Dr. Mehdi Nemati’s research in environmental economics and policy uses causal inference and large-scale data, including administrative and satellite sources, to study water systems, climate adaptation, affordability, groundwater depletion, and land subsidence. He currently leads the Water Dialogue Lab at UC Riverside, a lab dedicated to advancing research and policy solutions to inform decision-making across California, the Western U.S., and beyond. He also coordinates the School of Public Policy’s Water Seminar Series, bringing researchers from across the country to campus.

Recently, Dr. Nemati has focused on the short- and long-term impacts of the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen), explored in his article in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management . His findings show that homes built under the CALGreen code use about 10–12% less water over time, especially in hot months, making the policy an effective and cost-efficient way to conserve water. He is also finalizing his upcoming book, Land Subsidence from Groundwater Pumping: Global Insights.

Looking ahead, Dr. Nemati has been awarded funding for two projects that advance environmental sustainability, including research supported by the California Department of Food and Agriculture to identify farming practices that improve nitrogen use efficiency, and a project funded by the USDA Forest Service to improve how wildfire impacts are measured by using detailed, event-based data.