From Pixels to Policy: Field-Scale Remote Sensing for Agricultural Water Management from Sub-Saharan Africa to California

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ABSTRACT

Irrigation accounts for 70% of human water use, simultaneously representing an underutilized opportunity to boost yields in some regions and an unsustainable strain on resources in others. My dissertation develops and applies satellite remote sensing and machine learning approaches to gain field-scale insights into agricultural water management across these contrasting contexts.

Investigating whether small-scale irrigation can meaningfully contribute to irrigation expansion in sub-Saharan Africa, I generate the first representative estimates of irrigation extent in Zambia, showing that farmer-led irrigation is thriving and holds significant potential for climate adaptation. To explore how water can be conserved in over-allocated basins, I develop a novel strategy for mapping crop water consumption across California's Central Valley, showing that on-farm management decisions can yield water savings comparable to switching crop types or leaving fields uncultivated. Finally, recognizing that such water management decisions also reshape disease ecology, I develop high-resolution maps of mosquito-borne disease risk, revealing which land cover types and times of day present the greatest threat to human health.

Together, these chapters demonstrate how satellite-based monitoring can inform water management decisions which carry significant consequences, from food security and climate resilience to public health.
 

BIO

Anna Boser is an environmental scientist who develops machine learning and satellite remote sensing tools to inform water management decisions in agricultural landscapes under climate stress. Her research spans contrasting contexts, from under-resourced farming regions in sub-Saharan Africa to over-allocated basins in California. She is supported by an NSF GRFP, the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, and a Fulbright Fellowship. Anna holds a BA in Statistics from UC Berkeley, where she was recognized as the top graduating senior in 2020, and is the 2024 recipient of the AGU Science for Solutions Award.