Departments > The Department of Environmental Hydrology & Microbiology > Research Themes

The Department of Environmental Hydrology & Microbiology (EHM)

research Themes

Hydrological Processes

• Groundwater recharge
• Environmental tracers for quantitative groundwater hydrology
• Surface and subsurface hydrological processes in porous/fractured media
• Groundwater quality and contamination

Modeling of Transport Processes

• Multiphase, multicomponent transport phenomena in porous/fractured media
• Soil and groundwater salinzation and contamination
• Saltwater intrusion
• Nonlinear wave propagation through porous media
• Hydrological processes of rainfall-runoff

Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

• Water and wastewater treatment
• Wastewater reclamation and reuse
• Optimal uses of marginal water
• Management models of water systems
• Aquaculture and wetlands methods for water and wastewater quality control
• Membrane technology for water and wastewater quality control

Microbial Ecology

• Biology of wastewater reservoirs
• Soil Microbiology
• Biological activity in extreme environments (salt, pH, heavy metals)

Environmental Microbiology

• Enzymology of degradation of RDX.
• Nitrifying bacteria in wastewater reservoirs.
• Survival mechanisms of yeast (Rhodotorula, Pichia) in chemical industry wastewater evaporation ponds.
• Genetics of utilization of methanol by the yeast Rhodotorula.
• Mechanisms of cyanobacterial crust formation on desert sand dunes.

Bioremediation

• Denitrification of nitrate-polluted groundwater.
• Development of novel treatment processes for contaminated water and soil
• Food industries: dairies, meat & bone meal plants.
• Chemical industries: Nitramine explosives, organobromides, pesticides

Climate Change and Desertification

• Replantation of dry lands to mitigate greenhouse effect
• Climate change hydrology and the history of dry lands