My research focuses on the economics of water resource management. I strive to conduct economic analysis of three major topics related to water quality and scarcity:

 

• Federal and state regulation of ambient water pollution

• Policies to promote sustainable water use in agriculture

• Water management approaches for protecting aquatic species habitats

 

The methods and techniques I use to address these issues depend on the specific research question, but usually consist of applied microeconomic theory, dynamic optimization, applied econometrics, and policy analysis.

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I am particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to address questions involving sustainable use and management of coupled human-natural systems, especially work that requires modeling human decision-making, hydrologic and ecological processes, and the connections between them.

 

I also currently serve as Director of the Consortium for the Valuation of Applications Benefits Linked with Earth Science (VALUABLES), a cooperative agreement between Resources for the Future (RFF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to carry out research, outreach, and communications activities relating to the societal value of information derived from Earth observations.