Research & Outreach Overview:

Our research group focuses on developing and disseminating scientific knowledge, practical recommendations, and tools for sustainable urban and agricultural water resources management. Our approaches include field research trials, laboratory analyses, and computer modeling, with the goal of identifying opportunities for synergy between research and outreach activities. Our current research themes include water conservation, autonomous landscape irrigation management, soil hydrology, and precision farming. We also work on applications of advanced data acquisition and mining techniques, including remote sensing, GIS and machine learning. 

On-going Projects:

 Water Reuse for Sustainable Agriculture: Erase PFAS and Organic Contaminants from Water-Food Nexus (2025-2027)
PI: Haizhou Liu | Co-PIs: Amir Verdi, Patricia Holden, Thomas Young
This project aims to improve agriculture sustainability and agro-urban ecosystem health by developing innovative recycled water treatment technologies and management strategies for recycled wastewater irrigation in agriculture, and evaluating downstream contaminant removal from food production and water-soil-food ecosystem using edible crop irrigation research trials. 

Evaluating wood fiber and green waste as a partial alternative to peat in horticultural substrate for nursery and greenhouse production (2025-2026)
PI: Gerardo Spinelli  | Co-PIs: Amir Verdi
This project will test plant physiological response to three growing media under greenhouse conditions in SCREC, Irvine, CA. 

AGLINK: Enhancing Drone-Based Remote Sensing for Digital Agriculture (2025-2026)
PI:  Zhaowei Tan| Co-PIs: Amir Verdi
This project aims to develop AGLINK, an end-to-end system that supports remote sensing with drones and supports its communication with in situ sensors. The system will incorporate cutting-edge long-range sensor communication, customized mobile IoT gateways, and a robust cloud analysis platform.

Previous Projects:

Establishing real-world water use and irrigation cooling benefits baselines for 18 landscape species in inland southern California (2023-2024)
PI:  Amir Verdi

Developing evapotranspiration based irrigation and water conservation recommendations for multiple groundcover species in inland southern California  (2021-2024) 
PI : Amir Haghverdi | co-PI: Don Merhaut

Development of a Novel Photochemical Water Reuse Technology for Urban Agriculture Irrigation and Food Production  (2022-2023) 
PI: Haizhou Liu | Co-PI: Amir Haghverdi

Improving Water Quantity and Quality: Develop Novel and Sustainable Treatment of Recycled Wastewater for Irrigation (2020-2023) 
PI: Haizhou Liu | Co-PI: Amir Haghverdi

Enhancing Irrigation Management in Southern California Desert Agriculture to Increase Water Use Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability (2019-2023)
PI: Amir Haghverdi |Co-PI: Aliasghar Montazar

Combined field irrigation trials and economic analysis to investigate water conservation determinants, water saving potential, and the return on investment of multiple water management technologies and strategies (2020-2022) 
PIs : Amir Haghverdi and Mehdi Nemati

Determining the Effect of Pricing Structure on Urban Water Demand: A Long-Term Analysis of Major Water Utilities in California (2019-2020)
PI: Mehdi Nemati | Co-PIs & Collaborators: Amir Haghverdi, Etaferahu Takele, Janet Hartin

Using Smart Irrigation Technologies to Optimize Recycled Water Application for Turfgrass Irrigation to Conserve Water, Maintain Turf Quality, and Sustain Soil Health (2018-2020)
PI: Amir Haghverdi | Co-PIs & Collaborators: Darren Haver, Laosheng Wu
​(support provided by NWRI and SCSC will be graduate student fellowship to PhD student Amninder Singh)

Advancing urban irrigation management to enhance water use efficiency, drought mitigation, and environmental protection (2018-2021)
 PI: Amir Haghverdi | Co-PIs & Collaborators: Darren Haver, Laosheng Wu, Maggie Reiter, Janet Hartin, Alireza Pourreza

Using Smart Irrigation Technologies to Advance Urban Landscape Irrigation in Inland Southern California (2018-2019)
PI: Amir Haghverdi | Co-PIs & Collaborators: Donald Merhaut, Janet Hartin, Laurent Ahiablame

Optical and thermal remote sensing of turfgrass response to different deficit irrigation strategies in central and southern CA (2017-2019)
PI: Amir Haghverdi | Co-PIs & Collaborators: Maggie Reiter, Alireza Pourreza, Janet Hartin

Enhancing site-specific turf irrigation management and developing turf deficit irrigation strategies using soil moisture sensors, smart ET-based irrigation controllers, and remote sensing (2018-2020)
PI: Amir Haghverdi | Co-PIs & Collaborators: Laosheng Wu, Janet Hartin

Accounting for salinity leaching in the application of recycled water for landscape irrigation (2017-2018)
PI: Amir Haghverdi | Co-PIs & Collaborators: Laosheng Wu