Water Resources

Civil and Construction Engineering
Faculty Research Area

The Water Resources Engineering program at Oregon State University focuses on advancing the understanding, management, and protection of surface and subsurface water systems across natural and engineered environments. The faculty address complex problems spanning water resources systems analysis, groundwater hydrology and contamination, watershed processes, river hydraulics, and stormwater infrastructure. Research efforts also encompass multiphase computational dynamics, coastal flooding, and real-time control of multi-objective reservoir systems.

Faculty integrate laboratory and field experimentation, advanced sensing, numerical modeling, and data-driven hydroinformatics to improve predictive capacity and resilience of water systems. Ongoing projects investigate contaminant fate and transport, solute mixing and reactions in porous media, human-environment interactions, and decision-support systems for sustainable water management.

Facilities and Centers

Three workers in lab coats looking at a laptop.

Subsurface Biogeochemical Laboratory (SBLab)

The SBLab focuses on the process that drive biogeochemical reactions to address critical environmental challenges, including groundwater remediation, sustainable groundwater management, and the effects of climate change on subsurface hydrodynamics.

Group of people outside in masks testing stormwater contaminants.

OSU-Benton County Green Stormwater Infrastructure (OGSIR) Facility

The OGSIR Facility is a TAPE-certified field research facility for testing green stormwater infrastructure. OGSIR tests various stormwater treatment technologies and the treatment of stormwater contaminants.

Faculty

Meghna Babbar Sebens.

Meghna Babbar-Sebens

Professor | Evans Family Professor in Clean Water

Email

meghna@oregonstate.edu

Research Groups

Hydroinformatics Research | Water Resources Research

David Bella.

David Bella

Emeritus Appointment

Email

belladav@oregonstate.edu

Research Groups

Water Resources Research

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Wayne Huber

Emeritus Appointment

Email

wayne.huber@oregonstate.edu

Research Groups

Water Resources Research

Jonathan Istok.

Jonathan Istok

Head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering

Additional Positions

Professor

Email

jack.istok@oregonstate.edu

Research Groups

Water Resources Research | Groundwater Research Push Pull Test

Xue Jin.

Xue Jin

Assistant Professor

Email

xue.jin@oregonstate.edu

Research Groups

Materials and Catalysis | Health and Biotechnology | Water and Environment | Computation and Simulation

Lazaro Perez.

Lazaro J. Perez

Assistant Professor

Email

lazaro.perez@oregonstate.edu