30 JUL 2025 (WED) 15:30-16:30

GEOG HKU
6 days ago
1 min read

Departmental Research Seminars Series

The Repurposing of Remote Sensing Technologies to Address Food Security Issues in Drylands

Date: 30 JUL 2025 (Wednesday)

Time: 15:30-16:30 (HKT)

Venue: CLL, Department of Geography, 10/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Registration link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=101900

Abstract:

Food security is the availability of food and a pastoral household’s and their livestock’s access to it. Increasing temperature and aridity are leading to an increase in the areal extent of drylands. Declining groundwater, larger and more frequent fires, invasion by exotic annual grasses, and stressed irrigation systems are leading to degradation of dryland productivity and increased food insecurity in the western United States and globally. Mitigation and adaptation measures to these dire conditions include the evaluation of apparently resilient pastoral landscapes that are managed by Indigenous peoples, e.g., Native Americans, the development of more efficient irrigation systems, the introduction of drought-tolerant crops, and innovative manipulation of the distribution and locations of wild and domestic ungulates by virtual fencing, GPS tracking, and their use in targeted grazing of invasives, are among a few suggested practices. Assessment of the efficacy of these agricultural practices requires remote sensing technologies that allow cross-scale analyses of above- and belowground productivity from the local to global spatial. Consequently, we present here examples of remote sensing technologies, specifically, NOAA AVHRR, ground penetrating radar (GPR), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), GRACE, and other complementary technologies, that have been repurposed to allow assessment of above- and belowground water-use, vegetation structure, and carbon dynamics in intensive and extensive agricultural systems.