Sharda’s research integrates agro-hydrologic models and climate data with farm management scenarios to explore complex dynamics of food-energy-water systems. Data analytics, feedback between irrigation decisions and water resources sustainability, along with design and evaluation of decision support systems for improving crop water productivity are of interest to her. Her research also focuses on coupling of anthropogenic and natural systems with applications in sustainable agriculture, water resources management and applied hydrology. Sharda’s field of study utilizes several surface water, groundwater and crop-growth computer models such as SWAT, MODFLOW and DSSAT, respectively, to study the impact of changing environment on the longevity and sustainability of limited natural resources such as water. She has also studied the impact of spatial soil variability on crop production systems in general and crop water productivity, specifically. The breadth of her research stretches from studying the impact of climate variability signals such as the El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO) on domestic water availability in drought conditions in the southeast United States to studying the impact of climate change on sustainability of the Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains.
