Agency Honors El Reno Scientist for Software
to Solve Environmental Problems By
Hank Becker
February 7, 2001
EL RENO, Okla., Feb. 7—The
Agricultural Research Service honors
hydraulic engineer Jurgen D. Garbrecht of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Grazinglands Research Laboratory here
for developing and transferring computer software that applies digital
landscape technology to solve environmental problems internationally.
Garbrecht will receive a silver plaque for his success in moving
his invention through its testing stages into the marketplace. His work is part
of an international research effort to apply digital landscape technology to
solve drainage- and runoff- related problems using innovative, user-friendly
and easily transferred software.
ARS Administrator Floyd P. Horn will present awards to Garbrecht
and other ARS scientists at a Feb. 7 ceremony at the agency's
Henry A. Wallace Beltsville (Md.)
Agricultural Research Center. ARS is the USDA’s chief scientific
research agency.
“Garbrecht and Lawrence Martz from Canada's University of
Saskatchewan developed the software called TOPAZ that helps give farmers,
engineers, scientists and others a true lay of the land,” said Horn.
TOPAZ—short for topographic parameterization—is a
computer-based evaluation tool that defines and analyzes land surface
characteristics, watershed configurations and drainage features. It has a range
of analysis options and unique features that set it apart from commercial
geographic information system (GIS) software.
TOPAZ has already gone global. Researchers, engineers and
educators in Europe, the Middle East and North America are using it. ARS and
USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service are using the software to
generate drainage path information needed for their water quality models.
Canadian researchers are using it in their Global Energy and Water Cycle
Experiment, a study of the Mackenzie River Basin—the second-biggest river
basin in North America—to better understand the role of cold regions in
the global climate system.
Scientists from the International Water Management Institute are
using TOPAZ for a modeling study of water-short basins in Turkey. And a number
of university staffs are also using it as a teaching tool.
TOPAZ doesn't produce graphic pictures on the computer monitor,
but it creates data files from which pictures can be generated by a commercial
GIS package. This is an advantage, because it allows the user to select
preferred or existing display software without being forced to buy another
package. TOPAZ provides the data in a basic format that is readable by most GIS
systems, allowing for more flexibility.
New capabilities are being developed and incorporated into the
software to further broaden its application horizon. At this time, the
scientists are working with the ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in
Tucson, Arizona, to add new features to TOPAZ for use by KINEROS, another ARS
model that computes improved runoff and erosion predictions. Copies of TOPAZ
are available on request from Garbrecht.
Having worked for ARS for 15 years, Garbrecht received an
outstanding performance award in 1995 for innovative research and, in 1999, a
certificate of merit for developing a research program for application of
climate forecasts.
He received his Dipl. Ing. from the Federal Institute of
Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, and his M.S. in hydraulics and Ph.D. in
hydrology and water resources from Colorado State University-Fort Collins.
Garbrecht is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers
and the American Geophysical Union. He lives in Yukon, Oklahoma.
Scientific contact: Jurgen D. Garbrecht, ARS
Grazinglands Research Laboratory, 7207
W. Cheyenne St., El Reno, OK 73036; phone (405) 262-5291, fax (405) 262-0133,
garbrech@grl.ars.usda.gov.
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