Dr. Philip B. Bedient is the Herman Brown Professor of Engineering in the Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University. He teaches and performs research in surface and ground water hydrology and flood prediction systems.  He served as Chair of Environmental Engineering from 1992 to 1999.  He has directed over 50 research projects since 1975, has written over 180 articles in journals and conference proceedings. He is lead author on a major hydrology text titled “Hydrology and Floodplain Analysis” (Prentice Hall, 4th ed., 2008) used in over 75 universities across the U.S.

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He also has a second text on “Groundwater Contamination” (Prentice Hall, 2nd ed., 1999). Dr. Bedient received the Shell Distinguished Chair in Environmental Science (1988 to 1993), and recently received the Herman Brown endowed Chair of Engineering at Rice University. He was elected to Fellow ASCE in 2006.

He has worked on surface water problems including major floodplain studies, water quality assessments, and hydrologic modeling for a number of watersheds in Texas, , Florida, California, and Louisiana.  He has been actively involved in the area of hydrologic analysis for flood prediction and warning, and developed a real-time flood alert system for the Texas Medical Center. The FAS2 system is currently delivered real-time on a web site that has been tested on major flood events in Houston, including T.S. Allison in 2001, operational since 1998.

Dr. Bedient is currently director of the SSPEED Center, which will organize leading universities, researchers, emergency managers, and associated technologies to address severe storm impacts in the Gulf Coast area. The impact zone stretches from Texas to Louisiana and includes major cities such as New Orleans, Houston, and Brownsville. The Center will address (1) severe storm and hurricane research and storm surge prediction, (2) radar-based rainfall and flood warning systems for urban and coastal areas, (3) educational programs for both secondary schools and the public, (4) infrastructure risks, and (5) evacuation plans linked to the best warning systems, transportation networks, and societal needs. SSPEED was approved by the Texas Legislature in May, 2007.

Dr. Bedient is organizing the Houston testbed for the Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center led by Univ of Massachusetts, Amherst, with Rice University as a flood testbed in Houston. CASA focuses on revolutionary sensing technology that will enable earlier and more accurate forecasts of weather emergencies and other atmospheric phenomena. The first high technology radar will be deployed this year in the TMC in Houston as part of the on-going flood warning system developed for the Texas Medical Center.

Dr. Bedient has overseen the monitoring, modeling, and remediation of more than 25 hazardous waste sites nationwide, including six Superfund sites, and military bases in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Texas, and Utah.  He has extensive experience in groundwater contaminated with fuels and chlorinated solvents, where he has developed contaminant transport models and remediation schemes for hydraulic control.

Dr. Bedient has been involved in the technology transfer area for more than two decades through the teaching of short courses for government, university, and private sectors. He has recently organized conferences on Severe Storm flooding and recovery projects every year since 2001 on the Rice University campus. An expanded SSPEED conference will be held at Rice University in October, 2008. He is currently involved in engineering training programs for Libyan Engineers with AECOM (2008 – 2010) and customized evacuation disaster training through the SSPEED Center.

 
 
Phone: 713-348-4953    Email: bedient@rice.edu © Copyright 2008 - present