Dana Lapides
Research Hydrologist
USDA Agricultural Research Service
Southwest Watershed Research Center
About
Extreme weather patterns and increasing demands on water resources are changing streams worldwide. The need for sustainable management urgently calls for an increased understanding of mechanistic processes that drive surface flows and the conditions under which management tools and actions are effective. In my research, I seek to understand mechanistic drivers of water resource availability, how human interventions impact landscape-scale hydrology, and the limits of conventional management tools. I use a variety of methods in my work from analytical modeling and high-performance computing to laboratory scale modeling and field exploration. I completed a PhD at UC Berkeley in May 2020 with Professors Sally Thompson and Michael Manga. I received a Wisconsin Water Resources Science-Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020, through which I worked with managers in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on issues relevant to managing streamflow depletion due to groundwater pumping. Starting in 2021, I worked as an ORISE postdoctoral scholar with David N Dralle (USDA Forest Service), W Jesse Hahm (Simon Fraser University), and Daniella Rempe (University of Texas, Austin). I was hired as a Category 1 Research Hydrologist with the USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in 2023.
Research Themes
- How can observations of subsurface dynamics be used to improve seasonal water supply forecasts?
- What happens to water in the unsaturated zone, and which processes matter for recharge and water balance? Which water is accessible to plants at which times, and how much drainage happens when?
- How do legacy conservation structures impact ecohydrological function of drylands?
- How does availability of surface water change with time? What drives these changes, how can we better monitor them, and how can we use surface water patterns to improve land and water management?
- How does plant water use impact groundwater and streamflow dynamics in seasonally dry environments?
- How can we detect and manage the impacts of groundwater use on streams?
IN THE NEWS
The New York Times
April 3, 2023
See What California’s Record Snowpack Looks Like, Up close
Sensors on low-flying planes can measure mountaintop snow with great precision, helping forecasters predict what will happen as it melts.
The Conversation
January 2, 2023
Scientists dig deep and find a way to accurately predict snowmelt after droughts
A look underground to see what happens to water during and after drought.
The Conversation
June 23, 2022
What happens to traditional design tools under changing conditions?
Publications
For the most up-to-date publication list, see my Google Scholar page
Lapides D, Dralle D, Hahm WJ, Dietrich W, Rempe D. “Root water uptake resolved by distributed mositure storage changes through soil and weathered bedrock.” Water Resources Research (In production).
Ccrompton O, Nichols M, Lapides D. “Vegetation response to rangeland water manipulation structures in the US Southwest.” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (In production).
Harman C, Lapides D. “A null model for global root depth distributions: analytical solution and comparison to data.” Ecohydrology (2025). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eco.70023
Xu H, Nichols M, Lapides D, Crompton O. “Automated identification of earthen berms in Western US rangelands from LiDAR-based digital elevation models.” Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (2024). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/esp.6009
Crompton O, Nichols M, Lapides D, Xu H. “Resolving the hydrologic signature of water spreader berms in the US Southwest.” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (2024). https://www.jswconline.org/content/79/3/155.abstract
Zipper S, Brookfield A, Ajami H, Ayers J, Beightel C, Fienen M, Gleeson T, Hammond J, Hill M, Kendall A, Kerr B, Lapides D, Porter M, Parimalarenganayaki S, Rohde M, Wardropper C. “Streamflow depletion caused by groundwater pumping: Fundamental research priorities for management-relevant science.” Water Resources Research (2024). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023WR035727
Hahm WJ, Dralle D, Lapides D, Ehlert R, Rempe D. “Geologic controls on apparent root-zone storage capacity.” Water Resources Research (2024). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023WR035362
Lapides D, Grindstaff G, Nichols M. “Automated earthwork detection using topological persistence.” Water Resources Research (2024). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023WR035990
Lapides D, Hahm WJ, Forrest M, Rempe D, Hickler T, Dralle D. “Inclusion of bedrock vadose zone in dynamic global vegetation models is key for simulating structure and functioning.” Biogeosciences (2023). https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/21/1801/2024/
Crompton O, Katul G, Lapides D, Thompson S. “Bridging structural and functional hydrological connectivity in dryland ecosystems.” Catena (2023). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0341816223004137
Dralle D, Lapides D, Rempe D, Hahm WJ. “Mapping surface water presence and hyporheic flow perperties of headwater stream networks with multispectral satellite imagery.” Water Resources Research (2023). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022WR034169
Crompton O, Katul G, Lapides D, Thompson S. “Hydrologic Connectivity and Patch-to-Hillslope Scale Relations in Dryland Ecosystems.” Geophysical Research Letters (2023). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022GL101801
Lapides D, Zipper S, Hammond J. “Identifying hydrologic signatures associated with streamflow depletion caused by groundwater pumping.” Hydrological Processes (2023). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hyp.14877
Lapides D, Hahm WJ, Rempe D, Dralle D. “Causes of missing snowmelt following drought.” Geophysical Research Letters (2022). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022GL100505
Hahm WJ, Lapides D, Rempe D, McCormick E, Dralle D. “The age of evapotranspiration: Lower-bound constraints from distributed water fluxes across the continental United States.” Geophysical Research Letters (2022). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2022wr032961?casa_token=9JKrYyyX4hMAAAAA%3AGCRK0fxovMVegzN32dilMpSyGLS7TezNkl6OGX-sVLEe8NBVFd5TgQsdmHR5Og4oQlaq23bH4QvjJYo
Lapides D, Hahm WJ, Rempe D, Dietrich W, and Dralle D. “Controls on streamwater age in a saturation overland flow-dominated catchment.” Water Resources Research (2022). https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2021WR031665
Lapides D, Sytsma A, Djokic D, Nichols M, Thompson S. “Arc Hydro Hillslope and Critical Duration: New tools for hillslope-scale runoff analysis.” Environmental Modeling & Software (2022). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364815222001141?casa_token=2oPx0nLxXbcAAAAA:rjW6ivowBgYZCdE99eQySwQHFRe2GZndlsayn0CetMzt7Vw-jGZspH8flK7KpRibcUyAjjB3
Lapides D, Maitland M, Zipper S, Latzka A, Pruitt A, Greve R. “Advancing environmental flows approaches to streamflow depletion management.” Journal of Hydrology (2022): 127447. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022169422000221
Lapides D. “Using sporadic streamflow measurements to improve and evaluate a streamflow model in ungauged basins in Wisconsin.” Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (2022). https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28ASCE%29HE.1943-5584.0002163
Lapides D, Sytsma A, and Thompson S. “Implications of distinct methodological interpretations and runoff coefficient usage for Rational Method predictions.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association (2021). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1752-1688.12949
Lapides D, Sytsma A, Crompton O, and Thompson S. “Rational Method time of concentration can underestimate peak discharge for hillslopes.” Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (2021). https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28ASCE%29HY.1943-7900.0001900.
Lapides D, Leclerc C, Moidu H, Dralle D, and Hahm WJ. “Variability of headwater stream network extents controlled by flow regime and network hydraulic scaling.” Hydrological Processes (2021). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hyp.14079
Lapides D, David C, Sytsma A, Dralle D, and Thompson S. “Analytical solutions to runoff on hillslopes with curvature: numerical and laboratory verification.” Hydrological Processes (2020).https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hyp.13879
Lapides D and Manga M. “Large wood as a confounding factor in interpreting the width of spring-fed streams.” Earth Surface Dynamics (2020). https://esurf.copernicus.org/articles/8/195/2020/
Dana Lapides, PhD 