Arthur R Schmidt

Research Interests

• Surface-water hydraulics and hydrology, emphasis on measurement methods; urban stormwater drainage systems, including best management practices, risk-based design, and real-time control; and reliability-analysis applications for in water-resources and environmental engineering.

Research Statement

Dr. Schmidt's research interests are in the study of surface-water hydraulics and hydrology, with particular emphasis in two areas: (1) providing better understanding of the hydraulics and hydrology of urban storm-water management systems and (2) provide improved measurement and quantitative description of streamflow and related parameters, including quantification of the uncertainty in the reported values. 

In the area of urban hydrology and hydraulics, Dr. Schmidt’s research seeks develop improved methods to simulate the complicated hydrologic and hydraulics processes in complex urban environments, to develop methods to quantify the effect of various Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) practices on the hydrology and hydraulic behavior of urban systems, and to develop and apply improved sensors for hydraulic measurements, particularly in complex environments such as urban and agricultural systems.  Dr. Schmidt and his students have developed new numerical models to simulate the hydrologic and hydraulic response of urban drainage systems.  In particular, his team has developed probabilistic urban models for catchments where the data describing the hydrologic properties of the catchment and the hydraulic parameters of the drainage system are too sparse to allow a deterministic model.  He and his students have developed a system of models that allow different levels of sophistication depending on the objectives of a given study and applied these to a study of the drainage system for the 970 km² watershed served by the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan in Chicago.  This system allowed fast simulations coupled with a genetic-algorithm optimization to examine real-time control rules for stormwater gates and pumps, yet also could provide simulation of hydraulic transients in the tunnel system.  This system continues to be expanded, with on-going research to incorporate sophisticated small-scale simulations of the hydrologic response of SUDS practices (green roofs, rain gardens, etc) into both probabilistic and deterministic catchment models and apply these to examine the impacts of SUDS at the catchment scale and under potentially changing climate scenarios.

In the area of developing methods to provide improved measurement and quantitative description of streamflow and related parameters, Dr. Schmidt is working to study new methods to apply multi-platform sensor systems (e.g., LiDAR, GPS, ADCP, water-quality sensors) to measure entire reaches of streams, to merge the data from the different sensors, and then to use the resulting data base to improve the analysis and understanding of entire reaches of streams.  Dr. Schmidt has applied these tools to provide fine resolution maps of shear stress, habitat suitability, and hydrokinetic power potential and is currently developing tools to apply these tools to provide better calibration and validation of 2-D and 3-D hydrodynamic models.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

In the past three year Dr. Schmidt has supervised eight undergraduate students doing REU research on topics including examining data from monitoring rainfall on and runoff from conventional and green roofs,modeling sustainable urban drainage systems, examining uncertainty in different measurement methods utilizing acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), and developing probabilistic methods to optimally schedule sewer maintenance.

Primary Research Area

• Water Resources Engineering and Science

Research Areas

• Water Resources Engineering and Science

Selected Articles in Journals

• Zimmer, A., Schmidt, A.R., Ostfeld A., and Minsker B. (2013). " A New Method for the Offline Solution of Pressurized and Supercritical Flows", Jour. Hydraulic Engr., doi:10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0000747
• Seo Y, Schmidt A.R., and Kang B. (2013). “Multifractal Properties of the Flow Distribution in Stochastic Networks.” Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, doi: 10.1007/s00477-013-0811-1
• Seo, Y., Choi, N.-J., and Schmidt, A.R., (2013), “Contribution of Directly Connected and Isolated Impervious Areas to Urban Drainage Network Hydrographs,” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 10, 5605-5641, doi:10.5194/hessd-10-5605-2013, 2013.
• Seo Y. and Schmidt A.R. (2013). “Evaluation of the drainage networks under moving storms utilizing equivalent stationary storms.” Natural Hazards, DOI: 10.1007/s11069-013-0845-1
• Seo, Y. and Schmidt, A.R., (2013). “Network Configuration and Hydrograph Sensitivity to Storm Kinematics,” Water Resources Research, 49, doi:10.1002/wrcr.20115.
• Seo, Y., Schmidt, A.R., and Sivapalan, M., (2012). “Effect of Storm Movement on Flood Peaks: Analysis Framework Based on Characteristic Timescales.” Water Resources Research , Vol. 48, W05532, 12 p.
• Seo, Y. and Schmidt, A.R., (2012). “Application of Gibbs' Model to Urban Drainage Networks: A Case Study in Southwestern Chicago, USA,” Hydrologic Processes, Vol. 27, Issue 3, DOI: 10.1002/hyp.9657
• Seo, Y. and Schmidt, A.R. (2011) "The effect of rainstorm movement on urban drainage network runoff hydrographs," Hydrologic Processes, Accepted Article, doi: 10.1002/hyp.8412
• Yu, X., Schmidt, A.R., and Schmidt, S.J. 2009. Uncertainty analysis of hygrometer-obtained water activity measurements of saturated salt solutions and foods. Food Chemistry.115(1):214-226, DOI :10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.12.001
• Yu, X., Schmidt, AR, Bello-Perez, L.A. and Schmidt, S.J. 2008. Determination of the bulk moisture diffusion coefficient for cornstarch using an automated water sorption instrument. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 56(1):50-58.

