Bazrkar brings urban water management expertise to Texas A&M AgriLife
New researcher will use data-driven approach to drought preparedness, water conservation development
Mohammad Hadi Bazrkar, Ph.D., P.E., joined Texas A&M AgriLife Research as an assistant professor of sustainable urban water management in the Texas A&M Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He will be stationed at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas and also has an appointment with the Texas Water Resources Institute.
Bazrkar is a water resources engineer whose research focuses on drought prediction, watershed hydrology and data-driven environmental modeling. His work integrates hydrologic models, field observations, remote sensing, statistics and machine learning to help communities address challenges related to water supply, quality and infrastructure.
His research program will focus on developing decision-support tools to help Texas communities, agricultural producers and water managers prepare for drought, flooding, population growth and increasing water demands.
“The core of my research program will be data-driven and decision-support approaches for sustainable agricultural and urban-suburban water management,” he said. “Texas is a very interesting place to do this because we have rapid population growth and increasing water demand, while also dealing with droughts, floods and changing weather patterns. Ultimately, I want the work we do to be scientifically strong, and something communities can use to manage the resource.”
Advancing data-driven water management
Bazrkar plans to combine physical water-system models with the growing amount of information available from sensors, satellites, weather stations and other sources.
His research will address practical questions, including future water-need projections for communities, identifying system vulnerabilities and how infrastructure can be managed during drought or extreme rainfall.
“Hydrologic models help us understand the physical system and how water moves through a watershed or water system,” he said. “Statistics help us understand the data, relationships, uncertainty and how well our models perform. Machine learning gives us another tool to examine very large and complicated datasets and identify patterns that we may not be able to capture with traditional approaches.”
Bazrkar’s doctoral research at North Dakota State University focused on drought identification and prediction under changing climate conditions. During that work, he developed the Hydrological and Climatic Aggregate Drought Index, or HADI, to improve drought detection.
Experience informs practical research
His professional experience includes municipal and consulting work related to river restoration, stormwater management, flood-risk reduction, water-quality monitoring and sustainable water-management strategies.
Students will be an important part of Bazrkar’s research program. He plans to provide opportunities for students to work with hydrologic modeling, geographic information systems, remote sensing, statistics, machine learning and field data while addressing real-world water challenges.
“If we can help communities make better water decisions, train students to become the next generation of water professionals and build collaborations that lead to practical solutions, I think we can make a meaningful contribution and impact for Texas and beyond,” Bazrkar said.
