Sarah Shivers successfully defends her dissertation

Post date: Mar 04, 2019 2:42:5 AM

On Thursday February 28, 2019 Sarah Shivers successfully defended her dissertation "Using Imaging Spectrometry and Thermal Imagery to Study Agriculture During Severe Drought in California’s Central Valley". Her committee included Dar Roberts as the Chair along with Joe McFadden and Naomi Tague. The lab celebrated with lunch at Vicentas Mexican Restaurant afterwards. Sarah will be moving to Denver for a job doing remote sensing of agriculture for a consulting firm in April.

Abstract: In California, predicted climate warming increases the likelihood of extreme droughts. As irrigated agriculture accounts for roughly 80% of the state’s managed water supply, agriculture simultaneously shows high vulnerability to a warming climate while also offering the greatest opportunity to mitigate the impact of future droughts through adaptation strategies. One way to prepare for the anticipated increase in drought is to study past events as an indicator of future effects.

This dissertation took advantage of unique remote sensing datasets from NASA collected from 2013-2015 during a multi-year drought to measure agricultural response to changes in water availability. Focusing on a study area in the Central Valley of California, I map crops into relevant water use groups and then analyze three indirect measures of crop water use: choice of crop plantings, land surface temperatures, and water vapor patterns. The results of this dissertation highlight ways in which remote sensing can aid in agricultural water management in the face of a changing climate.