Ryoko Araki

I am a PhD candidate in Hydrology at the Joint Program at UC Santa Barbara & San Diego State University. My work is currently supported by the QUAD Fellowship and the Shida Scholarship Program.

Soil moisture links land and air, driving water, energy, and carbon cycles. Yet, our understandings of these processes across space and time remain incomplete. To address this challenge, I study how soil, water, and the environment interact at catchment and landscape scales. I combine multiple data sources and approaches, from field sensor, satellite remote-sensing, numerical models, to computational methods, to illuminate these patterns. My work seeks to develop representations that reconcile the observation with current theory, improve Earth and water system model predictions, and strengthen our capability to forecast flood, drought, and wildfires under changing climate and land-use.

Outside of my office, I love hiking, camping, and backpacking, and exploring beautiful landscapes. Fittingly, my name in Japanese means wild wood, mountain ridges, and the scent of flowers. I am also a big fan of brewing third-wave coffee. When I’m not outdoors, I enjoy reading books on a wide variety of topics and learning as much as I can about the world around me.