Blue Gold Graduate was a graduate student group in watershed science at SDSU, run by Ryoko 2019-2024, across Departments of Geography, Environmental Science, Civil Engineering, Geology, and Public Health. We held research seminars, socials, and networking events to facilitate inter-departmental communication–we had so much fun! The group was named after SDSU faculty group Blue Gold.
Past activities
Fall 2024
– Led by Anne Holt and TJ Palmer
Networking & Seminar event with Emily Perkins (GIS manager, USGS) and Joel Kramer (Agricultural Specialist, The Resource Conservation, District of San Diego County)
Social event: San Diego River Park Foundation River Clean-up
Spring 2023
– Led by Lauren Bolotin and Margot Mattson
Networking & Seminar event on working in environmental consulting with Kristina Hysler, PE. (Environmental Science, Permitting and Compliance Technical Leader, Vice President/Principal Engineer at WSP)
Research Seminars:
Margot Mattson (SDSU) “Characterizing multi-decadal trends in land cover change to monitor wetland habitat decline in the Colorado River delta region”
TJ Palmer (SDSU) “Quantifying and tracking trash in the San Diego River”
Saskia Salwey (Bristol University (UK)) “Developing generic reservoir operating rules for inclusion in the national-scale hydrological modelling of Great Britain”
Fall 2022
– Led by Lauren Bolotin and Margot Mattson
Emily Deardorff “Comparing the performance of the National Water Model to data-driven hydrological models using hydrological signatures”
Lauren Bolotin “Skill sharing workshop: Resources for identifying and downloading hydrologic data in R”
Margot Mattson “Skill sharing workshop: Introduction to Google Earth Engine”
Lauren Bolotin “Skill sharing workshop: Downloading USGS stream gauge data using R”
Anne Holt “Experience sharing: Working at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project”
Nika Tsitelashvili “Experience sharing: Designing and managing a hydropower plant in Georgia”
Cessia Caballero “The dynamics of land use and land cover change in Brazil and impacts on surface-atmosphere interactions,” see the Project website
Social event━ Mission Trail Hike
Spring 2022
Lauren Bolotin “A hydrologic signature approach to analyzing post-fire overland flow in U.S. watersheds”
Margot Mattson “Multitemporal image analysis to detect changes in wetland extent and vegetation composition in the Colorado River Delta region”
Camila Abe “Evapotranspiration estimates from remote sensing-based algorithms and flux dower data”
Kelly Hollman “Photoirradiation and degradation kinetics of tire wear particle (TWP) leachates”
Justin Tang “Radar Detection of Narrow Cold Frontal Rainbands (NCFRs) and its Intersections with Urban Southern California Watersheds, ” see the open-source code
Ryoko Araki “Calibrating using soil moisture seasonality improves water balance in hydrologic models”
Social event— Three Sisters Fall Trail Hike
Fall 2021
Margot Mattson “Coastal erosion and flooding in Guayaquil, Ecuador”
Dong-Hyun (Donny) Kim “Using landscape data to hypothesize runoff mechanism alteration in urbanized watersheds”
Lauren Bolotin “Investigating relationships between extreme hourly and sub-hourly precipitation in California”
Ryoko Araki “A unique rainfall-runoff process in a humid tropical forest in Sumatra, Indonesia”
Camila Abe “Physiographic characteristics and low flows in a small watershed of Rondonia, Brazil”
Ryoko Araki “How to Take Smart Notes”
Justin Tang “The Role of Narrow Cold Frontal Rainbands on Urban Flooding in Southern California”
Lauren Bolotin “Classifying Salinity Regimes in Western U.S. Rivers and Streams”
Social event— Torrey Pines Beach Hike
Spring 2021
Brent Wilder “Incorporate ECOSTRESS evapotranspiration measurements to improve certainty in post-fire vegetation assessments “
Ye Mu “Forests mitigates drought in an agricultural region of the Brazilian Amazon”
Mireille Garcia “An evaluation of microbial pollutant in a watershed with homeless encampments”
Vincent O’hara-Rhi “Predicting flood extent in urban area”
Gabriela Morales “Agricultural responses to changing water supplies in Imperial Valley, California”
Justin Tang “Narrow Cold Frontal Rain bands and Urban Flooding in Southern California”
Ryoko Araki “A signature-based approach to quantify soil moisture dynamics”
Fall 2020
Brent Wilder “Analyzing Sars-cov-2 in wastewater treatment facilities to inform epidemiological monitoring of Covid-19”
Cheyenne Graves “Rain water harvesting in Southern California”
Gabriela Morales “Agricultural responses to changing water supplies in Imperial Valley, California”
Ryoko Araki “Paper review on soil moisture memory”
Ye Mu “Improving the satellite precipitation estimates for rainfall extremes using a dense rain gauge network over the Brazilian Amazon“
Ryoko Araki “Developing diagnostic signatures from in-situ soil moisture networks under different land-uses”
Brent Wilder “Post-fire Vegetation and Hydrologic Recovery in a Mediterranean Climate”
Spring 2020
Ryoko Araki “How to bridge satellite and in-situ observation of soil moisture?”
Sebastian Gnann “What controls baseflow generation at the catchment scale?”
Gabriela Morales “Agricultural responses to changing water supplies in Imperial Valley, California”
Brent Wilder “An analytical solution for rapidly predicting post-fire peak streamflow for small watersheds in southern California”
Fall 2019
Cheyenne Graves “Life Cycle Analysis”
Vincent O’hara-Rhi “Assessment of oil sampling method”
Mireille Garcia “Storm water management in San Diego”
Ryoko Araki “Rainfall-runoff process in Indonesia”
Jose Calderon “”
Brent Wilder “An analytical solution for rapidly predicting post-fire peak streamflow for small watersheds in southern California”
Danielle Hunt “”
Gabriela Morales “Agricultural responses to changing water supplies in Imperial Valley, California”
Kelly Flint “”
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