CEE 200-2 Seminar: Sonya Lopez presents “Using Various Hydrologic Modeling Techniques To Evaluate Best Management Practices Within Urban Environments”

Speaker: Dr. Sonya Lopez
Affiliation: CSULA

Dr. Sonya Lopez, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the California State University, Los Angeles, presents: Using Various Hydrologic Modeling Techniques To Evaluate Best Management Practices Within Urban Environments.
Summary:
Urban development is known to decrease aquifer recharge, alter drainage networks, change feedbacks to the atmosphere and enhance contaminant transport. Best management practices (BMPs, e.g. engineered wetlands, grass swales, permeable pavements) are used to offset these negative impacts of urbanization by engineering a more natural flow of water. Two approaches are used to evaluate the effectives of BMPs: high-resolution studies of these processes in the field using intensive observations, and using conceptually-based, distributed or lumped parameter hydrologic models. This work identifies a third approach using a three-dimensional high-resolution hydrologic model that requires high performance computing. The goal of this work is to develop a novel approach to evaluate BMP implementation using an ultra-high-resolution domain and physically-based hydrologic model.

Biography:
Sonya Lopez earned a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2007, 2008, and 2012, respectively. During her graduate career she received several funding awards including the NSF SEE-LA GK-12 Graduate Fellowship (2011-2012), NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2008-2011), UCLA Eugene Cota Robles Graduate Fellowship (2007-2008), and the NSF Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Summer 2007). After graduate work, she received a Postdoctoral research appointment at the Colorado School of Mines.  Her research areas include developing methods to ascertain the impacts climate variability has on long-term surface and subsurface water, water storage, ecosystems and water quality using novel modeling techniques and the integration of advanced observation data. Dr. Lopez is currently an Assistant Professor at the California State University , Los Angeles within the Civil Engineering  Department.

 

 

 

Date/Time:
Date(s) - May 25, 2017
11:00 am - 11:00 pm

Location:
Boelter Hall 4275
4275 Boelter Hall Los Angeles CA 90095