Darius Semmens

Darius received a B.S. in Geology from The University of Minnesota (1995), an M.S. in Geology (emphasis in Geomorphology) from Northern Arizona University (1998), and a Ph.D. in Watershed Management (minor in Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis) from The University of Arizona (2004). From 2004-2007, he was a postdoctoral fellow with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development. During this time he was also an adjunct professor and part-time instructor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He joined the Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center in 2008 as a research physical scientist. His current research interests include the development of new methods and tools for the assessment and valuation of ecosystem goods and services - the specific benefits that we derive from nature. More specifically, his work involves developing methods and tools that can account for the spatial and temporal dynamics of service production and incorporate that and other information into more rigorous analyses of the tradeoffs associated with landscape management. Darius is the USGS Co-Director of the Science Impact Laboratory for Policy and Economics (SILPE) at the University of New Mexico.

Publications

Bagstad, K.J., D.J. Semmens, and C. van Riper, III., 2012. Ecosystem services science and policy in arid and semiarid environments: Opportunities and challenges for the Colorado Plateau.  Pp. 61-79 in: The Colorado Plateau V: Research, environmental planning, and management for effective conservation.  C. van Riper, III, M.L. Villarreal, C.J. van Riper, and M.J. Johnson, eds.  University of Arizona Press: Tucson.

Kareiva, P., M. Ruckelshaus, K. Arkema, G. Geller, E. Girvetz, D. Goodrich, E. Nelson, V. Matzek, M. Pinsky, W. Reid, M. Saunders, D. Semmens, and H. Tallis, 2012. Impacts of Climate Change on Ecosystem Services.  Chapter 4 in Staudinger, M.D., N.B. Grimm, A. Staudt, S.L. Carter, F.S. Chapin III, P. Kareiva, M. Ruckelshaus, and B.A. Stein. 2012. Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Ecosystem Services: Technical Input to the 2013 National Climate Assessment. Cooperative Report to the 2013 National Climate Assessment. 296 p. Available at: http://assessment.globalchange.gov 

Norman, L.M., H. Huth, L. Levick, I.S. Burns, D.P. Guertin, F. Lara-Valencia, and D.J. Semmens, 2010. Flood Hazard Awareness and Hydrologic Modeling at Ambos Nogales, US-Mexico Border.  Journal of Flood Risk Management, 3:2, 151-165.

Hernandez, M., W. Kepner, D. Goodrich, and D. Semmens, 2010. The Use of Scenario Analysis to Assess Water Ecosystem Services in Response to Future Land Use Change in the Willamette River Basin, Oregon.  NATO Security through Science Series, Springer Publishers, The Netherlands

Levick, L.R., D.C. Goodrich, M. Hernandez, J. Fonseca, D.J. Semmens, J. Stromberg, M. Tluczek, R.A. Leidy, M. Scianni, D.P. Guertin, and W.G. Kepner, 2008.  The Ecological and Hydrological Significance of Ephemeral and Intermittent Streams in the Arid and Semi-Arid American Southwest.  Report EPA/600/R-08/134, or ARS/233046.

Kepner, W.G., D.J. Semmens, M. Hernandez, and D.C. Goodrich. 2008. Evaluating Hydrological Response to Forecasted Land-use Change. Chapter 15 in Special Issue of Association of American Geographers. North American Land Cover Summit. Washington, DC. pp. 275-292. ISBN 978-0-89291-271-1.

Liu, Y., Mahmoud, M., Hartmann, H., Stewart, S., Wagener, T., Semmens, D., Stewart, R., Gupta, H., Dominguez, D., Hulse, D., Letcher, R., Rashleigh, B., Smith, C., Street, R., Ticehurst, J., Twery, M., van Delden, H., Waldick, R., White, D., and Winter, L., 2008. Formal scenario development for environmental impact assessment studies. In Jakeman, A., A. Voinov, A. E. Rizzoli, and S. Chen, (Eds.) Environmental Modelling, Softeare and Decision Support, 3. IDEA Book Series, Elsevier, 338 pp.

Semmens, D.J., D.C. Goodrich, C.L. Unkrich, R.E. Smith, D.A. Woolhiser, and S.N. Miller, 2008. KINEROS2 and the AGWA modeling framework; in Wheater, H., S. Sorooshian, and K.D. Sharma, (Eds.) Hydrological Modelling In Arid and Semi-Arid Areas, Cambridge University Press, New York, 206pp.

Kepner, W.G., M. Hernandez, D.J. Semmens, and D.C. Goodrich. 2008.  The Use of Scenario Analysis to Assess Future Landscape Change on Watershed Condition in the Pacific Northwest (USA). In Use of Landscape Sciences for Environmental Security, NATO Security through Science Series, Springer Publishers, The Netherlands. ISBN 978-1-4020-6588-0, pp. 237-261.

Miller, S.N., Semmens, D.J., Goodrich, D.C., Hernandez, M., Miller, R.C., Kepner, W.G., and Guertin, D.P., 2007, The Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment tool; Environmental Modeling and Software, v. 22, n. 3, p. 365-377.

Nikolova, M., S. Nedkov, D. Semmens, and S. Iankov, 2007. Environmental quality and landscape-risk assessment in the Yantra River Basin; In  W. Kepner, F. Müller, I. Petrosillio, B. Jones, K. Krauze, S. Victorov, and G. Zurlini, (eds.) Use of Landscape Sciences for the Assessment of Environmental Security, NATO Security Through Science Series, Springer Publications, p. 202-217.

Kepner, W.G., Semmens, D.J., Basset, S.D., Mouat, D.A., Goodrich, D.C., 2004, Scenario analysis for the San Pedro River, analyzing hydrological consequences for a future environment. Environmental Modeling and Assessment, v. 94, p. 115-127.