep Shergill (Syracuse University)
Huantao Ren (Syracuse University)
Fatemeh Rezaei (Syracuse University)
Kyle Liang (Carnegie Mellon University)
Identifying Climate Drivers of Water-Cycle Changes in the U.S. Northeast and Their Impact on Evapotranspiration, Groundwater Recharge Patterns, and Groundwater-Surface Water Connectivity
Principal Investigator - David Boutt (University of Massachusetts)
Team Members
Dr. Matthew Winnick (Co-investigator, University of Massachusetts)
Dr. Nicole Blin (Post-doctorate, Modeler, University of Massachusetts)
Dr. Brendan Moran (Research Faculty, Hydrologist, University of Massachusetts)
Juliana Huba (Graduate Research Assistant, University of Massachusetts)
Crystal Kaguni (Undergraduate Assistant, University of Massachusetts)
Disentangling the complex response of rivers and floodplains to a shifting hydrologic regime for improved prediction of inundation and erosion hazards
Principal Investigator - Rebecca Diehl (University of Vermont)
Dr. Rebecca Diehl is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Geosciences at the University of Vermont. She received a Ph.D. in Watershed Sciences from Utah State University. Trained as a fluvial geomorphologist, she is interested in understanding the functioning of river systems to support a more sustainable management of our water resources. Rebecca’s current research focuses on mapping, measuring, and modeling floodplains and their functions in Vermont and elsewhere.
Team Members
Kristen Underwood (Research Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Vermont)
Optimizing Multi‐Use Water Management Decisions Under Global Change Using Integrated Hydrologic Models
Principal Investigator - Patrick Reed (Cornell University)
Dr. Patrick Reed’s primary research interests relate to sustainable water management given conflicting demands from renewable energy systems, ecosystem services, expanding populations, and climate change. The Reed Research Group is exploring new frameworks for effectively combining a wide range of knowledge sources with simulation, optimization, and AI analytics to capture impacted systems’ governing processes, elucidate human and ecologic risks, limit management costs, and satisfy stakeholders’ conflicting objectives.
Team Members
Trevor Amestoy (Cornell University)
Marilyn Smith (Cornell University)
Synthesis of Information on Effects of Climate Change on the Water Cycle in the Northeastern Region of the United States
Principal investigator - Sean M.C. Smith (University of Maine)
Sean M.C. Smith's research and teaching focuses on watershed geomorphology with attention to processes that influence the morphology and stability of hillslopes and waterways, and that govern the flux of water, sediment, and nutrients in the contemporary landscape. He is particularly interested in projects seeking to detect, quantify, and explain changes to watersheds, hydrology, hydraulics, and water quality caused by human activities. Solutions to sustainability challenges related to water resources and aquatic habitat in watersheds and estuaries have been the focal point of his career, which spans nearly four decades in government agencies, consulting businesses, and academic institutions.
Team Members
Bea Van Dam (Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Earth and Climate Sciences, University of Maine)
Bea Van Dam initially came to the WPES Research Group as a graduate student with an academic and professional background in geographic information systems (GIS). Her research over the past decade has involved the application of GIS and Python coding to problems of geomorphology and hydrology over large spatial or temporal scales. Recently, this has focused on the integration of machine learning to develop map-based decision support tools for setting identification in coupled land-sea systems.
