Ecosystem Science and Management

College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Scott Miller

Scott Miller is a professor in watershed hydrology and the runs the SAWLS (www.uwyo.edu/sawls) research group. Dr. Miller is also the Chair of the PhD program in Hydrologic Sciences (www.uwyo.edu/wrese) and the MS program in Water Resources (www.uwyo.edu/ware) at the University of Wyoming, both of which are interdisciplinary graduate programs for students pursuing research and education in hydrology / water resources.

Titles

• Professor
• Spatial Processes Ecologist
• Chair, WARE MS program in hydrology and water resources
• Chair, WRESE PhD program in hydrology 

Areas of expertise

• Watershed hydrology
• Hydrologic modeling
• GIS and spatial analyses in natural resources
• Landscape ecology
• Geomorphology 

Research interests

Dr. Miller's job title is "spatial processes hydrologist"  with teaching and research interested in the general domain of  watershed hydrology.  My dominant research foci have been on the measurement and modeling of watershed-to-landscape scale processes, the use of GIS in process-based spatially distributed hydrologic modeling, fluvial geomorphology, and the development of landscape metrics for land cover change and habitat evaluation.  Over the past 15 years I have investigated linkages among watershed hydrology and related landscape-scale effects and downstream ecological services in a range of settings; from Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming to South Africa and Kenya.  I administer the Spatial Analysis of Watershed and Landscape Systems Group (www.uwyo.edu/sawls), which serves as the geospatial research nexus for projects with which I am involved and has a mission to use spatially explicit methods for understanding earth system processes. 

Teaching Activities

The guiding principle in my teaching portfolio is that it is important for students focusing on watershed issues and environmental science to be well grounded in the fundamental disciplines of the geologic, hydrologic and ecological processes that are the foundation of research and management.  In the past several years I have had primary responsibility for 5 courses:

• REWM 4285/5285 (Wildland Hydrology)
• REWM 4530 / ENR 3900 (Water Resources Seminar)
• REWM 4700 (Wildland Watershed Management)
• RNEW 5200 (Spatial Analysis of Watersheds and Landscapes)
• RNEW 5900 (Spatial Hydrology)
• RNEW 5985 (Research Across Disciplines Seminar)

While at UW I've had shared responsibility for three courses: ENR 1100 (Natural Resources Problems and Policies), RNEW 5985 (twice: Time Scales of Fluvial processes & River System Response to Change), and REWM5640 (Spatial Processes). As part of my teaching responsibility I advise undergraduate students and supervise MS and PhD students funded on my projects.

International activities

I was the Lead PI on a project in Kenya investigating the effects of rapid land cover change on ecological, hydrological, and human systems. This was a 6-year effort funded by USAID and resulted in a large number of manuscripts, successful graduate students and extension-related activities designed to improve the lives and livelihoods of people living in the region.

I also led a project in and around Kruger National Park, South Africa. In this study we investigated the relative importance of dams and land cover change on hydrologic alterations in the Luvuvhu and Limpopo Rivers. The areas affected by development lay outside of the National park, but the rivers flow into and through the Park and support a huge range of plant and animal species.

I was a part of a NATO-sponsored team investigating risks to human and environmental health in Kazakhstan resulting from intensive and extensive human impacts on environmental systems.