May Meeting (Zoom) 5/12/21

Detecting the Human Fingerprint on Wildfire and Flood Risks

In 2020, wildfires burned over 3 million acres in California, destroying homes, communities, and the environment, and raising concerns about debris flows and flash floods during winter storms. This record-breaking year is part of a recent trend of increasing wildfire size and frequency that is expected to continue in future decades. This talk will explore how we detect and disentangle the human influence on the intensification of wildfire weather in California and across the world. We will also discuss how more frequent wildfire weather could amplify the risk of post-fire debris flows and flash floods in future years.

Dr. Danielle Touma is a postdoctoral scholar at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UCSB. She received her PhD from Stanford University in Earth System Science in 2019 and her MS and BS degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from NC State University. Dr. Touma's research advances our understanding of how anthropogenic activities impact extreme hydroclimate events. Her work has been featured in multiple news and media outlets. In addition to her research, Dr. Touma is passionate about science outreach and community service, teaching science workshops to K-12 students, and holding leadership roles in Engineers Without Borders while at NC State.