Computational simulation of plant-soil-water processes for design of agricultural production

Grantham Scholar Dr Angesh Anupam researched an integrated modelling system to describe farming scenarios under current UK conditions and future hypothesised conditions.

Where are they now? Grantham Scholars after they graduate

Angesh Anupam in his office
Dr Angesh Anupam is now an Associate Professor in Applied Data Science at Noroff University College.

An update from Angesh: ‘I am now an Associate Professor in Applied Data Science at Noroff University College, Norway. I provide research for a Norwegian hydro-power company – designing predictive models for extreme weather scenarios.

I also lead a project to model the vegetation dynamics of the Amazon rainforest as a function of surface temperature to enable sustainable land management practices.’

You can find out more about Angesh’s work at Noroff University College, Norway here.

Social media and contact

You can follow Angesh on Twitter.

Contact number: +47-94036426

Connect with Angesh on LinkedIn here.

Angesh’s research at the Grantham Centre

The human population is projected to pass 9 billion by the year 2050. Improved living standards over this period of time are expected to increase the demand for food and fuel, as well as increase the need for clean drinking water by approximately 50 percent. Hence, understanding, predicting and managing the environmental processes that define natural assets such as, soil, air, water and all living things within the Earth’s ‘Critical Zone’ is now one of the most crucial societal challenges of the 21st century. The Earth’s Critical Zone extends from the top of the tree canopy to the bottom of our underground layer of water-bearing permeable rocks.

Agricultural production involves a wide range of processes such as water and nutrient uptake by plants, the flow of water and soil-gas within soil layers, the transfer of heat within soil layers, changes in the structure of soil, and more. Most of these processes are interlinked and so it is essential to consider all these factors simultaneously when developing any kind of computer model or scenario evaluation tool to apply to an agricultural system. The aim of this project is to develop this kind of integrated modelling system, consisting of models that relate to the processes involved in agricultural production, and taking into account how they are interlinked.

The proposed integrated modelling system will describe farming scenarios under current UK conditions and future hypothesised conditions for future farming. Accomplishing this project will help answering important questions around crop-production: these may range from yield prediction to broader questions such as a particular crop production’s impact on farmland. This will be an important step towards addressing the problem of food security in the UK, and the model may be extended in the future to take global food production into account.

Outreach

Angesh Anupam was 1 of 3 Grantham Scholars who joined the University of Sheffield’s delegation to COP22 in Marrakech. In this blog Angesh gives us a view from the ground, which includes events put on by the Grantham Centre. Read: Impressions from COP22 Marrakech: An intriguing week of scholarship.

Soil Association comes to Grantham Centre: the fight to save soil. In 2015, Emanga Alobwede and Angesh Anupam organised an event about soil at the Grantham Centre. Building UK’s Soils featured experts from the Soil Association.

Integrated soil-crop system management by Angesh Anupam. Grantham Scholars discuss the possibilities offered by integrated soil-crop system management in a Journal Club session led by Angesh.

Benefits of data driven modelling for research by Angesh Anupam. Angesh reflects on how data driven modelling can be used in all sort of research projects.

Supervisor

Professor Visakan Kadirkamanathan

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering