Our REA grant will support the purchase and installation of thermal probes for hydrometeorological monitoring in the Harris Gully Natural Area on campus. Thermal probes will be used to estimate hydraulic conductivity, or the flow of water through soil after rainfall events. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) of soil is a key parameter in many hydrologic models, but values are typically based on literature or lengthy field and lab testing. By collecting continuous data during real events, we will better understand soil-water interactions and can assess how reasonable traditional parameter estimates are at characterizing infiltration processes.

- True Furrh & Mia Peeples

A group of over 30 students and instructors visit the SSPEED Center as part of a 10-day visit to Houston and Galveston.  After a campus tour, SSPEED presented the Galveston Bay Park Plan.

Professor Bedient and SSPEED's project manager, Larry Dunbar, take CEVE students to Barker Reservoir to look at dam operations and discuss Harvey.

SSPEED students, True Furrh and Mia Peeples, spend two weeks in the Netherlands performing research through NSF's PIRE program.

More than 150 attendees gathered for the SSPEED Center's 10th Conference, "Post-Harvey Climate and Flood Impacts on the Built Environment "at the Rice Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. Over the two-day conference, over 30 top academic, consulting and governmental experts presented on a wide variety of topics, including Urban Design & Policy for Flood Protection, Climate Change and Recent Storms, Impact of the Big Freeze and Energy Systems, COVID in the Environment, and Institute for Disaster Resilient Texas.

Bedient's grad students present their research at AGU's 2021 Fall Meeting in New Orleans.