William Capehart

@sdsmt.edu

Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director, SD Mines Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

William Capehart


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https://researchid.co/williamcapehart
22

Scopus Publications

968

Scholar Citations

10

Scholar h-index

11

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • Assessment of Water Quality Impacts of On-Site Wastewater Disposal Systems in a Semiarid Watershed
    Mengistu Geza, Christian Heinrich, Md Sazadul Hasan, Willian Capehart, Venkataramana Gadhamshetty
    Journal of Environmental Engineering United States, 2026
    On-site wastewater disposal systems (OWDS) play a crucial role in managing wastewater in rural and low-density areas, accounting for approximately 21% of the US wastewater infrastructure. They are especially useful where centralized sewer systems are impractical due to low population density and terrain constraints. Concerns persist regarding their potential contribution to nitrate loading in streams. This study assesses nitrate loads from OWDS in the Rapid Creek watershed, which supplies water to Rapid City, South Dakota. Using a calibrated Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, informed by data from three US Geological Survey (USGS) gauging stations, we examined the effects of population growth and OWDS hydraulic failure on nitrate loading. Key hydrological parameters identified through the SWAT Calibration and Uncertainty Program (SWAT-CUP) autocalibration included curve number, soil water holding capacity, soil depth, and surface biomass. Streamflow calibration and validation showed strong performance, with R2 values ranging from 0.73 to 0.85 (calibration) and 0.71 to 0.94 (validation), and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) values ranging from 0.65 to 0.80 (calibration) and 0.68 to 0.89 (validation). Water quality predictions were assessed by comparing model-estimated average nitrate loads with observed data. Scenario analysis revealed that both population growth and hydraulic failure of OWDS increase nitrate pollution, with hydraulic failures causing sharp, temporary spikes until system function is restored. The findings underscore the need to expand long-term water quality monitoring and develop robust modeling frameworks to assess the impacts of OWDS more effectively. High-resolution data and advanced modeling approaches are essential for effective water quality management and planning in watersheds that rely on decentralized wastewater systems.
  • Equitable infrastructure: Achieving resilient systems and restorative justice through policy and research innovation
    Jason P Giovannettone, Gregg P Macey, Amir AghaKouchak, Michele Barbato, William J Capehart, Auroop R Ganguly, Mital Hall, Jennifer F Helgeson, Si Han Li, Teng Wu, Guirong Yan, Farshid Vahedifard
    Pnas Nexus, 2024
    Recent major investments in infrastructure in the United States and globally present a crucial opportunity to embed equity within the heart of resilient infrastructure decision-making. Yet there is a notable absence of frameworks within the engineering and scientific fields for integrating equity into planning, design, and maintenance of infrastructure. Additionally, whole-of-government approaches to infrastructure, including the Justice40 Initiative, mimic elements of process management that support exploitative rather than exploratory innovation. These and other policies risk creating innovation traps that limit analytical and engineering advances necessary to prioritize equity in decision-making, identification and disruption of mechanisms that cause or contribute to inequities, and remediation of historic harms. Here, we propose a three-tiered framework toward equitable and resilient infrastructure through restorative justice, incremental policy innovation, and exploratory research innovation. This framework aims to ensure equitable access and benefits of infrastructure, minimize risk disparities, and embrace restorative justice to repair historical and systemic inequities. We outline incremental policy innovation and exploratory research action items to address and mitigate risk disparities, emphasizing the need for community-engaged research and the development of equity metrics. Among other action items, we recommend a certification system—referred to as Social, Environmental, and Economic Development (SEED)—to train infrastructure engineers and planners and ensure attentiveness to gaps that exist within and dynamically interact across each tier of the proposed framework. Through the framework and proposed actions, we advocate for a transformative vision for equitable infrastructure that emphasizes the interconnectedness of social, environmental, and technical dimensions in infrastructure planning, design, and maintenance.
  • Termite Mounds: Bioinspired Examination of the Role of Material and Environment in Multifunctional Structural Forms
