Julie Shortridge

Courses Taught Last Five Years

EN 500.111 - Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies, Johns Hopkins University

Other Teaching and Advising

In addition to planning and teaching a freshman seminar on climate change adaptation, I served as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer for classes on risk and decision analysis as well as uncertainty modeling and data analytics. I also trained graduate students at Debre Markos University (Ethiopia) in the use of climatic and agricultural field monitoring equipment as part of an NSF-funded project at Johns Hopkins University. 

Program Focus

Water resource systems are under continuing pressure from increasing demand, climatic change and variability, and land-use development. My research aims to improve our understanding and management of water resources through the use of systems engineering methodologies, such as risk analysis, data analytics, statistical modeling and optimization. My early work largely used machine learning methodologies to evaluate and model the relationships between physical and institutional infrastructure, climate conditions, and public health. Recognizing the risk that climate change poses to water availability, my recent work has focused on climate impacts and adaptation in the water resources sector, with a particular emphasis on uncertainty surrounding projections of future hydrologic change. I am especially interested in ways that model-based impact assessments can be combined with robust risk and decision frameworks to inform planning, while still acknowledging the inherent uncertainty in these assessments.

Because water issues are interdisciplinary in nature, I aim to look beyond physical infrastructure and better understand how it interacts with human decision making and non-engineered watershed characteristics to influence the benefits and vulnerability of coupled water resource systems. By working with colleagues in the physical sciences, economics, and engineering fields, I ultimately hope to support the development of water resource systems that are efficient, resilient, and sustainable. 

Current Projects

Comparison of risk and robustness-based approaches for climate change adaptation in water infrastructure systems

Machine learning methods for water resource assessment and simulation

Evaluation of climate change impacts and adaptation for water resource infrastructure in Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Program Focus

The goal of my extension program is to provide water users and managers in Virginia with the tools, technology, and guidance they need for efficient and sustainable use of the state’s water resources. While Virginia is a relatively water rich state, it faces a number of challenges which a focused extension and outreach program can help address. In the short-term, droughts present a risk of local and regional-level water shortages that can be particularly damaging to the state’s agricultural industry. While irrigation development can help address this risk, inefficient practices limit agricultural productivity and have negative impacts on field runoff and water quality. In the long-term, increasing demand in urban and suburban regions, combined with the highly uncertain impacts of climate change, has the potential to greatly stress water supplies and existing infrastructure. In response to these challenges, I am developing a two-pronged extension program that aims to 1) support agricultural producers in the identification, development and management of irrigation systems to better manage climate variability and 2) support water managers in assessing and addressing risks associated with increased water demand and climate change over the long term. By developing a coordinated program of research and extension focused on these two goals, I hope to provide actionable insights and guidance to make Virginia a leader in sustainable water management in humid climates.    

Selected Recent Publications

Peer-Reviewed Research Publications (* indicate student or postdoctoral advisee):

• Shortridge, J.E., Bukvic, A., Mitchell, M., Goldstein, J., and Allen, T. 2024. Characterizing climatic socio-environmental tipping points in coastal communities: a conceptual framework for research and practice. Earth’s Future, 12(7).
• Nourali, Z.*, Shortridge, J.E., Bukvic, A., Shao, Y., and Irish, J. Simulation of Flood-Induced Human Migration at the Municipal Scale: A Stochastic Agent-Based Model of Relocation Response to Coastal Flooding. Water. 16(2).
• Jahan, M.*, Reis, J.*, and Shortridge, J.E. 2023. Assessing climate service products with evaluation metrics: An application to decision support tools for climate change adaptation in the United States. Climatic Change, 176 (113). 
  
• Shortridge, J.E. 2023. Prediction of multi-sectoral longitudinal water withdrawals using hierarchical machine learning models. Journal of Hydroinformatics, 25(6).
• Sangha, L.*, and Shortridge, J.E. 2023. Quantification of unreported water use for crop irrigation using publicly available agricultural data and reported irrigation withdrawals. Agricultural Water Management, 287 (108402).
• Sangha, L.*, Shortridge, J.E., and Frame, W.H. 2023. The impact of nitrogen treatment and short-term weather forecast data in irrigation scheduling of corn and cotton on water and nutrient use efficiency in humid climates. Agricultural Water Management, 283 (108314).
• McCarthy, M.M.*, Brogan, C., Kleiner, J., Burgholzer, R.,  Shortridge, J.E.C, and Scott, D. 2022. Estimating facility-level monthly water consumption of commercial, industrial, municipal, and thermoelectric users in Virginia. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 58 (6). 
  
• Reis, J.P.* and Shortridge, J.E. 2022. Robust decision outcomes with induced correlations in climatic and economic parameters. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 27 (7). 
• Paoletti, J.M.* and Shortridge, J.E.C 2020. Improved representation of uncertainty in farm-level financial cost-benefit analyses of supplemental irrigation in humid regions. Agricultural Water Management, 239 (106245).
• Shortridge, J.E. and DiCarlo, M.F.* 2020. Characterizing trends, variability, and statistical drivers of multi-sectoral water withdrawals for statewide planning. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 146 (3), 04020002.
• Shortridge, J.E. 2019. Observed trends in daily rainfall variability result in more severe climate change impacts to agriculture. Climatic Change, 157 (3), 429-444. 
  
• Extension Publications (* indicate student or postdoctoral advisee):
• Longest, R., Shortridge, J.E., and Easton, Z. 2023. How is a Changing Climate Impacting Agriculture in the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck? Essex County Conservation Alliance Annual Report. 
• Larsson, N.*, Romelczyk, S., Longest, R., and Shortridge, J.E. 2023. Understanding salinity in tidal waters – information for irrigators. BSE-349P. 
• Grzelak, J.*, Quion, K.* and Shortridge, J.E. 2021. Understanding climate change projections in Virginia. BSE-324P. 
  
• Shortridge, J.E. and Porter, W. 2021. Soil moisture sensors for agricultural irrigation: an overview on sensor types and data retrieval methods. BSE-338P. 

Presentations:

• Shortridge, J.E. Translating data into decisions: using sensor data to inform water and nutrient management in a changing climate (invited). Virginia Agriculture and Natural Resources Summit. April 12, 2022. (estimated viewers: 100)
• Shortridge, J.E. Climate change and gardening (invited panelist). International Master Gardener Conference. September 16, 2021. (estimated viewers: 850)
  
• Burgholzer, R. and Shortridge, J. Consumptive water use: refining Virginia’s water supply estimates with discharge and withdrawal data (invited). United States Geological Survey Water-Use Forum. August 26, 2020. (estimated viewers: 40).