Flood Forecasting: A Global Perspective

Dr Thomas Adamas has 35+ years of experience in hydrology, including twenty years of real-time operational hydrologic forecasting experience at the NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS), Ohio River Forecast Center (OHRFC), including model parameter estimation, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, and model calibration. 

Previously Dr. Adams was a Research Hydrologist at the NOAA/NWS Office of Hydrology/Hydrology Laboratory and a Visiting Scientist with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) at the NOAA/NWS National Water Center. His experience includes the development and implementation of the Ohio River Community HEC-RAS Model, operational probabilistic/ensemble hydrologic forecasting, precipitation estimation and analysis, land surface/atmosphere interaction, and impact of global climate change on water resources. 

He is involved in on-going international hydrometeorological consulting and is a member of the American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Soil Science Society of America.

The unifying theme of Dr. Thomas Pagano's career has been using operational river forecasts to bring the benefits of science to the public. He studied Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA and obtained his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Soroosh Sorooshian in 2004. He then worked as an operational river forecaster with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service National Water and Climate Center in Portland, Oregon, forecasting the Colorado River, Rio Grande, Arkansas River and for Alaska. In 2008 he joined the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation to lead a research program in flood forecasting. He has been the leader of the national flood modelling group within the Hazards Warnings and Forecasts division of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology since 2013.