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Dr. Laura Foglia

Contact

Curriculum Vitae

Academic Education

2006
PhD, ETH, Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering – Dissertation title: Alternative groundwater models to investigate river-aquifer interactions in an environmentally active alpine floodplain.

1999
Graduate degree (Diploma) in Physics, University of Milan, Italy. Thesis title: A quasi three-dimensional model of the aquifer of Milan: the transient condition.

Research Interests

  • Numerical modeling of complex, integrated hydrologic systems, including coupling distributed rainfall-runoff models with groundwater models and surface water-groundwater interactions.

  • Sensitivity analysis, parameter estimation, prediction, and uncertainty evaluation in complex environmental systems.

  • Using hydrological models to determine total maximum daily load (TMDL) and transport of sediments, metals, and bacteria in streams.
  • Global change: effects of climate change and human impact on water resources, with main focus on groundwater depletion, and freshwater ecosystem conservation.

Software Expertise

Extensive experience with various groundwater and hydrological models, such as MODFLOW-2000 and MODFLOW-2005, UCODE_2005, TOPKAPI and HSPF. Some experience with PEST. FORTRAN-77 was used for Diploma thesis to write ground-water flow model. Fortran-90, Fortran-95 and Perl were used for PhD thesis and Postdoctoral work. Experience with ArcGIS and quantumGIS. Basic knowledge of C++ and Perl.

Short Courses Attended

  • Short Course on "Model building, inference and hypothesis testing in hydrology", Belvaux (Luxembourg) 15-19, April 2013.
  • Stochastic tools for groundwater modeling, ETH Zurich. March 2003.
  • INNCFDAYS 2002: computational fluid dynamics, Institute of Hydrology, University of Innsbruck, Austria. October 2002.
  • Calibration and uncertainty in groundwater models, Charles University, Prague, June 2002.

Positions Held

since March 201

- present Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, Research Associate, Prof. Christoph Schueth.

- Active collaboration in teaching, supervision of students, proposals writing.

since August 2011

- University of California, Davis, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, Post-Doctoral associate, Prof. Thomas Harter.

- Development of a new GIS-based, irrigation driven, conceptual model for the analysis of the soil/water balance in the Scott Valley watershed (Spatio-Temporal Hydrologic Dynamics of an Irrigated Basin with Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems, accepted pending revisions, Water Resources Research). First report recently (April 2013) released and published online

January 2010-March 2010

Larry Walker Associates, Davis, California, Consultant.

2007-2009

University of California, Davis, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Post-Doctoral associate, Prof. Tim Ginn.

- Joint inversion of groundwater flow and environmental tracer data for aquifer characterization, with Prof. Tim Ginn group. Publications: Ginn et al. (2009, Transport in Porous Media), Giudici et al. (2007, IAHS)

- Fate and transport of biofuels in groundwater: an inverse modeling approach, with Prof. Kate Scow group. Publications: Rasa et al. under review for Hydrogeology Jornal.

- Application of the UCODE-2005 software to PHREEQC and TOUGHREACT.

2007-2009

Larry Walker Associates, Davis, California, Project Engineer II.

- Analysis of salt loads in the Central Valley aquifers developed for the CV-SALTS committee (Larry Walker Associates for CV-SALTS, Salt and Nitrate Source Pilot Implementation Study).

- Sensitivity analysis and calibration of the HSPF hydrological model developed for the TMDL implementation in the Calleguas creek watershed in Southern California with specific interest for the simulation of loads of sediments and bacteria, May 2008. AGU poster fall.

- Ground Water monitoring plan for the Rock Well Assessment, City of Modesto, September 2007 and new permit ongoing.

- Evaluation of the effect of percolation ponds in the George Air Force Base (Victor Valley, CA) to TCE plume.

- Analysis of nitrate contamination and remediation plan for the Victor Valley waste water treatment plant (CA).

- Fate and transport of salts and nutrients in groundwater in Central Valley, California, Pilot study.

- Evaluation of the Lake Tahoe watershed model developed by TetraTech for the TMDL development.

October-December 2003, October-December 2004, June-July 2005, May 2006, March 2007:

USGS National Research Program, Boulder, Colorado, Visiting researcher, Dr. Mary Hill.

2002-2006

University of Applied Sciences, Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), Institute for Earth Sciences (IST), and ETH Zurich, Doctoral Student.

