"Everyone lives in a watershed. We're all connected." an interview with Karen Prestegaard

Description

Karen Prestegaard is a professor of hydrology at the University of Maryland, and she studies rivers, wetlands, watersheds, water quality, minerals, floods, and rainfall and watershed management. As a graduate student, the California Coastal Commission hired Karen to study Los Peñasquitos watershed, the last undeveloped watershed in California. Because of Karen’s presentation, the Coastal Commission set aside the river corridor and turned it into a public park, which prevented the runoff and erosion of which Karen’s research identified.

Karen has since chaired the erosion and sedimentation committee at AGI and created the Gilbert Club gatherings of water researchers, which follow AGU meetings. “The geosciences inform on where we’re living and what it actually is so we understand how our street affects the landscape, [which] gives us context that we’re all connected together in time.” Karen wants to ensure that our water is protected for everyone. Without water, we are in trouble. “We want to create societies where everybody thrives.” (Recorded 14 December 2018)

Participants

• Karen Prestegaard
  
• Ilan Glazer
  
• AGU Narratives
  

Interview By

• AGU Narratives