About Me

I am a hydrologist for the USGS – New Mexico Water Science Center and in charge of all technical watershed-modeling activities. I have developed data processing and analysis techniques and serve as the center's technical authority on all waterhsed modeling and snow hydrology activities. I am currently developing and implementing novel characterizations of forest canopy as well as snow modeling tools in order to quantify the effects of canopy disturbance on snow water resources from a recently awarded competitive grant from the South Central Climate Science Center.

Contact Details

C. David Moeser
314 14th st NE
Albuquerque, NM 87104 USA
+1 (77five) 3five7- 66six8
cdmoeser(at)yahoo(dot)com

Education

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (ETH)

PhD December 2015

Surface Water HydrologyDepartment of Environmental Systems Science

Dissertation: The Influence of Forest Canopy Structure on Snow Hydrology. Download here

Funding: Successful Swiss National Science Foundation Grant Proposal. Download here

 

University of Nevada, Reno

M.S.December 2010

Surface Water HydrologyDepartment of Hydrologic Sciences

Thesis: Development, Analysis and Use of a Distributed Wireless Sensor Network for Quantifying Spatial Trends of Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalence. Download here

Fort Lewis College

B.S.December 2004

Environmental Geology / Chemistry minorDepartment of Geosciences

Thesis: Discriminating Pre- and Post- Mining Effects on The Middle Fork of Mineral Creek, Silverton, CO, Using Tree Core Analysis

Awarded outstanding senior in the earth sciences (Eugene M. Shoemaker Award)

Work

United States Geological Survey

New Mexico Water Science Center

Hydrologist July 2016 - Present

  • Serve as the center's technical authority on all surface water modeling and snow hydrology activities, both, in the office and the field.
  • Act as a regional technical advisor to external land managers with stakes in water resources and planning.
  • Charged with all technical watershed-modeling activities.
  • Develop novel data processing and analysis techniques.
  • Currently developing and implementing novel characterizations of forests and modeling tools to quantify the effects of forest disturbance and changing climate on water resources.
  • WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF

    Davos, Switzerland

    Snow Hydrologist / PhD Candidate February 2012 - February 2016

  • Snow model and analysis tool development
  • Aerial and terrestrial LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data gathering, and manipulation
  • Snow survey campaign supervision (total: 12 employees)
  • World Business Council For Sustainable Development

    Geneva, Switzerland

    Contract Hydrologist September 2011 - February 2012

  • Water and energy use linkage analyses between food, feed, and fiber management scenarios
  • Knowledge exchange coordination between UN organizations, research institutes, and businesses for water related projects
  • WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF

    Davos, Switzerland

    Snow Hydrology Intern January 2011 - July 2011

  • Snow survey campaign leader within a high alpine basin in avalanche terrain
  • Snow melt modeling implementation and analysis
  • Geographic data parsing and analysis
  • University of Nevada, Reno

    Research Assistant September 2008 - December 2010

  • Wireless snow depth sensing equipment and affiliated meteorological station deployment, maintenance, and analysis
  • Statistical and geo-statistical modeling of snow
  • Stilling well and V-notch weir installation in an urban watershed
  • Bureau of Land Management/ U.S. Forest Service

    Public Lands Center - Durango, Colorado

    Hydrologic Technician 2005 - 2007

  • Surface and groundwater water quantity and quality monitoring in springs and streams within Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico
  • Groundwater monitoring well and piezometer installation
  • Forest stream remediation and characterization
  • Teaching

    Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)

    Zürich, Switzerland

    (2013 - 2014) Department of Environment Systems Science

    'Environmental Measurement Laboratory' (701)

  • Course and laboratory structure development for a 6-hour lecture module designed to integrate matlab programing with remotely sensed data
  • University of Nevada, Reno

    (2008 - 2010) Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science

    'Principles of Ecohydrology' (295)

    'Ecohydrology Field Camp (400)

