The University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling (UCCHM) is a campus-wide hydrologic modeling research center, located at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. The models and modeling frameworks developed at the center address the urgent environmental and health issues related to water availability, such as how water availability will change in response to external factors like global climate change, how water availability will change with diminishing snow and ice, and how the frequency of hydrologic extremes (flood and drought) will affect the state of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.Global warming: a rise in river flows raises alarm
/ref> The UCCHM team, made up of faculty, researchers and students, is working towards creating a state-of-the-art integrated model of California water resources that can influence and inform leaders of local, state and regional governments when making

water management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slightl ...

decisions.University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling
/ref> Much of the center's research relies on data from NASA's

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) was a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Twin satellites took detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field anomalies from its launch in March 2002 to the end of its ...

(GRACE).Water Crisis Looms For A Thirsty Planet
/ref> This data is used to follow changes in freshwater availability in aquifers and river basins, which allows the center to track

groundwater depletion Overdrafting is the process of extracting groundwater beyond the equilibrium yield of an aquifer. Groundwater is one of the largest sources of fresh water and is found underground. Groundwater depletion is comparable to a bank account in which mor ...

throughout California.Groundwater dropping globally
/ref>
/ref> Through GRACE satellite data, the UCCHM team has found evidence of global groundwater depletion.Satellite Studies Reveal Groundwater Depletion around the World
/ref> The center was founded in 2009 by Director Jay Famiglietti.Sounding the alarm
/ref> In addition to his position as director of the UCCHM, Famiglietti holds faculty appointments at the University of California, Irvine as a professor of earth system science and civil and environmental engineering.Earth System Science
/ref>Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
/ref> Famiglietti is a leader in the field of hydrology, and recently starred in the film, ''Last Call at the Oasis'', a documentary about the global depletion of water resources.The Movie
/ref>
/ref> The center is partnered with +H2O and Freewaters, organizations focused on water sustainability on a global scale and universal access to clean drinking water.PositiveH2O
/ref>FreeWaters
/ref>

References

{{University of California, Irvine University of California, Irvine Hydrology organizations