My research and professional interests are in the areas of mathematical modeling of water systems with a particular emphasis on groundwater systems. I am particularly interested in integrated modeling approaches that lead to decision support systems (DSS) to support practical decision making. I make use of both physics-based and data-driven modeling approaches and try to integrate them in a complementary manner. In a similar vein, I am also interested in coupling these tools with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), optimization and operations research and Management Science (OR/MS) techniques to create DSS. My more recent research interest has been in the coupling of phenological plant-growth models and downscaled ensembles of global climate models with water resources modeling tools to overcome input limitations and help support conjunctive land-water management decisions.

I am particularly interested in understanding the role of climate extremes and its role on sustainability and resilience of coupled human-natural-engineered systems

Optimizing Water Use in the Ogallala Aquifer to Sustain Food Systems; A multi-state, multi-institution effort with faculty and researchers from the Colorado State University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico State University, West Texas A&M University, Texas Agrilife and Texas Tech Tech University.

Team Members: Dr. Sreeram Singaraju; Mr. Ali Ghaseminejad; Dr. Mara Gonzales-Cruz

We developed groundwater flow models for the Palo Duro Watershed and Double Mountain Fork River Watershed in Texas. These two watersheds are representative of climate conditions found in the Southern High Plains with Palo Duro having a corn dominant and Double Mountain Fork having a cotton dominant cropping pattern. We also developed crop growth models for a major crops – Cotton, Corn, Sorghum, Soybean and Winter Wheat. We coupled the crop growth and groundwater flow simulations with downscaled data from ensemble of Regional Climate Models (RCM) to evaluate future cropping patterns in the region under climate change and groundwater depletion.

Relevant Publications:

Rad, M.R., Haacker, E.M., Sharda, V., Nozari, S., Xiang, Z., Araya, A., Uddameri, V., Suter, J.F. and Gowda, P., 2020. MOD $$ AT: A hydro-economic modeling framework for aquifer management in irrigated agricultural regions. Agricultural Water Management, 238, p.106194.

Uddameri, V., Ghaseminejad, A. and Hernandez, E.A., 2020. A tiered stochastic framework for assessing crop yield loss risks due to water scarcity under different uncertainty levels. Agricultural Water Management, 238, p.106226.

Ghaseminejad, A. and Uddameri, V., 2020. Physics-inspired integrated space–time artificial neural networks for regional groundwater flow modeling. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(12), pp.5759-5779.

Cruz, M.G., Hernandez, E.A. and Uddameri, V., 2020. Climatic Influences on Agricultural Drought Risks Using Semiparametric Kernel Density Estimation. Water, 12(10), p.2813.

Gowda, P., Bailey, R., Kisekka, I., Lin, X. and Uddameri, V., 2019. Featured series introduction: optimizing Ogallala aquifer water use to sustain food systems. Journal of the American Water Resources Association; Vol 55(1); 3 – 5

Uddameri, V., Singaraju, S., Karim, A., Gowda, P., Bailey, R. and Schipanski, M., 2017. Understanding Climate‐Hydrologic‐Human Interactions to Guide Groundwater Model Development for Southern High Plains. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 162(1), pp.79-99.

CNH-S: The New 100th Meridian: Urban Water Resiliency in a Climatic and Demographic Hot Spot; A Multi-Institution effort including faculty and researchers from University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University and University of Texas San Antonio

Team Members: Ms. Ghazal Mohammadi; Dr. Sreeram Singaraju

Historically, the 100th Meridian is taken as the demarcation of the arid west and humid east of the US. Climate change is pushing this boundary more towards the 98th meridian which crosses the IH-35 and several major cities of Texas including McAllen, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas creating a climate hotspot. The study focused on understanding climate change impacts in the Llano River Watershed (a largely spring-fed river that flows through the 100th meridian) and provides water to the Highland Lakes of Austin. The study also looked at Edwards Aquifer a unique karst formation that supplies water to major cities like San Antonio and Austin, but also supports agriculture, ranching and other industrial activities in the region.

Relevant Publications:

Uddameri, V., Singaraju, S. and Hernandez, E.A., 2019. Is standardized precipitation index (SPI) a useful indicator to forecast groundwater droughts?—Insights from a Karst aquifer. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 55(1), pp.70-88.

Uddameri, V. 2018. “ Big Data, Computing, and Water Resources Hazards.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association 54( 4): 765– 766.

Feasibility of Dockum Hydrostratigraphic Unit (Dockum HSU) as an Alternative to the Ogallala Aquifer in the Southern High Plains of Texas

Team Members: Dr. Abdullah Karim, Dr. Mara Gonzalez-Cruz, Mr. Henry Boateng and Mr. Aalok Sharma

With Ogallala Aquifer undergoing significant depletion in many parts of the Southern High Plains (SHP) there is a growing need to identify alternate sources of water in this area. As there are limited surface water resources, deeper aquifers of the High Plains Aquifer are the only other reliable source of water. The Dockum Hydrostratigraphic Group (Dockum-HSG) underlies much of the Ogallala Aquifer in Texas but also is underlain by other major and minor aquifers in the region including the Edwards-Trinity (Plateau) and Pecos-Valley Alluvium aquifers. Several studies have been carried out to date and other studies continue to further understand the hydrogeochemical characteristics of this aquifer using modeling and field studies.

Relevant Publications

Karim, A., Gonzalez Cruz, M., Hernandez, E.A. and Uddameri, V., 2020. A GIS-based fit for the purpose assessment of brackish groundwater formations as an alternative to freshwater aquifers. Water, 12(8), p.2299.

Uddameri, V., Silva, A.L.B., Singaraju, S., Mohammadi, G. and Hernandez, E.A., 2020. Tree-Based Modeling Methods to Predict Nitrate Exceedances in the Ogallala Aquifer in Texas. Water, 12(4), p.1023.

Uddameri, V. and Reible, D., 2018. Food‐energy‐water nexus to mitigate sustainability challenges in a groundwater reliant agriculturally dominant environment (GRADE). Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, 37(1), pp.21-36.

Hernandez, E.A. and Uddameri, V., 2015. Simulation-optimization model for water management in hydraulic fracturing operations. Hydrogeology Journal, 23(6), pp.1247-1265.

Venkataraman, K. and Uddameri, V., 2012. Modeling simultaneous exceedance of drinking-water standards of arsenic and nitrate in the Southern Ogallala aquifer using multinomial logistic regression. Journal of Hydrology, 458, pp.16-27.