Adam J Oliphant

Adam Oliphant is a PhD student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Geography at UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State University. His research quantifies agricultural water use and evaluates conservation in arid regions, with a current focus on California's Imperial and Coachella Valleys. By combining satellite-based evapotranspiration data from OpenET with hydrologic modeling, he connects field-level practices to basin-scale impacts.

His work examines how policy, technology, and cropping patterns shape water consumption and return flows. The results provide data to support management of the Colorado River Basin as water becomes increasingly scarce.

Adam works with R, Python, Google Earth Engine, ArcGIS Pro, and QGIS. His methods include statistical modeling, difference-in-differences analysis, and panel data analysis for evaluating the impacts of conservation programs.