UC Berkeley Water Research and Opportunities Portal

An overview of the processes that control water supply to natural ecosystems and human civilization. Hydrologic cycle, floods, droughts, groundwater. Patterns of water use, threats to water quality, effects of global climate change on future water supplies. Water issues facing California.

Identification and ecology of aquatic insects, including their role as indicators of environmental quality.

Distribution, dynamics, and use of water resources in the global environment. Water scarcity, water rights, and water wars. The terrestrial hydrologic cycle. Contemporary environmental issues in water resource management, including droughts, floods, saltwater intrusion, water contamination and remediation, river restoration, hydraulic fracturing, dams, and engineering of waterways. The role of water in ecosystem processes and geomorphology. How water resources are measured and monitored. Basic water resource calculations. Effects of climate change on water quantity, quality, and timing.

The health effects of environmental alterations caused by development programs and other human activities in both developing and developed areas. Case studies will contextualize methodological information and incorporate a global perspective on environmentally mediated diseases in diverse populations. Topics include water management; population change; toxics; energy development; air pollution; climate change; chemical use, etc.

This course focuses on a survey of physiological approaches to understanding plant-environment interactions from the functional perspective. Lectures cover physiological adaptation; limiting factors; resources acquisition/allocation; photosynthesis, carbon, energy balance; water use and relations; nutrient relations; linking physiology; stable isotope applications in ecophysiology; stress physiology; life history and physiology; evolution of physiological performance; physiology population, community, and ecosystem levels.

Distribution, dynamics, and use of water resources in the global environment. Water scarcity, water rights, and water wars. The terrestrial hydrologic cycle. Contemporary environmental issues in water resource management, including droughts, floods, saltwater intrusion, water contamination and remediation, river restoration, hydraulic fracturing, dams, and engineering of waterways. The role of water in ecosystem processes and geomorphology. How water resources are measured and monitored. Basic water resource calculations. Effects of climate change on water quantity, quality, and timing.

The course covers monitoring, control and regulatory policy of microbial, chemical and radiological drinking water contaminants. Additional subjects include history and iconography of safe water, communicating risks to water consumers and a bottled water versus tap water taste test as part of the discussion on aesthetic water quality parameters. A field trip to a local water treatment plant in included.

The course covers monitoring, control and regulatory policy of microbial, chemical and radiological drinking water contaminants. Additional subjects include history and iconography of safe water, communicating risks to water consumers and a bottled water versus tap water taste test as part of the discussion on aesthetic water quality parameters.

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

Ashok Gadgil focuses on novel technologies for producing affordable safe drinking water by removing various harmful contaminants. Current focus contaminants are: arsenic, fluoride, lead, TDS, Emerging Organic Contaminants, and silica.

His projects include:
1) Prevention of drinking water contamination from lead pipes.
2) Reduction of toxic concentrations of fluoride in groundwater to safe levels
3) Creation of safe drinking water from groundwater contaminated with high levels of arsenic

Kara Nelson focuses on addresses innovative strategies to improve the sustainability of urban water infrastructure, including technologies for potable and non-potable water reuse, nutrient recovery, decentralized systems, intermittent water supply, household water treatment, and affordable sanitation. In particular, Dr. Nelson’s research focuses on the control of waterborne pathogens, including mechanisms of pathogen inactivation and new detection methods.

Her projects include:
1) A WASH project looking at impact of improved sanitation interventions on transmission of enteric pathogens from human and animal sources through a randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh
2) Influence of intermittent water supply (IWS) on the diversity and dynamics of the IWS microbiome.
3) The impacts of DPR systems on microbial water quality through research on methods of advanced microbial water quality assessment.

Lisa Alvarez-Cohen focuses on environmental microbiology and ecology, biotransformation and fate of environmental and wastewater contaminants, and innovative molecular and isotopic techniques for studying microbial ecology of communities involved in wastewater treatment and bioremediation communities. Specifically, her research focuses on the application of omics-based molecular tools and isotopic techniques to understand and optimize the bioremediation of emerging and conventional environmental contaminants by naturally occurring microorganisms and to facilitate beneficial nutrient removal from wastewater.

Her projects include:
1) Trichloroethene Remediation, specifically investigating how dichlorination communities respond to the changes in these conditions by constructing various Dhc-containing consortia in batch and completely mixed flow reactors.
2) Characterization of the fate and biotransformation of fluorochemicals in aqueous film forming forms (AFFF)
3) Nitrogen Removal from Wastewater by Anammox

Slav Hermanowicz focuses on biological water and wastewater treatment processes, biofilms and their development, analysis of full-scale treatment reactors, nutrient control, and sustainable development.

