Ciara Pickering

Ciara Pickering is an environmental engineer at RTI where she specializes in watershed modeling, water quality analysis, and flood risk assessment to support integrated water resource management. Ms. Pickering applies hydrologic, hydraulic, and water quality modeling techniques to support data-driven watershed and water resource management. She regularly worked with large spatial and environmental datasets, integrating remote sensing products, climate data, and monitoring records to generate actionable insights. Ms. Pickering is an experienced engineer, developing, calibrating, and applying models to evaluate flood, water quality, and ecosystem health under current and future conditions.

Currently, Ms. Pickering supports projects across the U.S. and internationally that use hydrologic and water quality modeling to guide planning and decision-making. She supported the Catawba Wateree Integrated Water Resources Plan, which modeled basin-wide water quantity and quality under future climate and management scenarios. She also assisted in developing statewide nature-based solutions opportunity maps and an interactive web tool for identifying high-priority areas for implementation. 

Ms. Pickering worked on dam safety risk assessments for the Tennessee Valley Authority, supporting downstream consequence and life loss modeling using HEC-RAS and LifeSim. Additionally, she contributed to the development of predictive models for harmful algal bloom that leverage NASA satellite imagery and environmental data for the Florida Department of Environmental Production. Internationally, she participated in Peru’s Blue Spot Analysis project, which identified roads vulnerable to flooding using DEM-based modeling and spatial prioritization. 

Prior to joining RTI, Ms. Pickering worked as a civil engineer with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in South Carolina. There, she coordinated and supervised the planning, design, and construction of engineering practices such as water management, animal waste management, erosion control, flood control, wetland creation or restoration, and other conservation practices that require engineering expertise.