Utah Water Research Laboratory

Muscle recovery? You mean mussel recovery!
PhD student Megan DiNicola is leading the research that is directly informing the first native freshwater mussel reintroduction effort in Texas. Check it out!
https://www.sariverauthority.org/blog-news/native-mussels-return-to-the-san-antonio-river-in-first-in-texas-conservation-effort/

Last week we had the pleasure of accepting our silver medal from Best of Northern Utah for the research and development category! We're proud to serve Utah by finding solutions to the water challenges we face.

Congrats to Judy Sims! She coordinates our on-site wastewater treatment center, and today she is honored with the Public Health Hero award from Bear River Health Department.

We remember doing the modeling work for this spillway. Love to see the life-size in action!

Dr. David Tarboton gave a stellar lecture yesterday to kick off . Tarboton received the D. Wynne Thorne research award in 2023 and focused his remarks on the importance of sharing data in hydrology to advance research.

Dr. Tarboton is the 2023 recipient of the D. Wynne Thorne research award, and he'll be sharing his research and career journey this Monday! RSVP here: https://airtable.com/app7WaBBpO3c77QwG/shr6fe0cC97QPU3mj

We had a fantastic time at AGU last month and learned so much from our peers there! We celebrate the research and innovation put into creating a sustainable and bright future.

Our semi-annual newsletter is out! In this issue, we highlight pollutants in our air and water, and what our researchers are identifying to inform pollution reduction plans.
https://uwrl.usu.edu/research/newsletter

Water bLog Newsletter | Utah Water Research Laboratory The semi-annual newsletter of the Utah Center for Water Resources Research at the Utah Water Research Laboratory

Congratulations! Karem Meza won first place with her poster presentation on on golf courses!
"Spatial Estimation of Actual Evapotranspiration and Turfgrass Quality on Golf Courses Using UAS-TSEB and Machine Learning."

Let's see some photos from your field work or summer vacations!

• Open to all USU undergrad and graduate students, faculty and staff
• Submit any great photo from your summer season (work, travel, recreation, indoors or out)
• Entries due September 18. Winners announced September 25
• Enter up to three photos here: https://qcnr.usu.edu/college/photo-contest
• Photos may be featured on USU and college marketing materials
• Take a peek at submitted entries: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOxu-JlJkJO6i-5QLZEeRG3bA5n2txlNfhXiqix0fq8QEg9AajH0_7bOPO70svRvw?key=cFNVR1VvbTEzUEdCYWUzeXRxYXFLM1lCOGRTekd3

In just one short year since began, UWRL researchers have developed tools for sharing real-time hydrologic observations that will make it possible to build a larger network of operational data available to researchers, improving models and informing decision makers.

We can't wait to continue our collaboration on important water research at the Annual Science Meeting in Tuscaloosa in 4 weeks!

Swipe to see the new CIROH projects we’ll be working on this year!

USU's Institute of Land, Water, and Air is looking for research proposals! Research should fill identified gaps in understanding various issues important to Bear Lake and surrounding areas.

Interested faculty should go to the website for more information: https://www.usu.edu/ilwa/projects/bear-lake/grants

Pre-proposal submission deadline: Oct. 2, 2023

UWRL faculty member David Stevens gave expert insights and prevention tips for Zion National Park's cyanobacteria problem. Even getting clothes wet counts as exposure! Read the full story before your next trip: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/toxic-bacteria-algae-water-zion-national-park-rcna97845

Toxic bacteria detected in several of Zion National Park's waterways Health watches and warnings have been issued for certain bodies of water in the park due to the presence of cyanotoxins.

Ian Gowing and our AggieAir team have been hard at work using drones to map river flows and assess flooding. We're so pleased this work is being talked about! The possibilities of high-resolution UAV imagery are endless. Check out some of the news pieces on the Logan river flight!
KSL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE7AQeoMkmo
Route Fifty: https://www.route-fifty.com/management/2023/07/flood-management-gets-boost-drones/388746/
Cache Valley Daily: https://www.cachevalleydaily.com/news/archive/2023/07/12/aggie-drones-capture-high-res-images-of-logan-river-flooding/
The Herald Journal: https://www.hjnews.com/news/local/usu-drone-survey-to-help-logan-better-prepare-for-future-flooding/article_819fa968-2d7d-11ee-913b-abb1be5a1646.html
Utah State Today: https://www.usu.edu/today/story/logan-river-uav-flight-captures-high-res-imagery-of-flooding

Congratulations to David Rosenberg for receiving the Planning & Management Council Service to the Profession Award! 🎉 Given for his outstanding work in water resources teaching through ASCE.
Read the full story here:

USU Professor Wins Service to the Profession Award from ASCE Utah State University Engineering Professor David Rosenberg was recently awarded the Planning & Management Council Service to the Profession Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

We were proud to host the workshop "Sensing Applications for Field Evaluation of Irrigated Agriculture" over the past couple of weeks, in collaboration with Alexandria University, the American University in Cairo, and USAID.
Participants learned from experts about the latest advancements in sensing technology and practical applications for improving irrigation and water use efficiency.

