Director of Information Services
Research Scientist
Information Services Group
Contact
cdow@stroudcenter.org
tel. 610-268-2153, ext. 1259
970 Spencer Road, Avondale, PA 19311
Interests and Expertise
Charles Dow’s research interests primarily involve land use/land cover impacts and their effects on water quality and quantity. Despite the large volume of research devoted to relating watershed conditions to stream water quality, many uncertainties remain. One such challenge is in separating geophysical controls (i.e., geology, soils) from human-driven land use/cover influences in terms of explaining stream chemistry. Likewise, incorporating issues of scale (whole watershed versus riparian area versus reach) and proximity of land use/cover to a stream into a statistical framework for explaining stream chemical and biological patterns is also an important area of ongoing research. Further work is also needed in integrating different means of assessing in-stream water quality to provide a more holistic view of stream ecosystem health. The ongoing challenge is to take different water quality assessment methods and incorporate them into a single picture of stream health, highlighting each measure’s unique aspects and the overlapping aspects between measures, leading to multiple lines of evidence for defining water quality conditions.
Education
- Ph.D., forest resources, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
- M.S., environmental pollution control, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
- B.S., chemistry, DeSales University, Center Valley, Pennsylvania.
Professional Experience
- Director of information services, research scientist, Stroud Water Research Center, 2002–present.
- Project coordinator, project manager, research scientist, Stroud Water Research Center, 2000–2006.
- Research scientist, New Jersey Pinelands Commission, New Lisbon, New Jersey, 1996–2000.
- Graduate research assistant, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1991–1996.
- Graduate teaching assistant, The Pennsylvania State University, School of Forest Resources, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1996.
- Laboratory technician, Agricultural Products Department, Stine-Haskell Research Center, DuPont Company, Newark, Delaware, 1988–1990.
Publications
To achieve the Clean Water Act’s goals, prioritize upstream ecology
Return on environment: the economic value of protected open space in Chester County, Pennsylvania
