Meet the jury of Archinect's "Dry Futures" competition: Jay Famiglietti of NASA

2015-08-23T09:46:00-04:00

The drought is more of a climatological phenomenon, but it’s important to recognize that we need to sustain available groundwater to help us get through these periods of very little rain and snow.”

As the senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jay Famiglietti has been studying groundwater depletion globally since 1995. With his team at JPL, Famiglietti has tracked freshwater availability using satellites and developed computer models to better understand how supplies are changing.

While human water consumption draws on many sources, we rely particularly heavily on groundwater during droughts. As periods of minimal rain and snow will continue to occur, Famiglietti stresses the importance of the broader public understanding how water systems work, and how different supply chains intersect: “I think [the drought’s] really underscored the need for communication … to really help people understand where their water comes from, and those supplies can either be fluctuating wildly or decreasing or both.”

And just as the public can no longer be indifferent to water usage, the architecture profession must also refresh its standards of water efficiency. “Architecture a...

Archinect's "Dry Futures" competition featured by MSNBC; juror and NASA hydrologist Jay Famiglietti interviewed

2015-07-31T14:16:00-04:00

Despite recent successes in water conservancy and summer rainfall in the state, the California drought is still “probably worse than most people recognize,” according to Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and juror on Archinect’s Dry Futures competition. Famiglietti spoke with José Díaz-Balart on MSNBC’s “The Rundown” earlier this morning, about the current state of California’s water crisis and Dry Future’s call to action for architects to respond.

While the drought has been receiving widespread media attention, both within the state and nationwide, it can still be difficult to convince people of the severity of the situation. “No snow in the mountains, reservoir levels are exceptionally low, groundwater levels are declining," Famiglietti told Díaz-Balart. "We’re in pretty rough shape.”

Famiglietti’s research on groundwater depletion began twenty years ago, working with NASA’s GRACE project (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) to track an...

Archinect - News

Meet the jury of Archinect's "Dry Futures" competition: Jay Famiglietti of NASA

Archinect's "Dry Futures" competition featured by MSNBC; juror and NASA hydrologist Jay Famiglietti interviewed