Poster Session
Comparative Analysis of Drought Effects on the Agricultural Industry in the Colorado Basin Region of the United States View Digital Media
Poster Session Ossai Alu
The states of the lower and upper regions of the Colorado River basin are largely dependent on surface water resources for use in areas such as agriculture, industry, and municipal activities. However, a severe drought running well over a decade and other climate change effects, have had lasting effects on the ecosystem, economy, and agriculture of the region leading to the call for timely implementation of conservation efforts to stem present and future losses to human activities in the region. The largest consumer of water in the region is the agricultural sector and it is important to understand what effects the reduced access to surface water resources has had on such a large sector as the agricultural industry. This paper focuses on the river basin to determine the effects of this multiyear drought has had on the cropping decisions made by farmers over time. Land surface temperature and vegetation parameter data are utilized to obtain drought indices over a period covering the years 2000-2022, precipitation data covering the period as well is used to validate the results of the temporal drought analysis. The findings are then compared to crop production data obtained from the United States Cropland Data Layer (USDA-CDL). As such the analysis of the multiyear drought shows the effect it has had on crop production in the region as farmers have had to make conservative decisions on crop acreage and the types of crops planted based on the availability of water in the region,.
Climate Change Refugee Support in India
Poster Session Darby Graf, Jonathan Loke
The increase in the number of displaced people due to climate change has raised serious questions about the degree to which communities will accept climate change refugees. The present study examines the effects of reason for becoming a refugee (climate change, economic reasons) and ethnicity (Indian, Rohingya) on empathy for the refugee and acceptance of the refugee into the community. The participants were 407 (35% female, 65% male) people who completed the study using MTurk in India. The results show participants report feeling a moderate degree of empathy and moderate concern for the refugee regardless of reason for becoming a refugee or their ethnicity. These findings suggest that there is moderate support for assisting refugees and that participants were not discriminating based on refugee status or ethnicity. Implications of the findings for policy are discussed.