  • New course material and method development
  • Field and laboratory lecturing and supervision 
  • University of Nevada, Reno Cooperative Extension

    (2009 - 2010) 'Discover your Future'

  • Basic hydrologic field methods and applications: activity leader and guest lecturer for high school students
  • Fort Lewis College

    (2023) 'Collaborative Environmental Research'

  • Field measurement techniques for snow
  • Published Papers

    Mankin, K., Rumsey, C.,... Moeser, D.,...Lamber, P., 2022, Upper Rio Grande Basin Water-Resource Status and Trends: Focus Area Study Review and Synthesis., Transcations of the ASABE, https://doi.org/10.13031/ja.14964

    Broxton, P., Moeser, D.,Harpold, A., 2021, Accounting for Fine-Scale Forest Structure is Necessary to Model Snowpack Mass and Energy Budgets in Montane Forests., Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR029716

    Moeser, D., Chavarria, S., Wootten, A., 2021, Streamflow Response to a Changing Climate in the Upper Rio Grande Basin; United States Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2021–5138, 41 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20215138 / interactive website: https://webapps.usgs.gov/urgb-prms/

    Moeser, D., Broxton, P., Harpold, A., 2020; Estimating the effects of forest structure changes from wildfire on snow water resources under varying meteorological conditions., Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027071

    Moeser, D., Douglas-Mankin, K., 2020; Simulating Hydrologic Effects of Wildfire on a Small Sub-alpine Soutwestern U.S. Watershed., Transcations of the ASABE, 64(1): 130-150, https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.13938

    Helbig, N., Moeser, D., Teich, M., Vincent, L, Lejeune, Y., Sicart, J.E., Monnet, J.M., 2020; Snow Processes in Mountain Forests: Interception Modeling for Coarse-scale applications, Hydrology and Earth Systems Science,https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2019-348

    Sexstone, G.A., Penn, C.A., Liston, G.E., Gleason, K.E., Moeser, D., and Clow, D.W., 2020, Spatial variability in seasonal snowpack trends across the Rio Grande headwaters (1984-2017), Journal of Hydrometeorology, p. 1-56, https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-20-0077.1.

    Mazzotti, G., Essery, R., Moeser, D., Jonas, T., 2020; Resolving small-scale forest snow patterns with an energy balance snow model and a 1-layer canopy; Water Resources Research, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026129

    Chavarria, S.B., Moeser, D.., and Douglas-Mankin, K.R., 2020; Application of the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) to Simulate Near-Native Streamflow in the Upper Rio Grande Basin: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2020–5026, 348 p. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20205026

    Douglas-Mankin, K. and Moeser, D., Calibration of PRMS to Simulate Pre- and Post-Fire Hydrologic Response in the Upper Rio Hondo Basin, New Mexico, 2019; United States Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report, doi: https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20195022 (link)

    Moeser, D., G. Mazzotti, N. Helbig, T. Jonas; Representing spatial variability of forest snow: Implementation of a new interception model, 2016; Water Resources Research, doi: 10.1002/2015WR017961 (link)

    Moeser, D., M. Stähli, T. Jonas; Improved snow interception modeling using novel canopy parameters from airborne LID AR data, 2015; Water Resources Research, doi: 10.1002/2014WR016724 (link)

    Moeser, D., F. Morsdorf, T. Jonas; Novel forest structure metrics from airborne LiDAR data for improved snow interception estimation, 2015; Agriculture and Forest Meteorology, doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2015.04.013 (link)

    Moeser, D., J. Roubinek, P. Schleppi, F. Morsdorf, T. Jonas; Canopy closure, LAI and radiation transfer from airborne LiDAR synthetic images; 2014; Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, doi: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2014.06.008 (link)

    Data and Code Releases

    Moeser, D., Kurzweil, J., and Sexstone, G.A., 2023, Snow Measurements in Specific Canopy Structure Regimes for the 2022-2023 Water Years, North of Coal Creek, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9E943GE

