Dr. Katharine Graham Dahm is the Senior Scientist for the Rocky Mountain Region and Chief of the Colorado River Basin: Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology (ASIST) Project
Career History and Highlights
Katharine Dahm is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Rocky Mountain Region Senior Scientist. This position serves to link the Water Science Centers and Biological Science Center to the Region, working closely with leadership, partners, and science staff in the centers. Katharine leads the USGS Colorado River Basin Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology (ASIST) efforts for the bureau. This group is responsible for the landscape scale effort to accelerate USGS interdisciplinary science and application of advanced information management technology for complex stakeholder driven challenges related to the extreme drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin.
In addition to her role as Senior Scientist, from November 2021 to September 2022, Katharine served as Acting Director of the USGS Utah Water Science Center. The center collaborates with over 50 partners at Federal, state, tribal, non-governmental, academic, and private organizations within the State of Utah to monitor, assess, conduct targeted research, and deliver information on a wide range of water resources. The Utah Water Science Center provides real-time discharge at more than 150 gages statewide, monitors water levels across a statewide network annually, and engages in many relevant and unbiased scientific studies and modeling efforts. The center is the USGS lead for science and data collection fundamental to the management of Utah water resources including the Great Salt Lake, the Great Basin of western Utah, and the Colorado River Basin of eastern and southern Utah.
Katharine’s prior Federal experience includes managing the Water Infrastructure Operations and Maintenance Branch in the Bureau of Reclamation's Dam Safety and Infrastructure Directorate, Asset Management Division. Her team served as the bureau-lead and advisor for Reclamation's western water operations and water infrastructure facility management. For the Bureau of Reclamation, she also worked in operations, planning, design, and research including serving as the program manager for the WaterSMART West-Wide Risk Assessment Program and Reservoir Operations Program. Prior to joining the Department of the Interior, Katharine worked in the private industry as a consultant for the energy and mineral industries.
Education and Certifications
BSc, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Environmental Engineering
MSc, Colorado School of Mines in Environmental Science and Engineering.
PhD, Colorado School of Mines in Environmental Science and Engineering
Licensed professional engineer in the State of Colorado
Science and Products
Pilot Project Team Members | CRB-ASIST
Drought in the Colorado River Basin
The Colorado River Basin Pilot Project
Colorado River Basin: Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology
Science and Products
- Publications
- Science
Pilot Project Team Members | CRB-ASIST
The Rocky Mountain Region is working with a multidisciplinary team of experts within the Colorado River Basin to determine how the USGS can develop integrative science, data, models, and tools that can be used to address key science challenges related to drought risk within the basin.ByCalifornia Water Science Center, Central Energy Resources Science Center, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Nevada Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, Utah Water Science CenterDrought in the Colorado River Basin
The Colorado River Basin is currently experiencing its worst drought in recorded history. Drought impacts include worsening habitat conditions for several threatened and endangered species, wildland fire risks, reduced snowpack, changes in water availability and agricultural production; reduced recreation opportunities at National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and Conservation areas; and impacts to...The Colorado River Basin Pilot Project
USGS expertise together with our vast regional data sets and modeling capabilities, provide an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the value and impact of a strategic and integrated science approach to delivering actionable intelligence to support decision making related to drought risk in the Colorado River Basin. The Pilot in the Colorado River Basin is underway to demonstrate more complex...Colorado River Basin: Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology
The Colorado River Basin is currently experiencing its worst drought in recorded history. The period from 2000 through 2020 is the driest 21-year period in over 100 years and one of the driest periods in the 1,200-year paleo-record. Drought impacts include worsening conditions in the 9 ecoregions, including habitat for several threatened and endangered species, wildland fire risks, reduced... - Data