Current research
My research program develops critical, problem-focused, and solutions-oriented research at the intersection of climate change, water-energy-food security, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental governance. I’m particularly interested in integrating novel methodological approaches to study the equity and sustainability outcomes of climate adaptation and disaster response at multiple scales.
Building around these themes, my theoretical and empirical research focuses on three areas of scholarship:
Assessing the uneven impacts of climate change on livelihoods, resource security and human health;
Analyzing the effectiveness of adaptation behaviours and interventions from an equity, justice, and sustainability perspective; and
Understanding how climate disaster resources are prioritized and allocated.
These focal areas enable me to study the impacts, adaptations, and post-disaster responses of climate change and variability as applied to food, water, and energy systems at household and regional scales. By leveraging my past and current research in the Philippines, India, and Puerto Rico, I ultimately seek to develop a broad synthesis-based scholarship that will inform climate policy in ways that will effectively reduce the disproportionately large impacts of climate change experienced by disadvantaged groups.
Spotlight Projects
1. Climate Adaptation & transformations for drought resilience
Since 2015, I have studied the Government of Maharashtra’s $1.3B USD flagship drought-relief program. The program intended to transform 25,000 drought-prone villages into “drought-free” systems using “green” and “blue” water harvesting and conservation initiatives. “Drought-freeness” is not predicated on controlling precipitation, but instead on limiting the impacts of rainfall variability on agriculture (i.e., “agricultural drought”). My research explores how state-driven efforts to secure water for agricultural livelihoods are re-shaping water access and distribution patterns within villages, and critically analyzes the equity and sustainability outcomes of these “drought-free” transformations. Going beyond the village-scale, my research additionally integrates secondary data regression modelling and spatial statistics to derive generalizable knowledge claims about the distribution of water security and climate adaptation initiatives. This research has supported novel methodological and epistemological approaches to analyze the equity and sustainability dimensions of livelihood water security and climate adaptation initiatives at local and regional scales.
Recent Peer-Reviewed publications:
Shah, S.H. & Harris, L.M. (2022). Beyond local case studies in political-ecology: Spatializing agricultural water infrastructure in Maharashtra using a critical, multi-methods, and multi-scalar approach. Annals of the American Association of Geographers: 1-20. Available here.
Shah, S.H., Harris, L.M., Johnson, M.S., & Wittman, H. (2021). A “drought-free” Maharashtra? Politicising water conservation for rain-dependent agriculture. Water Alternatives, 14(2): 117-133. Available here.
2. after hurricane maría: post-disaster aid & food, energy and water insecurity
I co-lead multiple projects critically exploring disaster resource allocation processes and outcomes in the wake of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, in partnership with interdisciplinary colleagues in anthropology, political science, and public health from The Ohio State University, University of Puerto Rico, the Natural Hazards Center, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Social Vulnerability and Resilience Lab (SOLVER). These projects involve the collection of qualitative data, and the use and integration of “big data”, including electricity restoration crew deployments, NASA’s Black Marble Nighttime Light Product Suite, and long-term public health data provided by the Puerto Rico Department of Health.
In-progress project:
Using in-depth qualitative research in municipalities, and larger-scale quantitative modelling of electricity crew deployments, we will better understand how disaster resources were allocated, and why. This will serve as the basis for policy recommendations, and likely, the advancement of an equity-based approach to climate disaster resource allocation. This project is part of the NCAR Early Career Faculty Innovators 2021-2023 Cohort.
3. conceptualizing, measuring & Assessing social vulnerability
I use multiple methodological approaches to analyze measurements and experiences of social vulnerability. These approaches range from systematic reviews of large, multi-decadal and interdisciplinary bodies of scholarship on social vulnerability, government responsiveness to disasters, and water security, to quantitative modelling of lived experiences of water insecurity globally.
Recent Peer-Reviewed publications:
Shah, S.H., Harris, L.M., Menghwani, V., Stoler, J., Brewis, A., Miller, J.D., Workman, C.L., Adams, E.A., Pearson, A.L., Hagaman, A., Wutich, A., Young, S.L. and HWISE-RCN. (2023). Variations in household water affordability and water insecurity: An intersectional perspective from 18 low- and middle-income countries. Environment and Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods, and Practice, 1-30. Available here.
Shah, S.H. (2021). How is water security conceptualized and practiced for rural livelihoods in the global South? A systematic scoping review. Water Policy, 23(5): 1129-1152. Available here.