Shweta Bhogale, Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy and HEEP Pre-Doctoral Fellow, will share $1M award provided by the Climate Change Solutions Fund (CCSF) for her work, “A Study of the Implications of Geographic and Administrative Boundaries on Groundwater Extraction in India.” Bhogale’s research is one of nine other research teams who will share the $1 million in awards. This is the seventh round of CCSF awards for proposals that create critical knowledge, propel novel ideas, and lead toward solutions that can be applied at Harvard and across the globe. “Pursuing a more sustainable future means advancing on several fronts to address the tremendous challenges posed by climate change,” Harvard President Larry Bacow said. “The projects being funded this year draw on strengths from across the University and among a wide swath of researchers and scholars. I look forward to seeing where their efforts lead us in the years ahead.”
Research projects are selected each year by the fund review committee from across the University’s 12 schools. Nearly 60 CCSF projects have received more than $7 million since the fund was established in 2014 by President emerita Drew Faust.
Bhogale’s research project is described below. It is being conducted jointly with Shamil Khedgikar of the Indian Business School.
“Agriculture’s increased dependence on groundwater at a time of worsening agroclimatic conditions is bringing the planet closer to a major water crisis, with potentially enormous consequences for both food production and the livelihoods of rural populations – a majority of the workforce in many developing countries. This project will study the effects of competition for groundwater and irrigation practices, crop choices, agricultural livelihoods, and long-term water levels in India. The project leaders hypothesize that water sources that are shared between districts see greater levels of water extraction and aim to provide evidence for the effectiveness of different institutional and policy mechanisms that dampen adverse effects of competition for water. In particular, they are interested in whether governance of groundwater resources in their entirety, instead of as segmented units, could lead to more sustainable extraction practices.”
The original article announcing CCSF award winners published by the Harvard Gazette can be found here.