The Program

Historically, water has played a critically important role in the social and economic development and well-being of the Western United States. This is particularly apparent in the Columbia River basin where there is a very strong regional dependence on water resources for municipal, agricultural and industrial water supply, power production, maintenance of fisheries, transportation and recreation. Successful management by local, state and federal agencies of this resource is required if the competing demands for water are to be met while preserving the aesthetic and environmental values of the region. To meet the continuing demand for well trained professionals in the field of Environmental Engineering, the Department of Civil Engineering at Portland State University offers a specialized program of study leading to a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Resources/Civil Engineering.

The program focuses on modeling of water quality and quantity as a tool in the management of these complex natural and man-made systems. An interdisciplinary background, such as in biology, chemistry, geology, coupled with a Civil Engineering core sequence and original research, provides the background necessary to tackle complex environmental problems.

Financial assistance in the form of research and teaching assistantships is available through the department. Both types of assistantships provide a monthly stipend and tuition remission. For full time students, the Ph.D. program normally requires three or more years.

Most graduate level courses are offered during late afternoon or evening hours to make the program accessible to the working professional.

General Course Requirements

All students in the program take a one-year sequence of courses in Environmental Sciences and Resources (ESR), in which environmental problems are considered from multi-disciplinary viewpoints, and two years of the Environmental Sciences and Resources Seminar series. Proficiency in computer language and statistics also are required.

Departmental Course Requirements

A minimum of 16 credit hours of additional course work will be required beyond the ESR requirements. Specific courses will be determined by the students' Ph.D. committee. At least 9 credit hours must be within the Civil Engineering Department.

Typical approved courses:

CE 610 Environmental Data Analysis

CE 661 Water Resources Systems Analysis

CE 665 Advanced Hydrology

CE 666 Stochastic Hydrology

CE 669 Introduction to Subsurface Flow and

Hydrology

CE 670 Numerical Modeling of Subsurface Flow and

Contaminant Transport

CE 671 Advanced Topics in Subsurface Flow and

Contaminant Transport

CE 672 Environmental Fluid Mechanics I

CE 673 Numerical Methods in Environmental

Engineering

CE 675 Advanced Physical/Chemical Environmental

Engineering Processes

CE 676 Environmental Fluid Mechanics II

CE 678 Water Quality Modeling

CE 691 Engineering Optimization

General Requirements

ESR/Civil Engineering students must have an M.S. degree in Civil Engineering or a related area, pass the comprehensive examination and the advancement to candidacy examination, have 27 credit hours of dissertation credit leading to the completion of a doctoral dissertation, and pass the final oral dissertation defense.

Environmental Sciences and Resources/Civil

Engineering Ph.D. Guidelines

Admission Requirements

In addition to transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate schools attended and the ESR application form, three reference letters and a statement of career plans are required for admission. If the undergraduate G.P.A. is less than 3.0 or the graduate G.P.A. is less than 3.5, the student may petition for admission to the program based on the merits of his/her extraordinary experience and/or unique education and documented ability to solve research problems. Such a student if allowed admittance to the program may be required to take a qualifying examination within the first quarter of enrollment. The Civil Engineering ESR committee will meet with the student to determine the content and nature of the examination.

In addition to these requirements, the Ph.D. student must have a supervising advisor for admittance. Hence, all prospective Ph.D. students must contact one of the faculty members in their research area of interest prior to submitting their Ph.D. application.

Examinations

The newly admitted student will meet and form his Civil Engineering Department ESR committee within the first quarter of his enrollment. The committee and the student will plan new coursework and will define the scope and nature of the comprehensive examinations. The student shall present to the committee a short document outlining areas of expertise based on coursework taken.

The comprehensive examination will be taken at the end of coursework required for the comprehensive examination and will be both written (consisting of two 4 hours segments) and oral. This examination will precede the advancement to candidacy examination. The graduate school committee member will be approved after the comprehensive examination.

