Summer 2019

Hey Peoples,

    Quick update:
  
    Just finished an interesting semester at university. Didn't do as well as I had hoped but managed to scrape by with a 3.05 out of 4.00. Looking forward to graduation in spring 2020. Taking a prerequisite Structures course to qualify for Senior Design in the fall.
    Finished Problem Solving in GIS course with a B and made a solid connection with the professor--I may adopt her as an unofficial advisor, she inspires me to go far with my ideas and uncovers my weaknesses at the same time. Was able to incorporate personal project into the courses final project and succesfully complete a suitability analysis. The course was an elective I chose to help me with my Senior Showcase Project(SSP) which has the current title of Drought Mitigation In The Lower San Joaquin Valley.
    Really excited about a grant I received from CHI for a PCSWWM license to build a flow model for my showcase project. I used PCSWMM in an internship I completed last year and could only scratch the surface of it. During the said internship I worked under a civil engineering hydrologist who was gracious enough to give me a variety of tasks and introduce me to the field in a broad sense.
     I expect my SSP to display my knowledge of Python, ArcMap, Civil3D and PCSWWM. A little intimidated by the scope of my SSP because my advisor said it was more likely to get completed as a doctoral thesis and I have no immediate plans for graduate studies. Never the less, I am passionate about completing the project--at least enough to showcase it, even if I have to list research I don't have time to complete as 'Further research needed'.
    Realizing that my hopes and dreams are temporal, I intend to complete as much as possible in case I end up in another field of civil engineering after graduation. I have have a strong intuition that I have a valid and simple solution to arid-California's water resources problem--the problem that our water cycle is not annual cycle but more near a ten year cycle. Basically, if the vegetation was better equipped for drought it would be more resilient to fire and thus quicker to regrow/thrive/support wild things. More relevant to current human concern, it would be more suited to transfer water to the subsoil and recharge aquifers during the high rainfall years--not to mention healthier ground-cover prevents erosion and protects the reservoirs that currently suffer from sediment deposits. If you have not yet guessed, Underground water storage is the way forward. Dams are too detrimental to the natural environment--something we are more and more dependent on in the age of climate change. Dams also offer a temporary fix to a permanent problem, the solution exists in controlling how water flows over and into the land not trying to hoard it behind a dam. In short, we must figure how to slow it down not stop it. This can be done by utilizing aquifers where water can be slowed and tapped as it travels downstream towards the ocean.

Thanks for Caring,

Take Care,

Carl