Water and Soil Management and Protection

Red Hook WaterlineThe challenges of protecting water quality, while meeting the demands of agricultural production and urban development, are especially important in Minnesota. The Department has a rich history of research in modeling surface and subsurface flow and transport, as well as in collecting experimental data at the laboratory, plot, field, and watershed scale.

Current projects include contaminant transport in macropores and fingered flows; plume development in heterogeneous media; assessment of the impact of agricultural drainage; hydrologic and water quality impacts of urban development; effectiveness of erosion control blankets for construction sites; design of surface tile inlets for improved water quality; transport of contaminants in freezing and thawing soils; and scaling issues for hydrologic/water quality models. (MSEA).

Key Faculty

John Nieber

Applications of analytical and numerical solutions of the deterministic and stochastic equations for fluid flow, mass transport, and heat transport in the unsaturated zone. Applications of models to solve current problems of water quantity and quality.

Gary Sands

Diverse interests in land and water resources including: environmental impacts and sustainability of agricultural systems; measuring and modeling the impacts of water management systems; nutrient losses from artificially drained lands; water resource utilization; GIS applications in water resources; water quality.

Bruce Wilson

Hydraulics of flows in erodible channels, especially as it relates to rill erosion; hydrologic/water quality modeling of disturbed and agricultural watersheds; transport of surface water contaminants; and parameter uncertainty in mathematical models.