The advancement to candidacy examination will be an oral defense of the candidate's research plan. After successful completion of the examination, the student will be a candidate for the Ph.D.

The final oral examination will be a defense of the Ph.D. dissertation. These examination requirements are summarized in our listing of PhD requirements.

Faculty Research Areas

Information on current research projects, funding opportunities and upcoming courses offerings can be obtained by contacting Dr. Roy W. Koch (Hydrology and Water Resource Systems, e-mail: roy@eas.pdx.edu), Dr. ShuGuang Li (Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport, e-mail: shuguang@eas.pdx.edu), or Dr. Scott A. Wells (Surface Water Hydraulics and Contaminant Transport and Environmental Engineering, e-mail: scott@eas.pdx.edu), Department of Civil Engineering, P.O. Box 751, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207, (503) 725-4282.

Representative Publications and Current Research Projects

Dr. Shuguang Li (Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Research Interests: stochastic subsurface hydrology, ground- water modeling, environmental hydraulics and contaminant transport, numerical methods in water resources and environmental engineering

Funded Research Projects:

"Three-dimensional modeling and visualization of groundwater flow and contaminant transport at St. Johns Landfill," funded by METRO; "Contaminant transport and transformation in sediment-water system," funded by Bureau of Environmental Services, City of Portland

Other Currently Active Research Projects:

Improved stochastic methods for nonergodic solute transport in heterogeneous porous media, finite-analytic methods for solving the advection-dominated transport equation, stochastic analysis of flow/solute transport in irregular streams

Selected Publications:

S.G. Li and D.B. McLaughlin (1995) Using the Nonstationary Spectral Method for Analyzing Groundwater Flow in Heterogeneous Trending Media, Water Resources Research, 31(3).

D.B. McLaughlin, L.B. Reid, S. G. Li and J.A. Hyman (1993) A Stochastic Method for Characterizing Groundwater Contamination, Journal of Groundwater, March.

S.G. Li, F. Ruan and D.B. McLaughlin (1992) A Space-Time Accurate Methodfor Solving Solute Transport Problems, Water Resources Research, 28(9).

S.G. Li, L. Venkataraman and D.B. McLaughlin (1992) A Stochastic Theory for Irregular Stream Modeling, Part 1: Flow Resistance, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 118(8).

S.G. Li and D.B. McLaughlin (1991) A Nonstationary Spectral Method for Solving Stochastic Groundwater Problems, Part 1: Unconditional Analysis, Water Resources Research, 27(7).

L.B. Reid, D.B. McLaughlin, S.G. Li and J.A. Hyman (1991) A New Stochastic Method for Characterizing Groundwater Contamination: Application to a Coal Tar Waste Disposal Site, Proceedings of International Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium.

S.G. Li (1989) Theoretical Longitudinal Dispersion Coefficient in Natural Rivers - A Stochastic Approach, Proceedings of XXIII IAHR Congress, Session D: Environmental Hydraulics.

S.G. Li, (1988) An Optimal Exponential Difference Scheme for Solving Parabolic Partial Differential Equations, International Journal of Computation and Methodology: Numerical Heat Transfer, 14(3).

S.G. Li and Z.X. Liang, (1988) Gravity-Affected Potential Flows Past Spillway Flip Buckets, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 114(4).

Dr. Roy Koch (Ph.D., Colorado State University)

Research Interests: stochastic modeling of environmental systems, hydrologic forecasting

Funded Research Projects:

"Hydrologic Monitoring and Modeling of the Tualatin Basin Watershed," funded by State of Oregon, Department of Environmental Quality

Selected Publications:

Koch, R.W., T.S. Sanders and H.J. Morel-Seytoux (1982) "Regional Detection of Change in Water Quality Variables", Water Resources Bulletin, 18, 815-821.

Koch, R.W., (1985) "A Stochastic Streamflow Model Based on Physical Principles," Water Resources Research, 21, 545-553.

