Digital Agronomy
Elia Scudiero, Ph.D.
Associate Research Agronomist
University of California Riverside, Environmental Sciences
& USDA-ARS, U.S. Salinity Laboratory, Agricultural Water Efficiency and Salinity Research Unit
E-mail: elia(dot)scudiero(at)ucr(dot)edu
450, West Big Springs Road | Riverside, CA, 92507, USA | Voice: +1 (951) 369-4847Associate Editor of IRRIGATION SCIENCE
Submit your research at editorialmanager.com/irsc/default.aspx
Expertise
Agricultural & environmental geophysics: proximal and remote sensing of plant and soil
Remote sensing of soil salinity
Precision agriculture
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Hyper-dimensional data analysis
Academic honors
2020 Young Scholar Award from the Soil & Water Management & Conservation Division of the Soil Science Society of America
NIFA-AFRI New Investigator Food and Agriculture Science Enhancement Grant recipient (2019)
Editor’s mention for noteworthy journal article (Regional scale soil salinity evaluation using Landsat 7, western San Joaquin Valley, California, USA). Geoderma Regional (i.e., Editor’s Choice) (2015)
International Travel Grant for Graduate Students. Funded by the DAFNAE Department of the University of Padua, Italy (2012)
Erasmus Student Fellow. Funded by the European Union (2007 – 2008)
Education
PhD (2013) Crop Science: Environmental Agronomy, University of Padua, Italy
MSc (2009) Environmental Sciences and Technology, University of Padua, Italy
University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Guest student)
BSc (2006) Environmental Sciences and Technology, University of Padua, Italy
Web social profiles
Photography
Demonstrating how to install a water-table well to Environmental Sciences MSc students (University of Padua, Italy)
Riding USDA-ARS U.S. Salinity Lab.'s Salt Sniffer to measure apparent soil electrical conductivity across an alfalfa field in southern California
What do we do?
We use of geophysical (near-ground and remote) measurements to characterize and model multi-scale (from field to national) agro-environmental soil-plant processes to support sustainable agriculture and water management practices.
Core focus points in our research include:
a) investigating the short- and long-term spatiotemporal variability of crop yield as affected by changing environmental factors (soil, weather) and management alternatives to improve yields water use efficiency, nutrient use, and mitigate negative environmental outcomes.
b) integrating advanced multi-platform and multi-scale (from field to continental) geophysical measurements of crops and soil to best characterize spatiotemporal resource (e.g., water, nutrients) use efficiency with machine learning and other big-data analysis methods.
c) mitigate the impact of climate change on agronomic and horticultural crops, especially under limiting conditions (e.g., drought), using innovative management strategies (e.g., dynamic deficit irrigation, intercropping, site-specific soil tillage) directed to increase crop water use efficiency, minimize environmental effects from nutrient and undesired solutes mobilization, and decrease groundwater depletion (especially in California).
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