    Nicholas Claggett, Andrea Surovek, William Capehart, Khosro Shahbazi
    Journal of Structural Engineering United States, 2018
    Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.
  • The Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation (QDO): An important precursor toward anticipating major flood events in the Missouri River Basin?
    Shih‐Yu Wang, Kirsti Hakala, Robert R. Gillies, William J. Capehart
    Geophysical Research Letters, 2014
    Measurements taken by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites indicated a continued water storage increase over the Missouri River Basin (MRB) prior to the 2011 flood event. An analysis of the major hydrologic variables in the MRB, i.e., those of soil moisture, streamflow, groundwater storage, and precipitation, show a marked variability at the 10–15 year time scale coincident with the water storage increase. A climate diagnostic analysis was conducted to determine what climate forcing conditions preceded the long‐term changes in these variables. It was found that precipitation over the MRB undergoes a profound modulation during the transition points of the Pacific quasi‐decadal oscillation and associated teleconnections. The results infer a prominent teleconnection forcing in driving the wet/dry spells in the MRB, and this connection implies persistence of dry conditions for the next 2 to 3 years.
  • Implementing a pilot trade in soil carbon sequestration
    Electric Utilities Environmental Conference Euec 2005 8th Annual Joint EPA DOE Eei EPRI Conference on Air Quality Global Climate Change and Renewable Energy, 2006
  • C-lock-a Method to Maximize Carbon Sequestration Value to Agro-Forestry Producers and Purchasers
    Patrick R. Zimmerman, Karen Updegraff, William Capehart, Maribeth Price, Lee Vierling
    Green Trading Markets, 2005
  • C-Lock: An online system to standardize the estimation of agricultural carbon sequestration credits
    Karen Updegraff, Patrick R. Zimmerman, Maribeth Price, William J. Capehart
    Fuel Processing Technology, 2005
  • C-Lock (patent pending): A system for estimating and certifying carbon emission reduction credits for the sequestration of soil carbon on agricultural land
    Patrick R. Zimmerman, Maribeth Price, Changhui Peng, William J. Capehart, Karen Updegraff, Patrick Kozak, Lee Vierling, Elaine Baker, Fred Kopp, Genet Duke, Chandan Das
    Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2005
  • Influences of upwind lakes on the wintertime lake-effect boundary layer
    16th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence, 2004
  • Interactions of the winter lake-effected boundary layer with synoptic systems
    16th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence, 2004
  • Assessing regional impacts of Conservation Reserve Program-type grass buffer strips on sediment load reduction from cultivated lands
    Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 2004
  • The role of prairie wetland extent on the pre-storm environment of the Northern Great Plains
    Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2004
  • The role of prairie wetland extent on the pre-storm environment of the Northern Great Plains
    Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2004
  • Numerically simulated interactions between a precipitating synoptic system and lake-effect snowbands over lake Michigan
    Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2004
  • The influence of lake Michigan on a wintertime cold front
    Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2004
  • Coupled model simulation of snowfall events over the Black Hills
    J. Wang, M. R. Hjelmfelt, W. J. Capehart, R. D. Farley
    Journal of Applied Meteorology, 2003
  • Using a Soil Hydrology Model to obtain regionally averaged soil moisture values
    Todd M. Crawford, David J. Stensrud, Toby N. Carlson, William J. Capehart
    Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2000
  • Decoupling of surface and near-surface soil water content: A remote sensing perspective
    William J. Capehart, Toby N. Carlson
    Water Resources Research, 1997
  • A new look at the simplified method for remote sensing of daily evapotranspiration
    Toby N. Carlson, William J. Capehart, Robert R. Gillies
    Remote Sensing of Environment, 1995
  • New look at remote measurement of soil water content and the surface energy fluxes using thermal infrared
    International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS, 1995
  • Estimating near-surface soil moisture availability using a meteorologically driven soil-water profile model
    W.J. Capehart, T.N. Carlson
    Journal of Hydrology, 1994
  • Initialization of soil-water content in regional-scale atmospheric prediction models
    Christopher B. Smith, Mercedes N. Lakhtakia, William J. Capehart, Toby N. Carlson
    Bulletin American Meteorological Society, 1994

