Samantha Hartzell

Dr. Samantha Hartzell joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2020. Dr. Hartzell’s primary research interests are in modeling the impact of vegetation on water, carbon, and energy fluxes between the land surface and atmosphere; ecosystem services of vegetation in urban environments; and innovative practices for sustainable agriculture in dryland ecosystems. Her work involves developing nuanced approaches to modeling plant hydraulics at multiple scales, considering the inherently stochastic nature of hydroclimatic variability and nonlinearity of ecosystem responses, in order to advance our understanding of topics from the efficacy of green roof cooling to the impacts of climate change. 

Research Interest and Expertise

• Modeling the impact of vegetation on water, carbon, and energy fluxes between the land surface and atmosphere
• Urban ecohydrology
• Sustainable agriculture in dryland ecosystems

Courses Taught

• CE 362 / 362L Engineering Hydraulics with Lab
• CE 510 Topics: Ecohydrology

Research Archives

• Google Scholar
• Research Gate