Hydrosphere Staff
Charles M. Brendecke
President, Principal Engineer
Dr. Brendecke has more than 35 years' experience in hydrology, water resources engineering and water resources planning and management. He has directed several large-scale river basin water management studies that have required detailed inventories of basin hydrology and water demands, development of planning models to test system operations, and investigations of impacts to endangered species and instream flows.
His work as the project manager and lead expert in a variety of water rights proceedings has included historical consumptive use analysis, evaluation of surface/groundwater interactions, stream depletion analysis, development of protective terms and conditions and settlement negotiations. Dr. Brendecke has recently served as a testifying expert in Nebraska v. Wyoming, and Kansas v. Colorado, both before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As a consultant, he has performed hydrologic and hydraulic analyses related to urban drainage improvements and has performed flood damage calculations associated with those improvements.
As a researcher, he has supervised investigations of rainfall and snow melt frequency in alpine watersheds, comparative applications of rainfall/runoff models, and hydraulic evaluations of stream habitat enhancement measures.
Dr. Brendecke has provided analyses for clients throughout the western U.S., including Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho.
Prior to joining Hydrosphere, he served for several years on the faculty of the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Colorado where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in hydrology, hydraulics, statistics and systems analysis. Dr. Brendecke was the project manager and principal author of Achieving Efficient Water Management, A Guidebook for Preparing Agricultural Water Conservation Plans, for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. His research has been published in numerous conference proceedings and in the refereed journals: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of the Water Resources Planning and Management Division (ASCE), Journal of Hydrology, Groundwater, and Water Resources Bulletin.
Dr. Brendecke is a registered Professional Engineer in Colorado, Wyoming and Oklahoma and holds a PhD and an MS in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and a BS Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado.