SCOTT DALE PECKHAM

Research Scientist
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0450

E-mail: Scott.Peckham@Colorado.edu
Telephone: (303) 492-6752, Fax: 303-492-6388

Education

PhD. Geophysics, Univ. of Colo. (CU), Boulder, May 1995.
M.S. Mathematics, Oregon State Univ. (OSU), June 1989.
B.S. Physics, OSU, June 1987.
B.S. Engineering Physics, OSU, June 1987.

Dissertation

Self-Similarity in the Three-Dimensional Geometry and Dynamics of Large River Basins. Developed a theoretical framework based on conservation equations and similarity concepts in order to explain and predict a variety of different empirical scaling relationships that are observed for the geometry, topology, statistics, and dynamics of large river networks. This involved a detailed derivation and analysis of the governing equations, as well as the development and analysis of a powerful "self-similar tree" model to describe the tree-like branching structure of river networks. Created a state-of-the-art software toolkit called RiverTools for the efficient extraction and processing of hydrologic data from large digital elevation grids. This toolkit was then used to test hypotheses and theoretical predictions for several large rivers in the U.S..

Honors

NASA Global Change Student Fellow, 1990-1993.
National Research Council Research Associate, 1995-1998.

Professional Societies

American Geophysical Union
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Employment

Research Scientist, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). Research on river network hydrology, landform evolution, nonlinear PDEs, surficial sediment plumes and source-to-sink sediment transport. 1998-Present.

Research Associate, National Research Council (NRC). Continued research on the flow dynamics, sediment transport, and geometry of large river basins, with J. Dungan Smith at the Water Resources Division of the USGS, in Boulder. Developed an "ideal landform equation" and a new mathematical method for solving this and similar types of nonlinear partial differential equations. 1995-1998.

Graduate Research Assistant, Center for the Study of Earth from Space, CU. Conducted research described under Dissertation above. Developed expertise in the mathematical methods of nonlinear dynamics and "complexity theory", including fractals, multifractals, cascades, chaos, and dynamical systems. Coursework in remote sensing and image processing.

Graduate Research / Teaching Assistant, OSU. Developed models for the analysis and description of random networks with Ed Waymire. Extensive coursework in probability theory and stochastic processes. Taught courses in college algebra with good reviews. 1987-1989.

Selected Publications

Peckham, S.D. (2001) Fluvial landscape models and catchment-scale sediment transport, to appear in: Global and Planetary Change (special issue).

Morehead, M.D., Syvitski, J.P.M., Hutton, E.W.H. and Peckham, S.D. (2001) Modeling the inter-annual and intra-annual variability in the flux of sediment from ungauged river basins, to appear in: Global and Planetary Change (special issue).

Peckham, S.D., V.K. Gupta, and J. Dungan Smith (2002) A new theory for downstream hydraulic geometry in river networks based on dynamic self-similarity, to be resubmitted to Water Resources Research.

Peckham, S.D. and J.P.M. Syvitski (2002) New results for a mathematical model of surficial plumes, in preparation.

Peckham, S.D. (1999) Using remotely-sensed images with a plume model to estimate suspended and deposited sediment near river mouths, Technical Report, 15 pp. Raytheon Systems.

Peckham, S.D. and V.K. Gupta (1999) A reformulation of Horton's laws for large river networks in terms of statistical self-similarity, Water Resources Research, 35(9), 2763-2777.

Peckham, S.D. (1999) Solutions to nonlinear partial differential equations - A geometric approach, In: Proceedings of the Conference on Geometry in Present-Day Science, edited by O.E. Barndorff-Nielsen and E.B. Vedel Jensen, World Scientific, New Jersey, 165-186.

Peckham, S.D. (1998) Efficient extraction of river networks and hydrologic measurements from digital elevation data, In: Stochastic Methods in Hydrology: Rain, Landforms and Floods, edited by O.E. Barndorff-Nielsen, World Scientific, New Jersey, 173-203.

Bahr, D.B., M. Meier, and S.D. Peckham (1997) The physical basis of glacier volume-area scaling, J. Geophys. Res., 102(B9), p. 20355.

Peckham, S.D. (1995) Self-similarity in the geometry and dynamics of large river basins, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Peckham, S.D. (1995) New results for self-similar trees with applications to river networks, Water Resources Research, 31(4), 1023-1029.

Peckham, S.D. and E. Waymire (1992) On a symmetry of turbulence, Commun. Math. Phys., 147, 365-370.

Synergistic Activities

Founder of a small software development company called Rivix, LLC, and author of RiverTools, which is marketed by Research Systems, Inc., the makers of IDL ( www.researchsystems.com). RiverTools is a state-of-the-art software toolkit for the analysis of digital terrain and river networks. Its flexibility and ease-of-use are comparable to other popular GIS programs, but it has been specifically designed to extract, display, and analyze many different kinds of hydrologic data from large elevation grids. Its speed, accuracy, platform-independence, extendibility, and simple point-and-click interface are unmatched by similar applications, and it is helping to advance the science of hydrology as both an educational and research tool at many universities and federal labs around the world.

Recent Collaborators

James Syvitski (INSTAAR), Mark Morehead (BSU), Matt Nolan (UAF), Mike Field (USGS), J. Dungan Smith (USGS, WRD), Diane McKnight (INSTAAR), Anne Nolin (NSIDC)

Graduate and Post Doctoral Advisors

J. Dungan Smith (NRC postdoctoral advisor), Vijay K. Gupta (doctoral thesis advisor), and Edward C. Waymire (masters thesis advisor)