The Environmental Modeling Research Laboratory Brigham Young University

The Environmental Modeling Research Laboratory (EMRL) is part of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The EMRL has a long history of research in computer simulation of water resource systems, including groundwater flow and transport, watershed runoff, flooding due to storms or dam breaks, and surface water flow in lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coastal environments. The faculty members currently involved with the EMRL are:

Norm Jones
Jim Nelson
Gus Williams
Rollin Hotchkiss

The EMRL is best known for developing a suite of modeling software packages called the Groundwater Modeling System (GMS), the Surface Water Modeling System (SMS) and the Watershed Modeling System (WMS). This software was developed in partnership with the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg Mississippi. In April 2007, the software development activities associated with the EMRL were transferred to an off-campus company called Aquaveo. Aquaveo is now headed by former EMRL faculty member Alan Zundel. Aquaveo continues to develop and maintain the GMS/SMS/WMS software in addition to software training and consulting services.

The EMRL continues to conduct research in water resources and environmental simulations involving both graduate and undergraduate students. Recent projects include:

• CI-WATER, an NSF-funded project on harnessing high-performance computing for long-term water resource planning and management. Collaborative project involving Utah, Utah State, and Wyoming. We are currently recruiting Ph.D. and M.S. candidates for this project.
• Levee data management and levee breach simulations
• Automated analysis of aquifer impacts due to groundwater withdrawal applications
• Density depdendent reactive transport modeling involving SEAWAT and RT3D
• Deer Creek Reservoir project
• International Engineering: Collaboration on Hydrologic Modeling Applications in Central Mexico.

Please contact us for information about research opportunities.

Page last edited: 05/03/2012