Jay R. Lund

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Research & Teaching Interests

Jay Lund has research and teaching interests in the application of systems analysis, economic, and management methods to infrastructure and public works problems. His recent work is primarily in water resources and environmental system engineering, but with substantial work in solid and hazardous waste management, dredging and coastal zone management, and some dabbling in urban, regional, and transportation planning. While most of this work involves the application of economics, optimization, and simulation modeling, his interests also include more qualitative policy, planning, and management studies.  Examples of this work can be found below.

He has recently become emeritus and takes few graduate students.

Jay’s CV

Examples of completed student research

Examples of current student research:

Jay Lund is formally retired and now rarely takes new graduate students.

PhD

  • Kathy Schaefer – Flood insurance and risk management
  • Lindsay Murdoch – Environmental flows optimization

MS

  • Trevor Kent – Economics of conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water
  • Leonard Calvo – Environmental flow operations for the Stanislaus River
  • Cameron Carpenter – Analysis and application of environmental flows in rivers

UC Davis Graduate Programs

Jay Lund is formally retired and now rarely takes new graduate students.

Other Water System Analysis Faculty Advisers: Professor Jonathan Herman, Professor Sam Sandoval, Professor Josue Medellin-Azuara (UC Merced), and Professor Alvar Escriva-Bou (UCLA)

Major Research Areas

Large-Scale Water - Environmental System Management

Large-scale regional water systems provide much of the world’s water supply, flood control, and hydropower, and have major effects on the environment and recreation. Research in this area has involved several studies in large-scale optimization for water supply, flood control, and conflict resolution among multiple purposes.  Both practical and theoretical aspects of this problem are of interest.  Combining theory with applied policy is especially interesting.  Examples include:

  • Economically-driven simulation of California’s Friant-Kern System, using MODSIM software (FREDSIM)
  • Reservoir operating rules from long-term deterministic optimization models or derived from explicit performance objectives,
  • Use of optimization models for seasonal water system operation studies,
  • Application of the network optimization model HEC-PRM to the Missouri River system and the Columbia River system,
  • Flood control optimization studies (Lower American River, California; Iowa and Des Moines Rivers, Iowa; and theory),
  • Conflicts among interested parties related to the operation of large water resource systems (California and the Truckee-Carson system), and
  • How computer modeling and data can help structure, clarify, and resolve conflicts, and the limitations of modeling in these roles.

The most ambitious of these projects is the CALVIN project, developing a California-wide economic-engineering optimization model for water supply and environmental purposes.  This project is in collaboration with Richard Howitt of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.  It has found numerous applications.

Integrated Urban Water Supply Planning and Management

Urban water supply planning, in California, the U.S., and the rest of the world, requires integrated design and management of often diverse water supplies (including water transfers and wastewater reuse) and various water conservation measures. Research in this area has involved:

Water Transfers and Markets

Water transfers or markets have become a commonly-suggested solution for water problems, particularly in the western U.S. Recent work in this areas has:

  • Least-cost water purchases for California’s Environmental Water Account
  • Use of large-scale optimization models for investigating the value of water markets in California (CALVIN)
  • Reviewed the variety of water transfer forms in California,
  • Examined the several roles that water transfers can have in urban water supplies,
  • Explored the potential for transferable drought water rations for urban systems,
  • Applied optimization modeling for finding the least-cost mix of various types of water transfers for urban water supplies, given variability in supply system yields, and
  • Developed planning methods for integrating various forms of water transfers with demand management and traditional supplies for urban water systems.

California Drought Water Transfer Report (1992) (579 kb)

Water Transfers in Water Resource Systems (1995)
Recent California Water Transfers: Implications for Water Management (1995)

Reservoir Operation

Reservoirs are a major component of water management systems.  Their operation has substantial effects on the performance of overall water systems.  Research in this area focuses on the development of operating rules which are derived to be optimal in terms of operating objectives and the integration of reservoir operations into the policy, planning, and operations of integrated water resource systems:

  • Rules for reservoirs in series and in parallel,
  • Water quality rules for reservoirs in parallel,
  • Optimal rules for conjunctive use of surface and groundwater storage,
  • Optimal hedging rules for drought operations,
  • Hydropower operating rules,
  • Drought storage allocation rules,
  • Integrated reservoir operations (see preceeding headings),
  • Reservoir operations with climate change
  • Still more reservoir operating rules.

Economic Design and Evaluation of Stormwater Quality Management

(Currently inactive in this area) Non-point sources, such as stormwater, have come to dominate water quality concerns for the environment. Non-point sources also are expensive and difficult to manage, monitor, and evaluate in terms of technical performance. Our work has applied contemporary methods in cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis to evaluate the desirability of different stormwater quality control measures, including both their costs and their likely water quality benefits. Specific products include:

  • Review of methods for estimating the economic value of water quality benefits from stormwater management.
  • An economic evaluation of the benefits and costs of stormwater quality management for a major urban creek in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Systems Engineering for Municipal Solid and Hazardous Waste Management

(Currently inactive in this area)  Municipal solid waste management has become more complex in recent years with increases in disposal costs and environmental concerns and legislation. In trying to apply systems analysis and economic techniques to this engineering problem, we have:
  • Examined the potential role of pricing for optimally depleting existing landfill capacity,
  • Developed methods for least-cost planning of recycling measures to extend landfill lifetimes,
  • Examined the least-cost sizing of modules within landfills,
  • Applied linear programming to the least-cost preliminary design of central material recovery facilities (CMRFs),
  • Developed a spreadsheet-based software package for integrated solid waste management (GIGO), composed of a web of modular models of individual solid waste management operations, and
  • Developed Economic Risk Analysis for Evaluation of Industrial Waste Minimization.

GIGO Solid Waste Management Model (Compressed EXCEL and WORD files):  Spreadsheets (1993) ,Documentation (1993)

Economic and Risk-based Planning of Dredging and Beach Nourishment Systems

(Currently inactive in this area)  Waterborne commerce  relies on effective and efficient maintenance of ports and waterways.  The economic design of beach nourishment turn out to have similar physical processes and mathematical forms.  Several projects with various Corps of Engineers offices examined these issues.