Joan Wu, Ph.D.
Washington State University
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Dr. Joan Wu is a faculty member in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering based at WSU Puyallup Research & Extension Center. Her research focuses on hydrologic modeling for land and water resources conservation. Joan has a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from The Ohio State University, an MS in Mathematics from WSU, and a BS and MS in Hydrology from Tongji University, Shanghai. Joan is a registered Professional Civil Engineer. She served as WSU’s Faculty Legislative Representative during 2014–2018.
Joan will be working in partnership with Jordan Jobe (WSU) and Anand Jayakaran (WSU).
Joan's Fellowship Work
Optimizing GSI Placement to Reduce Urban Runoff and Protect Water Quality
This Deep Dive project will build on previous research and improve the Hydrological Sensitivity Indexing (HSI) approach to optimize GSI placement. The HSI method is based on a well‐developed Variable‐Source‐Area (VSA) hydrologic concept, which identifies areas likely to generate runoff. The HSI method uses publicly accessible geospatial data of topography, soil, and land use and land cover (LULC). It is easy to implement within a Geographic Information System (GIS) for effective, automatic applications. However, the method is static and does not consider the dynamics and heterogeneity of hydrologic processes, such as ET, soil water storage, and changing climate conditions. The method also does not differentiate between built environments with or without stormwater controls, e.g., a shopping center with stormwater infrastructure to drain and pipe away stormwater of, say, 10‐yr, 24‐hr events, may generate little to none on‐site runoff much of the time, whereas a paved parking lot with no GSI installed will turn the rain water during a storm essentially completely to runoff.
We propose to improve the HSI approach by (i) adjusting the runoff contribution from built space based on its stormwater management measures; (ii) characterizing the dynamic ET processes of different plant species with weighing factors; and (iii) assessing the suitability of HSI‐based GSI designs under changing climate conditions. We will focus on two common GSI types: rain gardens and bioretention systems, accomplishing the first two tasks in the first year, and the third task in the second year of the Deep Dive.