Belize Lane

Dr. Belize Lane is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Utah State University and a researcher at the Utah Water Research Laboratory. Her work integrates watershed hydrology, river ecology, and human engineering to address environmental water management under climate and land-use stressors, with a focus on post-wildfire impacts, flow regime dynamics, and machine learning applications in river systems.

• PhD, Hydrologic Sciences, University of California at Davis (2017)
• MS, Water Resources Management, University of California at Davis (2015)
• BS, Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, University of California at San Diego (2010)

Dr. Lane's research connects landscape and channel morphology to hydrologic behavior during disturbances like wildfires, floods, and climate change. Her lab develops statistical and process-based tools for environmental flow frameworks, emphasizing stakeholder collaboration in the western U.S. Key themes include functional flow modeling, reach-scale channel classification, and subsurface hydrology in karst systems.

Notable scientific awards include the Reproducible Results Award (ASCE, 2022), Early Career Award for Applied Research (University Council on Water Resources, 2022), and Outstanding Graduate Mentor (Civil & Environmental Engineering, 2021).

She has mentored graduate students including Haley Canham, Megan DiNicola, and Paxton Ridgeway, and teaches courses like Engineering Hydrology and Physical Hydrology. Her lab collaborates on projects such as the California Environmental Flows Framework and Fire-WATER, utilizing field data and web-based tools for watershed-scale modeling.