Articles in Conference Proceedings

• Tang, Y. and Schmidt, A.R., (2013). “Probabilistic Hydrologic Model to Simulate Response of Urban Drainage System to Implementation of Low Impact Development Stormwater Practices,” EWRI World Environmental Congress, May 19-23, 2013, Cincinnati, OH
• Choi, N.J., and Schmidt, A.R., (2013). “Elemental Unit Hydrograph Approach to Estimate Infiltration and Inflow in Urban Area,” EWRI World Environmental Congress, May 19-23, 2013, Cincinnati, OH
• Choi, N.J., and Schmidt, A.R., (2012). “Infiltration and Inflow in a Sanitary Sewer System,” Korean Student Technical & Leadership Conference, March 16-18, 2012, Chicago, IL
• Zimmer, A., Minsker, B., Schmidt, A.R., and Ostfeld, A. (2011). “Computationally Implicit Hydraulics for Real-Time Combined Sewer Overflow Modeling and Decision Support,” Crossing Boundaries, Proceedings of the 2012 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, May 20-24, 2012, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Zimmer, A., Minsker, B., Schmidt, A.R., and Ostfeld, A. (2011). "Hydraulic Modeling and Evolutionary Optimization for Enhanced Real-Time Decision Support of Combined Sewer overflows," AGU Fall Meeting 2011, 5-9 December 2011, San Francisco, CA, USA
• Schmidt, A.R., Huhta, C., and Sloat, J. (2011). "Velocity Distribution and Flow modeling in Small Irrigation Canals," The Struggle for Efficiency — Actions and Consequences, Proc. United States Council on Irrigation and Drainage Conference, San Diego, California — November 15-18, 2011
• Cantone, J.P, Fitzpatrick, K., and Schmidt, A.R., (2011) "An Innovative hydrologic and Hydraulic Modeling Approach for MWRDGC's Calumet TARP System," WEFTEC 2011, Water Environment Federation, October 17-19, 2011, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Zimmer, A., Minsker, B., Schmidt, A.R., and Ostfeld, A. (2011). “Benefits of Meta‐Model Validation for Real‐Time Sewer System Decision Support,” Bearing Knowledge for Sustainability, Proceedings of the 2011 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, May 22-26, 2011, Palm Springs, CA
• Schmidt, A.R., Huhta, C., and Sloat, J. (2011). “Flow modeling and velocity distribution in small irrigation canals,” Proc., XXXIV IAHR Congress, Brisbane, Australia
• Cantone, J.P., Hollander, M., and Schmidt, A.R., (2011). "Probabilistic Hydrologic Simulation of Urbanized Catchments with Sparse Data,"Proc., XXXIV IAHR Congress, Brisbane, Australia

Other Publications

• Polonichko, V., Cabrera, R., Sloat, J., Hull, M.J., and Schmidt, A.R., , “METHOD FOR MEASURING RIVER DISCHARGE IN THE PRESENCE OF MOVING BOTTOM,” (Docket No. 650271-00166)

Teaching Honors

• Incomplete list of teachers ranked as excellent by their students (2020)
• Incomplete list of teachers ranked as excellent by their students (2012)
• Incomplete list of teachers ranked as excellent by their students (2012)

Research Honors

• Dr. Schmidt’s thesis was selected for the Universities Council on Water Resources Ph.D. Dissertation Award in Natural Science and Engineering. (2003)

Public Service Honors

• Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising (2013)
• Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising (2011)
• Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising (2009)
• Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising (2005)