Estimating how large instream wood (LW) may impact local hydraulics is critical both for mitigating flood hazards and for ensuring intended habitat benefits of the LW are produced. In practice, the design of forms such as LW is limited by a lack of mechanistic tools for estimating how LW features...
Diking and channelizing in the Toppenish Creek basin, associated with irrigated agricultural development, has altered its natural ecosystem function and hydraulic processes. We seek to answer two research questions: if surface waters are diverted for aquifer recharge in the winter, will this water be available for ecosystem function in the...
Wildfire management networks allow for collaborative intervention in mitigating the ever-present risk of major wildfire events. This thesis consists of two manuscripts that explore the topology and characteristics of wildfire management networks and their ability to influence wildfire severity in social-ecological systems. The first manuscript focuses on the characteristics of...
The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential of removing organic carbon and inorganic nitrogen contaminants, and metals from the leachate prior to any land application. New guidelines are needed to ensure the environment and our health is not put at risk. The cost of installation, operation and...
Dam removal is an important management tool for addressing aging infrastructure, public and structural safety, restoration of river connectivity for migratory organisms and recreation, and habitat quality. However, planning for dam removals is constrained by the difficulty of cost estimation. To our knowledge, published data on dam removal plans, total...
We have sufficient evidence that our historical management of natural resources is not sustainable. Food production is stagnating or declining. Nonrenewable energy sources on which the energy sector has historically depended are being rapidly depleted. Water resources, for which the energy and food sectors compete, are being depleted and impaired....
The intensity and scale of wildfires has increased throughout the Pacific Northwest in recent decades, especially within the last decade, destroying vast amounts of valuable resources and assets. This trend is predicted to remain or even magnify due climate change, growing population, increased housing density. Furthermore, the associated stress of...
Coastal communities face heightened risk to coastal flooding and erosion hazards due to sea-level rise, changing storminess patterns, and evolving human development pressures. Incorporating uncertainty associated with both climate change and the range of possible adaptation measures is essential for projecting the evolving exposure to coastal flooding and erosion, as...
Interactions and feedbacks among climate change effects and continued human impacts will exacerbate impacts to water resources in complex ways. An urgent imperative of the hydrologic community is to understand the response of hydrologic systems to these perturbations, thus contributing to long-term sustainability of water resources in an uncertain future....
Survival of ecological systems pivot on critical moments. In the arid John Day Basin of Eastern Oregon, extensive restoration of the stream and floodplain focused on supporting salmon has been ongoing for the past 20 years, but recurring short periods of extreme temperature increase and low flows result in mortality...