Mondal, Pinki

As a land change scientist my research interests revolve around examining the relationships between biophysical and socio-economic variables and how these variables contribute towards global environmental change. I am currently engaged in a project to better understand agricultural vulnerability to climate variability in India, where agriculture provides sustenance and livelihood for an estimated 70% of total population. With expected changes in future climate, significant fluctuations in crop yields are projected for near future, leading to serious concerns about food security of the growing Indian population. I am specifically using multi-platform satellite data (TRMM, MODIS, Landsat, World View) along with district-level non-satellite data on irrigation, dominant crop type, crop yield to explore factors associated with changing crop intensity in India.

I received my PhD from the University of Florida, and am currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University to determine agricultural sensitivity to climate variability in India. I have also worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst.