Laura Toran

Profile Picture of Laura Toran

Laura Toran

  • College of Science and Technology

    • Earth and Environmental Science

      • Professor

Biography

My recent research interests include stormwater sampling in karst springs, using continuous monitoring to study urban hydrology, evaluating stormwater control measures, applying hydrogeophysics to understand groundwater-surface water interactions, and fracture flow modeling.

Courses Taught

Number

Name

Level

EES 3015

Drone Shortcourse

Undergraduate

EES 3021

Groundwater Hydrology

Undergraduate

EES 5015

Drone Shortcourse

Graduate

EES 8411

Advanced Hydrogeology

Graduate

Selected Publications

Recent

  • Ledford, S., Diamond2, J., & Toran3, L. (2021). Large spatiotemporal variability in metabolic regimes for an urban stream draining four wastewater treatment plants with implications for dissolved oxygen monitoring. PLoS ONE, 16(8 August). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256292.

  • Ledford, S., Kurz, M., & Toran, L. (2021). Contrasting raz-rru stream metabolism and nutrient uptake downstream of urban wastewater effluent sites. Freshwater Science, 40(1), 103-119. doi: 10.1086/712932.

  • Beganskas, S., Ryan, R., Walters, E., Soro, M., Cushman, E., & Toran, L. (2021). Coupling PCSWMM and WASP to Evaluate Green Stormwater Infrastructure Impacts to Storm Sediment Loads in an Urban Watershed. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 57(1), 134-153. doi: 10.1111/1752-1688.12896.

  • Beganskas, S. & Toran, L. (2021). Urban stream temperature patterns: Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the Philadelphia region, Pennsylvania, USA. Hydrological Processes, 35(2). doi: 10.1002/hyp.14039.

  • Pope, G., Nyquist, J., Toran, L., Traver, R., & Zaremba, G. (2021). Time-lapse resistivity monitoring of a simulated runoff test of a bioswale in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Proceedings of the Symposium on the Application of Geophyics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, SAGEEP, 2021-March.

  • Berglund, J., Toran, L., & Herman, E. (2020). Can Karst Conduit Models Be Calibrated? A Dual Approach Using Dye Tracing and Temperature. Groundwater, 58(6), 924-937. doi: 10.1111/gwat.12988.

  • Ledford, S. & Toran, L. (2020). Downstream evolution of wastewater treatment plant nutrient signals using high-temporal monitoring. Hydrological Processes, 34(3), 852-864. doi: 10.1002/hyp.13640.

  • Guo, L., Lin, H., Fan, B., Nyquist, J., Toran, L., & Mount, G. (2019). Preferential flow through shallow fractured bedrock and a 3D fill-and-spill model of hillslope subsurface hydrology. Journal of Hydrology, 576, 430-442. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.06.070.

  • Berglund, J., Toran, L., & Herman, E. (2019). Deducing flow path mixing by storm-induced bulk chemistry and REE variations in two karst springs: With trends like these who needs anomalies? Journal of Hydrology, 571, 349-364. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.01.050.

  • Rossi, R. & Toran, L. (2019). Exploring the potential for groundwater inundation in coastal US cities due to interactions between sewer infrastructure and global change. Environmental Earth Sciences, 78(8). doi: 10.1007/s12665-019-8261-9.

  • Toran, L., Herman, E., & Berglund, J. (2019). Advances in monitoring to understand flow paths in karst: Comparison of historic and recent data from the valley and ridge of Pennsylvania. In Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, 68 (pp. 65-89). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-77368-1_3.

  • Arnold, E. & Toran, L. (2018). Effects of bank vegetation and incision on erosion rates in an urban stream. Water (Switzerland), 10(4). doi: 10.3390/w10040482.

  • Price, J., Ledford, S., Ryan, M., Toran, L., & Sales, C. (2018). Wastewater treatment plant effluent introduces recoverable shifts in microbial community composition in receiving streams. Science of the Total Environment, 613-614, 1104-1116. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.09.162.

  • Toran, L. & Jedrzejczyk, C. (2017). Water level monitoring to assess the effectiveness of stormwater infiltration trenches. Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, 23(2), 113-123. doi: 10.2113/gseegeosci.23.2.113.

  • Nyquist, J., Toran, L., Pitman, L., Guo, L., & Lin, H. (2017). Testing the fill-and-spill model of subsurface lateral flow using ground- penetrating radar and dye tracing. Vadose Zone Journal, 17(1). doi: 10.2136/vzj2017.07.0142.

  • Edenborn, H., Barna, J., Fink, M., Herman, E., & Toran, L. (2017). Direct and continuous measurement of dissolved CO (sub 2) in karst springs. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=geh&AN=2017-077969&site=ehost-live&scope=site&authtype=uid&user=ebony&password=lewis.

  • Nyquist, J., Kanaley, C., Burrell, S., Toran, L., Davatzes, A., & Brandt, C. (2017). A GeoPATH-funded math mentoring initiative for retention. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=geh&AN=2018-012973&site=ehost-live&scope=site&authtype=uid&user=ebony&password=lewis.

  • Carsillo, V., Nyquist, J., Wong, T., & Toran, L. (2017). Mapping water infiltration of urban soils using electromagnetic induction and time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=geh&AN=2018-020250&site=ehost-live&scope=site&authtype=uid&user=ebony&password=lewis.

  • Berglund, J., Toran, L., & Herman, E. (2017). Monitoring thermal and geochemical differences of two adjacent springs. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=geh&AN=2017-077869&site=ehost-live&scope=site&authtype=uid&user=ebony&password=lewis.