A watershed year for �鶹��Ƶ sustainability data

Jennifer Pocock — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:14:43 +0000

A watershed year for �鶹��Ƶ sustainability data Jennifer Pocock Mon, 06/30/2025 - 12:14

In This Story

An intercollegiate study, in partnership with �鶹��Ƶ's Facilities, analyzes the effects of campus events and weather on local air and water quality.

Maryam Zavareh tests a water sample from the Fairfax Campus. Photo provided.

Major events at �鶹��Ƶ, like graduation ceremonies, basketball games, and �鶹��Ƶ Day are high-water events in student life. But how do they affect the campus ecosystem?

For the past year, with support from the Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), groups of undergraduate and graduate engineering students have worked with university Facilities to sample air and water quality measurements at eight spots across campus. They are studying how human-centered activities like special events and campus construction projects, along with natural events like heavy rainstorms, affect the urban campus environment.

“Fairfax is a very active campus in terms of construction,” said Maryam Zavareh, an expert in environmental engineering who earned her PhD from George �鶹��Ƶ in 2021. “They’re always building something or something is always going on for students.”

Weather is also a factor, she pointed out, and so are projects like rain gardens (also called best management practices or BMPs). “Rain can affect a stream’s turbidity and its dissolved oxygen in a negative way, while BMPs can help quality.”

As part of her PhD program, Zavareh started taking measurements around �鶹��Ƶ Pond and campus streams. She wanted to use machine learning to predict water quality patterns in conjunction with the Maggioni Research Group, a lab run on campus by water resources engineering expert Viviana Maggioni, an associate professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, and air quality expert Lucas Henneman, an assistant professor in the department. With this ISE grant, Maggioni called Zavareh back to run the project as a consultant.

Starting in May 2024, a new group of students each semester have learned to gather data in the field, work with the instruments, and calibrate them for accurate readings.

“One of the advantages of this project is that students get to go into the field and take measurements,” said Dinesh Neupane, a PhD candidate in civil and environmental engineering and student leader for the project. “That was lacking in my previous programs—students stayed in the labs.”

Neupane is excited for the opportunity to measure air quality—something that hasn’t been done yet on campus—in addition to water. “We want to calibrate the ground data we measure with satellite imagery to see if we can get the imaging to accurately take the readings for us,” he said.

So far, Neupane said that campus events do not have a major effect on water quality. “We think big gatherings will have an effect on air quality, but we don’t have that data yet. We’re still in the process of setting those instruments up.”

This year’s work by Zavareh, Neupane, and their student teams lays the groundwork for future students to analyze their data and carry the research forward. They are proving that ISE’s �鶹��Ƶ as a Living Lab program offers great insights.

Topics

�鶹��Ƶ as a Living Lab

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Department of Civil Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (CEIE)

environmental engineering

civil engineering; stormwater infrastructure; climate variability

water resource engineering; civil and infrastructure engineering

PhD students get their feet wet in SMAPVEX 2022 field campaign

Rena Malai — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 18:09:07 +0000

PhD students get their feet wet in SMAPVEX 2022 field campaign Rena Malai Wed, 09/21/2022 - 14:09

Most folks with indoor plants may simply touch the soil to see how dry or wet it is. But measuring soil moisture on a larger scale is a crucial process that can play a role in detecting drought, unlikely weather patterns, ideal planting times, and forest fires.

NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is an orbiting observatory (including several satellites) measuring the amount of water on soil surfaces. George �鶹��Ƶ PhD students Soelem Bhuiyan and Ishrat Dollan participated in the SMAPVEX 2022 summer field campaign to measure soil moisture under forest canopies.

“SMAPVEX22 was designed to collect validation samples of soil moisture,” says Dollan. “The samples will help us better understand SMAP's soil moisture retrieval capability.”

The field campaign took place in Millbrook, New York, and Harvard Forest, Massachusetts. Bhuiyam and Dollan were part of the Millbrook team and spent most of their time on the forest floor collecting soil samples for data analysis.

Previously a water resources engineering undergraduate, Dollan is curious about the changing hydrological cycle.

“It is critical to accurately estimate each cycle element and comprehend the uncertainties,” she says. “I am grateful to have been assigned to a team of dedicated and energetic individuals to collect massive amounts of data that will help in answering science questions in the coming years.”

A typical day started around 5 a.m., as the field campaign group prepared to foray into the forest. Armed with testing supplies, water, food, and backpacks, the group collected the first sample around 6 a.m. before moving on to other selected locations in the forest, collecting samples along the way.

It was challenging physical work, according to Bhuiyan, but a fulfilling experience both professionally and personally.

“It was great to see the measure of intricate detail that goes into satellite measurement and meet students from across the U.S.,” he says. “We had a chance to do happy hours and explore the Millbrook area on our own, after the day’s work.”

He advises students to grab any kind of field campaign experience they can. Even if it’s not directly related to their field of study, the effort and participation will pay off.

“Whatever experiences like this you can get will help you professionally, especially with getting to know new people, networking, and building relationships,” he says. “Get out there and get going!”

Topics

internships

water resource engineering; civil and infrastructure engineering

Environment