UC Berkeley Water Research and Opportunities Portal

An introduction is given to the science and technologies of producing electricity and transportation fuels from renewable energy resources (biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, and wave). Students will be introduced to quantitative calculations and comparisions of energy technologies together with the economic and political factors affecting the transition from nonrenewable to sustainable energy resources. Mass and energy balances are used to analyze the conversion of energy resources.

An introduction to key engineered systems (e.g., energy, water supply, buildings, transportation) and their environmental impacts. Basic principles of environmental science needed to understand natural processes as they are influenced by human activities. Overview of concepts and methods of sustainability analysis. Critical evaluation of engineering approaches to address sustainability.

This course will familiarize students with the complex infrastructure used to meet human water demands; competing uses and demands; water and wastewater infrastructure; technologies to enable recovery of water, energy, and other resources from wastewater; supply planning; trends and forecasting; costs, pricing and financing; environmental justice; methods to assess sustainability; regulatory, policy and institutional challenges; and water’s contribution to other sectors (e.g., energy, food, buildings). Innovation, both barriers and opportunities, will be highlighted. California and the U.S. will be emphasized but global challenges will be discussed. Students will study, critique, and recommend improvements for a real-world system.

Hands-on engineering design experience for creating future infrastructure systems. Intelligent infrastructure systems leverage data and computational to enhance sustainability and resilience for smart cities of the future. Student teams identify a challenge with current transportation, energy, water, waste, and/or the built infrastructure. Student teams design and prototype an innovation that solves this problem using maker resources, e.g. 3D printing, laser cutters, and open-source electronics. The project will be executing via the “Design Sprint” process, which is popular in agile development and Silicon Valley. Students present projects to guest judges from industry. Course is an introductory design experience for first-year students.

The story of water development in California provides compelling examples of water politics, the social and environmental consequences of redistributing water, and the relationships between water uses, energy, and climate.This course provides the historical, scientific, legal, institutional, and economic background needed to understand the social and ecological challenges of providing water for California’s growing population, agricultural economy, and other uses – all of which are made more complex by climate change.

This course offers multidisciplinary approach to begin answering the question “Why are oceans important to us?” Upon a physical, chemical, and geologic base, we introduce the alien world of sea life, the importance of the ocean to the global carbon cycle, and the principles of ecology with a focus on the important concept of energy flow through food webs. Lectures expand beyond science to include current topics as diverse as music, movies, mythology, biomechanics, policy, and trade.

Design problems from an ecological perspective. Design studies of relationships among ecosystem, energy, and resource flows, human social and cultural values, and technological variables as they interact to produce the built environment.

Introduction to the economics of natural resources. Land and the concept of economic rent. Models of optimal depletion of nonrenewable resources and optimal use of renewable resources. Application to energy, forests, fisheries, water, and climate change. Resources, growth, and sustainability.

Fluid dynamics and heat transfer; thermal and hydraulic analysis of nuclear reactors; two-phase flow and boiling; compressible flow; stress analysis; energy conversion methods.

Multi-barrier concept; groundwater hydrology, mathematical modeling of mass transport in heterogeneous media, source term for far-field model; near-field chemical environment, radionuclide release from waste solids, modeling of radionuclide transport in the near field, effect of temperature on repository performance, effect of water flow, effect of geochemical conditions, effect of engineered barrier alteration; overall performance assessment, performance index, uncertainty associated with assessment, regulation and standards.

Paolo D’Odorico investigates the role of water in the dynamics of ecosystems (ecohydrology) and societies (social hydrology). His research focuses on the nexus existing among water, food, and energy and investigates patterns of globalization and inequality in the distribution of natural resources that are crucial to meet food and energy needs.

His projects include:
1. Food-energy-water nexus: investigating multiple components of the food-energy-water nexus, the resilience of the global water and food systems, and the options humanity has to meet food and energy security with the limited renewable water resources of the planet
2. Dryland ecohydrology: evaluating the role of ecohydrological processes in biotic-abiotic interactions in dryland ecosystems
3. Desertification: investigating feedback mechanisms and their possible enhancement by interactions with socio-economic drivers.

Energy is one of the main drivers of civilization. Today we are at the precipice of what many hope will be a major paradigm shift in energy production and use. Two transitions are needed. On the one hand, we must find ways to extend the benefits of our existing energy system to the impoverished people living in the developing world while continuing to provide these benefits to the people of the developed world. On the other hand, we must completely overhaul the existing system to fight climate change and other forms of air and water pollution. Are these shifts truly within our reach? Can we achieve both simultaneously? If so, how? This Big Ideas course will grapple with these questions using an interdisciplinary systems approach.

Arpad Horvath focuses on life-cycle environmental and economic assessment of products, processes, and services. He is particularly interested in answering important questions about civil infrastructure systems and the built environment: transportation systems, water and wastewater systems, biofuels, pavements, buildings, and construction materials.

His projects include:
1) Environmental implications of various products, processes and services, in particular, transportation systems, water and wastewater systems, biofuels, pavements, buildings, and construction materials.

