Welcome Back to My Journey

April 21, 2022

Hi Everyone,

It’s been sometime since I posted here. Over two years actually, which is challenging for me to comprehend. Like so many others, COVID was very difficult and has delayed my research. Not only the travel piece but also the ability to network and feel connected during an already challenging PhD journey. However, I am extremely grateful that I can continue my fellowship and get one step closer to achieving my research goals. And I am excited to take you all on this journey with me for the next several months.

Since it’s been awhile I want to refresh you on my research and ultimately how the fellowship journey fits in. I am a remote sensing scientist currently working to better characterize human-made reservoir structures (i.e., tanks) across the South Indian landscape. These structures were once critical to most small-holder farming communities as they were the main source of irrigation in a monsoon-driven climate. Today, while tanks physically exist on the landscape, it is unclear if they provide substantial benefits in contemporary Indian agricultural systems. These structures largely exist in ungauged basins so having more data is critical to offer insight on tank importance.

My research fills this gap by offering spatially and temporally dynamic observations into how tanks function on the landscape today. My research applies novel satellite constellation mission observations to further understand tank functionality and enhance water resource management in ungauged basins that use rainwater harvesting techniques.

And the fellowship offers an incredible rare and unique opportunity for me to inform my research from a multidisciplinary perspective and work and learn from several of the stakeholders that drive my work. So over the next several months my blog posts will summarize these visits and keep you all in the loop.

This week I am at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in Delft, Netherlands, which I will make a post about soon. Starting in May, Delft will be my home base for the next few months while I work to integrate my remote sensing estimates of tank state into a modelling framework to answer basin-scale questions about tank hydrology.

I am not a hydrologist by training, so I have a lot to learn.