Miina

Porkka

D.Sc

Researcher

miina.porkka@su.se

+46 73 707 8619

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Profile summary

  • Water resilience
  • Dryland agriculture
  • Water-energy-food nexus
  • Water scarcity
  • Food security
  • Food trade

Miina Porkka studies the various roles freshwater plays in societies and larger the Earth system, and how human modifications of the water cycle impact the two

Her postdoc project explores the social-ecological resilience of drylands to changes in rainfall patterns. Currently, her particular focus is on the Sahel, where rainfed agriculture is the main source of food and income for the growing rural population and food security is therefore highly sensitive to precipitation.

In her research, Porkka explores how hydroclimatic characteristics, such as droughts and dry spells, impact rainfed agriculture and societies that depend on it, and whether hydroclimatic changes can cause or contribute to shifts in these societies.

Porkka obtained her doctorate in December 2016 with the Water and Development Research Group at Aalto University, Finland. Her dissertation explored the implications of water scarcity and agricultural trade for global food availability in the 20th century. During her doctoral research she was also involved in a number of other projects and collaborations on global food and water issues, including studies on water scarcity, environmental footprints of food waste and diets, mapping of global irrigation areas and the water-energy-food nexus. Porkka continues to work with sustainability of food systems and food-water interactions through her collaborations within and outside the SRC.

Staff details

ORCID: 0000-0002-8285-6122

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Publications by Porkka, Miina

Is wetter better? Exploring agriculturally-relevant rainfall characteristics over four decades in the Sahel

Journal / article | 2021

Porkka, M., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Destouni, G., Ekman, A.M.L., Rockstrom, J. & Gordon, L.J. 2021. Is wetter better? Exploring agriculturally-relevant rainfall characteristics over four decades in the Sahel. Environmental Research Letters 16(3), 035002.

The semi-arid Sahel is a global hotspot for poverty and malnutrition. Rainfed agriculture is the main source of food and income, making the well-being of rural population highly sensitive to rainfall variability. Studies have reported an upward trend in annual precipitation in the Sahel since the drought of the 1970s and early '80s, yet farmers have questioned improvements in conditions for agriculture, suggesting that intras...

Simulating the Cascading Effects of an Extreme Agricultural Production Shock: Global Implications of a Contemporary US Dust Bowl Event

Journal / article | 2020

Heslin, A., Puma, M.J., Marchand, P., Carr, J.A., Dell'Angelo, J., D'Odorico, P., Gephart, J.A., Kummu, M., Porkka, M., Rulli, M.C. and Seekell, D.A., 2020. Simulating the cascading effects of an extreme agricultural production shock: global implications of a contemporary US Dust Bowl event. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4, p.26.

Higher temperatures expected by midcentury increase the risk of shocks to crop production, while the interconnected nature of the current global food system functions to spread the impact of localized production shocks throughout the world. In this study, we analyze the global potential impact of a present-day event of equivalent magnitude to the US Dust Bowl, modeling the ways in which a sudden decline in US wheat production ...

Integrating the Water Planetary Boundary With Water Management From Local to Global Scales

Journal / article | 2020

Zipper, S.C., Jaramillo, F., Erlandsson, L-W., Cornell, S.E., Gleeson, T., Poorka. M. 2020. Integrating the water planetary boundary with water management from local to global scales. Earth's Future, DOI: 10.1029/2019EF001377

The planetary boundaries framework defines the “safe operating space for humanity” represented by nine global processes that can destabilize the Earth System if perturbed. The water planetary boundary attempts to provide a global limit to anthropogenic water cycle modifications, but it has been challenging to translate and apply it to the regional and local scales at which water problems and management typically occur. We dev...

Interplay of trade and food system resilience: Gains on supply diversity over time at the cost of trade independency

Journal / article | 2020

Kummu, M., Kinnunen, P., Lehikoinen, E., Porkka, M., Queiroz, C., Röös, E., Troell, M., Weil. C. 2020. Interplay of trade and food system resilience: Gains on supply diversity over time at the cost of trade independency. Global Food Security, Volume 24, March 2020, 100360

Rapidly increasing international food trade has drastically altered the global food system over the past decades. Using national scale indicators, we assess two of the resilience principles that directly reflect the effects of global trade on food systems – namely, maintaining diversity and redundancy, and managing connectivity. We perform our analysis for four nutritional components: dietary energy, proteins, fat, and quanti...