Solutions of the Center
Solution spaces for advancements and public impact
Solution Spaces
The Center for Hydrologic Innovations develops partnerships to tackle water resources challenges. In collaboration with our partners, the following solutions spaces have been developed since 2020 and serve as examples of our innovative approach. We seek to expand these partnership networks and create new areas for hydrologic innovations and impact.
Forest Health and Water Resilience
We partner with water agencies, utilities, non-governmental organizations, and technology companies to quantify hydrologic services provided by forested landscapes in the western U.S.
Climate Change and Water Supply
We collaborate with western U.S. water managers, and infrastructure agencies to provide short and long-range scenarios on the impact of climate change to hydrologic conditions and supplies.
Urban Water and Green Infrastructure
We work with municipal agencies, park managers, and private developers to develop water conservation and green infrastructure programs that alleviate flooding and drought impacts.
Streamflow Presence and Flow Assessments
We develop techniques that help environmental regulators and water districts to determine the presence of streamflow in rivers and quantify the river jurisdictional determination in the western U.S.
Solar Energy and Water Infrastructure
We partner with western U.S. utilities and irrigation districts to assess the water savings potential of placing renewable solar energy projects along with existing water infrastructure.
Runoff Potential and Managed Recharge
We collaborate with federal and state water agencies to develop new methods for estimating runoff and develop manage recharge projects to aquifer systems in mountain and urban settings.
Irrigated Crops and Water Use Changes
We develop techniques that help irrigation districts and water regulators to determine changes in agricultural activities and test water conservation technologies in the western U.S.
Urban Climate and Trace Gas Emissions
We apply techniques to measure greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas and combine these with climatological variables and land cover maps to quantify sources and sinks of trace gases.
Droughts and Hydrologic Impacts
We work with county and state agencies, and private sector partners to develop and apply techniques for detecting droughts and quantifying their cascading impacts to hydrologic systems.
Snow Conditions and Reservoir Operations
We develop techniques to map snow cover conditions across Arizona’s forests to enhance decisions on operational releases from water supply reservoirs.
Groundwater Storage and Water Demands
We use remote sensing and modeling to map groundwater storage changes and compare them to well observations to inform water resources decisions in the western U.S. and globally.
Flood Hazards and Water Infrastructure
We use hydrologic, hydraulic, and water resource systems models along with observations to provide solution for flooding hazards and support decision making and scenario planning.
Woody Plants and Land Management
We develop techniques to quantify how woody plants affect ecohydrological processes and impact land management in rangelands of the western U.S.
Hydrologic Monitoring and Assessments
We use environmental sensor networks to monitor water fluxes in hydrologic systems and to close the water balance in rangelands, agricultural areas and forests.
Carbon Sequestration and Land Use Change
We use the eddy covariance method to monitoring water, carbon and energy dynamics to quantify the effect of land use change on carbon sequestration and releases in managed lands.