Maxwell, ReedFleury, Maria2022-08-052026-09-292022-08-052026-09-292022-04-042022-08-05http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01hm50tv92thttps://theses-dissertations.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp01hm50tv92tHuman activities, such as agriculture, not only depend on but can also substantially affect the availability of water. Therefore, it is a concern that water resources are quickly being depleted in regions which already experience drought, like the São Francisco River Basin in Brazil. This thesis explores how the growth of large-scale agriculture, in the face of climate change affects water availability at the São Francisco River Basin and its sub-basins the Alto, Submédio, Médio and Alto São Francisco. The work combines remote-sensing observations of land-use change, water surface area and center pivot irrigation by MapBiomas, GRACE observations of total water storage and GLDAS climate re-analysis data to quantify trends in agricultural land-use, climate patterns and decreased water resources. As part of the analysis, climate and land-use datasets are combined to estimate water used by center pivot irrigation systems. It is found across the basin that agricultural land-use is growing, air temperature is increasing, rainfall rate is decreasing, and water storage is decreasing. Through the sub-basin analysis, it is shown that depletion of water resources is most pronounced in the Médio and Alto São Francisco sub-basins where the largest growth in agriculture and center-pivot irrigation is also observed.application/pdfenPrinceton University Senior Theses