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Dr. Upmanu Lall is the Director of the Columbia Water Center and the Alan and Carol Silberstein Professor of Engineering. He has broad interests in hydrology, climate dynamics, water resource systems analysis, risk management and sustainability. He is motivated by challenging questions at the intersection of these fields, especially where they have relevance to societal outcomes or to the advancement of science towards innovative application.

His current research covers 3 major initiatives that are developed through the Columbia Water Center. The Global Water Sustainability Initiative addresses global water scarcity and risk. The Global Flood Initiative is motivated by the need to predict, mitigate and manage floods at a global scale recognizing their climate drivers, and supply chain impacts. America's Water seeks to develop sustainable water management and infrastructure design paradigms for the 21st century recognizing the linkages between urban functioning, food, water, energy and climate. These programmatic initiatives are backed by research on systems level modeling of hydrology, climate, agronomy and economics.

Abstract

The Co-evolution of Humans, Climate, Water, Earth and Biota: The Next Chapter?

(virtual presentation)

For over 100,000 years, humans have inhabited the earth. Over that time, we have evolved from a
migratory species that relied on what was available, marveling at the range of biota as we
wandered, to unprecedented global domination, modifying climate, water and land, and escaping
the tug of earth’s gravity to leave our signature on another planet. Hydrology must occupy a
special place in this evolution since human dependence on water is explicit, and this constrains
our search for a place to live beyond our planet.

The hydrologic cycle – from glaciers to ocean to atmosphere and land – is a critical element of
the planetary energy dynamics and climate. Rivers on land, in the atmosphere and currents in the
ocean distribute energy, man-made chemicals, and microbes to all parts of the planet.
Consequently, it is interesting that hydrologic science is largely insulated from a sense of the
coupled dynamics of man, climate and water, especially as to the millennial time scales of
evolution. Yes, we consider the near term dynamics of harnessing water for designing
infrastructure for supply or to tame the fury of floods, or to understand how we are changing the
quantity and quality of water. Infrastructure that insulates man from climate exigencies that are
felt through water has to an extent decoupled human thinking and evolution from water – until it
fails. Man’s modification of climate extends to the hydrologic cycle, which in turn is critical for
biota, and hence the carbon cycle, and may soon be responsible for mass, forced human
migration. These aspects are now topics of study.

My talk will focus on the question of how we may co-evolve over the next 100 to 1000 years, and
perhaps longer. What can we expect from humans? Are they agents that shape the planet to their
will, or does nature re-assert herself, and what role will water play in this game? Does the
coupling break as technology enables the exploration of other planets?

2023 Invited Speakers