Edith A. Zagona
Research Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural
Engineering
Director, Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental
Systems (CADSWES)
1777 Exposition Dr. Ste. 113, UCB 421, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0421
Ph: +1-303-492-2189
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 $2.0 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.
CREATIVE WORKS AND INVENTIONS
RiverWare,
a software product developed and maintained at CADSWES and licensed through CU
Office of Technology Transfer and used by hundreds of water managers, planners,
utilities, consultants and researchers. E. Zagona, PI and Principal Inventor.
Release of RiverWare 9.4 in January 2025. Associated software tools, RiverSMART
(RiverWare Study Manager and Research Tool), RiverWISE
(RiverWare Interactive Scenario Explorer), a tool for stakeholder to
independently view, run and share scenarios based on RiverWare models and Demand
Input Tool – a SQLite application developed for the
Bureau of Reclamation but usable by anyone. It is used in conjunction with the
RiverWare software to allow users to create new future demand scenarios.
TEACHING
Academic classes: Water
Resources Management, 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 (For all publications see Google Scholar)
Woodson, D, Rajagopalan, B., Zagona,
E., (2024). "Long-Lead Forecasting of Runoff
Season Flows in the Colorado River Basin Using a Random Forest Approach" Journal
of Water Resources Planning and Management, 150, No. 4, January 31,
2024 ( https://doi.org/10.1061/JWRMD5.WRENG-6167).
Bonham, N., Kasprzyk,
J., Zagona, E., Smith, R., 2024 “Interactive and multimetric
Robustness Tradeoffs in the Colorado River Basin”. ASCE J of Water Res Planning
and Management, Vol 150-3 https://doi.org/10.1061/JWRMD5.WRENG-6199
Bonham, N., Kasprzyk, J., Zagona, E.,
Smith, R., 2024 “Interactive and multmetric
Robustness Tradeoffs in the Colorado River Basin”. ASCE J of Water Res Planning
and Management, Vol 150-3 https://doi.org/10.1061/JWRMD5.WRENG-6199
Woodson, D., Rajagopalan, B., Zagona,
E., Forthcoming. “Long lead forecasting of runoff season flows in the Colorado
river Basin using Random Forest”. ASCE Journal of water Resources Planning and
Management.
Bonham, N.., Kasprzyk, J., Zagona, E.,
& Rajagopalan, B. (2023). "Subsampling and space-filling metrics to
test ensemble size for robustness analysis with a demonstration in the Colorado
River Basin," Environmental Modelling & Software, 2023, 105933, (ISSN
1364-8152, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105933)
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 River Basin Operational Prediction Testbed: A Framework for
Evaluating Streamflow Forecasts and Reservoir Operations.” JAWRA Journal of the
American 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
New
Approaches to Decision Making for the Colorado River Basin, Presented to the
Water Engineering and Science Seminar Series, Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University, October 16, 2024.
Water
Resources Management: Objectives, Technologies and Best Practices. Presented to
faculty and students of Yerevan State University,
National University of Architecture and Armenian National Agrarian University
Armenia, during a USAID – sponsored visit to Armenia, May 20, 2024
Towards
Sharing Waters of the Blue Nile River. Presented to the CVEN 5393 class April
24, 2024.
Texas
Water Development Board: (remote presentation) Overview of the RiverWare Hydropolicy Modeling Tool and applications in state of
Texas. April 5, 2022.
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.
PROFESSIONAL
AFFILIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS: American
Geophysical Union, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Water
Resources Association, Colorado Foundation for Water Education, Society for
Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty