Research Interests
My research interests span broad topics within the hydrologic sciences, ranging from fluvial geomorphology to landscape evolution to rainfall-runoff processes.
My Ph.D. dissertation seeks to demonstrate the utility of data assimilation methods to combine soil moisture estimates from a distributed watershed hydrology model with remotely sensed measurements of land-surface variables that are indicators of near surface moisture (primarily microwave radiobrightness). This proof-of-concept study serves to demonstrate that remotely sensed soil moisture data (that are usually of resolution ~ 25 km) can be downscaled to small spatial scales (~ 10 - 100 m) through process modeling. Knowing the distribution of soil moisture is critical to advancing scientific understanding about the global water, energy, and carbon cycles. Further, flood forecasting and landslide hazard prediction at short lead times critically depends on how well the distribution of soil moisture at fine spatial scales is known.
Other research interests I have relate to the evolution of channel networks and landscapes, land-atmosphere-ecosystem interactions, and the interface between fluvial geomorphology and aquatic ecology. While a MS student at Colorado State University my research was focused on the dependence of channel morphology on scale, flow energy and hydroclimatology, and development and validation of process-based models to predict streambed substrate size as a function of landscape and valley scale variables. These attributes of local-scale channel morphology set the physical template upon which the aquatic community structure is imposed.
Please see more about me at my personal website: Personal Home Page
You can also view my current vita here (opens in a new window as a PDF): Current CV
Publications
- Flores, A. N., V. Y. Ivanov, D. Entekhabi, and R. L. Bras, Impact of hillslope-scale organization of topography, soil moisture, soil temperature and vegetation on modeling surface microwave radiation emission, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., in review.
- Flores, A. N., B. P. Bledsoe, C. O. Cuhaciyan, and E. E. Wohl, Channel-reach morphology dependence on energy, scale, and hydroclimatic processes with implications for prediction using geospatial data, Water Resour. Res., 42, W06412, doi:10.1029/2005WR004226.
Publications in preparation
Flores, A. N., D. Entekhabi, and R. L. Bras, Reproducibility of soil moisture ensembles when representing soil parameter uncertainty and correlation using a Latin Hypercube-based approach.
Contact Information
Alejandro N. Flores, MS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, 48-212
Cambridge, MA 02139
Email