About Us

HydroBioARS began as Resource Management Consulting in the late 1980's. Our clientele has included local, state and federal government organizations, however, any group with a goal to understand and manage large-scale ecology and hydrology will find our services valuable.

HydroBioARS specializes in the mapping and quantification of hydrologic budget components: water bodies, wet playa surfaces, marshlands, riparian zones and irrigated lands. As part of such analyses, we routinely identify crop and vegetation types and density, as well as estimates of annual and seasonal evapotranspiration. We also have pioneered techniques to accurately monitor and track these features through time using archived and scheduled satellite data.

Our analysis stream is interwoven from GIS and remote sensing software, and can deliver spreadsheets for extraction and calculation of statistics. We maintain and upgrade libraries of purpose-written software that allows us to tailor our analyses rapidly to the problem and then readily transmit our results readily in the formats specified by the client. Our analysis products and interpretations are often used for natural systems modeling. We are versed in the techniques necessary to visualize, develop and convey data and mathematical relationships in any format.

• Tailor existing modeling techniques to natural resources management.
• Develop new applications of remote sensing and spatial analysis for natural resources management.
• Integrate ground-based and remotely sensed measurements into calibrated, multi-layered GIS databases.
• Provide support for hydrologic and biologic modeling.
• Provide support for litigation concerning natural resources.

Through collaboration, anything is possible. HydroBioARS has assembled a strong team of professionals with a wide range of complimentary skills. We also maintain an extensive network of talented contractors who provide project specific support ranging from instrument design and development to software programming.

The HydroBioARS team maintains a commitment to develop and document new, and accurate processes for our analyses and we actively seek complex and challenging projects.

As President of HydroBioARS, David directs and oversees the projects. His 30-plus-year career has focused on the ecology, hydrology and management of rangeland, riparian and shallow groundwater habitats for clients that included private, federal, local and state agencies across the American Southwest. He is a published author in peer-reviewed and non-juried venues.

Dr. Watson holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.S. degree from Iowa State University. He has over 20 years of experience in remote sensing and GIS applications in natural and cultural resource management and has conducted research on arid land adaptations in Peru, the American Southwest, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Dave has over 16 years of experience in mapping, GIS databases, and environmental modeling. The emphasis of this work has been collecting and utilizing spatial data on a variety of projects in order to assess environmental conditions from water infiltration, evapotranspiration, potential fire behavior, and habitat suitability. Since 2005, Dave has integrated HydroBioARS’s innovative techniques into environmental modeling databases, allowing timely assessment of satellite data to solve current environmental problems.

Theresa Watson has an M.S. in Geography and a B.S. in Archaeology, both from the University of New Mexico. Her experience in Remote Sensing involves work at the Earth Data Analysis Center (EDAC), and the Center for Rapid Environmental Assessment & Terrain Evaluation (CREATE), a direct broadcast remote sensing satellite receiving station funded through NASA. She has worked on GIS projects for the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at UNM. Remote sensing research includes a comparative assessment of LiDAR and Digital Photogrammetry for the detection of airfield obstructions, work on a NSF-funded project to model climate change effects on the Upper Rio Grande, and experiments using ground–based Photogrammetry and GIS for archaeological analysis and preservation.

Joanna Herring has recently graduated with an M.S. in Geography from the University of New Mexico and a B.S. in Geographic Science from James Madison University. Prior to working for HydroBioARS, Joanna was a Graduate Assistant for the Geography Department at the University of New Mexico, where she taught the lab sections for Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Survey of Geographic Information Science.

Remote Sensing research includes work in her thesis, A Long Time Series Analysis Using AVHRR-Derived NDVI as an Indicator of the Effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on the Sonoran Desert, 1995 to 2000, where the study integrated remotely sensed Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and imagery with vegetation dynamics from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of the Sonoran Desert in Southern Arizona

Jeff brings technical expertise in Internet technology and information systems to HydroBioARS. Jeff also serves as a data technician, providing processing and analysis support as well as the production of GIS products.

Before HydroBioARS, Jeff worked for the Los Alamos National Laboratories providing data processing of NASA space mission telemetry. NASA missions included Genesis, ACE, Mars Odyssey, FORTE, Ulysses and Lunar Prospector. Jeff also provided Unix administration, programming and graphic design support to these programs.

• All HydroBioARS Publications