Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering
The Hydrology Days Award is presented each year in recognition of outstanding and significant contributions to hydrologic science.
The 2025 Hydrology Days award will be presented to Neil Grigg, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University, for his work on water resources planning and management, public works and utility management, and hydraulics and hydrology. Professor Grigg will provide a keynote address on April 8th at 1 PM.
Flood risk: science and engineering to confront failed governance
The Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum identified extreme weather among the greatest risks facing the planet, second only to state-based armed conflict. Among these risks, flooding causes massive losses every year and has large impacts on lower income and disenfranchised populations. Flood professionals agree that solutions will require integrated management of land and water in river basins and urban areas, as well as efficient use of floodplains and flood warning systems to minimize loss of life. While much is known about such response measures, losses continue to rise. The question addressed is whether science and engineering can make significant improvements or whether climate change and governance disorder caused by urbanization and uncontrolled land use decisions will overwhelm ongoing efforts to reduce risk. The discussion will address whether comprehensive approaches based on systems methods can be effective to confront the disparate threats of flood risk reduction. The background of historic flooding and policy responses will be described, and experiences of recent disastrous floods will be reviewed. The Integrated Flood Management concept will be explained, and the status of forecasting, modeling, and data analytics will be discussed in the light of emerging databases, centers of excellence, and online resources. The difficult issues of floodplain mapping, flood insurance, and public involvement will be explained in the light of challenges to enact workable and just governance approaches. The conclusion will provide suggested pathways for rising flood risk researchers and professional practitioners.
Neil S. Grigg is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. He has experience as an educator, researcher, consulting engineer, and public official. His concentrations are in water management and institutions, water rights, water supplies, state water planning, water law, policy and regulation, infrastructure development and water security. His international water experience includes projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Each year at Hydrology Days, we honor a speaker by inviting them to present a Borland lecture in either hydrology or hydraulics. Learn more about Whitney Borland and the Borland Endowment to the CSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The 2025 Borland Hydrology Award keynote address will be provided by Terri Hogue, Dean of Earth and Society Programs at the Colorado School of Mines, for her work in Hydrology. Dr. Hogue will provide a keynote address on April 9th at 1 PM.
Modeling Hydrologic Impacts from Forest Disturbance: Progress, Challenges, and Paths Forward
Forest disturbances are increasingly prevalent in the western U.S., driven by prolonged droughts, wildfires, forest mortality from insects or disease, and urban expansion, all of which disrupt hydrologic behavior. Watershed impacts can be acute, such as wildfires or evolve more slowly, like insect-induced mortality. Quantifying the vulnerability of hydrological systems to forest disturbance is crucial for providing both short- and long-term information to stakeholders, aiding in decision-making for sustainable land and water management practices. Depending on the scale of the event, disturbances can significantly alter the magnitude and timing of water budget partitioning, with varying degrees of severity or predictability. Unfortunately, few if any hydrologic models have been developed or parameterized to capture forest disturbances. Both operational and research models suffer in their ability to capture altered hydrological, geochemical, or ecological processes.
Our recent work has focused on improving post-fire predictability in physically based models (i.e. Noah-MP and MIKE-SHE) and statistical models. We utilize machine learning, such as LSTMs, to inform model parameterizations and independently predict post-fire hydrologic behavior, including streamflow and stream water temperature. This presentation will give an overview of disturbance model development for headwater basins in Colorado, focusing on fire and other disturbance regimes, as well as national-scale studies using remote sensing data and statistical models. We also draw attention to watersheds experiencing compound or overlapping disturbance, such as insect-induced forest mortality and wildfire. Challenges and opportunities for improved hydrologic prediction in these systems will also be presented. Understanding the vulnerability of watersheds to disturbance is critical for effective adaptation and resilience-building efforts for regional water resources
Professor Hogue’s research centers on understanding hydrologic and land surface processes, with much of her work focused in semi-arid regions. The overarching goal of her work is to improve the prediction of hydrologic fluxes for better management of water resources, to assess human impacts on the environment, and to mitigate the effects of natural hazards. Projects include investigating catchment response to wildfire, understanding the impact of urbanization on hydrologic fluxes, evaluating climate variability and response of land-atmosphere systems, and improving hydrologic forecasts. Professor Hogue and her research group use field and experimental methods, modeling and optimization techniques, as well as remote sensing data in their investigations.
Visit Dr. Hogue’s biography page to learn more: https://cee.mines.edu/project/hogue-terri/
Hydraulics Recipients
Hydrology Recipients
The Hydrology Days Student Showcase provides an opportunity for students at different points in their careers to exchange ideas, give research presentations and enhance their scientific communication skills. The showcase offers students an enriching environment that sparks peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.
1st Place (tied)- Joseph Bindner, Colorado State University