- Ph.D. Dissertation: Use of alternative groundwater models to study interactions between groundwater/surface water and ecology in an environmentally active alpine floodplain in the Maggia Valley, Switzerland. The hydrology of the valley is highly controlled through dams. I used the ground-water model developed for the dissertation to investigate linear statistics that, because of computation time limitations, will need to be used to evaluate the coupled model. Results display the strengths and weaknesses of the linear statistics. Published papers: Foglia et al. (2007, 2009, 2013), and Foglia and Mehl (2013), submitted to Groundwater.

1999-2002 University of Applied Sciences, Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), Institute for Earth Sciences (IST), Scientific Collaborator.

- INTERREG II (European Program of Cross Border Cooperation) – Piemonte-Ticino: Real-time hydrological data exchange for flood forecasting in the Lake Verbano basin. First author of three reports and contributing author on two reports. The reports are in Italian.

Teaching

1- Technical University Darmstadt, bachelor and master’s students supervision and courses:

- Advanced Groundwater modeling, summer semester

- Groundwater modeling, winter semester

- Flow in the unsaturated zone, winter semester

2- UC Davis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Initiated and was major lecturer for semester course on “Inverse problems”, ECI289B, fall 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011. Supervisor of several Master’s Students and three PhD students (Hanieh Haeri, Ehsan Rasa, Mary Kay Camarillo)

3- Larry Walker & Associates, Short course for employees on inverse modeling and uncertainty analysis, December 2007.

4- Seminars at IST, Southern Switzerland:

- January 24, 2000: ”I dati puntiformi e la loro estrapolazione”. Short course on the interpolation of data, using Kriging. (lecture in Italian)

- April 17, 2000: “Alcuni operatori per la trasformazione delle piogge in deflussi”. Short course on Rain fall-run-off models. Presentation of methods CN, Nash and Koella. (lecture in Italian).

- March 14, 2006: “Modello delle interazioni tra acque superficiali e sotterranee per valutare i deflussi minimi nelle valli alpine: un’applicazione alla Valle Maggia”. Invited seminar on “Modeling surface water/groundwater interaction to evaluate the minimal runoffs in the alpine valleys: an application to the Maggia Valley” (lecture in Italian).

Professional Societies Membership

European Geosciences Union

American Geophysical Union

International Association of Hydrologic Sciences

Reviewer for: Water Resources Research, Groundwater, Journal of Hydrology, Transport in porous media, Vadose zone, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.

PhD ADVISORS Paolo Burlando, ETH; Mary C. Hill, USGS

MS ADVISORS Giansilvio Ponzini, Mauro Giudici, Guido Parravicini, University of Milan

Publications

Journal articles and refereed published contribution to academic conferences

Hill, Mary C., Kavetski D., Clark M., Ye M., Arabi M., Lu D., Foglia L., Mehl S.W., The Why and How of Building Transparent, Refutability Models of Environmental Systems, under review.

Foglia, L., McNally, A.M., Harter, T., Spatio-Temporal Hydrologic Dynamics of an Irrigated Basin with Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems, accepted pending revisions, special issue of Water Resources Research.

Foglia, L., and S.W., Mehl, On regression methods and multimodel analysis, under review, GroundWater.

Foglia, L., Harter, T., McNally, A.M., Hines, R., (2013), Scott Valley Integrated Hydrologic Model: Data Collection, Analysis, and Soil Water Budget, http://groundwater.ucdavis.edu/Research/ScottValley/

Rasa E., Foglia L., Mackay D.M., and K.M. Scow, (2013), Effect of different transport observations on inverse modeling results: Case study of a long term tracer test at a high resolution groundwater monitoring site, accepted, Hydrogeology Journal.

Foglia, L., S. W. Mehl, M. C. Hill, and P. Burlando (2013), Evaluating model structure adequacy: The case of the Maggia Valley groundwater system, southern Switzerland, Water Resour. Res., 49, doi:10.1029/2011WR011779.

Camarillo, M., Loge, F.J., Darby, J.L., Ginn, T.R., Basagaoglu, H., Foglia, L. (2011), Modeling the Inactivation of Microorganisms Occluded in Effluent Wastewater Particles to Enhance Operation of Filtration and Disinfection Systems, Water Environment Research, 83(4): 313-325.

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Perona, P., Burlando, P. (2010), Identifying important observations using crossvalidation and computationally frugal sensitivity analysis methods, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 2, Issue 6, Pages 7650-7651, Sixth International Conference on Sensitivity Analysis of Model Output.

Ginn, T.R., Giudici, M., Haeri, H., Foglia, L., (2009) Brief notes on groundwater age in forward and inverse modeling, Transport in Porous Media, 79 :117–134.

