ABSTRACT:

I am Jagath Vithanage

I am a PhD student in Ecosystem Sciences and Management department in University of Wyoming and have worked as both research assistant and teaching assistant. In my PhD program, I am working on three distinct and novel research projects. In one of the components of my PhD research I assess the issues on different land management practices on water availability, with the main goal impact assessment and mitigation options on Wyoming agriculture including production agriculture and water resources. I am developing a user-friendly software that can be used by any stakeholder to determine agricultural management effects on water resources. The second component of my research is the creation of an environmental impact assessment (EIS) to investigate the impact of oil and gas production in Wyoming while recommending the oil and gas producers how to minimize the impacts of oil and gas on Environment and directly related to the impact criteria for natural resource management. This investigation can be used by producers to alter practices to minimize environmental impacts on future drilling to satisfy regulatory frameworks and maximize profits. The last component of my dissertation is to address and quantify water resource issues in the future (2050-2060) under anticipated climate change by linking future forecast models of potential climates to hydrologic models. This work is focused on rangeland and agricultural sustainability.

Outside of my work I enjoy swimming, hiking.

Looking forward to see you all.