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Deriving Sea Ice Concentration from SAR Products and Geospatial Modeling.
    RC Julian, SR Helfrich, WJ Capehart, W Clark, C Jackson
    106th AMS Annual Meeting , 2026
    2026
  • Streamflow Forecasting using Deep Learning Models to Support Climate Adaptation
    N Pokharel, M Geza, WJ Capehart, S Kenner, R Badireddy, ...
    106th AMS Annual Meeting , 2026
    2026
  • Projecting Future Water Availability for Hydrology and Water Quality Studies using Water Budgeting and Downscaled Climate Output
    J Ezzell, WJ Capehart, M Geza, V Gadhamshetty
    106th AMS Annual Meeting , 2026
    2026
  • HYDRO - Streamflow Prediction in the Missouri River Basin: Insights from SHAP-Based Explainable Machine Learning
    S Batsola, M Geza, WJ Capehart, V Gadhamshetty, G Hoogestraat
    106th AMS Annual Meeting , 2026
    2026
  • Why Worry about Your City's Stale Stormwater Design Plans?
    WJ Capehart, M Geza
    105th Annual AMS Meeting 2025 105, 456073 , 2025
    2025
  • Geostationary Satellite-measured Land Surface Temperature Measurement Statistical Comparisons with in situ Soil Temperature Observations for Land Data Assimilation
    JB Eylander, WJ Capehart, T Letcher, SV Kumar
    105th Annual AMS Meeting 2025 105, 448370 , 2025
    2025
  • Equitable infrastructure: Achieving resilient systems and restorative justice through policy and research innovation
    JP Giovannettone, GP Macey, A AghaKouchak, M Barbato, WJ Capehart, ...
    PNAS nexus 3 (5), pgae157 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 15
  • Integrating a Unified Software Paradigm Across an Atmospheric Sciences Undergraduate Program
    AJ French, WJ Capehart
    American Meteorological Society Meeting Abstracts 103, 73 , 2023
    2023
  • Impact of Outdated Design Storms Flood Planning Using Historical and Climate Model-Derived Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves
    WJ Capehart, M Geza Nisrani
    American Meteorological Society Meeting Abstracts 103, 536 , 2023
    2023
  • Embedding Resilience in the Design and Operations of Lifeline Infrastructure Networks to Cascading Sector Failures and Extreme Events under a Changing Climate
    JP Giovannettone, A Ganguly, G Yan, F Vahedifard, A AghaKouchak, ...
    Fall Meeting 2022 , 2022
    2022
  • Projected Climate Change Impacts on Rainfall Return, Wildland Fire Fuel Loading, and Flood Return Frequency over the Northern Great Plains
    WJ Capehart, DR Clabo, BN Lingwall, M Geza Nisrani, LA Kunza, ...
    American Meteorological Society Meeting Abstracts 101, 772 , 2021
    2021
  • Projected Trends in Great Plains Extreme Rainfall Return Intervals Using CMIP5 LOCA Ensembles
    B Capehart, H Sieverding, L Graunke, L Kunza
    100th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting , 2020
    2020
  • Prioritizing Actions to Adapt America's Infrastructure for Climate Change—Overview
    WJ Capehart, M Tye, J Giovannettone, A AghaKouchak, AP Barros, ...
    American Meteorological Society Meeting Abstracts 100, 394 , 2020
    2020
  • Prioritizing Actions to Adapt America's Infrastructure for Climate Change—Hydrometeorolgy
    J Giovannettone, N Lin, W Capehart, A AghaKouchak, M Tye
    American Meteorological Society Meeting Abstracts 100, 395 , 2020
    2020
  • Prioritizing Actions to Adapt America’s Infrastructure for Climate Change
    MR Tye, JP Giovannettone, A AghaKouchak, AP Barros, E Beighley, ...
    AGU Fall Meeting 2019 , 2019
    2019
  • Prioritizing Actions to Adapt America's Infrastructure for Climate Change
    L Kaatz, MR Tye, JP Giovannettone, A AghaKouchak, AP Barros, ...
    AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2019, NH23B-1016 , 2019
    2019
  • Termite mounds: bioinspired examination of the role of material and environment in multifunctional structural forms
    N Claggett, A Surovek, W Capehart, K Shahbazi
    Journal of Structural Engineering 144 (7), 02518001 , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 28
  • NCL
    W Capehart
    98th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting , 2018
    2018
  • Using Forecast Ensembles to Assess Boundary Layer Uncertainty and Characteristics
    C Leeper, W Capehart, T Phillips
    American Meteorological Society Meeting Abstracts 98, 164 , 2018
    2018
  • Using of a University Consortium Ensemble to Assess Forecast Risk and Confidence
    M Kern, W Capehart, KR Tyle
    American Meteorological Society Meeting Abstracts 98, 591 , 2018
    2018