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Burlando, P. (2009) Calibration and testing of a distributed, physically based hydrological model using an error-weighted objective function, Water Resources Research, 45, W06427.

Giudici, M, Ginn T.R., Vassena C., Haeri, H., Foglia, L. (2007) A critical review of the properties of forward and inverse problems in groundwater hydrology, IAHS Publication No. 320, pp. 240-244.

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Perona, P., Burlando, P. (2007): Testing alternative groundwater models using cross validation and other methods, Ground Water, Vol. 45:5, pp. 627-641.

Hill, M. C., Eileen Poeter and Laura Foglia (2007), Alternative Models and Model Uncertainty, Proceedings of ModelCare'2007, eds. Kovar and Nygaard, IAHS.

Hill, M.C., L. Foglia, G. Barth. S. Mehl, P. Burlando (2006), Exploring models and data using sensitivity analysis: in Kovar, K, Hrkal, Z., and Bruthans, J., Proceedings of the HydreEco2006 international conference on hydrology and ecology, the groundwater/ecology connection, p. 207-212.

Ruf, W., Foglia, L., Perona, P., Molnar, P., Faeh, R., Burlando, P. (2006): Modelling the interaction between groundwater and river flow in an active Alpine floodplain ecosystem, Peckiana, 5:6-16.

Foglia, L. (2006). PhD dissertation at ETH Zurich, Alternative groundwater models to investigate river-aquifer interactions in an environmentally active alpine floodplain, Dissertation n. 16799.

Giudici M., Foglia L., Parravicini G., Ponzini G., Sincich B. (2000): A quasi three dimensional model of water flow in the subsurface of Milano (Italy): the stationary flow, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 4(1), 113-124.

Published contributions to academic conferences (non refereed)

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., Mehl, S. Burlando, P., (2010) Using Multiple Alternative Models and Local Sensitivity Analysis to Evaluate and Understand Uncertainty (invited), Proceedings of the 2010 Computational Methods in Water Resources conference, Barcelona, June 21-24 2010.

Mehl, S., Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., (2010), Analysis of linear and non linear methods for investigating inverse modeling results, Proceedings of the 2010 Computational Methods in Water Resources conferente, Barcelona, June 21-24 2010.

Hill, M.C., Foglia, L., Barth, G., Mehl, S.W., Burlando, P.(2006): Exploring Models and Data Using Sensitivity Analysis, Proceedings of the international Multidisciplinary Conference on Hydrology and Ecology: the Groundwater/Ecology connection, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, 11-14 September 2006.

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Burlando, P. (2006): Use of cross validation to analyze predictive capabilities of alternative groundwater models, MODFLOW and More 2006 conference, Managing Groundwater Systems, May 22-24, 2006, Golden, Colorado.

Ruf, W., Foglia, L., Sturzenegger, M., Birsan, M.-V., Molnar, P., Perona, P., Burlando, P. (2006): Modelling river-aquifer interaction and their ecological relevance in an alpine floodplain, Proceedings of the international Multidisciplinary Conference on Hydrology and Ecology: the Groundwater/Ecology connection, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, 11-14 September 2006.

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., Mehl, S.W., Burlando, P. (2005): Calibration, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of a groundwater model with variable recharge estimated by a distributed rainfall-runoff model, ModelCARE 2005, The Hague, The Netherlands, 6-9 June 2005.

Foglia, L., Birsan, M.V., Burlando, P., Hill, M.C., Mehl, S.W. (2004): Calibration strategies for a groundwater model in a highly dynamic alpine floodplain, International conference on Finite Element Models, MODFLOW, and More: Solving Groundwater Problems, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.

Conference contributions

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Burlando, P. (2013): Processes, observations and parameters in a coupled surface water-groundwater model, Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 15, EGU2013-12842, 2013 EGU General Assembly 2013.

Foglia, L., McNally A, and Harter T., (2013): Coupling a spatio-temporally distributed soil water budget with stream-depletion functions and a groundwater numerical model to constrain stakeholder-driven management of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. 15, EGU2013-7621, 2013 EGU General Assembly 2013.

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Burlando, P. (2009): Use of model discrimination techniques to improve hydrological models under ecological constraints: the case of Maggia Valley, Southern Switzerland, European Geosciences Union, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 11, EGU2009-13019.

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Burlando, P. (2006): On use of hydrologic and geologic data for model development and simulation of integrated groundwater-surface water systems, European Geosciences Union, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 8, 06614, Vienna, Austria, 2-7 April.

