The University of Iowa has received a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to complete a four-year study — which includes placing about 500 sensors across four states — looking at extreme weather in agriculture communities.

Jun Wang, chair of the UI Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and a James E. Ashton professor in the College of Engineering, said the project will place the UI-invented weather sensors in fields and neighborhoods across Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas and Kansas.

The small sensors will gather soil and air temperatures and humidity levels to help better predict extreme weather in rural communities.

Xiaomao Lin, a professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University, who is also involved in the project, said the study will be important to help with water management and conversation techniques across the four states.

Specifically, the project aims to help manage water usage in agricultural field operations, recognize when and where environmental factors such as heat waves or smoke are harmful to health, strategically use resources to mitigate heat stress and to create more economically resilient communities.

The measurements will be able to be analyzed in “real-time” by the researchers.

“We are looking to find the tangible impacts for rural communities in Iowa,” Wang said. “We want to demonstrate how these sensors can help rural communities manage and predict severe weather and climate change.”

The research was slated to begin this week, according to the National Science Foundation, and the project’s anticipated end date is July 31, 2028.

Wang said the researchers also will be engaging with townships in the study area to survey what residents fear and believe about climate change

The UI is the leading university in the research. Besides Kansas State, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Arkansas are also involved.

“This significant NSF award underscores the University of Iowa’s role in creating engineering solutions to address critical issues facing our rural communities. Through collaborations such as these we can continue to raise the bar in transformative research, benefiting all Iowans,” Ann McKenna, dean of the UI’s College of Engineering, said in a statement.

Faculty and staff from 10 departments and schools across the UI are contributing to the study.

Wang said that the researchers worked with their other university partners, mayors and various town leadership to help determine what fields and neighborhoods the sensors should be placed in.

The federal funding is part of a $77.8 million national investment in the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, which supports science and technology research and development at colleges and universities.

Note: IISC's involvement in this project is to make connections between the scientists and Iowa communities. Travis Kraus, director of IISC, is a PI on the grant.