hydrology
Arizona Water Observatory: A new platform for integrated water data and decision support
Congratulations to the team from the Center for Hydrologic Innovations that was recently featured by the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative! Center program manager Vivian Hobbins wrote ap update of the Arizona Water Observatory along with partners at the Center for Geospatial Solutions (CGS) at the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy.
ASU-SRP snow surveys show much of Arizona’s headwater snowpack melted in weeks
Repeat airborne snow surveys over the Upper Black River found that due to a dry and warm winter, most of the snow water measured in January and February had melted by mid-March, offering water managers a view of how quickly the season changed. The first flight in January measured about 9.1 thousand acre-feet (TAF) of snow…
AHS Phoenix Seminar
The Phoenix Chapter of the Arizona Hydrological Society hosted speakers from the ASU Center for Hydrologic Innovations during their seminar series. Dr. Vivian Hobbins and Callahan Stormer presented on: The Arizona Water Observatory: Open-Source Infrastructure for Water Data Analytics. This activity helped disseminate the process and outcomes of the development of the Arizona Water Observatory…
ASU, SRP project takes flight to improve water supply forecasting
Arizona State University and Salt River Project are working with Airborne Snow Observatories Inc. on an innovative project to measure snowpack in the Salt River watershed — providing crucial data to improve water management. For the first time, a collaborative research team is using an airplane equipped with state-of-the-art scanning lidar and imaging spectrometers, along…
WRR Publication
A new publication in the journal Water Resources Research (Kimsal et al., 2026) describes the flooding characteristics (depth, duration, frequency) and their geological controls for a large set of ephemeral playas in the Chihuahuan Desert as part of the Jornada Long Term Ecological Research program. Congratulations to the authors associated with the Center for Hydrologic…
JAWRA Publication
A new publication in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (Moiz and Mascaro, 2026) evaluates the National Water Model for the state of Arizona and quantifies its ability to reproduce water balance observations at multiple scales over the Millennium Drought period. Congratulations to the authors associated with the Center for Hydrologic Innovations!
From campus to company: How research sparked a new water tech startup
Healthy forests act like natural infrastructure: storing and releasing water and reducing wildfire risk. Restoration can improve water supplies, but measuring those benefits has relied on rough estimates that miss the complexity of Arizona’s landscapes. Tributary helps groups measure the real water outcomes of forest restoration projects.
ASU Flow: Bridging the gap between water research and practice in Arizona
The Center for Hydrologic Innovations recently held the 3rd annual ASU Flow event at the We-Ko-Pa Resort in Fountain Hills, as part fh the Arizona Hydrological Society annual symposium. A recap of the event was featured by the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative!
Prof. Enrique Vivoni elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
Our Center Director was recently elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). AGU Fellows must demonstrate scientific eminence in the Earth and space sciences through achievements in research, as demonstrated by one or more of the following: breakthrough or discovery; innovation in cross-disciplinary science or methods development; or sustained scientific impact. Congratulations…
The Arizona Water Observatory: Changing the way people access water information
Congratulations to the team from the Center for Hydrologic Innovations that was recently featured by the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative! Center staff members Callahan Stormer and Vivian Hobbins presented an update of the Arizona Water Observatory to the Arizona Geographic Information Council (AGIC) during their annual meeting.