Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2021 Program

Favour Oribhabor ’21
CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
Certificate in Environmental Studies
AGRICULTURE AND
FOOD SYSTEMS
THESIS TITLE
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to
Dust Bowl: An Analysis
of Boise City Historic
Drought Events as
Compared to the 1930s
Dust Bowl
ADVISER
Amilcare Porporato,
Thomas J. Wu '94
Professor of Civil and
Environmental
Engineering, Professor
of Civil and
Environmental
Engineering and the
High Meadows
Environmental Institute
The Great Plains of the United States is an
area essential to the country’s economy and
nutritional survival due to being the source of
a majority of crops. The Plains also are waterlimited,
drought-prone and have a varying
climate wherein sub-freezing and triple-digit
temperatures occur over the course of a year.
Those factors — in combination with poor
agricultural practices — caused the 1930s Dust
Bowl and exacerbated its effects. More major
drought events have happened over time. The
period from 2011-2016 was so extreme as to
inspire Oklahoma farmers to call it a "Second
Dust Bowl." My study compared parameters of
interest for these major drought events in Boise
City, Oklahoma, focusing on crop yields and
frequency of winter wheat and cotton, two of the
most valuable crops for Oklahoma. My research
shows the effects of changing agricultural
techniques on drought resilience.
8