David Rheinheimer has been with the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences since 2007, when he started his Ph.D. program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

His research interests are at the nexus between water management, climate change, and freshwater conservation.

He has developed engineering methods and tools to assess the effects of infrastructure and climate change on freshwater ecosystems, particularly as they inform national hydropower management policies. Such tools include models for economic optimization and traditional simulation, coupled with hydrologic modeling and environmental flow assessments.

After completing his Ph.D. in 2011, he continued to work for the Center while pursuing his interests in China, the Chinese language, and management of the Three Gorges Reservoir and the Yangtze River.

He currently works at the Center researching ways to incorporate the latest climate change science into hydropower planning and management.