Sustainable Water Resources Program

The primary objective of the Sustainable Water Resources Program is to assess sustainability issues with respect to water resources within the context of climate variability and land use/land cover change. Water resources include water quantity and water quality. Studies include physical, chemical, and isotopic analyses and numerical modeling. Much of our research focuses on groundwater recharge in desert basins and the impacts of climate variability and change and land use/land cover change on recharge. Impacts of natural and anthropogenic sources of contamination on water quality are also addressed in many of our research studies. Our program is funded by federal sources including EPA and DOE and state sources including Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Texas Water Development Board in addition to support from the Jackson School of Geosciences. The Sustainable Water Resources Program is led by Bridget Scanlon and includes research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate research assistants working on different topics. Topics include estimation of groundwater recharge in semiarid and arid regions using field studies; evaluating impacts of climate variability (ENSO) on recharge, monitoring ecohydrologic controls on the water balance using remote and groundbased measurements, monitoring soil moisture, evaluating controls on groundwater arsenic contamination; and source attribution and processes affecting nutrients, particularly nitrate.

News and Information
Prospective Graduate Students: application deadline for 2006 Fall semester is January 15, 2006. More information.

Dr. Bridget Scanlon, Senior Research Scientist
Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin
University Station, Box X, Austin, Texas 78713-8924
E-mail: bridget.scanlon@beg.utexas.edu; Telephone: (512) 471-8241