Faculty Affairs and Academic Programs
Adeyemi Adebiyi
Physical Sciences; Math
Life and Environmental Sciences
UC Merced
Consequences of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Climate and Health Impacts of Dust from Fallowed Agricultural Lands in California
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which requires farmers to bring groundwater basins into balance by 2040, is changing land use across Central Valley (CV) as irrigation restrictions lead to widespread fallowing. While vital for groundwater sustainability, this policy has unintentionally created new sources of windblown dust that have not yet been fully quantified, despite dust posing serious threats to public health and regional climate. I hypothesize that expansion of fallowed lands has increased fine dust, contributing significantly to particulate matter in the CV and influencing the regional climate through dust deposition that accelerates snowmelt over the Sierra Nevada. Fine dust from fallowed lands can carry infectious fungal spores responsible for Valley Fever and could increase the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, fallowed dust deposited on Sierra Nevada snowpack could accelerate snowmelt runoff timing and exacerbate water resource stress during the dry season. To understand these impacts, the research will leverage multi-scale observations, including satellite-based identification of fallowed areas, and a network of ground-based monitors to measure dust particle size distributions and concentrations across five CV counties. These data will constrain model simulations, incorporating new techniques to estimate the contribution of dust from fallowed lands to air pollution in CV and impacts of fallowed dust on the Sierra Nevada snowpack. This integrated framework will provide scientific foundations for evidence-based policies balancing groundwater sustainability with air quality protection and climate adaptation.
