Dr. Jonathan Czuba

FACULTY AFFILIATE   |   Global Change Center

Biological Systems Engineering

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(540) 231-4858  • jczuba@vt.edu

Dr. Czuba’s research program extends collaboratively across multiple disciplines to advance the understanding of riverine ecosystems and their response to human and natural forces. The challenge to provide water, food, and energy for a growing population in the context of climate change is and will continue to place increasing pressure on riverine ecosystems. Dr. Czuba’s research group incorporates theory, modeling, and field measurements to improve our understanding of these complex systems and better inform river management. Dr. Czuba’s research largely focuses on the development and application of modeling tools to better predict the transport and fate of sediment in rivers, organized around three major themes:

(1) Understanding the fundamentals of stream and floodplain restoration, specifically quantifying the form and function of natural streams and floodplains to inform stream restoration efforts.

(2) River network modeling and connectivity, specifically modeling the transport of sediment on the branching structure of a river network to determine how change at one location on the landscape manifests change at locations downstream and to inform river basin management.

(3) Ecohydraulics and ecomorphodynamics (eco-: ecosystem + -hydraulics: dynamics of flowing water; -morphodynamics: evolution of landforms in response to the erosion and deposition of sediment), specifically how flowing water and moving sediment affect and are affected by the living components of the riverine ecosystem (e.g., plants, fish, freshwater mussels) to inform aquatic ecosystem management and restoration.

Dr. Czuba is an Associate  Professor of Watershed Engineering in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering. Previously, he was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities during which time he was the recipient of an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship, Edward Silberman Fellowship, and Alvin G. Anderson Award. Dr. Czuba also has a M.S. and B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and over 5 years of experience working for the U.S. Geological Survey in Illinois and Washington State.