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Environmental Internship Program - 2023 Booklet

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Ashley DeFrates ’25<br />

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING<br />

PROJECT TITLE<br />

The Interface of Hydrology<br />

and Machine Learning:<br />

Generating Better<br />

Information for Decisionmakers<br />

and Educating the<br />

Decision-makers of the<br />

Future<br />

ORGANIZATION(S)<br />

Integrated GroundWater<br />

Modeling Center (IGWMC),<br />

Department of Civil<br />

and <strong>Environmental</strong><br />

Engineering, Princeton<br />

University<br />

LOCATION(S)<br />

Princeton, New Jersey<br />

MENTOR(S)<br />

Reed Maxwell,<br />

William and Edna Macaleer<br />

Professor of Engineering<br />

and Applied Science,<br />

Professor of Civil and<br />

<strong>Environmental</strong> Engineering<br />

and the High Meadows<br />

<strong>Environmental</strong> Institute;<br />

Lisa Gallagher, Education<br />

and Outreach Specialist,<br />

IGWMC, Department of Civil<br />

and <strong>Environmental</strong><br />

Engineering<br />

Meteorological forcings are the weather inputs<br />

that drive hydrological models and govern the<br />

behavior of water in hydrologic simulations.<br />

Therefore, the accuracy of a model is heavily<br />

dependent on the accuracy of the forcings used<br />

in its development. My research focused on<br />

analyzing the temperature and precipitation<br />

forcing products used in the ParFlow-CONUS2<br />

model, an integrated hydrologic model developed<br />

by the Integrated GroundWater Modeling Center<br />

that resolves groundwater flow across the United<br />

States at 1 km resolution. I compared forcing<br />

products to observed data for multiple water<br />

years, making visual representations of spatial<br />

statistics such as relative bias. In addition to<br />

this research, I also helped develop and deliver<br />

educational modules at The Watershed Institute’s<br />

Watershed Academy for High School Students.<br />

It is becoming increasingly important that<br />

we understand our groundwater resources as<br />

the impacts of climate change persist, making<br />

both hydrologic modeling and scientific<br />

education crucial in the fight for a sustainable<br />

future. Engaging in this morally fulfilling<br />

work while improving my coding and scientific<br />

communication skills made this project a<br />

rewarding experience that inspired me to pursue<br />

further studies in hydrology.<br />

99<br />

WATER AND THE<br />

ENVIRONMENT

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