Megan Wiley Rivera, Ph.D., Water Resources Engineer
Expertise
Practicing and teaching water resources modeling, developing operational strategies for water resources systems
Experience
10 years
Education
Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2003, StanfordUniversity
M.S., Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1997, StanfordUniversity
Sc.B., Engineering, 1996, BrownUniversity
Affiliations
American Society of Civil Engineers
American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
Professional History
Water Resources Engineer, 2006 – present.
Assistant Professor, City College of New York, 2003-2006
Research Assistant, Stanford University, 1997-2002
Project Experience
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-FlintRiver Basin
Atlanta Regional Commission (2006-present)
Created an OASIS model of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-FlintRiver Basin and used the model todevelop operating rules conditioned on forecasts of basin inflows that simultaneously increase benefits to endangered species while maintaining more water in storage. Also emulated HEC-5 ACF model in OASIS, including complex hydropower requirements and generation of nine dams on the ChattahoocheeRiver.
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and Alabama-Coosa-TallapoosaRiver Basins
Atlanta Regional Commission (2006-present)
Provide ongoing modeling and analysis support to the Atlanta Regional Commission, including long-term projections of reservoir levels based on conditional forecasted hydrology and current operations, technical assessment of proposals by other parties, and translation of flow records into relevant performance measures for a range of basin objectives.
Kissimmee River Basin, Florida
AECOM (formerly Earth Tech) (2006-present)
Project manager and lead modeler in the development and use of an OASIS model of the upper and lower Kissimmee Basin (OKISS) to screen alternative operations for the newly-restored basin. The model includes hydraulic features such as flows through structures, unrestricted canals, and floodplains using output from HEC-RAS simulations and other models.
New York City
CDM/Hazen and Sawyer (2006-present)
Developed a protocol and modeling support tools for a dependability analysis of New York City’s Water Supply during planned repairs to the Delaware Aqueduct. Identified triggers based on system storage and forecasted basin inflow that reduce demands and/or shorten the length of the repair period to ensure no water supply shortages with 100% historic reliability.
Susquehanna River
SusquehannaRiver Basin Commission (2007-2008)
Assisted with the development of an hourly model of four hydropower reservoirs on the Susquehanna Riverand the application of the model to assess the effects of increased capacity at one of the dams on generation at the others.
National Science Foundation & University of Maryland–Baltimore (2007-present)
Developing and disseminating materials for an interdisciplinary undergraduate course in computer aided negotiations of natural resource disputes with support from NSF.
Ph.D. dissertation (StanfordUniversity, 2003) included laboratory experiments on passive scalar dispersion in wave-current boundary layers, odor-tracking strategies of crustaceans in complex flow environments, and the learning process of six undergraduate research assistants.
Publications, Report, and Presentations
“Fine-scale Patterns of Odor Encountered by Olfactory Antennules of a Crustacean Tracking a Turbulent Plume in Wave-affected and Unidirectional Flow,” Mead, K.S., Wiley, M.B., Koehl, M.A.R., Koseff, J.R. (2003). Journal of Experimental Biology. 206: 181-193.
“The Relationship Between Mean and Instantaneous Structure in Turbulent Passive Scalar Plumes,”Crimaldi, J.P., Wiley, M.B. and Koseff, J.R. (2002). Journal of Turbulence. 3.
“Lobster Sniffing: Antennule Design Affects Hydrodynamic Filtering of Information in an Odor Plume,” Koehl, M.A.R., Koseff, J.R., Crimaldi, J.P., McCay, M.G., Cooper, T., Wiley, M.B., Moore, P.A. (2001). Science. 294: 1948-1951.
“Undergraduate Course in Computer Aided Negotiation of Water Resources Disputes,” Rivera, M.W., Sheer, D.S., Miller, A.J. AWRA 2006 Annual Water Resources Conference, Baltimore, MD, Nov 6-9, 2006.
“The Effect of Oscillatory Motion on Chemical Plumes and How Stomatopods Use These Plumes to Find the Chemical’s Source,” Wiley, M.B., Koseff, J.R., Mead, K.S., and Koehl, M.A.R.2004 Ocean Research Conference, Joint Meeting of ASLO and TOS, Honolulu, HI, Feb 15-20, 2004.