Purpose: The main goal of this project is to tie together art and science in a way that is impactful. For the science portion, the goal was to see if there was any impact of climate change that will affect farms and crops in Oregon. The art piece was meant to reflect the data.
Methodology: There were four main variables to look at: Well water levels, snow water equivalence, precipitation, and temperature. With the help of the fantastic people I worked with, I was able to learn and use the mapping software QGIS to import and map data sets from gridMET for precipitation and USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and National Water and Climate Center for crop yields, well water levels, and snowpack. I also worked with climate model projections using the SSP2-4.5 projection for temperature.
Results: The mapping software really gave a good idea as to what the long-term trends have been in Oregon from 1980 to present day. The trend shows most basins in Oregon getting less snow every year. The well levels show us where the aquifers are gradually decreasing. In general, most of the decreasing wells are grouped in areas that are decreasing in snow water equivalence also. The painting shows a decrease in snowpack, arid cirrus clouds, and reduced crop yields.
Conclusions: The data shows that in Oregon, groundwater and snowpack levels are decreasing as temperatures rise. Eventually, this will start affecting local agriculture and we need to work with farmers to help prevent this.