    Moeser, D., and Sexstone, G.A., 2023, High Resolution Canopy Structure and Density Metrics for Southwest Colorado Derived from 2019 Aerial Lidar: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ESQIAV

    Chavarria, S.B., Moeser, D., Ball, G.P., and Shephard, Z.M., 2020, Hydrologic simulations using projected climate data as input to the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) in the Upper Rio Grande Basin (ver. 2.0, September 2021): U.S. Geological Survey, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ML93QB

    Chavarria, S.B., Moeser, D. and Shephard, Z.M., 2020, Input and Output Data for the Application of the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) to Simulate Near-Native Streamflow in the Upper Rio Grande Basin: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9YOPYW7

    Moeser, D., 2020, Lidar2CanopyMetrics [package of scripts to calculated canopy structure and density from aerial lidar data], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4088667

    Moeser, D., Shephard, Z., 2019, Data Release: The effects of wildfire on snow water resources estimated from canopy disturbance patterns and meteorological conditions: U.S. Geological Survey, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9BBCSVN.

    Moeser, D., Douglas-Mankin, K., Mitchell, A.C., Chavarria, S.B., 2018; PRMS simulations for the Rio Hondo Basin, New Mexico; United States Geological Survey data release, doi: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7KD1X7Q

    External Reports and Grant Writing

    South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center – 'Estimating The Future Effects of Forest Disturbance on Snow Water Resources in a Changing Environment' (2021)

    South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center – 'The Effects of Wildfire on Snow Water Resources Under Multiple Climate Conditions' (2017)

    Swiss National Science Foundation – ‘Snow Distribution Dynamics under Forest Canopy’ (2012) (link)

    Agriculture Research Service – ‘Recommended Procedure for Assessing Soil Disturbances in Vegetation Management Projects within Sensitive Areas of the Lake Tahoe Basin’ (2008)

    Conference Papers and Presentations

    Moeser, D., Broxton, P., Harpold, A.; ‘The Effects of Wildfire on Snow Water Resources Under Multiple Canopy Structures and Meteorological Conditions,’ American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, California, December 2019

    Sexstone, G., Penn, C., Liston, G., Gleason, K., Moeser, D., Clow, D.; ‘Fine-Scale Spatial Variability in Seasonal Snowpack Trends,’ American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, California, December 2019

    Moeser, D. , Broxton, P., Harpold, A.; ‘The Effects of Wildfire on Snow Water Resources Under Multiple Canopy Structures and Meteorological Conditions,’ International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Montreal, Canada, July 2019

    Helbig, N., D. Moeser, M. Teich; ‘Spatially-Averaged Sky View Factors for Snow Interception over Forest Canopy,’ European Geophysical Union, Vienna, Austria, April 2018

    Moeser, D., K. Douglas - Mankin; ‘Hydrologic Impacts of Wildfire on a Small Sub-alpine Southwestern U.S. Watershed: A Simplified Modeling Approach,’ American Geophysical Union, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 2017

    Sexstone, G., C. Penn, D. Clow,D. Moeser, G. Liston; ‘Changes in the Relation Between Snow Station Observations and Basin Scale Snow Water Equivalence,’ American Geophysical Union, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 2017

    Moeser, D., M. Stähli; ‘Forest Canopy Controls on Snow Hydrology,’ Western Snow Conference, Boise, Idaho, March 2017

    Moeser, D.; ‘Forest snow hydrology,’ Department colloquium series, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, New Mexico, January 2017

    Moeser, D.; ‘The influence of forest canopy structure on snow hydrology: Novel modeling and visualization approaches,’ Department colloquium series, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 2016

    Moeser, D., M. Stähli; ‘The influence of canopy structure on snow,’ poster presentation, American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, California, December 2016

    Moeser, D., M. Stähli, T. Jonas; ‘Snow interception modeling,’ oral presentation, The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Prague, Czech Republic, June 2015

