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Engineering Hydrology and Fluvial Geomorphology

Monitoring, modeling, and predicting water resources above and below the Earth’s surface is essential for  effective management of the Nation’s water resources.

As climate change driven challenges of drought, groundwater contamination, increased flooding, and extreme events become ever more pressing, engineers play a vital role in developing predictive understanding of water resources. CEE efforts in this area focus on novel solutions to studying flood risks, erosion and sediment transport, groundwater contamination, stormwater management, and ecosystem responses.

Researcher secure water research devices

Overview

CEE faculty and student research in engineering hydrology and fluvial geomorphology address key needs in hydrogeology, groundwater hydrology, surface water hydrology, stormwater management, and wetland and floodplain conservation.

Research Highlights

Agricultural Water Quality Management

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Water management equipment

Water quality degradation from agricultural field runoff that contains excess nutrients is a pressing environmental challenge in Vermont and throughout the world. CEE researchers and collaborators study multiple treatment technologies employed at both the farmstead/production and edge of field areas. Working with ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Extension and many other partners, we are designing and testing of novel denitrifying bioreactors, evaluating effect of best management practices (BMPs) on surface and subsurface water and nutrient fluxes, designing and testing phosphorus removal technologies, monitoring and modeling watershed hydrology and nutrient export from agricultural watersheds in the Lake Champlain Basin, and studying the effects of climate change on agricultural fields.

Faculty Researchers: Joshua Faulkner, Eric Roy

¶¶Òõ̽̽ Collaborators: Stephanie Hurley, Carol Adair, Don Ross (Emeritus), Kristen Workman, Heather Darby, Jeff Sanders

Collaborating Institutions and Organizations: USDA-NRCS, Soil Health Institute, Newtrient LLC, USDA-ARS, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets

Multi-Objective Optimization to Examine Tradeoffs in River Reconnection Projects

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River Optimization graphic

Floodplain and river reconnection projects show great promise to restore water quality, improve flood resilience and enhance habitats.  However, with the exponential availability of environmental sensors and associated information, resource managers and planners need decision-support tools to help identify the more effective locations and techniques for floodplain reconnection.  Our team is developing multi-objective optimization algorithms to assess multiple stakeholder criteria that prioritize suites of restoration or conservation projects at river network and basin scales. These algorithms may be wrapped around existing hydraulic models (2D HEC-RAS, HAND) or databases (VTANR stream geomorphic data sets) to evolve solutions that optimally meet flood resiliency and water quality goals while simultaneously addressing stakeholder needs. This research is being advanced under several projects supported by the VT Agency of Transportation, VT Department of Environmental Conservation, Lake Champlain Sea Grant, Lake Champlain Basin Program, and the VT Water Resources & Lake Studies Center.

CEE Faculty: Kristen Underwood, Donna Rizzo, Mandar Dewoolkar

¶¶Òõ̽̽ Collaborators: Rebecca Diehl, Beverley Wemple

Collaborating Institutions and Organizations: Vermont Agency of Transportation, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy of Vermont, Gund Institute for Environment

Functioning Floodplain Assessment, Mapping, Valuation, and Tracking to Support Floodplain Restoration and Protection in the Lake Champlain Basin

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Floodplain research graphic

River reconnection projects provide water quality protection and improvement, enhanced fish and wildlife habitats, avoided damage from floods and streambank erosion, storage of phosphorus, carbon and other nutrients.  Vermont has embarked on a to quantify the extent of lateral and longitudinal disconnection of our rivers , and to identify opportunities for strategic reconnection.  Researchers in river science and machine learning are combining efforts to inform the selection of floodplain, wetland and river restoration projects in the Lake Champlain basin. The availability of state-wide stream geomorphic data allows us to better understand the influence of channel-floodplain coupling on fine sediment sourcing and storage dynamics.  Field and laboratory efforts are measuring fluxes of particulate and dissolved phosphorus to and from floodplains and riparian wetlands.  This project is supported by VT Department of Environmental Conservation, Lake Champlain Sea Grant, and the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

CEE Faculty: Kristen Underwood, Eric Roy, Donna Rizzo

¶¶Òõ̽̽ Collaborators: Beverley Wemple, Rebecca Diehl

Collaborating Institutions and Organizations: SLR International, Fluvial Matters, Fitzgerald Environmental Associates, Stone Environmental, Vermont Agency of Transportation, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy of Vermont, Gund Institute for Environment

CEE faculty oversee research groups and laboratoriess, where they investigate a variety of pressing challenges in the water sciences and water resource engineering. Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to participate in research.

Research Topics
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  • Surface water hydrology
  • Stormwater management
  • Hydrogeology
  • Groundwater hydrology
  • Wetland conservation
  • Floodplain management

Graduate study in engineering hydrology and fluvial geomorphology
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Graduate study in engineering hydrology and fluvial geomorphology aims to develop skills for tackling the ambitious challenge of leveraging engineering knowledge and systems thinking to understand how humanity can optimally change our infrastructure and lifestyles to respond to climate change. Highlighted courses are listed below:

  • CEE 4600 - Hydrology
  • CEE 5620 - Advanced Hydrology
  • CEE 5630 - Applied River Engineering
  • CEE 4650 - Groundwater Hydrology
  • CEE 6990 - Stormwater Engineering
  • CEE 6990 - Data Science for Environmental Site Characterization
  • GEOG 3230 - Snow Hydrology
  • NR 6430 - Introduction to GIS
  • NR 4430 - GIS Practicum

Faculty Researchers

Kristen Underwood

Kristen Underwood

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Kristen.Underwood@uvm.edu

Hydrology, Fluvial Geomorphology, Geostatistics, Catchment Dynamics, Clustering & Classification, Infrastructure & Hazard Mitigation, Bayesian Inference

Scott Hamshaw

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

shamshaw@uvm.edu

Water Resources, Machine Learning, Environmental Sensing, and Geomatics

George Pinder

Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

gpinder@uvm.edu

Water Resources, Environmental, Sustainability & Energy, Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental, Climate Change & Hazard Mitigation

Donna Rizzo

Donna Rizzo

Acting Chair and Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

drizzo@uvm.edu

Development of new computational tools, including artificial neural networks, to improve the understanding of human induced changes on natural systems and the way we make decisions about natural resources.

Arne

Arne Bomblies

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

abomblie@uvm.edu

Environmental Engineering, Hydrology.

Joshua Faulkner

Extension Research Associate Professor

Joshua.Faulkner@uvm.edu

Agriculture and Natural Resources, Water management in agriculture, Hydrology, Climate change,  Nutrient fate and transport, Alternative treatment for agricultural wastewaters.

Eric Roy

Eric Roy

Associate Professor • The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources

eric.roy.1@uvm.edu

Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources, Nutrient biogeochemistry & management, Ecological engineering & design, Aquatic ecology, Food systems, Material flow analysis