Dr Uday Nidumolu: analysing climate risks and adaptation options

Dr Uday Nidumolu is modelling natural resource and socio-economic systems to investigate climate adaptation strategies for agriculture.

Contact:

uday.nidumolu@sa.gov.au; uday.nidumolu@csiro.au

Phone: +61-8-83039410
Mob: +61-417 755 871
Fax: +61-8-83039717

Current activities

Dr Uday Nidumolu has been working as a joint appointment with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and South Australia Research and Development Institute (SARDI) since early 2007.

His current research is focused on developing methods and tools to address issues faced by the agriculture sector.

He has a particular interest in integrating climate variability and climate change into improving natural resource management (NRM) decision making with specific reference to agricultural sector.

Some of his current/recent projects include:

Developing multi-scale climate change adaptation strategies for farming communities in Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and India – Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

He has a particular interest in integrating climate variability and climate change into improving natural resource management (NRM) decision making with specific reference to agricultural sector.Developing climate change resilient cropping and mixed cropping/grazing businesses in Australia – Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)

Effectiveness of adaptations to heat stress to maintain dairy productivity in a variable and changing northern Victorian climate – Dairy Australia

Working with Australian Cherry Growers to understand and manage the risks and opportunities from climate change - Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)

First Steps in the Apple and Pear Industries’ Response to Climate Change and Climate Variability: A Desktop Study – Horticulture Australia Limited

Eyre Peninsula Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity Assessment - Caring for our Country funded project

Using Goyder's Line to better understand risk, resilience and thresholds in low rainfall regions of South Australia - Caring for our Country funded project

Adaptation Strategies due to Climate Variability and Change in Viticulture - a South Australian Wine Industry Association funded project

Agricultural analysis for decision support tools - evaluating the benefits of using General Circulation Model (GCM) rainfall hindcasts (i.e. retrospective forecasts) to inform on-farm management decisions within the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative (SEACI) project

Modelling risks and opportunities arising from ecosystem change in food and fibre value chains – Agricultural Sustainability Initiative (funded by CSIRO)

Exploring the use of satellite derived Land Surface Temperature (LST) data to map the spatial and temporal coherence of frost for grain and grape industries in the South Australian Murray Darling Basin – Centre for Natural Resources Management (CNRM) funded project.

Background

Dr Nidumolu has wide international education, work, living and travelling experience in countries such as India, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, France and Australia.

After his Masters in spatial science in 1993, he applied spatial data modelling in agricultural / NRM as a decision support tool for regional level managers in India.

Moving from a largely bio-physical driven agricultural land use analysis he worked on participatory approaches using methods such as soft systems, fuzzy modelling, bio-economic modelling as part of his Doctor of Philosophy (2004).

As a European Union Marie Curie Fellow with Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) in La Reunion/Montpellier, soon after (2005), he developed regional bio-economic models for agricultural-livestock systems focusing on social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

From early 2007, as part of CSIRO / SARDI Sustainable Ecosystems research position, he has been working in the area of climate change and variability in agricultural decision making.

This work involves integrating bio-physical, participatory, bio-economic and climate change science to analyse and support regional agricultural decision making and discussion support.

Academic qualifications

Dr Nidumolu has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science with Honours from Osmania Univeristy, India, 1989

• MSc from Osmania Univeristy, India, 1991
  Master of Philosophy in Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing from Cambridge University, UK, 1993

• PhD from Wageningen University (Department of Production Ecology and Resource Conservation) / International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, the Netherlands, 2004.
  His doctoral research was titled Integrating Geo-information Models with participatory approaches – Applications in Land Use Analysis.

Achievements

Some of Dr Nidumolu's major professional achievements include:

• CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Divisional Award for Excellence in converting rigorous science to agricultural and NRM policy advice to State and Federal Governments. 2008.

• European Union Marie Curie Research Fellow - Transfer of Knowledge Scheme of EU FP6 – European Union sponsored research fund to pursue research hosted by CIRAD (Montpellier and La Réunion, France), 2005–07

• United Nations University (UNU) Scholarship to pursue the course on Land Degradation and Sustainable Rural Livelihoods at Overseas Development Group, University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK) and Centro de Edafolgia y Biologia Aplicada del Segura (Murcia, Spain), 2004

• DGIS-ITC PhD Fellowship - fully funded fellowship to pursue doctoral research at Wageningen University / ITC, the Netherlands, 2001–05

• Cambridge Commonwealth-Dharam Hinduja Fellowship - fully funded fellowship to pursue M.Phil at Cambridge, UK, 1992–93

• National Merit Scholar, Indian Government recognition for academic excellence in School and University studies, 1984–89.
  

Memberships and fellowships
Dr Nidumolu is a member of the:

• International Geographical Union's Commission on Land Degradation (COMLAND) 2004–present

• Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC), University of California, 2003–present

• Australian Society of Agronomy, 2008-10.

He has also had the following fellowship positions:

• Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society, Cambridge, UK, 1993–present

• Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Cambridge, UK, 1992–93.

Dr Nidumolu is lead or associate author on around 50 scientific publications.