2018-19 Global Change Fellow

Statement of purpose:

I am a first year PhD student working with Prof. Sankar Arumugam in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Department at NC State University. My research broadly focuses on hydro-climatology, investigating the impact of climate change on water resources. Water, food, and energy are the basic requirements for human sustainability which exists in the form of a complex nexus. Impact of climate change on any of these will subsequently affect the others too. My research explores this complex system to have a better understanding of it by developing computer models.

Description of research:

Climate change is very evident in the form of global mean temperature rise, increased variability in precipitation events, increased intensity and frequency of drought and flood events, and sea water rise. Anthropogenic activities have impacted complex response system of various natural occurring phenomenon, like rainfall. Rise in events like El-Nino and La-Nina have affected regions round the globe by altering their climatic conditions. Drought and flood events born out of those events have put a question mark on food, energy and water security. It has become a need to have better predictability of future hydro-climatic scenarios in order to deal with them more efficiently. My research focuses on this. It will help policy makers to frame policies that account for the challenges being imposed by climate change. General Circulation Models aka Global Climate Models (GCMs) are widely used tools for that. My research interests include hydrologic modeling, stochastic process analysis, extreme events forecasting, and climate change impact assessment on water resources. This research aligns with DOI Priority 1. Creating a conservation stewardship legacy second only to Teddy Roosevelt.

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