Research summary
Agriculture is the world’s largest industry, employing more than a billion people. But climate change is bringing extreme weather events like storms, floods and droughts that hamper global agricultural productivity. As Canada Research Chair in Water Resource Management for Sustainable Agriculture, Dr. Hailong He is looking for ways to help agriculture adapt to our changing climate.
He and his research team are developing multifunctional sensors to uncover the mechanisms of water and heat transport in soils in order to better quantify snowmelt infiltration in cropland. They are also establishing best management practices that agricultural producers can use to enhance climate change resiliency and maximize production. In addition, they are using sensing technologies and modelling to show how land use, management and climate change factors interact and affect regional hydrological processes. Ultimately, they hope to develop tools and strategies to improve the resilience of agricultural and agri-food systems.