Dr. Abitew has research interests in watershed modeling, climate change and variability impacts on water resources, data assimilation and integration, and remote sensing-based surface energy balance modeling.  His PhD research focused on hydrologic modeling of poorly gauged basins using a SWAT model based on alternative data sources – public domain remote sensing products and reanalysis climate data. Currently, he is working on ‘Enhancement of APEX for Simulating Soil Erosion and Salt Transport in the Colorado River Basin’ project that is funded by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).