A while back (ok, quite awhile back), in my “My Research” post, I talked about how a part of my research involves monitoring stormwater. Well, that part is front and center this summer and is all about the FIELD WORK!
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My Research: Restoring the natural water cycle in cities
As I mentioned in my About Me page, I am a doctoral student at Iowa State University. I study urban hydrology, green infrastructure, and geographical information systems, also known as GIS. In this post, I go into a bit more detail about what I actually study, and how I conduct my research. I will go into more detail on many of the topics I talk about here later in expanded topic posts, but for now, here’s a little about my research!
In short, I study the effects of urbanization on the environment, specifically on the natural hydrologic cycle. Now, that’s a very big topic. (Literally, the hydrologic cycle is global. Ha!) Narrowing that huge topic down, I specifically study stormwater in urban residential areas and the things that homeowners (or renters!) can do to help restore a more natural, and sustainable hydrologic cycle. Continue reading
The Watershed in Winter! Teaching Outdoors
Snow Lab!
Welcome to our ‘Watershed in Winter’ lab, it’s a lot of fun! One of the most beloved labs in our department, in this lab students explore the winter landscape, looking at how snow falls on landscape, and conducting some simple calculations to estimate water inputs to the watershed.

The watershed in winter, down by a stream. SciNatura.com
Heading out on a beautiful sunny day, our class trekked into the local woods once again to explore ‘the watershed in winter’.