Elizaveta Litvak

I am an associate research scientist at the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University. I earned  my PhD degree in Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine and a "Physicist" degree at Moscow State University (Russia).

Over 80% of the US population and over 50% of the world population lives in cities. The environments in contemporary cities are shaped by the combination of land use change, climate change effects, and direct human actions. Urban environments are often perceived as heavily built-up and paved. However, about half of the cumulative area of US cities is covered by soil and plants. These living landscapes strongly influence local and regional hydrology, as well as water and energy budgets on municipal and watershed scales. My research is focused on scientific uncertainties related to eco-hydrological processes in cities and their interactions with climate and water resources.

I measure water use of urban landscapes and establish quantitative links between water use patterns, landscape composition, environmental conditions, management practices, ecological factors, and plant physiological properties.

My current work directions are:

• Scaling up and generalizing landscape water use patterns in US cities

• Teaming up with hydrologic modelers to parameterize numeric models using in situ datasets

• Teaming up with social scientists to develop sustainable outdoor water use practices in US cities