MEAS Special Seminar: Characterizing Drought and its Associated Societal Impacts

Special Seminar, Wed, March 29, at 12:00PM in 1132 Jordan Hall (in-person only).

Our speaker is Ronald Leeper, CIC-S-Asheville, (hosted by W. Robinson)

Seminar Title – Characterizing Drought and its Associated Societal Impacts

Abstract – Drought is a well-known natural hazard that has obvious direct impacts on society, such as in agriculture and water sources. However, there are also important impacts that may not fit neatly within the current meteorological, agricultural, or hydrological constructs of drought that result in more obscure pathways. In addition, drought has important temporal and spatial considerations that can further confound efforts to associate drought with adverse outcomes. For instance, linking human health to drought is particularly challenging; a myriad of drought indicators and aggregation periods are available for specific features of the hydrological cycle that can vary in relevance to health across the U.S. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the development of a flexible framework from which to define drought events, explore their evolution, and, more importantly, better contrast droughts from another regarding their potential impacts. Characterizing how droughts of similar magnitude at the same place differ can be particularly useful when assessing their respective societal impacts.

Bio – Ronald D. Leeper’s primary area of interest is in hydrological processes. He is particularly focused on land-atmosphere interactions and how these relationships will evolve in the context of climate change. Leeper is currently combining numerical methods and in-situ data sets to explore these complex topics from both modeling and observational perspectives.

Leeper is also working with NOAA scientists on the U.S. climate reference network (USCRN) to improve quality control (QC) methods and develop applications. The USCRN is a network of climate monitoring stations maintained and operated by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Recently, he has advanced QC methods to improve the network’s capacity to monitor US precipitation and has partnered with colleagues from Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD) in Oak Ridge, TN to evaluate sensor performance. These activities include studies for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Solid Precipitation Intercomparison Experiment (SPICE) project.