Boaxia Mi focuses on physicochemical processes emphasizing nanomaterials and membrane science/technology for drinking water purification and wastewater reuse. Her lab is developing sustainable membrane processes for emergency water supply, water reuse, desalination, and sustainable energy harvesting

Her projects include:
1) Nanomaterials to target removal of materials such as heavy metals.
2) Graphene oxide (GO) nanomaterials to synthesize a fundamentally new class of water filtration membranes for emerging water contaminants.
3) Nanotechnology to collect solar power for desalination process

Inez Fung focuses on climate change and atmospheric science with particular attention towards geophysical fluid dynamics and large-scale numerical modeling, remote sensing of earth systems, atmosphere-ocean interactions, and atmosphere-biosphere interactions. Additionally, she is the co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.

Her current projects center around:
1) Changes in East Asian monsoon precipitation
2) Subsurface water dynamics and tree resilience/mortality to droughts

Dr. Jones’s research uses quantitative Earth system science tools –computer models, uncertainty quantification techniques, etc. – to gain decision-relevant insight into how humans affect the climate and vice versa. Major themes include the “usability” of regional climate projections for adaptation planning, the resilience of energy, water, and food systems to multiple stressors, the role of land use change in efforts to both reduce and adapt to climate change, and the tightly coupled interactions among people, built infrastructure, and environmental processes in urban contexts.

Projects include:
1) Project Hyperion, within which he leads a stakeholder engagement process with water management professionals in four case study basins across the US aimed at evaluating and improving the decision-relevance of high-resolution climate projections for long-range water system planning
2) Efforts to understand urban environmental processes (heat waves, vegetation dynamics, hydrologic flows and their implications for energy and water resources) in the context of changing climate, land use, and demographics.

Albert Ruhi focuses on understanding how freshwater communities and food webs respond to global change, with a special emphasis on the effects of hydrologic alteration and drought.

His projects include:
1) 2019-23 Collaborative Proposal: NSF MSB-FRA: Scaling Climate, Connectivity, and Communities in Streams
2) 2019-20 California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) Water Research Program. Towards a Mechanistic Understanding of the Multi-Scale Effects of Drought on Riverine Biodiversity
3) 2019-20 California Department of Fish and Wildlife Awards. Reconnecting Delta food webs: evaluating the influence of tidal marsh restoration on energy flow and prey availability for native fishes
4) 2019-20 Subaward from the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Maryland. Advancing quantitative methods to understand causal pathways and feedbacks within complex socio-hydrological systems.

BERC is a multidisciplinary network of UC Berkeley students, alumni, faculty, industry professionals, and advisers who seek to turn world-leading research into world-changing solutions by tackling tough and timely energy, water, and environmental challenges. Its mission is to connect, educate, and engage its members in order to foster innovation and action.

BEACN is a student-run, nonprofit consulting organization that works with clients both on and off campus on projects that encourage environmental responsibility each semester. BEACN’s mission is “to provide comprehensive strategies to our clients that integrate environmental, social, and economic factors in business decision-making processes” while offering students the opportunity to implement sustainable practices in a real world setting, while offering businesses quality consulting services and research based on up-to-date environmental and business data.

HADSA (Housing and Dining Sustainability Advocates) works directly with the residential halls and Cal Dining to help students and staff increase their awareness of their footprint and decrease their environmental impact. Through student-led advocacy, auditing, and peer education, HADSA strives to make sustainability accessible to the UC Berkeley community, improve housing and dining infrastructure, and work towards more ethical and environmentally sound practices. HADSA works on projects that progress efforts towards energy and water conservation, food waste reduction, solid waste reduction, food literacy, and gardening. HADSA offers internship opportunities to meal plan holders throughout the year.

ESW-Berkeley is a diverse mix of students from all majors and backgrounds united by a passion for helping the environment. The chapter works on a variety of projects, in addition to organizing and sponsoring events aimed at education and professional development for members.

InFEWS (Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems) supports a new generation of students working at the critical juncture of food, energy, and water. These students will master the interdisciplinary skills needed to create actionable and impactful research that is transferable from the lab to the field at scale and to ultimately make real lives better. A small number of stipends ($34k stipend, plus tuition and fees) are available for selected eligible students, who are eligible under NSF rules (US citizen or permanent resident). Applications are reviewed in early February.

The Berkeley Water Center seeks to create more resilient, equitable, and sustainable water systems with access to safe water for all by
leveraging Berkeley research to accelerate groundbreaking solutions for
the world’s water problems.

The Berkeley Water Center cultivates, facilitates and supports a broad range of interdisciplinary research projects to address local and global water challenges; builds connections among academia, policy-makers, and practitioners to enable research-driven solutions to emergent water problems; translates and promotes research results for a wide audience to better inform decision-making about water system planning and development; and empowers UC Berkeley students with opportunities, skills and a research community to develop innovative ideas and to become water leaders.

The Berkeley Water Center is supported by the College of Natural Resources and the College of Engineering. Its affiliates work across the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and have a broad range of research interests and expertise, spanning engineered infrastructure and technology development; planning, monitoring and understanding of natural and engineered water systems; understanding of social, institutional and political contexts of water systems; equitable access to water; water law and policy; economics of urban and agricultural water systems; and public health.