Koch, R.W. and R.L. Allen (1986) "A Decision Support System for Local Water Management," Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, ASCE. 112, 527-541.

Koch, R.W. and G.M. Smillie (1986) "Bias in Hydrologic Prediction Using Log-Transformed Regression Models," Water Resources Bulletin, AWRA, 22, 717-723.

Koch, R.W., R.L. Allen and N.D. Mtundu (1987) "Evaluation of a Simple Dynamic Model of Soil Moisture," Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, ASCE, 113, 228-302.

Mtundu, N.D. and R.W. Koch (1987) "A Stochastic-Differential Equation Approach to Soil Moisture," Stochastic Hydrology and Hydraulics, 1, 101-116.

Redmond, K.T. and R.W. Koch, (1990) "Western Surface Climate, Streamflow and the El-Nino Southern Oscillation" in Hydraulics/Hydrology of Arid Lands, ASCE, pp. 567-572.

Redmond, K.T. and R.W. Koch, (1991) "Surface Climate and Streamflow Variability in the Western United States and Their Relationship to Large-Scale Circulation Indices," Water Resources Research, 27(9), 2381-2399.

Koch, R. W. (1992) "Stochastic Simulation of Climate Input for Water Supply Forecasting," Proceedings Water Forum 1992, ASCE, Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. Scott Wells (Ph.D., Cornell University)

Research Interests: water quality and hydrodynamic modeling of surface waters (rivers, lakes, estuaries), solid-liquid separation environmental engineering processes (sedimentation, dewatering, filtration)

Funded Research Projects:

"Water Quality Modeling and Monitoring of the Columbia Slough System," funded by City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services; "Water Quality and Hydrodynamic Modeling of the Smith and Bybee Lake System and North Slough Adjacent to the St. John's Landfill," funded by METRO; "Industrial Sludge Dewatering Project," funded by POSCO, Korea.

Other Currently Active Research Projects:

Experimental and theoretical analysis of solid-liquid separation processes, determination of constitutive properties of fluid-particle mixtures, graphical user interface water quality and hydraulic modeling of river basins

Selected Publications:

Wells, S.A. and Gordon, J.A. (1982) "Geometric Variations in Reservoir Water Quality," Water Resources Bulletin, 18, 661-670.

Adams, E.E. and Wells, S.A. (1984) "Field Measurements on Side Arms of Lake Anna, Virginia," Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 110, 773-793.

Adams, E.E.; Wells, S.A.; and Ko, E.K. (1987) "Vertical Diffusion in a Stratified Cooling Lake," Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, ASCE, 113, 292-307.

Bierck, B.K.; Wells, S.A.; and Dick, R.I. (1988) "Compressible Cake Filtration: Monitoring Cake Formation Using X-rays from a Synchrotron Source," Water Pollution Control Federation Journal, 60, 645-650.

Wells, S.A. and Dick, R.I. (1988) "Synchrotron Radiation Evaluation of Gravity Sedimentation Effects Prior to Dewatering," Proceedings ASCE-CSCE National Conference on Environmental Engineering, Vancouver, B.C., 845-852.

Dick, R.I.; Wells, S.A., and Bierck, B.R. (1988) "A Note on the Role of Capillary Forces in Compressible Cake Filtration," Particle Separation Research Bulletin, 1, 32-34.

Wells, S. A. (1990) "Effect of Winter Heat Loss on Treatment Plant Efficiency," Research Journal of the Water Pollution Control Federation, 62, 34-39.

Wells, S. A. (1991) "Two Dimensional, Steady-State Modeling of Compressible Cake Filtration in a Laterally Unconfined Domain," Fluid/Particle Separation Journal, 4, 107-116.

Wells, S.A. and Dick, R.I. (1992) "Synchrotron Radiation Measurements of Degree of Saturation in Porous Matrix," ASCE, Journal of Engr. Mech., 1738-1744.

