Breakthrough study from IU scientists predicts catastrophic river shifts that threaten millions worldwide
An interdisciplinary team led by Ph.D. student James “Jake” Gearon and Professor Douglas Edmonds published key insights into the dangerous phenomenon of “river avulsion” in the prestigious journal Nature, offering a way to predict when and where rivers may suddenly and dramatically change course. Co-authors and former members of our department’s earth surface processes lab include Harrison Martin (Ph.D. 2023, DEAS, now a post-doctoral fellow at CalTech), Clarke DeLisle (Ph.D. 2023 DEAS, now at EVS, Inc.) and Eric Barefoot, a former post-doctoral researcher at IUB and now a faculty member at UC-Riverside. The team applied their interests in sedimentology, remote sensing, and geoinformatics to offer a new framework for anticipating sudden changes in river courses, providing a more complete picture of flood risks across the world. This breakthrough study sheds light on a process that has shaped human history through devastating floods and continues to threaten millions of people worldwide.
Doug Edmonds and Ben Kravitz join ICCL and IAMAS
Professor Douglas Edmonds and Associate Professor Ben Kravitz have successfully completed their promotion processes. Furthermore, Ben has been selected to join the prestigious International Commission on Climate (ICCL). Membership in the ICCL is limited to fewer than 20 current scientists. Ben will be the sole American member of the ICCL and explained that “the organization is part of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), which is comprised of 59 regular member countries and 15 associate member countries. The IUGG is dedicated to the international promotion and coordination of scientific studies of Earth, and within the atmosphere section, called the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS), they have a focus area on climate.” The IUGG encourages the application of scientific knowledge to societal needs, and Kravitz’s main area of research is climate engineering, which involves major interventions to counter climate change.
Ben Kravitz co-authored an American Geophysical Union (AGU) report on the ethics of geoengineering research.
Geoengineering is also known as climate intervention and involves attempts to alter the climate system to counter global warming. The report states that as unintended consequences of large-scale geoengineering are largely unknown, any research into it must be grounded in sound ethical principles. Responsible assessments of physical, environmental, and social consequences of the research should include the discussion of the purposes and design of the research with potentially impacted groups. Funding and research processes should be transparent and require approval from an independent body for technologies with significant risks.
Travis O’Brien’s research on GHG emissions and precipitation was published in Nature
Assistant Professor Travis O’Brien published an article about greenhouse gas emissions and precipitation in the prestigious journal Nature. Quoting the article: “A comprehensive understanding of human-induced changes to rainfall is essential for water resource management and infrastructure design. However, at regional scales, existing detection and attribution studies are rarely able to conclusively identify human influence on precipitation. Here we show that anthropogenic aerosol and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the primary drivers of precipitation change over the United States. GHG emissions increase mean and extreme precipitation from rain gauge measurements across all seasons, while the decadal-scale effect of global aerosol emissions decreases precipitation.”
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