Dr. Gigi Richard

Dr. Gigi Richard
Director, Four Corners Water Center & Instructor of Geosciences

Expertise

  • Surface water hydrology
  • Hydrology and water resources of the western US
  • Human impacts on river systems
  • GIS and GPS

Education

  • Ph.D., Civil Engineering, Colorado State University, 2001
  • M.S., Civil Engineering, Colorado State University, 1997
  • B.S., Civil Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989

Contact:

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Media Contact

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About Dr. Gigi Richard

Dr. Gigi Richard is the Director of the Four Corners Water Center and Instructor of Geosciences at Fort Lewis College. She joined the college in 2018 and has spent her career teaching about and studying surface water particularly in the western US. Dr. Richard’s research focuses watershed hydrology in Colorado, from snowmelt driven systems to intermittent desert streams, and human impacts on river systems, including the study of downstream impacts of dams, levees and other human activities on rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and New Zealand. In 2001, Dr. Richard received a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue a post-doc at Lincoln University in New Zealand where she studied the dynamic glacial-melt driven Waiho River.

Prior to joining Fort Lewis College, Dr. Richard had a 16-year career as Professor of Geology at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, where she also co-founded and co-directed of the Ruth Powell Hutchins Water Center which facilitates education, research and dialogue on water issues facing the Upper Colorado River Basin. While at CMU, she also was the founding coordinator of the CMU/CU-Boulder Engineering Partnership Program, created the Watershed Science program, and taught hydrology, river dynamics, GIS/GPS and other water and environmental science courses. In 2017, Dr. Richard received CMU’s distinguished faculty award for her excellence in teaching, scholarship and service.

A member of the 2014 Water Education Colorado Water Leaders program and a resident of Colorado for 30 years, Gigi has experience in private engineering consulting and served on water quality and land use planning commissions in Summit County, Colorado. She has been a volunteer precipitation reporter for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) since 2013.


Selected Publications

Pack, C., Louie, C., Richard, G. and Cabot, P.E., 2018, Estimating Agricultural Consumptive Use for Grass and Hay Pasture Fields on Colorado, Colorado Water, Vol. 35, Issue 5, pp. 30-33.

Richard, G., Eurich, A., Hammond, J., and Kampf, S., 2018, Water Yield Sensitivity to Snow Loss in Colorado Headwater Streams, Colorado Water, Vol. 35, Issue 4, pp. 34-38.

Hammond, J., Moore, C., Kampf, S. and Richard, G., 2017, Watershed Monitoring Across the Intermittent Persistent Snow Transition Zone, Colorado Water, Vol. 34, Issue 3, pp. 6-11.

Moore, C.D., Richard, G. and Cabot, P.E., 2016, Floating Wetland Systems: Managing Aquatic Plants as a Selenium Sequestration Strategy, Colorado Water, Vol. 33, Issue 2, pp. 10-12.