Research
The
Center helps solve water resource problems by conducting
scientific research, understanding relationships between ecosystems and human
actions, and creating solutions to water resources conflicts.
Read descriptions of some of our most recently funded projects
Current and previous research projects include the following themes:
Drought
Our comprehensive research program on drought includes the development of early
warning and response systems, climate forecasts for drought mitigation, impact
and vulnerability studies, and drought plans and planning processes. We bring
a range of expertise to address drought questions and provide professionals
and the public with useful research products.
Ecosystems
Using a multi-disciplinary approach, applied and basic research focuses on the multi-scale linkages across ecosystems affecting stream network processes, structures, and patterns. Investigations of human activities, particularly land-use changes, on critical linkages and processes are conducted to assist management decisions.
Salmon
The emphsis of this research theme is to develop better understanding of basic salmonid ecology, and so to predict responses to disturbance and design of effective conservation measures.
Policy, science, and management
Research focuses on how individuals, communities, and institutions react to and assimilate scientific knowledge, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of regulations and non-regulatory actions to protect and restore water resources. Projects address policy, information transfer, and management-related topics. They are designed to assess attitudes, behaviors, and activities related to riparian and aquatic protection and recovery.
Stormwater management
Through this theme, research addresses the variety of hydrologoical modifications in the urban landscape with the objective of developing new strategies and technologies to address urban-induced hydrological modifications. Specific research projects also evaluate current stormwater practices and approaches.
Monitoring
This research effort characterizes baseline conditions of aquatic ecosystems, determines the effectiveness of management programs and policies to reach protection and restoration goals, and developes new approaches to monitoring design that better identify cause-and-effect linkages between water resources and human activity.
Stream restoration
Research focuses on strategies and tools that effectively address the causes of human-induced stream degradation, including species decline and loss, and physical and chemical stream modifications. Restoration strategies emphasize recreation of stream processes essential to maintaining native biota.