Water Allocation Programming Internship (Paid)

Water Allocation Programming Internship (Paid) @ Stockholm Environment Institute, California, USA

The Davis office of the SEI-US Water Program develops and applies analytical tools to support robust decision making on water, most notably using our Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software. Through applied projects and working with scientists and decision-makers – both locally and internationally – we develop cutting-edge studies that inform integrated water resource management, multi-scale adaptation, and/or social-ecological resilience to climate change and development challenges.

We are seeking an applicant to work in the non-profit sector within a small, informal, and highly professional team using technical knowledge from the physical and biological sciences in socio-economic and institutional analysis to promote a sustainable future. We are seeking a highly motivated student that is interested in gaining practical experience on water resources management. You will join our team to support specific technical work that contributes to projects that promote a sustainable future and support water planning. The principal task you will be working on will be to debug and improve a VBS script that models vertical water temperature profiles in reservoirs.

Desired qualifications include:

  • Strong programming experience in R, VBA, or MatLab
  • Possess or currently pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in hydrology, water resource management, water resource engineering or related field
  • Capacity to develop literature reviews on scientific literature for different purposes
  • A good understanding of hydrology, hydrologic concepts, land use, and climate change analyses
  • Experience using WEAP or similar model software to build water allocation models, including a good understanding of WEAP’s catchments, calibration, demands, reservoir operations and other main functionalities.
  • Proficiency in GIS tools for data processing
  • Ability to interpret model results and create visual figures to display results, as well as present model results to technical and non-technical audiences
  • Willingness to learn new skills through participation with multidisciplinary teams
  • Fluency in English, proficiency in Spanish or another language is highly desirable
  • Interest in working on water systems in the developing world
  • Strong writing skills to help with model reports
  • Detail oriented

The duration and hours of the internship may be flexible depending on the availability of the applicant. However, a commitment in the range of 3-6 months and 10-20 hours/week is desired. We offer a competitive internship compensation based on qualifications. If interested, please send your CV to debrown@ucdavis.edu before Feb 12.