Lake Representation and the Future of Freshwater

Eric Anderson

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder

Tuesday, Sep 22, 2026, 2:00 pm MT
DSRC Room GC402

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Abstract

More than 80% of Earth’s surface freshwater is found in just its 10 largest lakes. Given their influence on weather and climate prediction and their role as climate sentinels, understanding the physical processes governing these systems is critical. Yet, Earth’s largest lakes behave in many ways more like inland seas or the coastal ocean than traditional lakes, occupying a unique space between hydrology and oceanography. Despite their importance to both the hydrosphere and atmosphere, their representation in numerical weather and water prediction varies widely, from 3D and 1D dynamic models to simple storage and routing components, or no representation at all. Their dynamic nature, including diverse thermal, mixing, and ice regimes, makes these lakes particularly challenging to model and to monitor using remote-sensing and in-situ observations. This talk will highlight recent advances in the physical modeling of Earth’s largest lakes, persistent observational and modeling gaps, and how these systems are changing in a changing climate.

Bio

Eric Anderson is the Associate Director for Science at Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2007. From 2007 to 2012, he was an NRC postdoctoral fellow and later a research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) at the University of Michigan. In 2012, he joined the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) as a physical scientist, where he led the development and transition to operations of the Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (GLOFS) and the Lake Erie HAB Tracker. During his tenure at NOAA, Dr. Anderson served as Director of the Center of Excellence for Great Lakes and Human Health and as Acting Branch Chief for Integrated Physical and Ecological Modeling and Forecasting (IPEMF), and was recognized with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). From 2021-2026, he was an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, where he served as the Director of the Hydrologic Science and Engineering Program.