Foglia, L., Ruf, W., Perona, P., Faeh, R., Molnar, P., Burlando, P. (2005): Improved hydrodynamic modelling tools for river-groundwater interaction, European Geosciences Union, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 7, 06582, Vienna, Austria, 24-29 April (poster).

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., Mehl, S.W., Birsan, M.V., Burlando, P. (2005): Calibration, sensitivity, and uncertainty analysis of a groundwater model with variable recharge estimated by a distributed rainfall-runoff model; European Geosciences Union, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 7, 06513, Vienna, Austria, 24-29 April (poster).

Burlando, P., Molnar, P., Ruf, W., Foglia, L., Perona, P. (2004): A modelling framework to assess the impact of streamflow regulation on floodplain vegetation ecosystem, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 6, 05755, Nice, France, 25-30 April.

Giudici, M., Parravicini G., Ponzini G., Foglia L., 2000, A transient model of water table rise in Milano (Italy) from 1990 to 2000, Geophysical Research Abstract, 2, Nice, France, April.

Foglia, L., Giudici, M., Parravicini, G., Ponzini, G., and B. Sincich, 1999, Modelling water flow in the subsurface of Milano (Italy), Geophysical Research Abstract, 1, 364, Nice, France, April.

Foglia, L., McNally A, and Harter T., (2012) A new conceptual model to understand the water budget of an Irrigated Basin with Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 3-7 December.

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., Mehl, S.W., (2009) Multi-model analysis of different recharge representations in a coupled hydrological/hydrogeological model, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 14-18 December.

Hill, M.C., Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W. (2009) Issues of model accuracy and uncertainty evaluation in the context of multi-model analysis, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 14-18 December.

Mehl, S.W., Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., (2009) Comparison of computationally frugal (linear) to expensive (nonlinear) methods for analyzing inverse modeling results, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 14-18 December.

Ginn, T.R., Massoudieh, A., Foglia, L., (2009), Mathematical results new and revisited on the distribution of groundwater age, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 14-18 December.

Kretsinger, V., Foglia, L., Herr, J., Dickey, J., Smith, R., (2009), Assessment of salt and nitrate sources and loading implications using a coupled surface water/groundwater model: a Central Valley example, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 14-18 December (poster).

Rasa, E., Foglia, L., Mackay, D.M., Ginn, T.R., Scow, K.M., (2009), An inverse modeling approach to estimate groundwater flow and transport model parameters at a research site at Vanderberg AFB, CA, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 15-19 December (poster).

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C. (2008) Calibration and testing of a distributed hydrological model using an error-weighted objective function, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 15-19 December (poster).

Foglia, L., Mysliwiec, M., Hill, M.C. (2007): Use of traditional and novel statistics to calibrate a hydrological model for the TMDL analysis in the Calleguas Creek Watershed, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 10-14 December.

Hill, M.C., Poeter, E., Foglia, L., 2007, Quantifying groundwater model uncertainty, American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 10-14 December.

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., Mehl, S.W., Birsan, M.V., Burlando, P. (2004): A Modelling Framework to Simulate the Dynamics of the Groundwater, Hydrologic, and Ecologic System in an Alpine floodplain; American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 13-17 December 2004 (poster).

Foglia, L., Macnally A., Harter T., (2012), A new conceptual model to understand the soil-water budget in the Scott River Watershed, NGWA, May 6-10, Garden Grove, California.

Foglia, L., Mehl, S.W., Hill, M.C., Perona, P., Burlando, P. (2010), Identifying important observations using crossvalidation and computationally frugal sensitivity analysis methods, Sixth International Conference on Sensitivity Analysis of Model Output, Milan, 19-22 July.

Hill, M.C., Poeter, E., Foglia, L., invited, (2008), Using a weather analogy to understand how to communicate groundwater model uncertainty, Hydropredict 2008, Prague, September 15-18.

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C. (2008) Use of traditional and unusual statistics in the calibration of a hydrological model for the TMDL development in the Calleguas Creek Watershed, Hydropredict 2008, Prague, September 15-18. Presented by the second author.

Foglia, L., Mysliwiec, M. (2007): Sensitivity analysis, calibration and testing of a hydrological model for the TMDL analysis in the Calleguas watershed, GSA, Denver, 27-31 October (poster).

Foglia, L., Hill, M.C., Mehl, S.W., Burlando, P. (2004): Evaluation of simulated river-aquifer interactions using sensitivity and cross-validation methods; 32nd International Geological Congress (32IGC), Florence, Italy, August 20 to 28, 2004.