Hydrology
The hydrology program began in the summer of 1900 when
UC President Benjamin I. Wheeler invited Elwood Mead,
head of USDA’s irrigation investigations, to organize
teaching and research on irrigation. In the 1920s, members
of the Division of Irrigation at Davis helped develop
the California Water Plan, and a second California Irrigation
map (1922). Frank Adams helped write water rights legislation.
The Division became the Department of Irrigation in
1936, with a faculty of 10 under the leadership of Frank
Veihmeyer.
In 1962, irrigation program faculty with engineering
degrees received split appointments in either the Department
of Civil Engineering or the Department of Agricultural
Engineering in the newly established College of Engineering.
In 1965, the department was renamed the Department of
Water Science and Engineering to reflect its broadening
scope.
Over the years faculty research and teaching have made
outstanding contributions to the efficient development
and utilization of water. Veihmeyer’s cutting
edge research helped establish the departmental tradition
of contributing to the basic understanding of soil-plant-water
relations. With Arthur Hendrickson (Pomology), he established
the now widely accepted concept of "field capacity",
and the more controversial but also universally recognized
concept of permanent wilting percentage. Jamie Amorocho’s
hydraulic testing of structural models played an important
role in the construction of conveyance and storage structures
under the California Water Project. William Pruitt designed
and built the largest weighing lysimeter in the world
to develop basic understanding of water use by crops.
His widely translated, coauthored book on crop water
requirements for the Food & Agriculture Organization
(FAO), United Nations (UN), serves as a universal reference.
In 1990 a campus-wide graduate program in Hydrologic
Sciences was approved. The core curriculum includes
courses that cut across disciplines and form the basis
for specialization in areas such as ground-water contaminant
transport, regional evaporation, hydrobiology and hydrogeochemistry.
In addition to these areas, the current program also
emphasizes teaching and research in watershed hydrology,
water management, and irrigation and drainage. |
