Faculty

The Hydrologic Science and Uncertainty Assessment Group's research focuses on developing and communicating answers to important societal questions about historical and future variability in regional water quantity and quality over multiple time scales. We pursue projects that directly support sustainable environmental and human health management and policy decisions. Planning for and adapting to fluctuating water supplies, for example, requires differentiating and effectively communicating relative impacts of climate change, consumptive use, and engineered water management solutions. Similarly, ensuring water supplies are of a high enough quality to meet their intended use requires identifying and mitigating detrimental impacts of point and non-point source pollution and understanding complex coastal physical processes. We develop creative and high-impact solutions to these types of real-world hydrologic science problems through novel modeling and statistical analysis techniques, direct engagement with stakeholders, and integration of expertise and resources across scientific disciplines and institutions. 

Professor Gronewold’s research interests lie in hydrological modeling, with a focus on propagating uncertainty and variability into model-based water resources management decisions. His specific research areas include predicting runoff in ungauged basins, monitoring and understanding water quality dynamics in coastal areas, and incorporating probability theory and Bayesian statistics into watershed-scale data sets and forecasting tools.

He holds an adjunct appointment in the U-M Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Prior to his appointment in SEAS, he worked in the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory as a hydrologist and physical scientist.