Sewer–groundwater interaction in urban watersheds
How sanitary sewers and the soils around them change the urban water balance, studied with integrated hydrologic modeling and field data.
This project, part of an NSF-funded study in the STORM group at the University of Minnesota Duluth, examined how urban sewers and soil profiles affect surface–subsurface hydrology.
What I did
- Built a physically based hydrologic model in HYDRUS-2D to simulate sewer-mediated flux.
- Collected soil samples at several depths near sewer pipes in Duluth and performed hydraulic profiling.
- Coordinated with the City of Duluth, contractors and collaborators.
Outputs
- Journal article in the Journal of Hydrology (2025).
- Oral presentation at AGU 2025 and a poster at the Minnesota Water Resources Conference.
- MS thesis: Evaluating the Impact of Sewer–Groundwater Interaction on Sewer-Mediated Flux Using Integrated Hydrologic Modeling.