Globalization of Land and Water Resources to Meet Societal Food and Energy Needs

Name: Delivering NOAA Satellite Data From the Final Frontier to the Last Frontier
Start: 2026-02-23T07:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-02-23T08:00:00-05:00

This event has passed. See the seminar recording here:

Globalization of Land and Water Resources to

Meet societal Food and Energy Needs

Prof. Paolo D’Odorico (Fellow of AGU)

UC Berkeley

Monday August 27, 2018, 12:00-1:00 PM

ESSIC Conference Room 4102, 5825 University Research Ct, College Park, MD 20740

Abstract:

The increasing global demand for farmland products by the growing and increasingly burgeoning human population is placing unprecedented pressure on the global agricultural system and its water resources. Many regions of the world that are not self-sufficient because of chronic water scarcity or lack of suitable agricultural land, strongly depend on the imports of agricultural commodities and associated embodied water. The globalization of water and land through trade and foreign land acquisitions is leading to a displacement of land use and a disconnection between human populations and the water resources they rely on. These phenomena are reshaping the patterns of water dependency through teleconnections between consumers and production areas. Competition in water use for food and energy production constitutes the core of an emerging debate that is generating new questions on the environmental, ethical, economic, and policy implications of human appropriation of water resources. This seminar will examine the ways societies virtually modify their access to water through trade and foreign land acquisitions to meet their growing food and energy needs.

Bio-sketch:

Dr. Paolo D’Odorico is Professor of Hydrology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the role of hydrological processes in the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and societies. His work has analyzed the coupling between hydrological processes and the biota, and contributed to the field of ecohydrology. Through field observations and modeling, he is studying new mechanisms of desertification and factors contributing to the resilience of ecosystems at the desert margins. He is currently investigating the global patterns of water use for food and energy production and their impacts on water equity, societal resilience, and food security. He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2016.

Host:

Dr. Safa Motesharrei, ssm@umd.edu, ESSIC

(Email Safa if you would like to meet with Prof. D’Odorico.)

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