Chapman University’s environmental scientist, Dr. Joshua Fisher contributes to milestone study on OpenET’s precision in monitoring water use
Sustainable water management is an increasing concern in arid regions around the world, and scientists and regulators are turning to satellites to help track and manage water resources
A new study co-authored by Joshua Fisher, associate professor in Chapman University’s Schmid College of Science and Technology has played a crucial role in assessing the accuracy of OpenET, an advanced satellite-based system for monitoring water use by crops and ecosystems. The study, published yesterday in Nature Water, provides a thorough analysis of the accuracy of OpenET data for various crops and natural land cover types.
OpenET is a collaborative effort among government agencies, academia and industry leaders that employs satellite data to monitor evapotranspiration, an environmental process that impacts the availability of water. Professor Fisher's satellite monitoring method is a critical component to the effort because it detects changes in evapotranspiration, which can contribute to food insecurity and access to clean water. Participating organizations include NASA, the USDA, Chapman University and Google.
Fisher emphasizes the significance of OpenET in addressing contemporary challenges related to climate change, overpopulation, and water scarcity. “Decades ago, water managers and farmers didn’t have to make many difficult decisions about our most essential resource. But climate change and overpopulation have led to a water crisis,” notes Fisher. “Luckily, OpenET, with its remarkable accuracy, guides decision-makers precisely in allocating this critical resource. The results of this paper are truly impressive in showing how accurate this system is, which should give people confidence in using OpenET for a myriad of applications.”
The study, led by scientists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), compares OpenET data produced by 152 ground-based micrometeorological. According to Dr. John Volk, lead author of the study, “One of the biggest questions for OpenET is how accurate it is, given the magnitude and implications of the use of the data for water resource management. A lot of groups want to know what the expected rates of error are in agricultural lands, so that’s the major question that we wanted to address for this paper.”
Impressively, OpenET demonstrated high accuracy in assessing evapotranspiration in agricultural settings, especially for annual crops like wheat, corn, soy, and rice. The results were particularly reliable in arid regions like California and the Southwest, where OpenET contributes to addressing ongoing water sustainability challenges.
About Chapman University
Founded in 1861, Chapman University is a nationally ranked private university in Orange, California, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles. Chapman serves nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, with a 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Students can choose from 123 areas of study within 11 colleges for a personalized education. Chapman is categorized by the Carnegie Classification as an R2 "high research activity" institution. Students at Chapman learn directly from distinguished world-class faculty including Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur fellows, published authors and Academy Award winners. The campus has produced a Rhodes Scholar, been named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars and hosts a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and most prestigious honor society. Chapman also includes the Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine. The university features the No. 4 film school and No. 60 business school in the U.S. Learn more about Chapman University: www.chapman.edu.
JOURNAL
Nature Water
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Experimental study
ARTICLE TITLE
Assessing the accuracy of OpenET satellite-based evapotranspiration data to support water resource and land management applications
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
15-Jan-2024
Active membranes: The future of fresh water is bright
CALIFORNIA NANOSYSTEMS INSTITUTE
IMAGE:
ACTIVE MEMBRANES WINS WATER TECHNOLOGY IDOL 2023 AWARD
view moreCREDIT: ACTIVE MEMBRANES
The growth of Los Angeles as a startup hub is highlighted by a robust and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem within UCLA. The Magnify Incubator at CNSI is no exception to showcasing the range of early-stage businesses.
One such company within the Magnify incubator, Active Membranes, is innovating the future of fresh water through membrane desalination. As freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce around the globe, resources such as seawater and industrial wastewater are costly to procure and operate. The company’s patented technology is electrically conducting nanofiltration and reverse osmosis spiral wound membrane modules capable of actively resisting scaling and fouling.
Active Membranes’ technology substantially reduces the cost and footprint of these processes. Because it can be applied to any membrane-based water treatment system, at any scale from household point-of-use to large commercial plants, the combined market opportunity exceeds $20B.
“The value add to a startup company from a university standpoint is a showcase that goes beyond teaching, and creates an engine for business ideas and growth,” said David Jassby, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UCLA as well as co-founder and advisor for Active Membranes. “Here at UCLA, we are growing and developing young minds for success after college which is directly translatable to future skills and solving societal problems and that is exciting when we can create ideas that address specific problems. In the case of Active Membranes, it is fresh water.”
The company is also receiving accolades not just in their industry, but from the startup community as well. Active Membranes recently won the 2023 GWI Water Tech Idol Award for “Developing innovative solutions for inland desalination plants to reduce concentrate volumes and increase fresh water supplies in water short areas.”
The company also recently won $30,000 in funding as part of the inaugural UCLA Innovation Showcase at Google’s Venice Beach headquarters presented by the Venture Accelerator at UCLA Anderson School of Management. The showcase enabled startup founders across UCLA’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to pitch venture capitalists and compete for funding opportunities. Active Membranes co-founder Arian Edalat was recognized for the company’s innovative work in the water treatment and desalination space.
“We are targeting water problems that are local which is providing fresh, clean water to Southern California,” said Edalat. “But all this translates to global climate efforts. We are seeing the support for entrepreneurship not only in our campus administration but in the local and state sectors as well.”
The company boasts an impressive roster of co-founders and staff, including co-founder Eric Hoek, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UCLA and member of the CNSI, who coincidentally had success with the first Magnify incubator startup company, NanoH20, which was acquired by LG Chem in 2014.
Hoek also had a hand in giving the company Active Membranes its name.
“The state-of-the-art membranes today are passive barriers to contaminants while allowing water to pass,” said Hoek. “Those contaminants build up in the membrane surface and cause dramatic, sometimes catastrophic loss of performance. Active’s membranes have the same basic separation performance, while actively resisting the buildup of contaminants, and so they maintain high performance much longer and with less pretreatment than the current generation of commercial products. Hence, the name Active Membranes.”
Active Membranes is currently the only water company in the Magnify incubator at CNSI, which provides resources such as co-working laboratory and office spaces along with business resources to startup companies.
“This support allows startups like Active Membranes to succeed by accelerating their access to innovation infrastructure needed while increasing their capital efficiency and market opportunities,” said Nikki Lin, Director of the Magnify Incubator.
Edalat acknowledges the support Magnify provides has been crucial in their early success.
“There is so much networking taking place in the incubator environment,” said Edalat. “As founders we see each other regularly, showcase our businesses and technologies and get ideas from each other.”
For now, the future looks bright for Active Membranes. The company is moving into a new facility in the next few months and conducting field pilots in California and Arizona.
“We are looking for people who are interested to come to these events, see how our technology works, taste the water,” said Edalat. “We want everyone to see how this can be an engine for growth to recover more water, minimize water pretreatment requirements and is ultimately a less complex solution with a smaller footprint.”
For more information on Active Membranes visit https://activemembrane.com and to learn more about CNSI’s Magnify incubator visit https://magnify.cnsi.ucla.edu/
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