Researchers Work to Provide Resource Managers with Data and Decision Support Tools

September 7, 2007

GRI researchers are working to provide resource managers with data and decision support tools that provide a watershed-wide look at processes and project impacts. Three related projects funded by the Northern Gulf Institute are led by an interdisciplinary team consisting of John Cartwright and Vladimir Alarcon of GRI, Mary Love Tagert of the Mississippi Water Resources Research Institute, Gary Ervin of Biological Sciences, and Jairo Diaz, James Martin, Jeremy Sharp, and Bill McAnally of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The fundamental philosophy of operations for the NGI is integration - integration of the land-coast-ocean-atmosphere continuum; integration of research to operations; and integration of individual academic institutional strengths into a holistic research and educational program specifically geared to the needs of Northern Gulf of Mexico users. For more information on the Northern Gulf Institute, see its web site at: www.northerngulfinstitute.org.

The GRI team is responsible for three related projects with goals of improving water resources management tools in watersheds, streams and lakes, and coastal areas such that management decisions can be made in the context of their system-wide effects and costs. As part of their work they are applying standard and experimental models for rainfall-runoff, river and coastal flows, and transport of sediment and selected contaminants to the Mobile River Basin. The Mobile Basin is among the largest in the nation, draining most of Alabama and parts of Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee.

These NGI projects are providing support and research experience for five graduate students, two undergraduates and one post-doctoral fellow.

For more info contact Dr. William McAnally at McAnally@cee.msstate.edu.