Dr. Steven Gorelick
Areas of Research: Hydrology and water resources
JWP: Belmont Partner, Project Lead Principal Investigator, USA
Biographical Information
Professor Gorelick, at Stanford University since 1988, runs the Hydrogeology and Water Resources program and directs the interdisciplinary Global Freshwater Initiative. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment. Dr. Gorelick is a US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) member and received Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships for research on water and oil resources. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the Geological Society of America (GSA. Dr. Gorelick has produced over 140 journal papers and 3 books in the areas of water management in underdeveloped regions, hydrogeology, optimal remediation design, hydrogeophysics, ecohydrology, and global oil resources.
Research
Dr. Gorelick's work relevant to the JWP involves hydrologic-economic policy evaluation models for agricultural water allocation, urban water supply, optimal groundwater use in ecologically sensitive areas, optimal remediation of contaminated aquifers, and water management under uncertainty. He has worked successfully with social scientists in interdisciplinary teams. In Yaqui Valley, Mexico his group studied the impacts of a drought that resulted in a decline of 40% in Mexican wheat production. Sustainable water allocation was identified for optimal cropping. The approach was adopted and written into regulations. In Chennai, India his group analyzed the impacts of a severe drought that shut down urban water supply. Rainwater harvesting was shown to be beneficial relative to expensive desalination as a transition to long-term sustainability. The Global Freshwater Initiative (GFI) team conducted a meta-analysis of 22 water crises around the world and identified a set of critical syndromes, plus they developed metrics of freshwater vulnerability for countries and cities. The GFI team has completed additional water resources studies in Vietnam and Cambodia.