Research

Research Overview

My research aims to improve the ability of water managers and agricultural producers to address climatic risks that threaten the safe provision of water and food. Despite the common perception that the Eastern U.S. has abundant water resources, 26% of Virginia's rivers are expected to experience a significant level of water stress by 2040. At the same time, high temperatures and erratic timing of rainfall already limit agricultural production, and these conditions are anticipated to worsen with climate change. These challenges are mirrored across the globe, where population growth and climate change present serious risks to water and food supplies. 

My work addresses these challenges through two broad themes: 1) Climate Change Impacts and Resilience, which is aimed at developing innovative approaches to anticipate and prepare for climate change impacts, and 2) Water Use and Irrigation, which focuses on the ways that human behaviors and institutions influence water supply and quality. My integrated research and extension program seeks to develop and disseminate novel methods that can be used to improve agricultural and water resources management decisions in an uncertain future. 

Current Projects

• Climate Smart Irrigation and Nitrogen Management: Heavier and more erratic rainfall from climate change will be detrimental to crop yields and nutrient pollution to surface water bodies. Precision irrigation that reduces conditions of both excess and limited water can reduce these impacts, but more research is needed to quantify these benefits and encourage grower adoption. This USDA-funded project combines field trials, computational modeling, data analytics, and economic analysis to understand the agronomic, environmental, and economic benefits of precision irrigation and nitrogen management. 

• Data-Driven Modeling of Drought Flows in Virginia: Drought conditions create crutial periods for water supply planning, where minor differences in projected flows can mean the difference between reliable supplies or water shortages. In collaboration with Virginia's Office of Water Supply, our team is developing data-driven methods to improve drought flow representation and forecasting ability's in the computational models used for Virginia's water supply planning and permitting. 

• Climate Tipping Points in Socio-Environmental Systems: Transformative changes are needed to address the profound and rapid changes in the Earth's climate that we are currently experiencing. We are developing and operationalizing a conceptual framework for understanding tipping points that could result in transformative changes (both good and bad) in socio-environmental systems faced with increasing climatic hazards. We are currently applying this framework to rapid temperature increases Nordic regions.