Guest Seminar & Social fika with Agnes Pranindita - Atmospheric water flows: bridging knowledge to governance opportunities

Atmospheric water flows: bridging knowledge to governance opportunities

Atmospheric water flows are the partial engine of the global hydrological cycle regulated by the ‘moisture recycling’ process, where water is evaporated from land and ocean, transported downwind, and recycled back as precipitation. A growing body of research over the past decades shows that land use decisions in upwind regions, such as tropical deforestation, modify downwind precipitation patterns through changes in the moisture recycling process. Moisture recycling thus concerns various societal aspects that depend on precipitation, such as water availability, crop productivity, industrial operations, and people’s livelihoods. Nevertheless, despite its increasingly recognised societal relevance, moisture recycling as the driver of atmospheric water flows is currently ungoverned, unlike river and groundwater flows. Meanwhile, moisture recycling does not exist in isolation, as it takes place in a complex interplay with other biophysical and socioeconomic feedback processes across scales. Moisture recycling is also controlled by land-atmosphere interactions and highly dynamic atmospheric processes and circulations that span areas beyond local scales and traverse jurisdictional boundaries. Several governance questions seem relevant: Who is responsible for governing and managing land surfaces in ways in which precipitation can be safeguarded globally? What types of governance are suitable to address the dynamic and complex nature of moisture recycling? Should the biophysical relevance of moisture recycling be incorporated into other more governed sectors, such as the food system, climate adaptation, and water security strategies? In this seminar, I will introduce the concept of atmospheric water flows and moisture recycling, give an overview of the societal relevance of moisture recycling underpinned by recent scientific evidence, and discuss the opportunities and challenges in governing the process and atmospheric water.

Agnes Pranindita is a Postdoc at the Stockholm Resilience Centre whose research examines how forests and land-use change influence rainfall patterns through atmospheric moisture recycling and how these connections affect food security and human livelihoods. She focuses on integrating these insights into sustainable land-use governance to strengthen resilience across regions and sectors.

More information about Agnes Pranindita - stockholmresilience.org

Fika will be served after the seminar. 

Please register for the seminar before September 11.

The event is organised in collaboration by 
LU profile area Nature-based future solutions
ClimBEco Graduate Research School
BECC