Edith A. Zagona
Research Professor, Department of
Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and
Director, Center for Advanced Decision
Support for Water and Environmental Systems
1777 Exposition Dr. Ste. 113, UCB 421,
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0421 Ph: 303-492-2189
EDUCATION
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO: Ph.D. in Civil and
Environmental Engineering, 1992
Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO: M.S., Civil Engineering,
1983: Hydraulics.
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona: B.S. Civil
Engineering 1978
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona: B.A.,
Philosophy, 1975
Professional Activities
Research Professor, Department
of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado,
2010 to present.
Director, Center for Advanced
Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems, Department of Civil,
Environmental and Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied
Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-CADSWES), 2001 to present.
Research Associate, CU-CADSWES,
1992-2000
Professional Research
Assistant, CU-CADSWES, 1989-1992
Graduate Research Assistant,
CU-CADSWES, 1988-1989
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Design and Planning Coordinator, Central Arizona Projects Office, 1986-87
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Hydraulic Engineer, Engineering and Research Center, 1978-84
RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS
Development
of decision support tools for water resources management. Principal
investigator and head of invention team of RiverWare® used by major water
resources management, consultants and institutions for managing river and
reservoir systems. Research interests include water resource systems and modeling, planning and
operations of multi-objective river and reservoir systems, hydropower
optimization, decision making under uncertainty, analysis and adaptive
management for climate change. Experience
in needs analysis, design, development, testing and deployment of DSS tools for
river and reservoir management.
Direction
of academic research center, lead investigator for average of $1.5 million per
year contracts and grants TVA, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and other water managers and
utilities. Collaborations with other researchers and guidance of graduate
student research. Advisor to modelers and managers of river systems in U.S. and
abroad. Developing and teaching water resources classes at CU and training
materials for DSS users. Hydraulic engineer in the public sector and experience
with design of large projects and public involvement in large projects.
Technical advisor to Nile Basin Initiative DSS.
Teaching
Academic
classes: Applied
Fluid Mechanics, Open Channel Hydraulics, Dam Engineering, Water Resources
Development and Management; Optimization
for Water Resources; Outreach Courses (recent): RiverWare
and River Basin Planning – classes provided on site in India sponsored by World
Bank, in Chihuahua, Mexico sponsored by the University of Chihuahua; in Sudan for Nile Basin
participants. RiverWare Tech Transfer: Lectures
as part of 5-day courses in using RiverWare®, with CADSWES staff,
taught to technical people from water management agencies, consulting companies
and universities and research institutes. Typically 3
to 4 courses per year.
Recent Publications
Bonham,
N., Kasprzyk, J. and Zagona, E. (2022). "post-MORDM:
Mapping Policies to Synthesize Optimization and Robustness Results for
Decision-maker Compromise," Environmental Modelling &
Software, 157, November 2022, 105491, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105491).
Thapa,
S.; Magee, T.; Zagona, E. (2022) “Factors That Affect Hydropower Flexibility”.
Water 2022, 14, 2563. https://doi.org/10.3390/ w14162563
Magee,
T, Turner, S, Clement, M., Oikonomou, K., Zagona, E.,
and Voisin, N. (2022) "Evaluating
Power Grid Model Hydropower Feasibility with a River Operations Model" IOP
Environmental Research Letters, 08 August, 2022, (https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac83db).
Wheeler,
K., Jeuland, M., Strzepek, K., Hall, J., Zagona, E.,
Abdo, G., Basson, T., Blackmore, D., Block, P.,
&Whittington, D. (2022) “Comment on ‘Egypt’s water budget deficit and
suggested mitigation policies for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam filling
scenarios’” Environ.Res. Lett.17(2022) 88003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7e5e.
Baker,
S.A., A.W. Wood, B. Rajagopalan, J. Prairie, C. Jerla,
E. Zagona, R.A. Butler, and R. Smith. (2022). “The Colorado RiverBasin
Operational Prediction Testbed: A Framework for Evaluating Streamflow Forecasts
and Reservoir Operations.”JAWRA
Journal of theAmerican Water Resources
Association1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.13038.
