Marine and Environment
Population growth, industrialization, and climate change are putting the nation's marine and environmental resources at risk, from the dwindling aquifers in California's Central Valley, to the threatened waters of Florida's Everglades. Human impacts on these resources and their reflected impacts on humans can be catastrophic, disrupting regional ecosystems, reducing biodiversity, damaging food crops, and compromising human health. The enormity of the management challenges stems from the plexus of relationships that link climate change, land use, water, agriculture, and forestry.
Discerning meaningful connections requires programs that span air, land, and ocean, and which are fundamentally grounded in data-enabled science. Developing and applying the sensing technologies, computing tools, and analytical techniques that enable this data-driven approach are the focus of researchers working in the Marine and Environment area.