[Enviro-lunch] This Thursday 2/21: Kripa Jagannathan

[Jing Yan]

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Hello Everyone,

Please join us this Thursday Feb. 21 for this week's Enviro-Lunch talk by Kripa Jagannathan from University of California, Berkeley, at 12-1pm. The presentation location will be announced on Thursday.

If you are interested in meeting with Kripa for research discussion during her visit, please contact us.



Can long-term climate information be useful for on-farm adaptation planning?

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In the last decade, many advances have been made in climate modeling and projections. Yet, several sources still report that climate projections are not widely used in the agriculture sector, as they may not be meeting farmers' needs. This may be because, farmers require information on very specific climatic metrics (such as start of rains during the planting season, or number of low temperature days during the growing season), and such crop-specific decision relevant information is not always readily available to them. Furthermore, even when such information is available, projections tend to go unused as they are provided without considering how farmers may apply them in their decision-making context.

This research aims to provide a better understanding of the types of long-term projections that are potentially useful (and the types that are not useful) for different types of on-farm adaptation decisions. I will be presenting findings from semi-structured interviews with almond farmers, farm advisors, and industry association members across the central valley of California. Specifically, I will talk about how farmers have used weather/climate data in the past, the climatic metrics that are important to their crops, the types of climate projections that they are likely to find useful (including their perceptions on appropriate temporal scales & acceptable uncertainty levels in projections), and their preferred information communication methods. I will end with a critical discussion on whether and how the 'usability' of climate science can be improved so that it can aid on-farm adaptations.



Bio: Kripa Jagannathan is a PhD candidate at the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) of UC Berkeley. Her research interests are in climate change adaptation and climate-resilient planning, and her doctoral thesis focuses on improving the usability of climate science for adaptation decision-making. Since 2015, Kripa has been working with UC Cooperative extension and the US Department of Agriculture's California Climate Hub to better understand how long-term climate information can be made more useful for perennial tree crop growers in California. As a UC Global Food Initiative Fellow, Kripa has worked with Lawrence Berkeley Lab (LBL), to evaluate the skill of different Global Circulation Models in predicting the decision-relevant metric of chill hours in California, and examine how differences in model choice may impact future projections. Kripa is currently working at LBL as a team member for 'Project Hyperion' where scientists and water managers are co-producing decision-relevant science to aid in climate-resilient water management for four watershed regions across the US. Prior to her PhD, Kripa worked for 7 years in the climate change consulting space where she led a variety of technical advisory projects. Her work included developing climate adaptation strategies and implementing carbon reduction projects for governmental agencies as well as private companies.



When: Thursday 2/21, 12pm - 1pm



Where: TBA



Coffee will be provided, please bring your own mugs.



We look forward to seeing you,



Jing & Jennifer



Organizers for Spring 2019: Jing Yan and Jennifer Alvarez

Faculty coordinator: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

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