Ecological, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

Welcome! I am Dr. Omar Ibne Abdul-Aziz, a tenured Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at West Virginia University (WVU), Morgantown. My research is highly interdisciplinary, incorporating topics related to the coupled human-natural systems and sustainability sciences and engineering from at-site to regional to global scales. I collaborate with environmental engineers, hydrologists, climatologists, biogeochemists, biologists, ecologists, and socio-economic scientists. My lab emphasizes the ecological, biogeochemical, hydrological, and water quality aspects of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. My team aims to develop sustainable engineering guidelines, designs, and practices by incorporating ecological and biological sciences into the traditional physical/chemical science based Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. Our goal is to facilitate and devise ecosystem-based designs of environmental and water resources infrastructure for achieving sustainability at variable time and space scales under the changing climate, population, land use/cover, and socio-economic stress scenarios. Current research activities emphasize environmental sustainability and resilient communities, focusing on (I) ecosystem greenhouse gas fluxes and carbon dynamics, (II) stream water quality and ecosystem health, and (III) freshwater flooding in complex urban, natural, and coastal environments. I received U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER AWARD in 2015 to investigate and robustly predict stream water quality and ecosystem health across variable time , space, and process scales.

I am an Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineeering, and for the journal, Sustainability.

Dr. Omar I. Abdul-Aziz’s CV/RESUME.

Research Interests:

  1. Scaling, similitude, and organizing principles of hydrological, biogeochemical, ecological, and environmental processes.

  2. Climate, land use, and sea level change impacts on water resources, ecosystems, and infrastructure systems.

  3. Modeling of rainfall-fed freshwater (stormwater) flooding in complex urban, natural, and coastal environments.

  4. Robust modeling and predictions of ecohydrological, hydroecological, and water quality indicators in streams and rivers.

  5. Modeling of greenhouse gas (e.g., CO2, CH4, and N2O) fluxes and carbon storage in ecosystems (e.g., wetlands, forests), natural gas fields, transportation sectors, and other anthropogenic sources.

Education:

Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, U.S.A.; May 2008.

M.A.Sc., Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; October 2004.

B.Sc. Engg., Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh; April 2002.

Awards:

1. U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award 2015-21.

2. Top Scholar Award 2015, Florida International University (FIU), Miami, U.S.A.

3. Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship 2007-08, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, U.S.A.

Leadership Roles:

  1. Chair, Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) Wetland Hydrology Technical Committee, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2018 – present (Member since 2014).

  2. Chair, EWRI Task Committee on Wetland GHG Fluxes and Carbon Sequestration, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2018 – present.

  3. Deputy Chair, Water Quality Technical Committee, American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2022 – present (Member since 2017).

  4. Member, EWRI Watershed Council Leadership Committee, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2018 – present.

  5. Member, EWRI Surface Water Hydrology Technical Committee, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2018 – present.

  6. Member, EWRI Task Committee on Remote Sensing Application for TMDL Modeling, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2019 – present.

  7. Member, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering’s Award Committee, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2020 – present.

Employments:

Associate Professor (Tenured, August 2018 – present), Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.

Assistant Professor (Tenure track with due credit for previous years done at FIU, August 2015 –July 2018), Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.

Assistant Professor (Tenure track, August 2011 -August 2015 ), Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.

Staff Scientist (January 2010 – August 2011), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), through ASRC Research & Technology Solutions (Rank: Research Scientist III), USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.

Post-Doctoral Research Associate (July 2008 – Dec 2009), Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, and School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle.

Research and Teaching Assistant and Graduate Fellow (September 2004 – May 2008), Department of Civil Engineering, Department of Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering, and Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA.

Research and Teaching Assistant (January 2003 – August 2004), Department of Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA.

Research and Teaching Assistant (September 2002 – December 2002), Department of Civil Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA.

Teaching Interests:

Graduate

CE 543: Water Quality Modeling and Analysis

CE593L/CWR 6625: Ecological Engineering

CE593H: Hydrologic Modeling

CE593K/CWR 5140C: Ecohydrology

CE593I/CWR 6117: Statistical Hydrology

CWR 5251: Environmental Hydraulics

Undergraduate

CE 321/CWR 3201: Fluid Mechanics

CE 447: Environmental Engineering Design

CE 427: Water Resources Engineering

CE 425: Engineering Hydrology

CE 423: Water System Design

CE 443. Environmental Science and Technology

CWR 4620: Ecohydrological Engineering

CWR 4204: Hydraulic Engineering