Ph.D. in Hydrology, Stanford University
My research examines the impact of climate variability and change on water resources and human and ecological communities using models, and spatial & statistical analysis. I use a community-based participatory approach to connect science findings to issues of justice in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, and provide thought leadership towards sustainable water and climate systems.
I lead the Water and Climate Justice Lab, am the co-coordinator of the Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative, and the founder of the Northern California Network for Community-Academic Partnerships in Environmental Justice Teaching and Research. My long-standing collaborations with environmental justice organizations in California and Central America have supported efforts to combat groundwater contamination in drinking water, reduce inequities in climate effects and access to green spaces, led to the development of a climate resilience app (NicaAgua) for smallholder farmers, and is investigating the impact of hyperscale AI data centers on water resources. My firm belief in the power of transdisciplinary work has led to collaborations with the Frugal Innovation Hub, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, and the Miller Center for Global Impact at SCU. I frequently published with undergraduate and community partner co-authors. My work has been funded by the EPA, NOAA, NSF, and several foundations.
I serve on the Tuolumne River Trust advisory board, the American Geophysical Union Leadership Advisory Board, and on the planning commission for the Lassalle Institute’s International Transdisciplinary Conference on Environmental Justice.I have also served as department chair, chair of the faculty affairs committee, member of the university planning action council, and as associate editor of JAWRA and Frontiers in Water. I have received a NOAA postdoctoral fellowship, a Clare Boothe Luce faculty fellowship, a FRIAS (Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies) fellowship, and Santa Clara University’s 2025 Award of Sustained Excellence in Research.
Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative
- ENVS 20: The Water Wars of California
- ENVS 23: Earth Systems
- ENVS 101: Capstone
- ENVS 115: L&L GIS in Environmental Science
- ENVS 116: Introduction to GIS
- ENVS 117: Intermediate GIS
- ENVS 160: L&L Water Resources
- ENVS 161: Water Security (Advanced Writing)
Selected Publications (* denotes undergraduate student researchers)
Stewart, I. T., Dialesandro, J., *Lei, S., & *Foster, L. (2025). Toward the human right to water for vulnerable communities: The effectiveness of stakeholder processes to control regional shallow groundwater contamination by nitrates. Water Resources Research, 61(10), e2025WR040896. doi:10.1029/2025WR040896
Maurer, E. P., Stewart, I. T., *Joseph, K., & Hidalgo, H. G. (2022). The Mesoamerican mid-summer drought: The impact of its definition on occurrences and recent changes. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 26(5), 1425–1437. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1425-2022
Stewart, I. T., Maurer, E. P., Stahl, K., & *Joseph, K. (2021). Recent evidence for warmer and drier growing seasons in climate-sensitive regions of Central America from multiple global data sets. International Journal of Climatology, 42(3), 1399–1417. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7310 e-docs.geo-leo.de+1
Stewart, I. T., *Rogers, J., & *Graham, A. (2020). Water security under severe drought and climate change: Disparate impacts of the recent severe drought on environmental flows and water supplies in Central California. Journal of Hydrology X, 7, 100054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydroa.2020.100054
Stewart, I. T., *Engh, M. K., & *Parchem, C. P. (2020). Effect of climate warming and drought on urban stream temperatures in a semiarid, seasonal system. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 56(4), 551–567. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1752-1688.12846
Stewart, I. T., Ficklin, D. L., *Carrillo, C. A., & *McIntosh, R. (2015). 21st-century increases in the likelihood of extreme hydrologic conditions for the mountainous basins of the Southwestern United States. Journal of Hydrology, 529, 340–353. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169415005491
Stewart, I. T., Bacon, C. M., & *Burke, W. D. (2014). The uneven distribution of environmental burdens and benefits in Silicon Valley’s backyard. Applied Geography, 55, 1–12. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622814002264
Ficklin, D. L., Stewart, I. T., & Maurer, E. P. (2013). Effects of climate change on water quality in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. Water Resources Research, 49, 2765–2782. https://doi.org/10.1002/wrcr.20248
Ficklin, D. L., Luo, Y., Stewart, I. T., & Maurer, E. P. (2012). Development and application of a hydroclimatological stream temperature model within SWAT. Water Resources Research, 48, W01511. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011WR011256
*Fritze, H., Stewart, I. T., & Pebesma, E. J. (2011). Shifts in Western North American snowmelt runoff regimes for the recent warm decades. Journal of Hydrometeorology. https://doi.org/10.1175/2011JHM1360.1
Stewart, I. T. (2009). Changes in snowpack and snowmelt runoff for key mountain regions. Hydrological Processes, 23, 78–94. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hyp.7128
Stewart, I. T., Cayan, D. R., & Dettinger, M. D. (2005). Changes toward earlier streamflow timing across western North America. Journal of Climate, 18, 1136–1155. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3321.1
Stewart, I. T., & Loague, K. (2003). Development of type transfer functions for regional-scale non-point-source groundwater vulnerability assessments. Water Resources Research, 39(12), 1359. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2003WR002269