Obringer Lab

Climate Change Impacts

Climate change impacts all aspects of society. In our lab, we research how climate change will impact infrastructure systems and the people that use these systems. Additionally, we focus on both the broad impacts (e.g., rising temperatures) and specific disasters (e.g., heatwaves and droughts) that are related to climate change.

Water-Energy Nexus

Many infrastructure systems and services are interconnected, including water and energy systems. Understanding this interdependency is critical for building resilience to climate change. In our lab, we take a systems-oriented approach to understanding the impact of climate change on the water-energy nexus. Moreover, we emphasize the interconnectivity of water and energy demand, as well as supply, both of which will be effected by climate change.

Data Analytics

Data analytics is becoming increasingly widespread within infrastructure studies. In our lab, we leverage state-of-the-art statistical learning and data analytics techniques to investigate the relationship between climate and infrastructure systems. Once we have an idea of the relationship between climate and these systems, we use the most recent global climate models to evaluate the possible changes to the system that will be caused by a worsening climate crisis.

Recent News

Published Paper! Dr. Obringer and two students, Joy Adul and Vijay Chiluveru, recently had a paper published in Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability. The paper uses urban scaling theory to investigate the patterns in US water and electricity use through time. The open access paper is available here.

Published Paper! Dr. Obringer recently had a paper published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association. The paper leverages an agent-based model to understand the role of water conservation attitudes in the overall water availability of the city of Phoenix, Arizona. The paper can be found here.

Openings

Currently, there are no funded openings available in Dr. Obringer's lab. Motivated students are encouraged to apply for external funding through fellowship programs, such as the NSF GFRP, Ford Foundation, NOAA C&GC, and NASA FINESST programs.

To work in Dr. Obringer's lab, students can apply through the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering or the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State.