Natural Resource Sciences Program
NRS Optional Specializations
Applied Science Program
Entrance Requirements
Application
Process

Climate Assessment and Impacts Specialization in
Natural Resource Sciences Graduate Program

Available to both MS and PhD candidates.

The Climate Assessment and Impacts specialization provides students with unique opportunities to emphasize

  1. understanding the interactions between climate and society
  2. learning methodologies for climate assessment and impacts

Students selecting this specialization will be able to capitalize on the expertise of scientists and other students working on climate assessment, climate impacts, and problem-oriented policy research.

A related graduate degree program in Agronomy & Horticulture has a specialization in Agricultural Meteorology and selected faculty from the School of Natural Resources can advise potential students.

This specialization is for students interested in focusing on learning the methodologies to assess climate variability and longer-term climate change and their impacts on society and natural resource systems. Complex climate-based problems, and their interrelationships with natural resources and ecosystem management issues, are pervasive today and will become even more important in the future. Issues such as natural hazard management, climate variability and climate change, changing frequency and severity of extreme climate events, environmental degradation, climate-crop interactions, carbon and water gas exchanges, deforestation, and natural resources management in light of the increasing demand for water and other natural resources are examples of potential topics covered within the scope of this specialization.

Students selecting this specialization can enhance their learning experiences through interactions with the Nebraska Mesonet, the Nebraska State Climate Office (NSCO),the High Plains Regional Climate Center, the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), and the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT), four organizations housed under the School of Natural Resources that partner in many state, regional, national, and international climate-assessment activities. The NSCO also maintains the Automated Weather Data Network for Nebraska, which offers a wealth of climate data for research applications. The internationally-recognized Applied Climate Science faculty network provides students with the opportunity to interact with experts at other universities as well as with scientists in federal agencies and regional and international organizations.

The objectives of the specialization include:

  1. To develop a proficiency in multiple topics related to applied climate sciences
  2. To understand the interactions between climate variability and climate change and their impacts on society and natural resource systems
  3. To utilize the opportunity to interact with experts associated with scientists at the Mesonet, NSCO, NDMC, and CALMIT, as well as scientists at other universities, federal agencies, and regional and international organizations.

Faculty Point-of-Contact

If you are interested in the Climate Assessment and Impacts graduate specialization, please feel free to contact the following SNR faculty member:

Dr. Mike Hayes

Advising Faculty

  • Minimum of 12 graduate credit hours in climate assessment and impacts courses approved by student’s supervisory committee
  • Required Courses
    • NRES 408/808 - Microclimate: The Biological Environment
    • NRES 452/852 - Climate and Society
    • NRES 469/869 - Bio-Atmospheric Instrumentation or NRES 907 - Agricultural Climatology or NRES 454/854 - Regional Climatology
  • Choose 1 of the following:
    • METR 423/823 - Physical Climatology
    • NRES 906 - Crop Growth and Yield Modeling
    • NRES 908 - Solar Radiation Interactions at the Earth's Surface
    • NRES 867 - Global Climate Change
    • NRES 954 - Turbulent Transfer in the Atmospheric Surface Layer
  • Undergraduate course work may meet some of the course requirements listed above. However, the student wishing the climate assessment and impacts specialization is still required to take a minimum of nine hours of graduate level climatology, climate impacts, remote sensing, GIS, or others courses related to climate assessment and impacts.
  • Proficiency in quantitative methods at a level appropriate for the student’s research and degree as approved by the supervisory committee (for the M.S., this will normally be at the level of multivariate statistics or equivalent)
  • Thesis or dissertation topic in climate assessment or climate impacts or problem-oriented policy research
  • The chair of the student’s supervisory committee must be from the climate assessment and impacts faculty listed on the specialization web page.

Please see our entrance requirements and application procedure pages for more information about our admission and application expectations for graduate degree candidates.

