Emerging contaminants, microplastics, excess nutrients, and limited water availability all are pressing 21st century challenges requiring new innovations in water treatment, reuse, and environmental biotechnologies. At UVM, CEE researchers and colleagues are pursuing both breakthroughs in fundamental water treatment and environmental biotechnologies as well as new approaches for applying optimal and sustainable practices in water reuse and waste management.
Water Use Efficiency
Improving irrigation water use efficiency in vegetable and crop production is a high priority for agricultural producers as they face challenges of climate change and more frequent droughts. We are currently testing various approaches to irrigation scheduling, including sensor technologies, to improve water use efficiency. We have also measured irrigation withdrawals on multiple farms through the growing season and modeled water use efficiency using a water balance approach, comparing different crops and growing environments. Working with UVM Extension, researchers are also identifying appropriate soil moisture monitoring technology for farms in the Northeast.
CEE Faculty: Joshua Faulkner
Collaborating Institutions & Organizations: USDA-SARE, Vermont Vegetable and Berry Growers Association
Agricultural Water Quality Management
Water quality degradation from agricultural field runoff that contains excess nutrients is a pressing environmental challenge in Vermont and throughout the world. CEE researchers and collaborators study multiple treatment technologies employed at both the farmstead/production and edge of field areas. Working with UVM Extension and many other partners, we are designing and testing of novel denitrifying bioreactors, evaluating effect of best management practices (BMPs) on surface and subsurface water and nutrient fluxes, designing and testing phosphorus removal technologies, monitoring and modeling watershed hydrology and nutrient export from agricultural watersheds in the Lake Champlain Basin, and studying the effects of climate change on agricultural fields.
CEE Faculty: Joshua Faulkner, Eric Roy
UVM Collaborators: Stephanie Hurley, Carol Adair, Don Ross (Emeritus), Kristen Workman, Heather Darby, Jeff Sanders
Collaborating Institutions & Organizations: USDA-NRCS, Soil Health Institute, Newtrient LLC, USDA-ARS, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
Research Group and Efficiency
Research Topics
- Drinking water treatment
- Filtration
- Emerging contaminants
- Groundwater remediation
- Wastewater resource recovery
- Material recovery & reuse
- Agricultural runoff management
- Water use efficiency
- Solid & organic waste management
- Microplastics
Graduate Study in Water Treatment, Reuse, and Environmental Biotechnologies
Highlighted courses are listed below:
- CE255 – Physical/Chemical Processes of Water/Wastewater Treatment
- CE256 – Biological Processes of Water/Wastewater Treatment
- NR 288 - Ecological Design and Living Technologies
- NR 289 - Advanced Ecological Design Studio
- CE395 – Environmental Chemical Dynamics
- CE395 – Wastewater Epidemiology