Research, Talks, and Publications
I study the role groundwater plays in freshwater wetland restorations in former cranberry bogs in southeastern Massachusetts. In conjunction with collaborators at Living Observatory, we are answering questions around environmental restoration impacts these sites. I investigate how water moves through these wetlands, and how flowpaths change in response to restoration and changing climate. I use a wide variety of tools to answer these questions, including isotope geochemistry, fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing, and thermal drone mapping. Broadly, my interests include: wetland hydrology, flood hazard mitigation, temperature as a groundwater tracer, drones as geoscience tools. Always, I seek projects that are community driven or address a community need.
Current Research Projects
- Hydrology of Wetland Restoration in Cranberry Bogs
- Atlantic White Cedar Swamps: Hydrologic Drivers of Tree Regeneration
- Improving Flood Forecasts in New England
Tools
- Isotope Geochemistry
- Fiber-optic Distributed Temperature Sensing
- Thermal Drone Mapping
In Progress
*Undergraduate student researcher
- Watts, C.L., Hatch, C.E., *Hu, A. Wetland Restoration impacts on groundwater mixing: an isotopic and thermal imagery analysis. In prep for Hydrologic Processes
- Elhaddad, H., Tran, D., Watts, C.L.. Transitioning to Impact – Based Forecasting for Riverine Flood Models. In prep. for Water Resources Management **Authors contributed equally, and are listed alphabetically.
Select Publications
Watts, C.L., Hatch, C.E., Wicks, R. Mapping groundwater discharge seeps by thermal UAS imaging on a wetland restoration site. Frontiers in Environmental Science. 10-2022 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.946565
Baruah, A., Dhital, S., Cohen, S., Tran, .D., Elhaddad, H., Watts, C.L., Devi, D., Chen, Y., Pruitt, C. FIMserv v.1.0: A Tool for Streamlining Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) Using the United States Operational Hydrological Forecasting Framework. Environmental Modelling and Software vol. 192 (2025) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106581