Their passion for sustainable agriculture was infectious, and we can't wait to see what these bright minds do next!

Click here to read our full story in our newsletter: https://uwrl.usu.edu/research/newsletter

Water bLog Newsletter | Utah Water Research Laboratory The semi-annual newsletter of the Utah Center for Water Resources Research at the Utah Water Research Laboratory

“We should be looking at our water carefully so that we never really get into that situation of having to worry about a day zero situation."

Read more about what UWRL Director David Tarboton has to say about the water situation in Utah here:

Snowpack buys Utah’s water supply some time but planning for a drier future is key This year’s record-breaking snowpack lifted Utah out of a severe drought. It won’t take much for it to return, though.

Congratulations to UWRL Director David Tarboton for receiving the D. Wynne Thorne Career Research Award! 🎉 Since joining the USU faculty in 1990, Tarboton has made significant research contributions by publishing 196 papers with 15,000+ citations. He is internationally and nationally recognized as a world class top-notch hydrologist with a focus on hydrologic information systems and modeling crossing the disciplinary interface between hydrology and information technology.

His work has earned 70 grants, with $24 million going to fund initiatives at Utah State University.

Read more here: https://www.usu.edu/today/story/usu-announces-2023-faculty-awards-honorees

Congratulations 🥳 to UWRL Faculty member Colin Phillips, who won the Eldon J. Gardner Teacher of the Year Award from the USU College of Engineering!

Engineers Week Awards | College of Engineering Each year the college recognizes four Department Outstanding Pre-Professionals students, four Juniors and four Seniors. In addition, one senior is recognized as the Outstanding Senior Scholar for the College of Engineering.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University are recruiting for 3-5 doctoral research assistantships starting Fall 2023 in support of the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH). These positions will focus on developing next-generation data and modeling infrastructure to support national scale hydrologic modeling conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Water Prediction (OWP).

See more information and application details at: https://uwrl.usu.edu/opportunities

UWRL Director David Tarboton and faculty member Bethany Neilson are a part of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, which recently released a report of research, data, and policy options that will help return the lake to healthy levels.

Research Universities, State Agencies Team Up to Offer Solutions for Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake Strike Team released a policy assessment Wednesday that affirms the situation is urgent, but also identifies a variety of policy levers that can return the lake to healthy levels.

UWRL Professor Randy Martin says that Utah air quality is continuing to get worse. Read more here:

Utah air quality is continuing to get worse, says USU professor A Utah State University professor says that Utahns are breathing some of the worst air we've seen in over a decade.

UWRL Scholarships are open until January 31st!

The L. Douglas James Memorial Scholarship was established in memory of L Douglas James, a former director of the Utah Water Research Laboratory. Recipients of this scholarship shall be an undergraduate student in their junior or senior year in any degree program at USU and currently doing or planning to conduct research at the Utah Water Research Laboratory.

Learn more at bit.ly/scholarship-uwrl

UWRL faculty member David Rosenberg has been studying the similarities between the Great Salt Lake and Lake Urmia in Iran, and what their similarities can teach us about how to better manage them both.

What USU Researchers Can Learn About the Great Salt Lake by Looking at Lake Urmia in Iran Despite the distance between them, parallels abound between Iran's Lake Urmia and Utah's Great Salt Lake.

Research by UWRL assistant professors Brian Crookston and USU College of Engineering's Som Dutta, along with others at the UWRL, recently informed the decision to modify the West Crack Breach in the Great Salt Lake causeway.

Great Salt Lake Berm Modification Informed by USU Research Utah recently funded researchers at USU to study flows through the West Crack Breach as an avenue for mitigating certain effects of the ongoing drought.

UWRL professor David Rosenberg was recently published in the Deseret News writing about how the west can adapt to relying on Colorado River inflow, rather than storage.

Opinion: How to ‘live within our means’ while the Colorado River shrinks During this megadrought, the Colorado River and our reservoir levels have fallen. There are three things we can do to improve the situation

Our students and faculty met with Representative Blake Moore at the Utah Water Research Lab on Tuesday. Rep. Moore toured the facility and spoke with faculty about data-driven responses to the state's water resources challenges. Finding these answers is exactly what we do at the Utah Water Research Laboratory.

UWRL director David Tarboton is one of two new endowed professorships at the College of Engineering. Dr. Tarboton has been named Sant Endowed Professor of Water Resources Engineering.

Former UWRL director Dr. Ron Sims has also been awarded an endowed professorship, being named Huntsman Endowed Professor of Biosystems and Environmental Engineering.

College of Engineering Announces New Endowed Professorships Thanks to the generous support of donors, two new endowed professorships have been created in the Utah State University College of Engineering.