Smith,
R., Zagona, E., Kasprzyk, J., Bonham, N., Alexander, E., Butler, A., Prairie,
J. & Jerla, C. (2022). "Decision Science Can Help Address the
Challenges of Long-Term Planning in the Colorado River Basin," Journal of
the American Water Resources Association, 22 January 2022
(https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12985).
Woodson,
D., Rajagopalan, B., Baker, S., Smith, R., Prairie, J., Towler, E., Ge, M.
& Zagona, E. (2021). "Stochastic Decadal Projections of Colorado River
Streamflow and Reservoir Pool Elevations Conditioned on Temperature
Projections," Water Resources Research, 57 (12),
https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030936
Wheeler,
K.G., Jeuland, M., Hall, J.W., Zagona, E.A., & Whittington, D. (2020).
Understanding and managing new risks on the Nile with the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam. Nat Commun 11, 5222. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19089-x
Basheer,
M., Wheeler, K.G., Elagib, N.A., Etichia, M., Zagona, E.A., Abdo, G.M., &
Harou, J.J. (2020). Filling Africa’s Largest Hydropower Dam Should Consider
Engineering Realities, One Earth, [Commentary] Volume 3, Issue 3, 18 September
2020, 277–281. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.08.015
Rajagopalan,
B., Erkyihun, S. T., Lall, U., Zagona, E., & Nowak, K. (2019). A nonlinear
dynamical systems‐based modeling approach for stochastic simulation of streamflow
and understanding predictability. Water Resources Research, 55, 6268–6284.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR023650
Neumann
D., Zagona E., Short J., Sidlow M., Wunsch M., Hunter J., "River and
Reservoir Operations using RiverWare within the Corps Water Management System
(CWMS)" Proceedings of the Federal Sedimentation and Hydrologic Modeling
Conference, June 24 - 28, 2019, Reno, Nevada, USA
Wheeler,
K. G., Hall, J. W., Abdo, G. M., Dadson, S. J., Kasprzyk, J. R., Smith, R.,
&Zagona, E. A. (2018). Exploring cooperative transboundary river management
strategies for eastern Nile Basin. Water Resources Research, 54, 9224–9254.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2017WR022149.
Basheer,
M, K Wheeler, L Ribbe, M Majdalawi, G Abdo, and E Zagona (2018). Quantifying
and Evaluating the Impacts of Cooperation in Transboundary River Basins on the
Water-Energy-Food Nexus: The Blue Nile Basin, Science of The Total Environment,
Volume 630 (15 July 2018), 1309-1323, ISSN 0048-9697,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.249
Witt,
Adam, T. Magee, K. Stewart, B Hadjerioua, D Neumann, E Zagona, M. Politano
(2017) Development and Implementation of an Optimization Model for
Hydropower and Total Dissolved Gas in the Mid-Columbia River System, J.
Water Resour. Plann. Manage, Published online 10 August, 04017063
1-15, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000827. © 2017 American Society of Civil
Engineers.
Erkyihun
S.T., E Zagona, B. Rajagopalan, (2017) Wavelet and Hidden Markov-Based
Stochastic Simulation Methods Comparison on Colorado River Streamflow, J.
Hydrol. Eng 2017, 22(9): 04017033 1-12, DOI:
10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943-5584.0001538. © 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Erkyihun,
S.E., B. Rajagopalan, E. Zagona, U. Lall, and K.
Nowak (2016). Wavelet-based Time Series Bootstrap Model for
Multidecadal Streamflow Simulation Using Climate Indicators, Water
Resour. Res., 52, 4061–4077, doi:10.1002/2016WR018696.
Frevert, D., J. Prairie and E. Zagona, Hydrology of
the Colorado River Basin, Chapter 110 in the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of
Handbook of Applied Hydrology, edited by Vijay Singh. McGraw-Hill, New York,
October 11, 2016.
Wheeler,
K.G., M. Basheer, Z.T. Mekonnen, S.O. Eltoum, A. Mersha, G.M. Abdo, E.A.
Zagona, J.W. Hall and S.J. Dadson (2016). Cooperative Filling Approaches
for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Water International, Published
online 11 May, DOI:10.1080/02508060.2016.1177698.
Yanto,
Rajagopalan, B. & Zagona, E. (2016). Space-time Variability of
Indonesian Rainfall at Inter-annual and Multi-decadal Time Scales. Climate
Dynamics, 1-15, DOI 10.1007/s00382-016-3008-8.