His projects include:
1) Deammonification of anaerobic sludge digestate
2) Better drinking water quality in storage
3) Solar optics-based active pasteurization for greywater reuse and integrated thermal building control
4) Physics of foaming in anaerobic digesters
5) Sustainable development: physical and moral issues
6) New sources of water; toward a definition of sustainability

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

Maggi Kelly’s lab group’s motto is “mapping for a changing California”, and they use a range of geospatial data and analytics – from spatial modeling, remote sensing, drones, lidar, historical archives, surveys, participatory mapping, and the field – to gain insights about how and why California landscapes are changing, and what that change means for those who live on, use, and manage our lands.

Vincent Resh focuses on aquatic biology, water pollution, modeling, and entomology.

His projects include:
1) Berkeley Water Center Berkeley/China-CDC Program for Water & Health Advisory Board
2) Approaches that can be used for biological monitoring and assessment of water quality in developing countries and by volunteer monitoring groups
3) Evolutionary biology and ecology of aquatic insects, crustaceans, and mollusks in stream and river habitats
4) Evaluation of habitat manipulations for use in environmental restoration or enhancement, control of water-borne disease vectors of humans, and the use of manipulations in examining underlying influences of ecological interactions
5) Techniques for the biological assessment of water quality.

Each year, the Cal Environmental Team designs and constructs a simple, sustainable water filter that can treat wastewater. The team then competes at the American Society of Civil Engineers Mid Pacific Conference to test their design against that of other teams from western U.S. universities.

The Bay Area Water Quality Fellowship is open to graduate students whose studies are related specifically to water quality issues that affect the San Francisco Bay. It is intended to support scientific research in the following topics:
-the exposure or effect, if any, of organisms within the San Francisco Bay estuary to selenium, metals, and/or organic chemicals through food chain transfer
-the degree, if any, to which sediments are a source of exposure for organisms within the San Francisco Bay estuary to selenium, metals, and/or organic chemicals
-other research that involves the effect of pollution on the San Francisco Bay estuary and/or its ecosystem.

Applications are due at the beginning of Spring semester. Recipients will receive $15,000 for the following Fall semester. The award can be used as a payment for registration fees and/or stipend.

The Canadian Studies Program is involved in research and investigation on the renewal terms of the Canadian-American Columbia River Treaty and the management of the river system. The project is focused on science requirements and needs for a modernized treaty. The research looks into how water is managed throughout the river system through dams and river flows, and also looks into how environmental impacts are assessed and how to promote ecological sustainability throughout the system.

There are great academic and funding opportunities for any students looking to join the research on the Columbia River Treaty project.

ReNUWIt (Re-Inventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure) is an interdisciplinary, multi-institution engineering research center. Our goal is to change the ways we manage urban water.

ReNUWIt is the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Re-inventing the Nation’s urban Water Infrastructure. Launched in 2011, ReNUWIt is the first ERC dedicated to civil infrastructure and water systems. ReNUWIt encompasses a diverse team of researchers who collaborate with entrepreneurs and practitioners on innovative solutions for urban water infrastructure challenges.

The UC Berkeley Superfund Research Center is an NIEHS-funded program studying the toxic effects of Superfund chemicals (including drinking water contaminants) on human health and innovative approaches to environmental remediation. Our Center has been continuously funded for over 30 years. In our current funding cycle, we have identified four complex problems associated with hazardous waste sites that have proven intractable to current methods. These problems are how to better assess: 1) cumulative impacts from multiple environmental stressors (e.g. chemical exposures, stress and obesity); 2) past exposures, especially early-life exposures and their contribution to risk; 3) the effects of chemical mixtures and their impact on remediation efforts; and, 4) the complex transformation of chemicals to reactive intermediates and their ability to act through multiple mechanistic pathways. Our six interactive projects (4 biomedical and 2 engineering) and 5 cores, are addressing these issues through original research, translation to appropriate end-users and community engagement efforts.

Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who work with a Center PI on a Superfund-related project are considered Superfund Trainees. The Trainee Core, under the leadership of Professor Luoping Zhang, offers trans-disciplinary mentorship, education, and training in environmental health, environmental toxicology, environmental engineering and data science as well as professional development and leadership opportunities. Trainees have hosted a booth at CalDay for the past two years and have presented their work at the NIEHS Superfund Research Program Annual Meetings each year.

The Wheeler Water Institute contributes robust analysis and forward-looking policy recommendations to directly inform decision-making. Anchored by our unique blend of legal, policy, and technical expertise, we bring clarity and actionable research to a famously challenging field. Established in 2012 at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) at Berkeley Law, the Institute conducts projects at the intersection of law, policy and science.