Welcome to W3R2 Group !!!
Recent water issues and challenges continue to threaten the sustainability of water resources in the western watersheds.
Given current climate change projections, increasing temperature is likely to modify the timing, form, and intensity of precipitatin events, which consequently affect regional and local hydrologic cycles.
As a result, drought, water shortage, and subsequent water conflicts may become an increasing threat in natural and managed water systems in the western states.
As such, Dr. Ryu's Western Watershed and Water Resources Research (W3R2) Group is focusing on developoing collaborative management modeling approaches for highly managed water resources system. The W3R2 is investigating how to identify future climate affects regional water resources outlooks over the next few decades, develop sustainable water resources planning and adaptive management against uncertain future cliamte, link the existing computer models to a socioeconomic model in human dimensions.
Hi, I'm an associate professor at University of Idaho.
I received both BS (1996) and MS (1998) degrees in Agricultural Engineering (now, civil environmental system engineering)
from the Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea.
While completing my MS degree, I worked at the National Institute of Environmental Engineering (Tsukuba, Japan)
as research assistant, gaining experience with natural systems for rural wastewater using artificial wetlands.
In the fall of 1999, I became a graduate student of the Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington (UW), and received my second master degree in 2001. The first my research at the UW has focused on developing a water quality (eutrophication) model associated with nutrient loading in the King Abdullah Canal, located in Jordan. Specifically, I developed a model identifying the key sources of water pollution in the King Abdullah Canal, and evaluated several alternatives in order to reduce the algae bloom from both the economic and technical points of view. My water quality model was built in both Qual2e (http://www.epa.gov) and MIKE11 (http://www.dhisoftware.com).
Since then, I have involved a couple of projects, such as the Columbia River Risk Assessment Project as a GIS analyst and Tualatin (Oregon) Climate Change Impacts study as a hydrologist. Also, I have broadened my knowledge by focusing on the use of mid-range climate forecasts (such as NSSIP/NASA or NCEP/CPC/NOAA forecasts) for managing a regional watershed affected by climate variability. These forecasts can be used to define the extent of potential droughts and to provide operational guidance.
In June 2006, I received a Ph.D with a specialization in water resources planning and management. Major parts of my Ph.D dissertation have focused on three important water resources chanllenging issues, including 1) how to evaluate streamflow forecasts using the output from a climate model such as the Global Cirulation Model, 2) how to optimize water resource system associated with such forecast information, and 3) how to mitigate water conflicts using decision support tools.
Upon completing my graduate study, I moved to the state of Nebraska and joined the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC). Since then, I have involved several projects, including 1) US Drought Atlas (USDA/RMA), 2) Republican River Basin Water and Drought Portal (NOAA), and 3) Seasonal Drought Forecasts (NASA) in collaboration with the civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC).
I joined the faculty at the University of Idaho in 2010. My research area is diverse, encompassing the fields of hydrologic modeling and forecasting, water quality modeling, sustainable water resources planning and management, water conflict resolutions, and climate impact studies. Currently, my research is focusing on water resources planning and management in Idaho, including mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change impacts, and I am working with state and federal personnel located in Boise to deal with many aspects of water issues.
Contact information:
Dr. Jae Ryu
Associate Professor of Water Resources Engineering
University of Idaho
Idaho Water Center
322 East Front Street, Suite 242
Boise, ID 83702-7359
email:jryu [at] uidaho.edu
phone:(208) 332-4402
fax (208) 332-4400.