William Fleenor

Profile image for William Fleenor

Emeritus Senior Researcher

  • Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professional Research Engineer, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Bill Fleenor supervises the Environmental Dynamics Laboratory in Civil Engineering.

His principal research interest is quantifying interactions between fluid transport and mixing processes to better understand water quality in natural and engineered systems through field experimentation, tracer studies, detailed laboratory studies, and numerical modeling.

His work with the Watershed Center has included hydraulic modeling of North Delta flood flows, investigation of the hydrologic constraints on restoration of the McCormack-Williamson Tract, advising on installation of a remote sensing network on the Cosumnes floodplain and supervision of data collection and analysis for the study of depleted oxygen and fluvial dynamics in the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel.

Research Interests & Expertise
  • Engineering
  • Fluids

William Fleenor's Recent Projects

FABRI

The Middle East and North Africa have longstanding water supply and sanitation challenges. In 2011, US Agency for International Development (USAID) partnered with Development Alternatives Inc. to end the global freshwater crisis by implementing the Furthering the Blue Revolution Initiative (FABRI). This program helps create Middle East and North Africa Network of Water Centers of Excellence (MENA NWC). Designed and launched by USAID through FABRI, DAI has partnered with the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences International Programs office to provide critical guidance on water resource and wastewater management in the formation of MENA NWC. The Center for Watershed Sciences is spearheading UC Davis participation in FABRI.

Dulcepamba Project

A coalition of Dulcepamba residents and their supporters contacted researchers from the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) at the University of California, Davis and asked them to complete a forensic analysis of the March 2015 flood and model the hydrology of the watershed. The UC Davis researchers developed (1) a hydrologic model of Dulcepamba basin; and (2) a hydraulic model to assess hydraulic and geomorphic processes associated with the March 2015 flood.

Water Quality and Hydrodynamics

Sea level rise, large-scale flooding, and new conveyance arrangements for water exports may increase future water salinity for local agricultural production in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Increasing salinity in crop root zones often decreases crop yields and crop revenues. Salinity effects are nonlinear and vary with crop choice and other factors including drainage and residence time of irrigation water. Here, we explore changes in agricultural production in the Delta under various combinations of water management, large-scale flooding and future sea level rise.

Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has listed the San Joaquin River Deep Water Ship Channel (DWSC), located near Stockton, California, as "impaired" under the Clean Water Act.

Historical Delta Elevation Model

We developed novel methods to interpolate between sparse historical soundings, infer depths of non-navigable channels from channel width, and convert historical tidal datums to modern fixed datums. The resulting 2-meter resolution digital elevation model covers Delta historical channels, tidal wetlands, adjacent non-tidal freshwater wetlands and upland transitional areas below 25 feet in elevation.