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Research Interests of Participating Faculty
Zhi Wang, Director of Hydrology Laboratory, Earth and Environmental
Sciences.
This laboratory studies the effects of human activity on soil and
water qualities as related to human health and environmental
sustainability. The research topics include: watershed modeling, GIS
applications, irrigation and drainage (in San Joaquin Valley of
California), water and solute (nutrient) movements in surface and
subsurface unsaturated (vadese) and groundwater zones, contamination
of soil and water systems and remediation through physical and
biological means, post-fire hydrology as related to forest
regeneration in the East Sierra Nevada, and fundamental study of
unstable (finger) flow in porous media. Laboratory equipment include
a GIS computer lab (12 computers, two plotters and color printers)
for numerical modeling, a tension-pressure infiltrometer for
measuring soil water infiltration rates and hydrophobicity after
fire experience, Guelph Pressure Infiltrometer for field
measurements of soil infiltration and drainage properties, Time
Domain Reflectometer (TDR) for monitoring and measuring the soil
water status and movement, Transparent Permeameter for measuring the
saturated hydraulic conductivity of any porous medium, Column and
Chamber Permeameters for measuring the unsaturated soil water
retention and conductivity, Column Leaching Equipment for measuring
solute (contaminant and nutrient) movement in porous media, and
Light-Transmission Systems for measuring the dynamics of
contamination and remediation through the fingered flow paths. The
laboratory is currently and especially interested in the study of
unstable finger flow and bio-remediation through fingers as supply
routes for nutrients. Students will be involved in all aspects of
our research and will be assigned independent research projects that
are overseen by Dr. Wang. Dr. William A. Jury, UC Riverside, and Dr.
Rien van Genuchten, USDA-ARS Riverside, are collaborators in these
researches.
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