Abstract:
Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in critical zone science. Observatory approach, based on place based studies leading to broader generalization to develop an understanding of the Earth’s living skin, has proven to be an effective paradigm. Starting from the U.S., this model has been widely adopted in different parts of the world. This presentation will provide a behind the scenes look on the formulations of critical zone concepts, development of collaborations, advancement of ideas from conception to implementation, and pathways for success. Examples will include, but will not be limited to, effort from the Intensively Managed Landscapes Critical Zone Observatory (IMLCZO) supported by NSF between 2013-2021, and its follow on effort on Critical Interface Network in Intensively Managed Landscapes (CINet) that has received a five year funding starting in 2020.
Bio:
Professor Praveen Kumar holds a B.Tech. (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India 1987), M.S. (Iowa State University 1989), and Ph.D. (University of Minnesota 1993), all in civil engineering. Kumar joined as a faculty at Univ. of Illinois in 1995 where he has been since. His research deals with Hydrocomplexity, the quantitative understanding and prediction of emergent patterns of form and function that arise from complex non-linear multi-scale interactions between soil, water, climate, vegetation and human systems; and how this understanding can be used for innovative solutions to water and sustainability challenges. He has made extensive, deep and signature contributions pertaining to Critical Zone science for intensively managed landscapes, biosphere-hydrosphere interactions, multi-scale variability of hydrologic processes, hydro-geomorphology, hydroinformatics, and information theory in geosciences.
