Benjamin Bass, Ph.D.
Project Scientist
Center for Climate Science
Ben is a water resources engineer with a background in hydrology, groundwater and coastal hydrodynamics. In collaborating with a premier group of climate scientists, he aims to combine his background with state-of-the-art climate analysis to help address what California’s water future will look like.
Questions he intends to address include: i) how will California’s streamflow patterns vary during future drought and wet weather conditions, ii) how will shifts in climate and streamflow patterns translate to changing water supply reliability for Southern California, and iii) how will California’s floodplains change, particularly due to atmospheric rivers, and what might that mean for flood mitigation infrastructure (i.e. reservoir capacity).
Ben joined Alex Hall’s research group April 2020. He obtained his B.S. in Hydrogeology at The University of Texas at Austin, his PhD in Civil/Environmental Engineering at Rice University and has worked at the EPA of Texas (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) and Woodard and Curran (formerly RMC Water and Environment).
Ben’s undergraduate research included analysis of the impact of different vegetation on groundwater recharge versus evapotranspiration during severe drought. His PhD involved extensive flood risk analysis, including evaluations of how changes in precipitation, land cover and sea level rise could impact flooding. In his Ph.D., he also evaluated how different tropical storm and hurricane characteristics correlate to their rainfall-runoff and storm surge flood response.