Welcome to the Climate, Water and Society lab at Auburn University. We are a group of scientists, engineers, and students who endeavor to understand spatial and temporal variations in water, forest resources, and agricultural productivity at regional to global scales. We study two way interactions between human modification in the climate system, e.g. land use change and climate variability and extremes. We formulate hypothesis based on theoretical understanding and limited observations, and test those hypothesis using climate model sensitivity experiments. Our research group has two goals: (1) improving predictability and quantifying uncertainty in availability of natural resources at sub-seasonal to decadal time scales, and (2) providing data driven quantitative information to decision makers about long-term management of natural resources in the region.
This research group has been named after – CLIMATE (Earth’s Atmosphere) gave us the water, WATER gave us the Society, and we as a SOCIETY are: (1) dependent on availability of natural resources, (2) impacted by climate variability and extremes, and (3) interact and interfere with the climate system through GHG emissions, land use change, and management of natural resources. Studying interactions among CLIMATE-WATER-SOCIETY is a major theme in our research group.