Berger, C. and Wells, S. (1995) "Effects of Management Strategies to Improve Water Quality in the Tualatin River, Oregon," in Water Resources Engineering, Vol. 2, ed. by W. Espey and P. Combs, pp. 1360-1364.

Karl, J. and Wells, S. (1995) "Gravity Sedimentation - A One Dimensional Numerical Model," in Advances in Filtration and Separation, Vol. 9, ed. by K. Choi, pp. 400-410.

Civil Engineering Laboratory Facilities and Equipment

The Civil Engineering Department has a Fluid Mechanics (1800 ft²) and an Environmental (1600 ft²) laboratory. Equipment in these laboratories includes: Open channel flume, reservoir flume, sand filtration pilot plant, Milton-Roy 401 spectrophotometer, turner 112 fluorometer, analytical and top loading balances, capillary suction time device, remote conductivity and temperature logging device, remote meteorological instruments: air temp., R.H., wind speed and, direction, net global radiation, barometric pressure, rainfall, computer data acquisition system for laboratory and field studies, YSI thermistors for laboratory flume and remote field studies, water level recorder for water, surface height measurement, dissolved oxygen, pH probes and meters, flocculation testing device, Hydrolab Scout II Water Quality Monitoring Device, fluid pumps, vacuum pumps, laboratory oven, muffle furnace, laboratory still and ultrapure water, constant temperature water bath, sedimentation column, flow velocity field meter, HYDRODATA information and analysis system, Chloride, salinity, conductivity meter, well sampler, 2-axis electromagnetic current meter, 18 foot research boat with 40 HP motor and trailer, groundwater flow column.

All Civil Engineering laboratories are supported by a full-time technician.

Computational Equipment

The Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department have a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) laboratory with approximately 50 486/Pentium PCs, numerous laser printers (including color postscript), 2 TEK-UNIX work stations, 5 SPARC UNIX workstations, numerous X-terminals, a NOVELL and TCP/IP NCSA Network. The University supports numerous UNIX workstations and super-computer facilities which provide additional computational support. NW Net provides network access to NSF Supercomputer Facilities.

Affiliated Faculty

Dr. Teresa L. Bulman (Water Resource Policy and Law) Assistant Professor of Geography, Ph.D. (University of California, Davis)

Dr. Michael L. Cummings (Geochemistry) Professor of Geology, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin)

Dr. Ansel G. Johnson (Geohydrology) Associate Professor of Geology, Ph.D. (Stanford University)

Dr. Daniel M. Johnson (Hydrology and Climatology) Associate Professor of Geography, Ph.D. (Arizona State University)

Dr. James R. Pratt (Environmental Science and Environmental Restoration) Professor of Environmental Sciences and Resources, Ph.D. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)

Dr. Curt D. Peterson (Geology - Sediment Transport Processes) Associate Professor of Geology, Ph.D. (Oregon State University)

Dr. Richard R. Peterson (Limnology and Aquatic Ecology) Professor of Environmental Sciences and Biology, Ph.D.(Duke University)

Dr. H. James Quigley, Jr. (Environmental Science - Environmental Law and Policy), Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences and Resources, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania)

Dr. John G. Rueter (Aquatic Ecology) Associate Professor of Biology, Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Dr. Alan Yeagley (Environmental Sciences and Hydrology) Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences and Resources, Ph.D. (University of Virginia)

Course Offerings

Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

CE 672 Environmental Fluid Mechanics I

CE 673 Computer Modeling in Environmental

Engineering

CE 675 Advanced Physical Chemical Envir. Engr.

