{"id":21964,"date":"2020-02-20T15:11:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/?p=21964"},"modified":"2020-02-21T17:12:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T17:12:03","slug":"ashok-mishra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/ashok-mishra\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashok Mishra: Improving Water Security"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='fullscreen_slider_1'  class='avia-fullscreen-slider main_color   avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_hr  avia-builder-el-first   container_wrap sidebar_right' style=' '  ><a href='#next-section' title='' class='scroll-down-link av-control-default' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue877' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'><\/a><div   data-size='no scaling'  data-lightbox_size='large'  data-animation='slide'  data-conditional_play=''  data-ids='21965'  data-video_counter='0'  data-autoplay='false'  data-bg_slider='true'  data-slide_height='100'  data-handle='av_fullscreen'  data-interval='5'  data-class=' '  data-el_id=''  data-css_id='fullscreen_slider_1'  data-scroll_down='aviaTBscroll_down'  data-control_layout='av-control-default'  data-custom_markup=''  data-perma_caption=''  data-autoplay_stopper=''  data-image_attachment='scroll'  data-min_height='0px'  data-stretch=''  class='avia-slideshow avia-slideshow-1 av-slider-scroll-down-active av-control-default av-default-height-applied avia-slideshow-no scaling av_fullscreen   avia-slide-slider '  itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><ul class='avia-slideshow-inner ' style='padding-bottom: 66.6666666667%;' ><li style='background-position:center center;' data-img-url='https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/02\/Ashok-Mishra.jpg' class=' av-single-slide slide-1 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><div id='after_full_slider_1'  class='main_color av_default_container_wrap container_wrap sidebar_right' style=' '  ><div class='container' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-21964'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div  style='height:25px' class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_fullscreen  el_before_av_one_full  avia-builder-el-first '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  av_inherit_color '  style='font-size:25px; color:#000000; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"color: #f66733; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bolder; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: -50px;\">ASHOK MISHRA<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 72px; font-weight: bolder; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em;\">Improving Water Security<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<div  style='height:1px; margin-top:-50px'  class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_one_full '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-5  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><div  style=' margin-top:30px; margin-bottom:30px;'  class='hr hr-custom hr-center hr-icon-no   avia-builder-el-6  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '><span class='hr-inner   inner-border-av-border-thin' style=' width:1100px;' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<div  style='height:1px; margin-top:-50px'  class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-7  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_one_full '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-8  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  av_inherit_color '  style='font-size:25px; color:#999999; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Mishra applies data science to the problem of drought<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<div  style='height:1px; margin-top:-50px'  class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-10  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_one_full '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-11  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_one_full  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><div  style=' margin-top:30px; margin-bottom:30px;'  class='hr hr-custom hr-center hr-icon-no   avia-builder-el-12  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '><span class='hr-inner   inner-border-av-border-thin' style=' width:1100px;' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-13  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_hr  column-top-margin\" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  av_inherit_color '  style='font-size:19px; color:#000000; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">D<\/span><span class=\"s2\">rought is endemic to India,<\/span> an endless cycle of water shortages followed by replenishing monsoon rains. Ashok Mishra experienced it firsthand growing up in rural India.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">He also lived close to the Hirakud Dam, built across the Mahanadi River and India\u2019s largest dam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cAs a child, I was fascinated by how this reservoir stored and managed water during droughts and floods,\u201d says Mishra, Dean\u2019s Professor of Civil Engineering. \u201cThis is a vitally important and complex task, as we see drought and flood in the same year on the Indian subcontinent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">That childhood curiosity has led to a lifelong focus on water security, especially during extreme climate events such as drought.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cDrought is often considered the most complex and least understood of natural environmental hazards, with an immediate and serious threat to water security, food, energy and infrastructure that impacts the lives of millions,\u201d he says. \u201cPersistent droughts can force foundational changes in how communities use the land; for example, water-intensive industries potentially relocating, and agricultural production shifting to other regions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Mishra received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2017 to create a model for improving water sustainability during extreme droughts. He\u2019ll test his methodology in the Savannah River Basin in South Carolina and Georgia, then scale it nationally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">According to Mishra, there is currently no single physical variable available to quantify droughts. As a result, it\u2019s hard to pinpoint when a drought starts and ends, as well as to determine its magnitude and spatial extent. There is also a need to quantify water security threats by sector and region. \u201cThis is imperative given the looming threat of drought caused by climate change,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich will impact 80 percent of the global population. Already, 35-40 percent of the area of the United States has been affected by severe droughts in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Mishra is taking a data science approach. He\u2019s built his own \u201creservoir\u201d of big data that includes high-resolution geographic information systems; weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; streamflow data from the United States Geological Survey; agricultural water-use figures; a digital elevation model; cropland data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture; soil data from the States Soil Geographic Database; and climate change scenarios from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5, a protocol for studying the output of coupled atmosphere\u2013ocean general <span class=\"s1\">circulation models used by the international climate modeling community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">These data sources vary in their spatial and temporal resolutions (the number of pixels in each digital image, and how often the data is collected), so he\u2019ll use techniques like interpolation, aggregation and disaggregation to \u201ccleanse\u201d the data and standardize the numbers: \u201cI will employ statistical modeling to quantify the interdependence and cascading effects between drought indicators, create a decision-making framework to improve water security, and establish a drought early-warning system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">He also uses satellite remote sensing products to monitor soil moisture and drought indices. \u201cNovel technologies like these can help policymakers utilize water resources optimally; farmers can use sensors to decide when and how much to irrigate, depending on crop requirements,\u201d Mishra explains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">His overall goal is \u201cto promote sustainable water resources management that can support human well-being, and that is also compatible with sustaining natural environmental systems.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Mishra has been cited more than 5,500 times, according to Google Scholar; his most renowned paper, \u201cA review of drought concepts,\u201d has been referenced more than 2,000 times.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe article revolutionized how drought is understood by the scientific, social and policy communities and filled major gaps in comprehending the linkage between the drought and vulnerability indicators associated with water security,\u201d says Hong-Yi Li, an assistant professor from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston. \u201cIt was always the first journal article I passed along to any of my students or postdocs who are interested in drought. I will keep doing so for at least another five to 10 years.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<div  style='height:100px' class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-15  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_comments_list '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div  class='av-buildercomment   '><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ashok Mishra applies data science to the problem of drought<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":21965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[229,232,97,82,233],"coauthors":[16],"class_list":["post-21964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-profiles","tag-2020-faculty-profiles","tag-drought","tag-india","tag-research","tag-water-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9IEky-5Ig","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/02\/Ashok-Mishra.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21964"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}