Brown,
C., J. R. Lund, X. Cai, P. Reed, E. Zagona, A. Ostfeld, J. Hall, G. Characklis,
W. Yu, L. Brekke (2015) The Future of Water Resources Systems Analysis: Toward
a Scientific Framework for Sustainable Water Management, Water Resources
Research, 51,6110-6124, doi:10.1002/2015WR017114.
Smith,
R., J. Kasprzyk and E. Zagona (2015), Many Objective Analysis to Optimize
Pumping and Releases in a Multi-Reservoir water Supply Network. J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage.,
04015049-1—04015049-14, dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000576.
Bracken,
C., B. Rajagopalan, E. Zagona (2014). A Hidden Markov Model Combined with
Climate Indices for Multi-decadal Streamflow Simulation, Water Resources
Research, 50, 7836-7846.
Ibanez,
E., T. Magee, M. Clement, G. Brinkman, M. Milligan, and E.
Zagona (2014). Enhancing Hydropower Modeling in Variable Generation
Integration Studies. Energy, 74 (2014), 518–528.
Clement, M., T.
Magee, E. Zagona (2014), A Methodology to Assess the Value of Integrated
Hydropower and Wind Generation; Wind Engineering 38 (3), 261-276.
Rajagopalan,
B., C. Brown, A. Mishra, S. Demuth, E. Zagona, J. Salas, A. Sharma, U. Lall and
A. Polebitski (2012). State of the resource: Quantity. In: Chapter 15 of Managing
Water under Uncertainty and Risk, United Nations World Water Development
Report 4 (WWDR4), UNESCO
INVITED TALKS
Sustainable
Hydropower Generation and Reservoir Operations under Changing Climate. Climate
Extremes and Societal Resilience in Serayu River Basin, Indonesia, 9-12 August,
2021.
Use of
RiverWare for Modeling Drought Management.
Nile Basin Workshop on Water Management under Drought, University of
Khartoum, Sudan, October 29-31, 2019.
River System
Modeling with RiverWare, Invited talk at the Lower Mekong Initiative, Technical
Workshop on Integrating River Planning for Energy and Environment, Oak Ridge
Nation Laboratory, June 10-14, 2019
Invited
Panelist: Department of Energy Workshop on Representation of Hydropower in Production
Cost Models, Salt Lake City, March 6-7, 2019
Keynote
address to the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society annual meeting, Nanchang,
China, October 21, 2018
Keynote
address to the International Symposium on Water System Operations, China
Institute of Water and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China, October 17, 2018.
Keynote
Address to the Fifth Nile Basin Development Forum, October 23, 2017, Kigali,
Rwanda
“From
Research to Application: Examples on the Colorado, Rio Grande and Columbia
Rivers,” invited talk to the Colorado River Hydrology Research Symposium, May
22-23, 2017, Las Vegas
“The
surprising past and uncertain future of the Colorado River – thoughts for earth
day,” talk to the Boulder Rotary Club, April 21, 2017.
Keynote Address “Modeling for
River System Planning and Management" to the University of Chihuahua
Faculty of Engineering Conference, October 24, 2016.
Address to World Bank Ministerial
Tour for water ministries of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia: “Technical strategies
and mechanisms for cooperative filling approaches for dams in inter-state and
international drainage basins,” August 9, 2016, Las Vegas, NV.
Nile Basin Initiative, Second
national Experts Group meeting on Strategic Water Resources Analysis, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia: “Addressing Potential Imbalances between water demand and
supply – experiences from the Colorado River Basin,” April 28, 2016.
University of Khartoum, Sudan,
Conference on Scientific Research and Innovation for Sustainable Development in
Africa, “Model and Analysis Tools for River System Planning and Management”
February 22, 2016.
University of Colorado, Department
of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, “The Water Energy Nexus
and CADSWES Hydropower Research and Applications” October 2015
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS: American Geophysical Union,
American Society of Civil Engineers, American Water Resources Association,
Colorado Foundation for Water Education, International Water Resources
Association, Universities Council on Water Resources, Society for Decision
Making Under Deep Uncertainty