Erin O’Brien, a junior in Biological and Agricultural Engineering with a Secondary Major in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, was selected to work with the K-State HERO team and participate in the 2001 NSF REU.  Erin is a McNair Scholar, an Engineering Ambassador, a member of the K-State Women Mentoring Women program, in the Golden Key National Honor Society, in the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, and is a student member of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE).  She has a 3.5 GPA and, like many McNair Scholars, is from a socio-economic group that is under-represented in graduate programs and college faculties across the country.

Erin has previous work experience as a student engineering trainee with the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Hays, Kansas, and she has been a student worker for the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University.  Erin has expressed an interest in the long-term sustainability of the Ogallala Aquifer.  Her research project examined past and current rates of water withdrawal from the Ogallala.  This research also identified socio-economic and policy reasons for changes in the rates for water withdrawal over time.  As a result of her studies, and with a view toward socio-economic and demographic projections, Erin was able to address the relative vulnerability of agricultural producers who are currently making use of the available water resource. 

As a part of this effort, Erin examined the link between ground water utilization and changes in land cover/use.  The K-State HERO team hypothesizes that one of the factors that influences land cover and land use change in southwest Kansas is resource availability (especially water resources) and Erin O’Brien’s work helped to strengthen this belief.  In addition to obtaining relevant statistical data, Erin did a thorough literature review on water resource issues related to land cover/use change in western Kansas.  Included in this literature review were a suite of studies that have addressed issues of potential impacts of global change on western Kansas and a number of papers that have looked at groundwater depletion in the Ogallala as an analogue for understanding potential local response to global climate change.  Erin produced a written report on her work and prepared a poster for presentation at the 2002 Annual Meetings of the Association of American Geographers in Los Angeles, CA.  It is likely that Erin will be able to submit a manuscript for publication based on her work.

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