Reclamation Economics: An Assessment of Ecological Function, Hydrologic Response and Economic Viability of Reclamation

Reclamation Economics: An Assessment of Ecological Function, Hydrologic Response and Economic Viability of Reclamation.

Faculty Lead(s): Roger Coupal

The Agricultural and Applied Economics Department in collaboration with Hufford and Nippgen Research Labs in the Ecosystem Science and Management Department invite applications for a student seeking to complete a Masters of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics with a focus on the economics of land reclamation and ecological restoration.  The student will work with a team of researchers on an NSF-funded project to explore reclamation outcomes at sites in Wyoming affected by large-surface mining disturbances.

The core research program will comprise: 

• Evaluating the effects of topographic restructuring on vegetation recruitment, species diversity, soil moisture, surface runoff, sediment export, and erosion. Assessing ecological and hydrologic conditions using on-the-ground fieldwork, UAV-based remote sensing (multispectral and Lidar), and parsimonious hydrologic models. The entire team will participate and assist in this data collection process.
• We will model sets of recovery functions taken from field and remote sensing measurements by the ecology and hydrology teams to assess the success of alternative approaches to ecological restoration over a period of years. From these analyses, stochastic cost effectiveness and risk modeling will be assessed.
• Finally, we will explore how regulatory frameworks govern reclamation goal setting by agency scientists, Land managers, and reclamation operators and its relation to reclamation science. This will be accomplished using the recovery functions to identify alternative reclamation goals and assess potential risks and changes in priorities.

The student will have opportunities to work with state agency personnel and engineers who regulate and design land reclamation of disturbed lands.  The student will be guided and supported by the full team to gain knowledge of data collection from ecological field studies, remote sensing data results, and the modeling frameworks for stochastic cost -ffectiveness analysis.  Research outcomes will predict how well different reclamation methods meet regulatory requirements and associate risks.