    Moeser, D., F. Morsdorf, T. Jonas; ‘Improving snow interception modeling using LiDAR data,’ poster presentation, American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 2014

    Moeser, D., J. Roubinek, F. Morsdorf, T. Jonas; ‘Snow distribution dynamics under forest canopy,’ poster presentation, American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, CA, December 2013

    Moeser, D., T. Jonas, F. Morsdorf; ‘Linking snow accumulation patterns in forests with LiDAR derived canopy structure data,’ oral presentation, Davos Atmosphere and Cryosphere Assembly – The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Davos, Switzerland, July 2013

    Jonas, T., D. Moeser, F. Morsdorf; ‘Linking forest snow distribution measurements with canopy structure data,’ Presented by Dr. Tobias Jonas at the American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, California, December 2012

    Jonas, T., D. Moeser, J. Magnusson, M. Bavay; ‘Validation of multiple approaches for modeling SWE Distribution and subsequent snowmelt in a small alpine watershed,’ Presented by Dr. Tobias Jonas at the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Melbourne, Australia, July 2011

    Moeser, D., M. Walker, C. Skalka, J. Frolik; ‘A distributed wireless sensor network for quantifying spatial trends of snow depth and snow water equivalent,’ Presented by Dr. Mark Walker at the 79th Annual Western Snow Conference, Stateline, NV, April 2011

    Moeser, D., M. Walker, C. Skalka, J. Frolik; ‘Development, analysis & sse of a distributed wireless sensor network for quantifying spatial trends of snow,’ Presented by Dr. Mark Walker at the Nevada Water Resources Association, Annual conference Reno, NV, February 2011

    Moeser, D., Skalka, C., M. Walker, J. Frolik; ‘Snowcloud: development of a distributed in situ instrument for snowpack monitoring,’ Poster presentation, American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, California, December 2009

    Stakeholder Presentations and Colloquiums

    Moeser, D., Upper Rio Grande Basin Response to Potential Changes in Climate to 2100, 2023 Annual Meeting of the Engineer Advisers to the Rio Grande Compact Commission, March 2023

    Moeser, D., Chavarria, S., Streamflow Response to Potential Changes in the Upper Rio Grande Basin, Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Collaborative Program, December 2022

    Moeser, D., Chavarria, S., Snow and Watershed Modeling in Forested Environments, United States Forest Severe Forest Science Laboratory Collaborative, November 2022

    Moeser, D., Chavarria, S., Sexstone, G., Wootten, A., Broxton, P., Harpold, A., Can’t See the Forest For and The Trees: High Resolution and Large-scale Canopy Characterization from Aerial Lidar, USGS Geospatial Group webinar, September 2022

    Sexstone, G., Fulton, J., McDermott, W.,…..Moeser, D., From Stations to Satellites: Next Generation USGS Snow Hydrology Monitoring Activities to Improve Water Availability Assessments in the Upper Colorado River Basin, Rocky Mountain Region Science Exchange Workshop, April 2022

    Moeser, D., Chavarria, S., Sexstone, G., Wootten, A., Broxton, P., Harpold, A., A changing Rio Grande Watershed: Two Modelling Perspectives, Southern Planes Climate Science Webinar, April 2022

    Moeser, D., Chavarria, S., Recently Completed Snow and Watershed Modeling Projects in the Upper Rio Grande Basin, 2022 Annual Meeting of the Engineer Advisers to the Rio Grande Compact Commission, March 2022

    Moeser, D., Chavarria, S., Recently Completed Snow and Watershed Modeling Projects, Oregon Water Science Center Seminar Series, February 2022

    Moeser, D., The Effects of Canopy Structure Changes on Snow Water Resources, USGS Fire Water Working Group, June 2021

    Moeser, D., The Effects of Canopy Structure Changes on Snow Water Resources Bureau of Reclamation Colloquium series, May 2021

