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Engineering and Technology
USA
2026
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Environmental Sciences
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Engineering and Technology

D-Index
127
Citations
58300
World Ranking
36
National Ranking
16

Environmental Sciences

D-Index
159
Citations
103651
World Ranking
18
National Ranking
10

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Engineering and Technology in United States Leader Award
  • 2026 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Engineering and Technology in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United States Leader Award
  • 2010 - Member of the National Academy of Engineering For contributions to hydrologic modeling for stream water quality and hydro-climate trends and models for improved water management.
  • 2007 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 1995 - Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Overview

Dennis P. Lettenmaier is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles in the United States. Their research focuses primarily on environmental science and earth and planetary sciences, with particular attention to global and planetary change, atmospheric science, water science and technology, plant science, and environmental engineering.

Their work addresses a variety of topics, including hydrology and watershed management studies, climate variability and models, cryospheric studies and observations, flood risk assessment and management, hydrology and drought analysis, meteorological phenomena and simulations, and precipitation measurement and analysis.

Some of the recent papers authored or co-authored by Dennis P. Lettenmaier include:

  • "Growing impact of wildfire on western US water supply" (2022), published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • "Satellite-based remote sensing data set of global surface water storage change from 1992 to 2018" (2020), published in Earth System Science Data
  • "Incorporating non-stationarity from climate change into rainfall frequency and intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves" (2022), published in Journal of Hydrology
  • "Effects of precipitation, heat, and drought on incidence and expansion of coccidioidomycosis in western USA: a longitudinal surveillance study" (2022), published in The Lancet Planetary Health
  • "Can Managed Aquifer Recharge Mitigate the Groundwater Overdraft in California's Central Valley?" (2020), published in Water Resources Research

Frequent co-authors collaborating with Lettenmaier include Dongyue Li, Zhaoxin Ban, Lu Su, Justin V. Remais, and Mekonnen Gebremichael.

Their publications appear regularly in notable scientific venues, such as:

  • Journal of Hydrometeorology
  • Water Resources Research
  • Geophysical Research Letters
  • Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Dennis P. Lettenmaier has received several distinctions, including being named a Member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2010 for contributions to hydrologic modeling related to stream water quality and hydro-climate trends. They are also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), recognized since 2007, and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) since 1995.

Best Publications

  • Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions

    T. P. Barnett;J. C. Adam;D. P. Lettenmaier

  • Stationarity Is Dead: Whither Water Management?

    P. C. D. Milly;Julio Betancourt;Malin Falkenmark;Robert M. Hirsch

  • A simple hydrologically based model of land surface water and energy fluxes for general circulation models

    Xu Liang;Dennis P. Lettenmaier;Eric F. Wood;Stephen J. Burges

  • Hydrologic Implications of Dynamical and Statistical Approaches to Downscaling Climate Model Outputs

    A. W. Wood;L. R. Leung;V. Sridhar;D. P. Lettenmaier

  • DECLINING MOUNTAIN SNOWPACK IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA

    Philip W. Mote;Alan F. Hamlet;Martyn P. Clark;Dennis P. Lettenmaier

  • A distributed hydrology-vegetation model for complex terrain

    Mark S. Wigmosta;Lance W. Vail;Dennis P. Lettenmaier

  • A Long-Term Hydrologically Based Dataset of Land Surface Fluxes and States for the Conterminous United States*

    E. P. Maurer;A. W. Wood;J. C. Adam;D. P. Lettenmaier

  • The multi-institution North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS): Utilizing multiple GCIP products and partners in a continental distributed hydrological modeling system

    Kenneth E. Mitchell;Dag Lohmann;Paul R. Houser;Eric F. Wood

  • Continental-scale water and energy flux analysis and validation for the North American Land Data Assimilation System project phase 2 (NLDAS-2): 1. Intercomparison and application of model products

    Youlong Xia;Kenneth Mitchell;Michael Ek;Justin Sheffield

  • The Effects of Climate Change on the Hydrology and Water Resources of the Colorado River Basin

    Niklas S. Christensen;Andrew W. Wood;Nathalie Voisin;Dennis P. Lettenmaier

  • Long‐range experimental hydrologic forecasting for the eastern United States

    Andrew W. Wood;Edwin P. Maurer;Arun Kumar;Dennis P. Lettenmaier

  • Surface soil moisture parameterization of the VIC-2L model: Evaluation and modification

    Xu Liang;Eric F. Wood;Dennis P. Lettenmaier

  • Measuring surface water from space

    Douglas E. Alsdorf;Ernesto Rodríguez;Dennis P. Lettenmaier

  • Recent Third Pole’s Rapid Warming Accompanies Cryospheric Melt and Water Cycle Intensification and Interactions between Monsoon and Environment: Multidisciplinary Approach with Observations, Modeling, and Analysis

    Tandong Yao;Yongkang Xue;Deliang Chen;Fahu Chen

  • Global river discharge and water temperature under climate change

    M.T.H. van Vliet;W.H.P. Franssen;J.R. Yearsley;F. Ludwig

  • Toward a unified view of the American monsoon systems

    Carolina Vera;W. Higgins;J. Amador;T. Ambrizzi

  • Observed Impacts of Anthropogenic Climate Change on Wildfire in California

    A. Park Williams;John T. Abatzoglou;Alexander Gershunov;Janin Guzman‐Morales

  • Hydro-Climatological Trends in the Continental United States, 1948-88

    Dennis P. Lettenmaier;Eric F. Wood;James R. Wallis

  • Hyperresolution global land surface modeling: Meeting a grand challenge for monitoring Earth's terrestrial water

    Eric F. Wood;Joshua K. Roundy;Tara J. Troy;L. P. H. van Beek

  • A land-surface hydrology parameterization with subgrid variability for general circulation models

    Eric F. Wood;Dennis P. Lettenmaier;Valerie G. Zartarian

  • Cabauw Experimental Results from the Project for Intercomparison of Land-Surface Parameterization Schemes

    T.H. Chen;A. Henderson-Sellers;P.C.D. Milly;A.J. Pitman

Frequent Co-Authors

Eric F. Wood
Eric F. Wood Princeton University
Bart Nijssen
Bart Nijssen University of Washington
Andrew W. Wood
Andrew W. Wood National Center for Atmospheric Research
Alan F. Hamlet
Alan F. Hamlet University of Notre Dame
Justin Sheffield
Justin Sheffield University of Southampton
Edwin P. Maurer
Edwin P. Maurer Santa Clara University
Laura C. Bowling
Laura C. Bowling Purdue University West Lafayette
Ben Livneh
Ben Livneh University of Colorado Boulder
Qiuhong Tang
Qiuhong Tang Chinese Academy of Sciences
Douglas Alsdorf
Douglas Alsdorf The Ohio State University

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