Donald RF Harleman Honorary Lecture in Environmental Fluid Mechanics

How Well Can We Forecast Streamflow in Real Time? The presenter will overview the key components of a generic streamflow forecasting system motivated by operational needs. He will start by defining the scope, the goals, and the key terms of the involved elements. These include a rainfall-runoff model, radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), numerical weather model based quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF), and streamflow data assimilation. The author will provide brief background on each of these elements focused on operationally available products (in the U.S.) and their characteristics. The discussion of these models and products will be rooted in the basic hydrologic and meteorologic research and the existing challenges. The talk will be illustrated with analyses of the nation-wide streamflow forecasting data as well as hydrologic modeling results using tools developed at the Iowa Flood Center. If you are interested in the answer to the question posed in the title, please join the lecture.

Dr. Witold F. Krajewski is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa.  In 2009, he co-founded the Iowa Flood Center and served as its director till 2024.

Dr. Krajewski received MS (1976) and PhD (1980) degrees from Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, in environmental engineering and water resources systems.  He was a Research Hydrologist at the Office of Hydrology of the National Weather Service until 1987, when he joined the University of Iowa.

Dr. Krajewski’s scientific interests concern measuring, modeling, and forecasting precipitation using radar and satellite remote sensing.  His current research focuses on understanding the genesis and evolution of floods through field data and modeling, and the quantification of uncertainty in hydrologic prediction at a range of temporal and spatial scales.  Dr. Krajewski has published over 280 papers in refereed journals on these topics.

Dr. Krajewski was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2021.  Prior to that he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.  In 2018, he received the AMS Hydrologic Sciences Medal.  He has served on numerous committees and panels of these and other professional organizations, and on the editorial boards of several journals.  He was editor of Advances in Water Resources. In 2012, he was chair of the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. During his career he received several awards including Honorary Membership from the American Institute of Hydrology.  In 2019, he received the University of Iowa’s Michael J. Brody Award for Faculty Excellence in Service and in 2023 he delivered the University's 40th Annual Presidential Lecture.

Additional Information:

https://www.cee.psu.edu/events/harleman-lecture/index.aspx