James S. Famiglietti

Last updated

James S. (Jay) Famiglietti is the director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. Prior to that he was the Senior Water Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA [1] and a professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. He is a leading expert in global water issues and in raising awareness about the global water crisis and in particular, about global groundwater depletion. [2]

Contents

Education

Famiglietti received his B.S. in Geology from Tufts University in 1982 and his M.S. in Hydrology from the University of Arizona in 1986. [3] He continued his graduate studies at Princeton University, where he earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering. [4] Formerly an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, and the founding Associate Director of the University of Texas at Austin's Environmental Science Institute, Famiglietti was also the founding director of the UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling (UCCHM) at UC Irvine. [5]

Famiglietti is known for his research using satellites and developing computer models to track changing freshwater availability around the globe. His work, his commentary and efforts in science communication were featured in the Participant Media water documentary Last Call at the Oasis, [6] in 60 Minutes, [7] on Real Time with Bill Maher . [8]

Research and Projects

Famiglietti's research centers around “the role of hydrology in the coupled Earth system” and evaluating “global change impacts on water availability.” [9] He has long been a proponent of advancing the capabilities of hydrological models in the United States. While chair of the board of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI), he led the Community Hydrologic Modeling Platform (CHyMP) effort to accelerate the development of hydrological models for use in addressing global issues related to water, food, economic, climate, and global security. He continued those efforts at the UCCHM and at NASA JPL, where he leads the Western States Water Mission. [10]

Famiglietti conducts research using NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to monitor how humans and global change are impacting freshwater availability. His team pioneered the use of GRACE for remote sensing of groundwater storage changes. [11] Their work has revealed unsustainable groundwater use and the rapid rates of groundwater depletion [2] [12] [13] [14] [15] in the world's major aquifers. [16] [17] This research is also recognized by NASA as the primary justification for the selection of the GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) as a climate continuation mission. [18]

Awards and honors

Famiglietti is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) [19] and of the Geological Society of America (GSA). [20] In 2012 he was selected as the GSA's Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer. [21] During that year he delivered over 50 lectures in the United States and internationally on the topics of water cycle change and on the need to advance hydrological modelling capabilities. [22] He was also selected as one of two 2014 David Keith Todd Lecturers of the Groundwater Resources Association of California. [23] In 2010, Famiglietti was the recipient of the Shimizu Visiting Professorship at Stanford University in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Other notable honors include being awarded the Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education honor in 2005 by UC Irvine, and the NASA New Investigator Award in 1996. [9]

Publications

Famiglietti has published a number of academic research reports and articles, on topics ranging from soil moisture, to the remote sensing of groundwater availability and the effects of climate change on water balance. Notable publications include Satellite-Based Estimates of Groundwater Depletion in India, [12] Satellites Measure Recent Rates of Groundwater Depletion in California’s Central Valley (2011), [13] The Global Groundwater Crisis (2014), [24] Quantifying Renewable Groundwater Stress with GRACE [17] and Emerging trends in global freshwater availability [25]

Beyond academia, Famiglietti has published a number of op-eds in major national newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, [26] [27] [28] and the San Francisco Chronicle. [29] Among these, his March 12, 2015 LA Times op-ed went viral and attracted major media and public attention [30] [31] [32] [33] He has also been a regular contributor to the National Geographic Water Currents blog [34] and to Huffington Post. [35]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water cycle</span> Biogeochemical cycle for movement of water on Earth

The water cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that involves the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. The mass of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time. However, the partitioning of the water into the major reservoirs of ice, fresh water, salt water and atmospheric water is variable and depends on climatic variables. The water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the atmosphere. The processes that drive these movements are evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, sublimation, infiltration, surface runoff, and subsurface flow. In doing so, the water goes through different forms: liquid, solid (ice) and vapor. The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle as it is the source of 86% of global evaporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Groundwater</span> Water located beneath the ground surface

Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from the surface; it may discharge from the surface naturally at springs and seeps, and can form oases or wetlands. Groundwater is also often withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, also called groundwater hydrology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRACE and GRACE-FO</span> Joint American-German space mission to map Earths gravitational field

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) was a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Twin satellites took detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field anomalies from its launch in March 2002 to the end of its science mission in October 2017. The two satellites were sometimes called Tom and Jerry, a nod to the famous cartoon. The GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) is a continuation of the mission on near-identical hardware, launched in May 2018. On March 19, 2024, NASA announced that the successor to GRACE-FO would be Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity (GRACE-C), to be launched in or after 2028.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Gleick</span> American scientist

Peter H. Gleick is an American scientist working on issues related to the environment. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987. In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on water resources. Among the issues he has addressed are conflicts over water resources, water and climate change, development, and human health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael L. Bras</span> Puerto Rican civil engineer

Rafael Luis Bras is a Puerto Rican civil engineer best known for his contributions in surface hydrology and hydrometeorology, including his work in soil-vegetation-atmosphere system modeling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Groundwater recharge</span> Groundwater that recharges an aquifer

Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in the vadose zone below plant roots and is often expressed as a flux to the water table surface. Groundwater recharge also encompasses water moving away from the water table farther into the saturated zone. Recharge occurs both naturally and through anthropogenic processes, where rainwater and/or reclaimed water is routed to the subsurface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overdrafting</span> Unsustainable extraction of groundwater

Overdrafting is the process of extracting groundwater beyond the equilibrium yield of an aquifer. Groundwater is one of the largest sources of fresh water and is found underground. The primary cause of groundwater depletion is the excessive pumping of groundwater up from underground aquifers. Insufficient recharge can lead to depletion, reducing the usefulness of the aquifer for humans. Depletion can also have impacts on the environment around the aquifer, such as soil compression and land subsidence, local climatic change, soil chemistry changes, and other deterioration of the local environment.

Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificially from other sources, such as from reclaimed water (wastewater) or desalinated water (seawater). 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slightly over two-thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. Natural sources of fresh water include surface water, under river flow, groundwater and frozen water. People use water resources for agricultural, industrial and household activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil Moisture Active Passive</span> NASA earth monitoring satellite that measures global soil moisture

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) is a NASA environmental monitoring satellite that measures soil moisture across the planet. It is designed to collect a global 'snapshot' of soil moisture every 2 to 3 days. With this frequency, changes from specific storms can be measured while also assessing impacts across seasons of the year. SMAP was launched on 31 January 2015. It was one of the first Earth observation satellites developed by NASA in response to the National Research Council's Decadal Survey.

The University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling (UCCHM) is a campus-wide hydrologic modeling research center, located at the University of California, Irvine. The models and modeling frameworks developed at the center address the urgent environmental and health issues related to water availability, such as how water availability will change in response to external factors like global climate change, how water availability will change with diminishing snow and ice, and how the frequency of hydrologic extremes will affect the state of California. The UCCHM team, made up of faculty, researchers and students, is working towards creating a state-of-the-art integrated model of California water resources that can influence and inform leaders of local, state and regional governments when making water management decisions.

The global freshwater model WaterGAP calculates flows and storages of water on all continents of the globe, taking into account the human influence on the natural freshwater system by water abstractions and dams. It supports understanding the freshwater situation across the world's river basins during the 20th and the 21st centuries, and is applied to assess water scarcity, droughts and floods and to quantify the impact of human actions on e.g. groundwater, wetlands, streamflow and sea-level rise. Modelling results of WaterGAP have contributed to international assessment of the global environmental situation including the UN World Water Development Reports, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the UN Global Environmental Outlooks as well as to reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. WaterGAP contributes to the Intersectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project ISIMIP, where consistent ensembles of model runs by a number of global hydrological models are generated to assess the impact of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors on freshwater resources world-wide.

Soroosh Sorooshian is an Iranian-born American civil engineer, and educator. He is a distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine and currently serving as the Director of the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing.

The Arabian Aquifer System is primarily located in Saudi Arabia but also in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Townsend-Small</span>

Amy Townsend-Small is the director of the Environmental Studies Program as well as an associate professor in the Department of Geology and Geography at the University of Cincinnati.

Petra Döll is a German hydrologist whose research focuses on global water resources and methods for transdisciplinary knowledge integration. She is a professor of hydrology at the Institute of Physical Geography, Goethe University Frankfurt.

Bridget R. Scanlon is an Irish and American hydrogeologist known for her work on groundwater depletion and groundwater recharging, and of the effects of climate change and land usage patterns on groundwater. She is a senior research scientist in the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is head of the Sustainable Water Resources Program. Her research has included the use of GRACE satellite data to compare drought conditions in Texas and California.

Moustafa T. Chahine was an atmospheric scientist and an international leader in atmospheric remote sensing using satellite observations. He was the Science Team Leader for the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA's Earth Observing System Aqua satellite, and the Chairman of the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) Science Steering Group of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of climate change on the water cycle</span>

The effects of climate change on the water cycle are profound and have been described as an intensification or a strengthening of the water cycle. This effect has been observed since at least 1980. One example is when heavy rain events become even stronger. The effects of climate change on the water cycle have important negative effects on the availability of freshwater resources, as well as other water reservoirs such as oceans, ice sheets, the atmosphere and soil moisture. The water cycle is essential to life on Earth and plays a large role in the global climate system and ocean circulation. The warming of our planet is expected to be accompanied by changes in the water cycle for various reasons. For example, a warmer atmosphere can contain more water vapor which has effects on evaporation and rainfall.

Isabella Velicogna is a geoscientist known for her work using gravity measurements from space to study changes in the polar ice sheets and water storage on Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indus Basin</span> Part of Asia

The Indus basin is the part of Asia drained by the Indus River and its tributaries. The basin covers an area of 1,120,000 km2 (430,000 sq mi) traversing four countries: Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan, with most of the area lying predominantly in the latter two countries.

