Arenas has a PhD in Civil & Environmental engineering and is an assistant research engineer at IIHR Hydroscience & Engineering and the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa. He has been working with computational models applied to water resources management for more than nine years. Arenas’ research focuses on the development and application of fully-coupled surface-subsurface watershed models to assess mitigation projects directed toward flood damage reduction and study the fate and transport of nutrients. Arenas regularly speaks at Watershed Management Authority (WMA) and other conservation groups meetings providing technical expertise and guidance to people working in creating more resilient watersheds in Iowa.