PhD candidate
University of Victoria
Global Institute for Water Security
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
github | twitter | xanderhuggins@uvic.ca or xander.huggins@gmail.com

Research interests

Groundwater in social-ecological systems, groundwater hydrology, sustainability science.

Contributions

Publications

8. [in review] Rohde, M.M., Albano, C.M., Huggins, X., et al. (2023). Mapping groundwater dependent ecosystems globally exposes the fragility of vulnerable ecosystems and communities. (preprint forthcoming)

7. [in revision] Huggins, X. Gleeson, T., Castilla-Rho, J.C., Holley, C., Re, V., Famiglietti, J.S. (2023). Groundwater connections and sustainability in social-ecological systems. In review at Groundwater.
[link to preprint]

6. Curran, D., Gleeson, T., Huggins, X. (2023). Applying a science-forward approach to groundwater regulatory design. Accepted at Hydrogeology Journal.
[link to preprint]

5. Huggins, X., Gleeson, T., Serrano, D., Zipper, S., Jehn, F., Rohde, M.M., Abell, R., Vigerstol, R., Hartmann, A. (2023). Groundwatersheds of protected areas reveal globally overlooked risks and opportunities. Accepted in principle at Nature Sustainability.
[link to preprint]

4. Mohan, C., et al. [including X. Huggins]. (2022) Poor correlation between large-scale environmental flow violations and freshwater biodiversity: implications for water resource management and the water planetary boundary. Hydrology and Earth Systems Sciences. 26, 6247–6262.
[link to paper]

3. Huggins, X., Gleeson, T., Kummu, M., Zipper, S.C., Troy, T.J., Wada, Y., Famiglietti, J. (2022). Hotspots for social and ecological impacts from freshwater stress and storage loss. Nature Communications 13, 439. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28029-w.
[link to paper] See also: associated code and data

2. Diggle, R., Tait, D., Maher, D., Huggins, X., Santos, I. (2019). The role of porewater exchange as a driver of CO2 flux to the atmosphere in a temperate estuary (Squamish, Canada). Environmental Earth Sciences, 78, 1-13.
[link to paper]

1. Huggins, X. Gleeson, T., Eckstrand, H., Kerr, B. (2018). Streamflow Depletion Modeling: Methods for an Adaptable and Conjunctive Water Management Decision Support Tool. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 54, 1-15.
[link to paper]

Book/Report Chapters

Gleeson, T., Huggins, X., Connor, R., Arrojo-Agudo, P., Vázquez Suñé, E. (2022). Groundwater and Ecosystems, Chapter 6 of UNESCO Water Development Report 2022: “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible”. [link to chapter][link to report]

Conference presentations

9. Huggins, X. et al. (2022). Overlooked risks and opportunities for global protected areas revealed by mapping groundwatersheds. Invited oral presentation at World Water Week 2022. Stockholm, Sweden.

8. Huggins, X. Gleeson, T., Castilla-Rho, J.C., Holley, C., Re, V., Famiglietti, J.S. (2022). Groundwater in complex adaptive social-ecological systems. In absentia poster presentation at 2022 Canadian Water Resources Association National Conference. Canmore, Canada.

7. Huggins, X., Gleeson, T., Kummu, M., Zipper, S., Wada, Y., Troy, T., Famiglietti, J. (2022). Vulnerable basins for global prioritisation: Hotspots for social and ecological impacts from freshwater stress and freshwater storage loss. Solicited oral presentation at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly. Vienna, Austria.

6. Xu, L., Famiglietti, J., Ferris, D., Huggins, X., Mohan, C., Sadri, S., Sanyal, P., Wong, J. (2022). From Coarse Resolution to Realistic Resolution: GRACE as a Science Communication and Policymaking Tool for Sustainable Groundwater Management. Oral presentation at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly. Vienna, Austria.

5. Huggins, X., Gleeson, T., Famiglietti, J. (2021). An open-access interdisciplinary database to facilitate data science on cross-cutting global groundwater sustainability challenges. Remote oral presentation at the Delft International Conference on Sociohydrology. Delft, the Netherlands.

4. Gleeson, T., Huggins, X., Froese, T. (2021). Teaching human- and sustainability-centered design: A civil engineering design spine supported by sustainability muscles and a heart of anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion. Oral presentation (pre-recorded) for Let’s Talk about Teaching. Victoria, Canada.

3. Huggins, X., Gleeson, T., Kummu, M., Zipper, S.C., Troy, T.J., Wada, Y., Famiglietti, J. (2020). Sustainability hotspots of changing global freshwater availability. Invited lighting talk at the American Geophysical Union 2020 Fall Meeting. Online. San Francisco, USA.

2. Huggins, X., Gleeson, T., Zipper, S.C., Troy, T.J., Wada, Y., Famiglietti, J.S. (2019). Human dimensions of changing global freshwater availability. Oral presentation at the American Geophysical Union 2019 Fall Meeting. San Franciso, USA.

1. Huggins, X. Gleeson, T., Eckstrand, H., Kerr, B. (2018). Streamflow Depletion Modeling: Methods for an Adaptable and Conjunctive Water Management Decision Support Tool. Oral presentation at the Canadian Water Resources Association Annual Conference. Victoria, BC.

Invited seminar presentations/lectures

6. Overlooked risks and opportunities for global protected areas revealed by mapping groundwatersheds. Presented to the Global Groundwater Group at The Nature Conservancy (online meeting) in November 2022.

5. Groundwater-connected systems: A new approach for groundwater science and sustainability in social-ecological systems. Presented to the Water and Development Research Group at Aalto University (Espoo, Finland) in August 2022.

4. Groundwater-connected systems as complex adaptive social-ecological systems. Presented to IIASA’s Water Security Research Group (Vienna, Austria) for World Water Day in March 2022.

3.The global vulnerability of humans and ecosystems to insufficient freshwater availability. Delivered as part of the Creating a Blue Dialogue Webinar Series: Annual Water Research Roundup, hosted by the POLIS Water Sustainability Project (Victoria, Canada) in March 2022.

2.Engineering for sustainability in a complex world: The role of engineering in addressing grand sustainability challenges. Presented to CIVE 400 (capstone undergraduate civil engineering design course) at the University of Victoria (Victoria, Canada) in January 2022.

1. Groundwater Sustainability Science. Presented to CIVE 445 (fourth year civil engineering groundwater hydrology course) at the University of Victoria (Victoria, Canada) in April 2021.



Community invovlement, outreach & science communication

Fellowships/positions

Peer review activity

Total peer reviews to date: 7

Scholarhips/awards/recognition

Teaching

Resources

Teaching assistant roles

Education

2019 - est.2024 Doctor of Philosophy, University of Victoria

2013 - 2018 Bachelor of Water Resources Engineering with Distinction, University of Guelph