Jesse Dickinson, PhD
Biography
Dr. Dickinson is a PI and groundwater specialist for hydrologic and climate research in the Southwest Region. Jesse's research focus is the impacts of climate change and variability on hydrologic systems and water resources nationwide. He develops and applies novel modeling and statistical approaches to develop physically-based understanding of how climatic forcings are damped or amplified through feedback processes in hydrologic systems. Jesse also develops and distributes modeling and statistical software for assessing statistical relations between climatic and hydrologic variability, and for the groundwater modeling software Modflow.
Education
PhD Hydrology, University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences
MS Hydrology, University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology and Water Resources
BS Geology, Oregon State University, Department of Geosciences
Science and Products
Colorado Plateau Regional Groundwater Availability
Study goals
This project seeks to quantify the status of groundwater as an integrated resource with surface water in the arid and semiarid region of the Colorado Plateau principal aquifer system. Surface-water resources that originate in this region are over allocated and serve 35 million people, 4.5 million acres of farmland, and are used to generate 12 billion...
Colorado Plateaus Regional Groundwater Availability
Pilot phase
This study is in a pilot phase during fiscal years 2017 and 2018. The purpose of the pilot phase is to identify possible technical challenges of using the USGS code GSFLOW for simulating groundwater and surface-water flow in the Colorado Plateau principal aquifer system. During the pilot phase, the project will evaluate GSFLOW in the San Juan River Basin (...
Improving Groundwater Supply Forecasting in the Southwestern U.S.
Changing climate conditions have been identified as a major threat to the sustainability and availability of water resources in the Southwestern U.S. Long-term decreases in precipitation can lead to reductions in regional groundwater levels and loss of groundwater storage in aquifers for some communities. Reduced precipitation can also lead to lower water levels in streams and losses in the...
Using small unmanned aircraft systems for measuring post-flood high-water marks and streambed elevations
Floods affected approximately two billion people around the world from 1998–2017, causing over 142,000 fatalities and over 656 billion U.S. dollars in economic losses. Flood data, such as the extent of inundation and peak flood stage, are needed to define the environmental, economic, and social impacts of significant flood events. Ground-based...
Forbes, Brandon T.; DeBenedetto, Geoffrey; Dickinson, Jesse E.; Bunch, Claire; Fitzpatrick, Faith A. Seasonality of climatic drivers of flood variability in the conterminous United States
Flood variability due to changes in climate is a major economic and social concern. Climate drivers can affect the amount and distribution of flood-generating precipitation through seasonal shifts in storm tracks. An understanding of how the drivers may change in the future is critical for identifying the regions where the magnitude of floods may...
Dickinson, Jesse E.; Harden, Tessa M.; McCabe, Gregory J. Filtering of cyclic period infiltration in a layered vadose zone: 1. Approximation of damping and time lags
Infiltration and downward percolation of water in the vadose zone are important processes that can define the availability of water resources. We present an approach that provides insight into how periodic infiltration forcings at the land surface filter in a layered vadose zone in terms of changes in the timing and magnitude of hydrologic...
Dickinson, Jesse E.; Ferre, T.P.A Filtering of periodic infiltration in a layered vadose zone: 2. Applications and a freeware screening tool
We have developed a screening tool to visualize and conceptualize the filtering properties of a layered vadose zone. Climate projections indicate that rainfall timing and magnitude may change and impact groundwater resources. This increases the importance of understanding how the vadose zone filters infiltration variability and ultimately affects...
Dickinson, Jesse E.; Ferre, T.P.A Climate variability and vadose zone controls on damping of transient recharge
Increasing demand on groundwater resources motivates understanding of the controls on recharge dynamics so model predictions under current and future climate may improve. Here we address questions about the nonlinear behavior of flux variability in the vadose zone that may explain previously reported teleconnections between global-scale climate...
Corona, Claudia R.; Gurdak, Jason J.; Dickinson, Jesse E.; Ferré, T.P.A.; Maurer, Edwin P. Forecasting the probability of future groundwater levels declining below specified low thresholds in the conterminous U.S.
