Charles Vorosmarty
Research Professor
Professor Vörösmarty is the founder and Director of the Water Systems Analysis Group.
Research Interests
Professor Vörösmarty's research interests focus on the development of computer models and geospatial data sets used in synthesis studies of the interactions among the water cycle, climate, biogeochemistry, and anthropogenic activities. His studies are built around local, regional, and continental to global-scale modeling of water balance, discharge, constituent fluxes in river systems, and the analysis of the impacts of large-scale water engineering on the terrestrial water cycle.
The Water Systems Analysis Group is highly active and distinguished in extramurally-funded research on numerous aspects of the water resource question - pollution, water stress, population-water interactions, dams and reservoirs, flood and drought at local, regional, continental, and global scales. The team publishes heavily in the open scientific literature. Recent relevant work includes Professor Vörösmarty's convening lead authorship on freshwater ecosystem services for the Millennium Assessment, and design of the global resources theme for Phase-VI of UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme. He is a founding member of the Global Water System Project representing the inputs of more than 200 international scientists under ICSU's Global Environmental Change Programs. In this capacity he is spearheading efforts to develop global-scale indicators of water stress, to develop and apply databases of reservoir construction worldwide, and to analyze coastal zone risks associated with water diversion. He recently won one of two national awards through NSF to execute studies on hydrologic synthesis.
Professor Vörösmarty also serves on several national and international panels, including the US Arctic Research Commission, the NSF-ARCSS Committee (AC), and the Arctic HYDRA International Polar Year (IPY) Planning Team. In the US, he served on an NRC panel to review NASA's polar geophysical data sets, the decadal study on earth observations, and is co-Chair of the NSF-Arctic CHAMP hydrology initiative. The Water Systems Analysis Group serves as the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) Focus Research Center on Hydrology. He has assembled regional and continental-scale hydro-meteorological data compendia, including the largest single such collection, Arctic-RIMS (covering northern Eurasia and North America). For the United Nations he served as consultant to the 24-agency UN World Water Assessment Programme and represented the International Council of Scientific Unions at recent UN Commission on Sustainable Development meetings.
On the educational front, he has brought to the classroom an innovative blending of research and formal instruction, including preparation of peer-reviewed publications (including to AMBIO and Science) by class members at the graduate level and hands-on hydrological modeling for undergraduates. Student advising is also central to his educational contributions.
Curriculum Vitae
A pdf version of Professor Vörösmarty's curriculum vitae is available here.
Recent Publications
Vörösmarty, C.J., J.P. Ericson, S.L. Dingman, L.G. Ward, and M. Meybeck (2007). Future impacts of fresh water resource management: Sensitivity of coastal deltas. Water Quality and Sediment Behaviour of the Future: Predictions for the 21st Century (IUGG Symposium Proceedings), IAHS Publ. 314.
Vörösmarty, C.J., A.D. McGuire, L. Hinzman, M. Holland, M. Murray, J. Schimel, W. Warnick, J. Weatherly, and H. Wiggins. 2007. New perspectives through data discovery and modeling: Arctic System Synthesis Workshop. Eos Transactions 88: 278.
D’Almeida, C., C. Vörösmarty, G. Hurtt, J. Marengo, S.L. Dingman, and B. Kiem. 2007. The effects of deforestation on the hydrological cycle in Amazonia: A review on scale and resolution. International Journal of Climatology, in press.
Gutowski, W.J., H. Wei, C.J. Vörösmarty, and B.M. Fekete. 2007. Influence of Arctic wetlands on Arctic atmospheric circulation. Journal of Climate 20: 4243-4254.
Vörösmarty, C.J., E. Douglas, and S. Glidden. 2006. Indicator mapping and accompanying text, on selected water-related indicators associated with WWDR Theme areas. In: Water: A Shared Responsibility. World Water Development Report 2, World Water Assessment Programme. UNESCO, Paris. 584 pp.
Ericson, J.P., C.J. Vörösmarty, S.L. Dingman, L.G. Ward, and M. Meybeck. 2006. Effective sea-level rise in deltas: sources of change and human-dimension implications. Global & Planetary Change 50: 63-82.