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • A new look at the simplified method for remote sensing of daily evapotranspiration
    TN Carlson, WJ Capehart, RR Gillies
    Remote sensing of Environment 54 (2), 161-167 , 1995
    1995
    Citations: 458
  • Decoupling of surface and near‐surface soil water content: A remote sensing perspective
    WJ Capehart, TN Carlson
    Water Resources Research 33 (6), 1383-1395 , 1997
    1997
    Citations: 169
  • Initialization of soil-water content in regional-scale atmospheric prediction models
    CB Smith, MN Lakhtakia, WJ Capehart, TN Carlson
    Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 75 (4), 585-594 , 1994
    1994
    Citations: 69
  • Estimating near-surface soil moisture availability using a meteorologically driven soil-water profile model
    WJ Capehart, TN Carlson
    Journal of hydrology 160 (1-4), 1-20 , 1994
    1994
    Citations: 67
  • The Pacific quasi‐decadal oscillation (QDO): An important precursor toward anticipating major flood events in the Missouri River Basin?
    SY Wang, K Hakala, RR Gillies, WJ Capehart
    Geophysical Research Letters 41 (3), 991-997 , 2014
    2014
    Citations: 35
  • Using a soil hydrology model to obtain regionally averaged soil moisture values
    TM Crawford, DJ Stensrud, TN Carlson, WJ Capehart
    Journal of Hydrometeorology 1 (4), 353-363 , 2000
    2000
    Citations: 34
  • Termite mounds: bioinspired examination of the role of material and environment in multifunctional structural forms
    N Claggett, A Surovek, W Capehart, K Shahbazi
    Journal of Structural Engineering 144 (7), 02518001 , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 28
  • Assessing regional impacts of Conservation Reserve Program-type grass buffer strips on sediment load reduction from cultivated lands
    C Das, WJ Capehart, HV Mott, PR Zimmerman, TE & Schumacher
    Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 59 (4), 134-142 , 2004
    2004
    Citations: 26
  • C-Lock (patent pending): a system for estimating and certifying carbon emission reduction credits for the sequestration of soil carbon on agricultural land
    PR Zimmerman, M Price, C Peng, WJ Capehart, K Updegraff, P Kozak, ...
    Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 10 (2), 307-331 , 2005
    2005
    Citations: 17
  • Equitable infrastructure: Achieving resilient systems and restorative justice through policy and research innovation
    JP Giovannettone, GP Macey, A AghaKouchak, M Barbato, WJ Capehart, ...
    PNAS nexus 3 (5), pgae157 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 15
  • C-Lock: An online system to standardize the estimation of agricultural carbon sequestration credits
    K Updegraff, PR Zimmerman, M Price, WJ Capehart
    Fuel processing technology 86 (14-15), 1695-1704 , 2005
    2005
    Citations: 10
  • Issues regarding the remote sensing and modeling of soil moisture for meteorological applications
    WJ Capehart
    The Pennsylvania State University , 1996
    1996
    Citations: 9
  • Influences of upwind lakes on the wintertime lake-effect boundary layer
    MR Hjelmfelt, WJ Capehart, Y Rodriguez, DAR Kristovich, RB Hoevet
    16th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence , 2004
    2004
    Citations: 5
  • Coupled model simulation of snowfall events over the Black Hills
    J Wang, MR Hjelmfelt, WJ Capehart, RD Farley
    Journal of Applied Meteorology 42 (6), 775-796 , 2003
    2003
    Citations: 5
  • The influence of Lake Michigan on a wintertime cold front
    JG Dreher, MR Hjelmfelt, W Capehart, DAR Kristovich
    Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2573-2584 , 2004
    2004
    Citations: 4
  • Construction of a meteorologically driven substratum hydrology model
    WJ Capehart
    Pennsylvania State University , 1992
    1992
    Citations: 4
  • Representing Great Plains prairie wetland feedbacks in WRF
    WJ Capehart, J Stamm, P Norton
    12th Annual WRF User’s Workshop , 2011
    2011
    Citations: 3
  • C-lock: An online system to maximize the value of agricultural carbon sequestration for producers and purchasers.
    PR Zimmerman, MH Price, KL Updegraff, WJ Capehart
    ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 227, U1094-U1094 , 2004
    2004
    Citations: 3
  • The role of prairie wetland extent on the pre-storm environment of the northern Great Plains
    WJ Capehart, MR Hjelmfelt, RD Farley, KW Harding, DP Todey, JL Elsen
    Preprints, 18th Conf. on Hydrology, Seattle, WA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., JP4 12 , 2004
    2004
    Citations: 2
  • C-lock: An online system to maximize the value of agricultural carbon sequestration for producers and purchacers
    PR Zimmerman, M Price, K Updegraff, WJ Capehart
    Prepr. Pap.-Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Fuel Chem 49 (1), 364 , 2004
    2004
    Citations: 2