Jean-Philippe Vidal

Hydroclimatologist, INRAE - Villeurbanne, France
Villeurbanne, France
Jean-Philippe Vidal

The last time I flew was to attend a conference and take a family vacation in Iceland. It was in 2017. Train has been my unique means of transport since then, including for professional purposes. I have the chance to work in Europe where it is relatively easy to travel around in trains. I for example take to the train to attend the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna, taking advantage of comfortable train lines crossing the Alps with some spectacular springtime landscapes. I now systematically decline invitations to overseas locations and suggest alternatives like video conferencing.

I have been working on the impact of climate change on hydrology for the last 15 years. I helped derive future streamflow projections and past streamflow reconstructions at the spatial scale relevant for climate change adaptation.

However, it’s only a few years back that I intimately realized that I am part of all this. And that also modified my research focus to the direct impacts that human societies have on water availability through water abstraction, water management, and land use, notably during drought events.