References

  1. ↑ NASA.gov
  2. 1 2 Famiglietti, J. S. (2014). "The global groundwater crisis". Nature Climate Change. 4 (11): 945–948. Bibcode:2014NatCC...4..945F. doi:10.1038/nclimate2425.
  3. ↑ "UC Irvine – Faculty Profile System". .faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  4. ↑ "UC Irvine – Faculty Profile System". faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  5. ↑ "About". Jay Famiglietti. 2013-07-11. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  6. ↑ Scott, A. O. (2012-05-03). "When There Really Is Not a Drop to Drink 'Last Call at the Oasis,' a Documentary About Water Supplies". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  7. ↑ "Depleting the water". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  8. ↑ "Watch Clips and other Real Time with Bill Maher videos online on HBO.com". HBO. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  9. 1 2 "UC Irvine – Faculty Profile System". faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2014-01-29.
  10. ↑ "Science – Earth Science: People: James S. Famiglietti". science.jpl.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  11. ↑ Barringer, Felicity (2011-05-30). "Groundwater Depletion Is Detected by Grace Satellites". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  12. 1 2 Rodell, Matthew; Velicogna, Isabella; Famiglietti, James S. (2009). "Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India". Nature. 460 (7258): 999–1002. Bibcode:2009Natur.460..999R. doi:10.1038/nature08238. PMID   19675570. S2CID   4428681.
  13. 1 2 Famiglietti, J. S.; Lo, M.; Ho, S. L.; Bethune, J.; Anderson, K. J.; Syed, T. H.; Swenson, S. C.; de Linage, C. R.; Rodell, M. (2011-02-01). "Satellites measure recent rates of groundwater depletion in California's Central Valley" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 38 (3): L03403. Bibcode:2011GeoRL..38.3403F. doi: 10.1029/2010GL046442 . ISSN   1944-8007.
  14. ↑ Voss, Katalyn A.; Famiglietti, James S.; Lo, MinHui; de Linage, Caroline; Rodell, Matthew; Swenson, Sean C. (2013-02-01). "Groundwater depletion in the Middle East from GRACE with implications for transboundary water management in the Tigris-Euphrates-Western Iran region". Water Resources Research. 49 (2): 904–914. Bibcode:2013WRR....49..904V. doi:10.1002/wrcr.20078. ISSN   1944-7973. PMC   3644870 . PMID   23658469.
  15. ↑ Castle, Stephanie L.; Thomas, Brian F.; Reager, John T.; Rodell, Matthew; Swenson, Sean C.; Famiglietti, James S. (2014-08-28). "Groundwater depletion during drought threatens future water security of the Colorado River Basin". Geophysical Research Letters. 41 (16): 5904–5911. Bibcode:2014GeoRL..41.5904C. doi:10.1002/2014GL061055. ISSN   1944-8007. PMC   4373164 . PMID   25821273.
  16. ↑ Frankel, Todd C. (2015-06-16). "New NASA data show how the world is running out of water". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  17. 1 2 Richey, Alexandra S.; Thomas, Brian F.; Lo, Min-Hui; Reager, John T.; Famiglietti, James S.; Voss, Katalyn; Swenson, Sean; Rodell, Matthew (2015-07-01). "Quantifying renewable groundwater stress with GRACE". Water Resources Research. 51 (7): 5217–5238. Bibcode:2015WRR....51.5217R. doi:10.1002/2015WR017349. ISSN   1944-7973. PMC   4744761 . PMID   26900185.
  18. ↑ "Responding to the Challenge of Climate and Environmental Change: NASA's Plan for a Climate-Centric Architecture for Earth Observations and Applications from Space" (PDF). NASA. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 28, 2010. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Famiglietti". Honors Program. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  20. ↑ "Geological Society of America – Fellowship". www.geosociety.org. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  21. ↑ "Home – Hydrogeology Division".
  22. ↑ "Water 50/50".
  23. ↑ "David Keith Todd Distinguished Lecture Series to honor Dr. Todd for his contributions to groundwater science and technology". Archived from the original on 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  24. ↑ Famiglietti, J. S., "The Global Groundwater Crisis", NatureClimate Change, 2014.
  25. ↑ Famiglietti, J. S., "Emerging trends in global freshwater availability", Nature, 2018.
  26. ↑ "California's water house of cards". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  27. ↑ "How much water does California have left?". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  28. ↑ "California has about one year of water stored. Will you ration now?". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  29. ↑ "Food industry needs to step up on responsible groundwater use". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  30. ↑ "Real Time with Bill Maher, 'When in Drought' with Prof. Jay Famiglietti". HBO.
  31. ↑ "CBS This Morning, 'California governor defends sparing farmers from drought rules'". CBS.
  32. ↑ "Arnold @Schwarzenegger on Twitter". Twitter.com.
  33. ↑ "Tavis Smiley". PBS.
  34. ↑ "Jay Famiglietti – National Geographic Society Newsroom".
  35. ↑ "Jay Famiglietti | HuffPost". HuffPost .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.