We present a logistic regression approach for forecasting the probability of future groundwater levels declining or maintaining below specific groundwater-level thresholds. We tested our approach on 102 groundwater wells in different climatic regions and aquifers of the United States that are part of the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater Climate...
Dudley, Robert W.; Hodgkins, Glenn A.; Dickinson, Jesse E. Interannual to multidecadal climate forcings on groundwater resources of the U.S. West Coast
Study regionThe U.S. West Coast, including the Pacific Northwest and California Coastal Basins aquifer systems.Study focusGroundwater response to interannual to multidecadal climate variability has important implications for security within the water–energy–food nexus. Here we use Singular Spectrum Analysis to quantify the teleconnections between...
Velasco, Elzie M.; Gurdak, Jason J.; Dickinson, Jesse E.; Ferré, T.P.A.; Corona, Claudia
Hydrological conditions and evaluation of sustainable groundwater use in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed, Upper San Pedro Basin, southeastern Arizona
This study assessed progress toward achieving sustainable groundwater use in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed of the Upper San Pedro Basin, Arizona, through evaluation of 14 indicators of sustainable use. Sustainable use of groundwater in the Sierra Vista Subwatershed requires, at a minimum, a stable rate of groundwater discharge to, and thus base...
Gungle, Bruce; Callegary, James B.; Paretti, Nicholas V.; Kennedy, Jeffrey R.; Eastoe, Christopher J.; Turner, Dale S.; Dickinson, Jesse E.; Levick, Lainie R.; Sugg, Zachary P. Inhibition of Akt enhances the chemopreventive effects of topical rapamycin in mouse skin
The PI3Kinase/Akt/mTOR pathway has important roles in cancer development for multiple tumor types, including UV-induced non-melanoma skin cancer. Immunosuppressed populations are at increased risk of aggressive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Individuals who are treated with rapamycin, (sirolimus, a classical mTOR inhibitor) have...
Dickinson, Sally E; Janda, Jaroslav; Criswell, Jane; Blohm-Mangone, Karen; Olson, Erik R.; Liu, Zhonglin; Barber, Christie; Rusche, Jadrian J.; Petricoin, Emmanuel; Calvert, Valerie; Einspahr, Janine G.; Dickinson, Jesse E.; Stratton, Steven P.; Curiel-Lewandrowski, Clara; Saboda, Kathylynn; Hu, Chengcheng; Bode, Ann M.; Dong, Zigang; Alberts, David S.; Bowden, G. Timothy
Hydrology of the middle San Pedro area, southeastern Arizona
In the middle San Pedro Watershed in southeastern Arizona, groundwater is the primary source of water supply for municipal, domestic, industrial, and agricultural use. The watershed comprises two smaller subareas, the Benson subarea and the Narrows-Redington subarea. Early 21st century projections for heavy population growth in the watershed have...
Cordova, Jeffrey T.; Dickinson, Jesse E.; Beisner, Kimberly R.; Hopkins, Candice B.; Kennedy, Jeffrey R.; Pool, Donald R.; Glenn, Edward P.; Nagler, Pamela L.; Thomas, Blakemore E. A screening tool for delineating subregions of steady recharge within groundwater models
We have developed a screening method for simplifying groundwater models by delineating areas within the domain that can be represented using steady-state groundwater recharge. The screening method is based on an analytical solution for the damping of sinusoidal infiltration variations in homogeneous soils in the vadose zone. The damping depth is...
Dickinson, Jesse E.; Ferré, T.P.A.; Bakker, Mark; Crompton, Becky Evaluation of the importance of clay confining units on groundwaterflow in alluvial basins using solute and isotope tracers: the case of Middle San Pedro Basin in southeastern Arizona (USA)
As groundwater becomes an increasingly important water resource worldwide, it is essential to understand how local geology affects groundwater quality, flowpaths and residence times. This study utilized multiple tracers to improve conceptual and numerical models of groundwater flow in the Middle San Pedro Basin in southeastern Arizona (USA) by...
Hopkins, Candice B.; McIntosh, Jennifer C.; Eastoe, Chris; Dickinson, Jesse E.; Meixner, Thomas