Rebecca Smith
Ph.D.
HYDROLOGY, WATER RESOURCES, AND ENVIRONMENTAL FLUID MECHANICS

Dr. Rebecca Smith graduated with an MS in Spring 2014 from the University of Colorado Boulder and completed her PhD in Fall 2017. Her degree concentration was Water Resources Engineering, and her emphasis and research focused on improving water management strategies to incorporate multiple conflicting objectives under tight supply and operational constraints. Her Master’s research linked an evolutionary algorithm with a complex RiverWare model to analyze critical supply points and policies for the Tarrant Regional Water District in Texas. In her PhD she studied the usefulness of evolutionary algorithm search in a NOAA-funded project that interfaced with water managers on the Front Range of Colorado. While getting her Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Rebecca worked as a project coordinator at a Geographic Information Systems company. She now works for the Lower Colorado Region of the Bureau of Reclamation.

To learn more about her research, check out a NOAA webinar available online.

Publications

  1. Smith, R, JR Kasprzyk, R Balaji. 2019. “Combining Multivariate Regression Trees and multiobjective tradeoff sets to reveal fundamental insights about water resources systems” Environmental Modelling and Software. Vol 120: 104498.
  2. Wheeler, KG, JW Hall, GM Abdo, SJ Dadson, JR Kasprzyk, RM Smith, EA Zagona. 2018. “Exploring Cooperative Transboundary River Management Strategies for the Eastern Nile Basin” Water Resources Research. vol 54 (11): 9224-9254.
  3. Smith, R, JR Kasprzyk, L Basdekas. 2018. "Experimenting with Water Supply Planning Objectives Using the Eldorado Utility Planning Model Multireservoir Testbed" Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. vol 144, no 8.
  4. Smith, R, JR Kasprzyk, L Dilling. 2017. “Participatory Framework for Assessment and Improvement of Tools (ParFAIT): Increasing the impact and relevance of water management decision support research” Environmental Modelling and Software. vol 95: 432-446. 
  5. Smith, R, JR Kasprzyk, E Zagona. 2016. “Many Objective Analysis to Optimize Pumping and Releases in a Multi-Reservoir Water Supply Network” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. vol. 142, no. 2.