Civil and Environmental Engineering

Graduate students and faculty

are formally invited to attend the Prospectus Exam

Assessing Hydrology and Water Resources Management of California Central Valley from the Perspective of Climate Change and Water-Food-Energy Nexus 

 presented by Doctoral Candidate

Sarfaraz Alam

Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018

Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm

Location: 4275 Boelter Hall

Faculty advisor: Professor Mekonnen Gebremichael

Abstract: Central Valley has a complex hydrological system where water resources management is a big challenge. Main drivers of surface and groundwater resources in this region are climate, land use, agricultural demand, and management policies. The proposed research focuses on the major drivers with four main objectives. The objectives are: assessing impact of climate change, assessing impact of changes in land use, cropping pattern and irrigation practices, understanding the relationship between water demand, energy demand and food production in agricultural sector, and assess the impact of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The research considers using an integrated surface water-groundwater model C2VSIM to simulate the hydrology and water resources management in Central Valley. To study the climate change impact, ten climate model outputs for two scenarios (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5) will be used to force C2VSIM. Additionally, a series of experiments with various land use, cropping pattern, irrigation practice will be conducted to assess changes in water availability and develop food-energy-water (FEW) relationship in agricultural sector. Finally, the proposed research will quantify the combined impact of climate change and policy constraint (SGMA) on water availability and FEW nexus.