Students selecting this specialization may find potential employment opportunities with

  • environmental consulting firms
  • environmental- and agricultural-related businesses
  • planning agencies
  • non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental agencies addressing climate and natural resources management issues
  • defense industry as a civilian or with the Armed Services
  • secondary-level teacher
  • climate impact specialist
  • research project assistant working with climatologists, natural resource managers, etc. located with colleges and universities
Mark Svoboda presenting drought talk

Selected Dissertations & Theses

Analysis of Extreme Precipitation Across the Mississippi River Basin Using Climate Change Indices and Non-Stationary Methods - Chanchal Gupta
  • Dissertation Defense
  • 11/19/2025
The Mississippi River Basin (MSRB) is one of the largest and most agriculturally significant watersheds in the continental United States. In recent decades, extreme precipitation events across this basin have intensified, reflecting an ongoing transformation in the basin’s climatological regime. Understanding these changes is essential for managing water resources, agriculture, and infrastructure resilience within this vital region. This research was conducted in two stages. The first stage analyzed basin-wide precipitation patterns using gridded datasets (CHIRPS, CPC, ERA5; 1981–2022) to identify spatial coherence and long-term trends. In the next stage, high-quality GHCN-Daily station records (1950–2023) were used to capture local-scale variability and provide an observationally grounded assessment of extreme precipitation behavior. Results show a pronounced intensification of short-duration precipitation extremes (Rx1day, Rx3day, Rx5day), accompanied by increases in precipitation intensity (SDII, R95pTOT) and a decline in the number of rainy days. These trends indicate that precipitation is becoming more intense but less frequent across large portions of the basin. Non-stationary return-level analyses further estimate higher 50 and 100-year precipitation magnitudes, particularly in the southern and eastern sub-basins, emphasizing increasing flood potential under a warming climate. The MSRB shows clear evidence of changing precipitation characteristics, marked by stronger short-duration rainfall events, seasonal shifts, and distinct east–west contrasts, indicating evolving atmospheric circulation and moisture dynamics across the basin.
When Drought Speaks, Can We Hear?: Communicating Usable Drought Information to Make Decisions - Lindsay Johnson
  • Dissertation Defense
  • 10/30/2025
Drought is one of the most costly and far-reaching natural hazards in the United States, yet its slow onset and diffuse impacts make it difficult to communicate in ways that meet the needs of decision makers and the public. This dissertation examined how drought information is delivered, structured, and understood to improve its accessibility and usefulness. The first study, guided by stakeholder feedback, highlighted the importance of readily available climate and drought information for supporting decision making. To address this, regional drought climatologies and key data sources were compiled for New Mexico, providing practical references for understanding historical drought patterns and locating reliable information. The research then turned to the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), one of the nation’s most widely used drought tools. In addition to its weekly map, the USDM provides a narrative explaining the drivers of drought—the critical "why" needed to interpret conditions. Analysis of 24 years of USDM narratives showed they were almost always written at college reading levels, limiting accessibility. Applying readability guidelines demonstrated that clearer writing substantially improved usability. A final experimental study compared the original, readability-edited, and video versions of the USDM narrative. Results showed that presentation format significantly influenced comprehension, with text-based versions outperforming video, while accessibility ratings remained consistent across formats. Participants also reported higher engagement and confidence when information was presented clearly and concisely. Together, these studies demonstrate that effective drought communication depends not only on scientific accuracy but also on readability, accessibility, and format. This work advances environmental communication research and provides evidence-based recommendations for delivering drought information to audiences ranging from policymakers and farmers to the general public. 
Applications of Artificial Intelligence on Drought Impact Monitoring and Assessment - Beichen Zhang
  • Dissertation Defense
  • 05/07/2024
Drought is a common natural disaster with complex characteristics and broad-reaching impacts. It has cost over 356 billion dollars in losses since 1980 in the US. However, while over a hundred drought indicators have been developed in recent decades, multi-dimensional drought impacts, such as those on socioeconomic sectors, are still understudied, particularly through quantitative approaches. This dissertation explores complex drought impacts using artificial intelligence (AI) across three research projects. The first study utilizes deep learning and natural language processing to predict drought impacts from diverse text sources like social media and news, outperforming the conventional method. It highlights the varied effects of drought over time and space, using California and Nebraska as case studies for integrating innovative data sources into drought assessments. The second study develops an explainable machine learning pipeline to investigate how different drought indicators relate to diverse drought impacts, illustrated through a California wildfire case study and comparisons of the relationships for multifaceted drought impacts in the selected states. The outcomes indicate the complexity and spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the relationships between drought indicators and multi-dimensional impacts. The third study dives into a specific category of drought impacts. It examines the relationship between extreme drought events and social unrest in India, using causal machine learning to quantitatively investigate the causal effect of drought on the increasing frequency of human protests. The outcomes show promising potential to develop further studies using causal machine learning by revealing the statistically significant average causal effect of drought on social unrest. Overall, the dissertation underscores the importance of applying advanced AI techniques in understanding and addressing the broad and complex drought impacts on both the natural environment and socioeconomic sectors for better climate adaptation and water resource management under the threats from climate change.

Climate Analysis Maps