GEO Seminar - Climate, Hydrology and Freshwater

GEO Seminar – Climate, Hydrology, and the Problem of Freshwater in the Central Tropical Pacific - Presented by Dr. Melinda Higley, Geologist, Department of Geology, Geography and Environmental Studies, Calvin University

GEO Seminar – Climate, Hydrology, and the Problem of Freshwater in the Central Tropical Pacific - Presented by Dr. Melinda Higley, Geologist, Department of Geology, Geography and Environmental Studies, Calvin University

This seminar focuses on freshwater resources of the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation in the central tropical Pacific. For small tropical islands with limited freshwater resources, understanding how island hydrology is influenced by regional climate is important, considering projected hydroclimate and sea level changes as well as growing populations dependent on limited groundwater resources. However, on remote tropical islands, groundwater is very difficult to study directly, and hydroclimate data is scarce. Therefore, remote sensing offers a way to investigate variability in island surface water area, an important link between climate variability and groundwater storage. On Kiritimati (Christmas) Island, the largest island in the Republic of Kiribati, remote sensing shows that surface water area varies seasonally, following wet and dry seasons, and interannually, due to hydroclimate variability associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation.

Join us on Zoom:  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83443356766?pwd=RmFuckJSNjZUNUJwaDV3ejRScWtqdz09