Processes

CE 678 Water Quality Modeling

CE 610 Solid and Hazardous Waste Management

CE 669 Introduction to Subsurface Flow and

Contaminant Transport

CE 670 Numerical Modeling of Subsurface Flow and

Contaminant Transport

CE 671 Advanced Topics in Subsurface Flow and

Contaminant Transport

CE 676 Environmental Fluid Mechanics II

Hydrology

CE 564 Engineering Hydrology

CE 567 Hydrologic and Hydraulic Design

CE 665 Advanced Hydrology

CE 666 Stochastic Hydrology

Water Resource Systems

CE 661 Water Resource Systems Analysis

PA 565 Water Resources: Policies and Administration

Biology

Bi 575 Limnology and Aquatic Ecology

Environmental Science

ESR 620, 621, 622 Environmental Science

ESR 607 Environmental Science Seminar Series

Geology

G 543 Groundwater Geology

G 544 Well Dynamics

G 619 Advanced Geochemistry

G 641 Groundwater Modeling

Geography

Geog 523 Environmental Impact Assessment

Geog 545 Resource Management

Geog 546 Water Resource Management

Geog 582 Environmental Remote Sensing

Geog 588 Geographic Information Systems

Related Courses

Ec 585 Cost-Benefit Analysis

USP 561 Grantwriting

USP 577 Urban Environmental Management

Mathematical and Computational Methods

CE 610 Environmental Data Analysis

CE 691 Engineering Optimization

ME 651 Engineering Analysis

ME 652 Engineering Numerical Methods

Mth 621, 622, 623 Advanced Differential Equations

Mth 651, 652, 653 Advanced Numerical Calculus

Mth 667, 668, 669 Stochastic Processes and Probability Theory

Sysc 625 Modeling and Conceptualization

The University

Portland State University is a dynamic, growing institution. In partnership with the beautiful city of Portland and the distinctive state of Oregon, the University will provide leadership in meeting the exciting challenges of the 21st century.

The University is a major urban institution with a potential for growth unparalleled in higher education today. Critically positioned on the Pacific Rim, Portland State University's strong liberal arts and sciences programs augment its major thrusts in high technology, engineering, international trade, business, urban education and research, planning and social work, and the fine and performing arts.

The University, which is part of the Oregon State System of Higher Education, is located in downtown Portland and enrolls 15,000 students in a number of comprehensive programs at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels. The university is composed of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the seven professional Schools of Engineering and Applied Science, Business Administration, Education, Fine and Performing Arts, Health and Physical Education, Urban and Public Affairs, and the Graduate School of Social Work; the Division of Continuing Education; and the Library.

With 900 faculty members, many of them renowned nationally and internationally for their research and scholarship, the University's mission encompasses teaching excellence, scholarly and creative achievement, and a commitment to research and service to the 1.2 million residents of Oregon's largest metropolitan area.

The University's outlook and philosophy are global. Portland State's location in a major international port, its international curriculum and study centers, and its overseas programs and long-standing ties with 20 foreign universities will have an immense influence on the Pacific Northwest in the competitive years ahead.

Campus

The PSU campus is a cityscape, designed to meet student needs. Occupying 39 buildings in a 35-acre area, the campus is built around the Park Blocks, a greenway area reserved for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Park Blocks are well used by PSU students. Landscaped to combine utility with natural beauty, they provide a place for students and the community to gather, talk, study, or put on an impromptu concert or lecture.

Elevated walkways connect many of the buildings, bridging city streets and providing fast, easy routes for busy students. An underground tunnel network serves the same purpose and contains shops, game rooms, and eating places.

At the edge of campus, the University merges easily into downtown Portland. The areas immediately surrounding the campus contain private student housing, shops, taverns, theaters, and restaurants which primarily serve the University.

Commercial and governmental centers, as well as cultural and entertainment resources, are within easy walking distance of campus. Among them are the Oregon Historical Society, Portland Art Museum, Multnomah County Library, Portland Center with its noted Lovejoy and Keller fountains, Civic Stadium, Civic Auditorium, theaters, and restaurants.

The campus is located within 90 minutes driving time of snow-covered Mt. Hood to the east and the famed Oregon coastline to the west.

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