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K-State Today

February 21, 2019

Global Food Systems 'It's all about water' monthly lecture today

Submitted by Sarah Hancock

All interested faculty are invited to join a monthly Global Food Systems initiative gathering on the third Thursday to share K-State water research across disciplines. This month's topic, "The hydro-economy: Revealing our hidden dependencies on local and nonlocal water resources," will be presented by Landon Marston from noon to 1 p.m. in 137 Waters Hall.

Marston is an assistant professor in the civil engineering department of the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering. He earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Kentucky, a master's degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M, and a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before pursuing his doctorate, he worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a hydrologic and hydraulic engineer.

Marston's current research explores the interdependencies between water, food, energy and trade to establish trade-offs, assess risk and inform sustainable policy and management of these resources. More generally, he is interested in how society and water resources co-evolve across different spatial and temporal scales in a coupled human-nature system. His research is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing from hydrology, water resources engineering and economics. He has published papers on several related research areas, including water footprint assessment and virtual water trade, water reallocation, the water-food-energy nexus, and integrated river basin management. The New York Times, TIME magazine and Los Angeles Times have covered his work, among others.