"Water Resources Issues in North Dakota: Challenges and Opportunities"
NDWRRI’s annual meeting unites people and organizations from across North Dakota who are dedicated to understanding and managing our state’s water resources. Participants include water managers, engineers, researchers, consultants, students, nonprofit professionals, and staff, all working together on topics including groundwater management, surface water quality, watershed planning, climate and hydrology, and community resilience.
The conference will feature presentations on current research and real-world applications, networking opportunities, and interactive sessions designed to share tools, build partnerships, and address water challenges across the region. NDWRRI student fellows will also participate and will feature their work at a poster session.
Photos from the 2026 NDWRRI Annual Meeting
Poster presentations
Aditya Goyal, NDSU
"Calcium peroxide nanoparticles for aqueous phosphate removal"
Amresh Selukka Nagarajan, NDSU
"Carbon quantum dots from agricultural waste for removal of metals in produced water"
Anh Le, NDSU
"Velocity profiles modeling for ice-covered flows using entropy-based measures"
Arvin Samadi Koucheksaraee, NDSU
"KRR-EN-EINFO: A Novel Hybrid Machine Learning Model Coupled with Multi-Step Data Preprocessing for Daily Streamflow Forecasting in the Upper Forest River Watershed, North Dakota"
Debarshi Dasgupta, NDSU
"Through The Looking Glass: Exploring Soil Microbiomes To Mitigate Groundwater Contamination In Agroecosystems"
Hesham Mahmoud, UND
"Modeling Groundwater Dynamics in a Snow-Dominated Cold Region Aquifer Under Variable Recharge, Pumping, and Climate Conditions"
Javad Souri, NDSU
"Turbulent Characteristics and cross-stream Shear Stress Distribution in Ice Covered Rivers"
Matthew Maldonado, UND
"Evaluating the influence of temperature and precipitation regimes on angler effort and expenditures"
Mike Rosati, UND
"Enhancing Water Quality Monitoring Through Regional Machine Learning Models"
Paige Arsenault, UND
"Wetland function and productivity responses to Ducks Unlimited’s Working Lands initiatives in the Prairie Pothole Region"
Shirsa Mazumdar, NDSU
"Nano-Modified Phosphate Fertilizers: A Key for Sustainable Agriculture and Mitigating Eutrophication"
Tiansong Qi, SDSU
"Impacts of dynamic hydrologic processes of depressional wetlands on watershed-scale modeling"
Agenda
Location: Sahnish, Memorial Union, North Dakota State University
On-site registration starts at 10:30 am
| Time | Activity / Presentation | Speaker/Leader | Institution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM | Social Luncheon | Aditya Goyal NDSU Doctoral Graduate Research Assistant Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering |
Student activities, including interaction with industries, job searches, and internships |
| 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM | Water Resources Certificate from NDWRRI | Xinhua Jia, PhD NDSU Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering |
NDSU |
| 12:00 PM | Welcome | Heidi Grunwald, PhD NDSU Interim Vice President for Research and Creative Activity |
NDSU |
| 12:15 – 12:45 PM | Hydrology Monitoring in North Dakota | Brent Hanson Supervisory Hydrologist for the Dakota Water Science Center |
USGS |
| 01:00 – 01:30 PM | North Dakota Department of Water Resources Department of Water Resources Update |
Reice Haase Director North Dakota Department of Water Resources |
NDDWR |
| 01:30 – 02:00 PM | Water Quality Challenges and Opportunities The Role Volunteers Play in Water Quality Monitoring Program of the Red River |
Kimberly Radebaugh Project Coordinator Riverkeepers |
Riverkeepers |
| 02:00 – 02:30 PM | Combined Q&A for Keynote Speakers | Trung Le, PhD NDWRRI Director NDSU Associate Professor of Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering |
NDSU |
| 02:35 – 02:45 PM | Break | ||
|
Early career faculty presentations |
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| 02:45 – 02:59 PM | Hydrologic Modeling Hydrological Modeling of Tillage and Cover Crop Impacts on Water Quality and Crop Production in the Upper Mississippi River Basin |
Kang Liang, PhD NDSU Assistant Professor of Soil Hydrology & Physics |
NDSU |
| 03:00 – 03:15 PM | Water Quality Electro-Regeneration of PFAS-laden Activated Carbon for Sustainable PFAS Remediation in Contaminated Water Sources |
Ersan Mahmut, PhD UND Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering |
UND |
|
Aquatic ecology (led by ND WRRI Fellow - Travis Seaborn, PhD) |
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| 03:15 – 03:30 PM | Wetland Ecology What’s the Difference: A Comparison of Three Wetland Restoration Techniques in Southeastern North Dakota After Ten Years |
Shawn DeKeyser, PhD Program Leader NDSU Natural Resources Management |
NDSU |
| 03:30 – 03:45 PM | Ecological Processes Hydrologic Alteration: Modelling flow alteration and ecological effects |
Mark Lueders, PhD Minot State University Assistant Professor of Biology |
Minot State University |
|
Water for Agriculture (led by ND WRRI Fellow - Zhulu Lin, PhD |
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| 03:45 – 04:00 PM | Energy and Water Resources Management Water Use for AI Data Centers in North Dakota |
Xinhua Jia, PhD NDSU Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering |
NDSU |
| 04:00 – 04:15 PM | Agricultural Water Management ND Statewide Irrigation Reconnaissance Study Project |
Zhulu Lin, PhD NDSU Associate Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering |
NDSU |
| 04:15 – 04:30 PM | Combined Q&A for All Speakers | ||
| 4:30-5:00 PM | NDWRRI Fellow Poster presentation | NDSU and UND | |