    Moeser, D., The Effects of Wildfire on Snow Water Under Multiple Canopy Structure and Meteorological Conditions, New Mexico Forest and Watershed Health Coordinating Group, January 2021

    Moeser, D., Canopy disturbance and Snow Water Resources in the Upper Rio Grande Basin, 2-3-2 Collaborative, October 2020

    Moeser, D., The Effects of Canopy Structure Changes on Snow Water Resources, Rocky Mountain Region Science Exchange Conference, September 2020

    Moeser, D., Surface Water Modeling: The Effects of Landscape Changes in the Rio Grande Watershed, USGS Office of International Programs collaborative with the NM WSC, June 2018

    Moeser, D.; ‘Snow Hydrology Research in The New Mexico Water Science Center,’ New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, New Mexico, June 2017

    Moeser, D.; ‘Forest snow hydrology,’ Department colloquium series, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, New Mexico, January 2017

    Moeser, D.,‘The influence of forest canopy structure on snow hydrology: Novel modeling and visualization approaches,’ Department colloquium series, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 2016

    Moeser, D.,M. Stähli; ‘The influence of canopy structure on snow,’ poster presentation, American Geophysical Union meeting, San Francisco, California, December 2016

    Moeser, D.; ‘The influence of forest canopy structure on snow hydrology’ Department colloquium series, USGS New Mexico Water Science Center, Colloquium series, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 2016

    Websites, Videos, and Press

    USGS Upper Rio Grande Basin Climate Projections and dynamic hydrographs (link)

    Long Format Interview: Climate and Snowpack, New Mexico Water Data Stories' (2021) (link)

    AP Report found in a variety of U.S. newspapers including the Albuquerque journal, US News, Durango Herald, Colorado Politic, San Francisco Chronicle among others: Drastic Changes forescast for Rio Grande (link)

    South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center Webinar: A changing Rio Grande Watershed: Two modeling perspectives (link)

    U.S. geological Survey geopsatial group webinar: webinar Can’t See the Forest For and The Trees: High Resolution and Large-scale Canopy Characterization from Aerial Lidar (link)

    Languages

  • English – native
  • German – CEFR level B2 | Chur, Switzerland (2012-2014) | Davos, Switzerland (2014-2016)
  • Spanish – CEFR level B2 | Xela, Guatemala (2005) | Bogota, Colombia (2006) | La Paz, Bolivia (2007)
  • Hobbies

  • Rock Climbing and Mountaineering
  • Travel
  • Language
  • Carpentry and Woodworking
  • Skills

    Scripting / Coding is and has been an integral part of my work flow for over ten years. After I open my email each morning, I typically then open the command line window and start a blank matlab script. My scripting activities range from daily data analysis to dyanmically programmed interfaces and stand alone programs to process and analyze environmental data. I have several packages for novel LiDAR data manipulation, analysis and visualization available upon request. I coinisder myself an expert in Matlab, highly proficient in R, and have a base foundation in Python and Fortran as well as HTML and CSS.

    Deployment and Development of Meteorological Equipment

    Global Water is local water!

    The Water Cycle is affected by our changing world and climate; as such, we need more accurate measures to quantify the distribution of this critical resource over the landscape.

    . David Moeser

    Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments or ideas. Collaboration keeps it fun!

    Water use Facts

    • Just 0.3% of total freshwater ( less than 0.007% of total water) is seen on the surface as rivers and lakes.

      The United Nations World Water Assesment Programme
    • Water scarcity affects > 40 percent of the global population, over 1.7 billion people are living in river basins where water use exceeds recharge.

      The United Nations World Water Assesment Programme
    • On average the water footprint of a U.S. citizen is 32,911 glasses of water a day. CHECK YOUR PERSONAL WATER FOOTPRINT HERE.

      The Water Footprint Network

    Get In Touch.

    Look forward to hearing from you!

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    MESSAGE NOT SENT- PLEASE USE MY EMAIL ADDRESS: cdmoeser@yahoo(dot)com. Thanks!