Submitted by Lucy Barker on
Lola Rey from Cranfield University won the Best Young Scientist award for her presentation "Developing drought resilience in irrigated agriculture in the face of increasing water scarcity" at the Adaption Futures conference in Rotterdam in May 2016.
Lola presented research undertaken in the Historic Droughts project, exploring the research question, "Are irrigated farmers in the east of England becoming more resilient to droughts in the face of increasing water scarcity?" Using quantitative analysis of agro-meteorological data and qualitative evidence from farmers, she assessed the severity of droughts and their impacts on irrigated agriculture in the east of England. The findings of the study highlighted the need for a vertically integrated drought management approach to reduce impacts on agriculture as well as the need for greater collaboration in catchment-scale water resource management.
Congrats to @lolareyv who won #confAF2016 Best Young Scientist for a presentation on @NERCscience research on drought and water scarcity.
— Cranfield Water (@cranfieldwater) 16 May 2016
Adaptation Futures is the conference of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA). The conference brought together academics, policy makers and industry from around the world to exchange knowledge, ideas and insights about climate change adaptation.