ARNALD PUY
University of Bergen & Princeton University
ARNALD PUY
Research interests
I study intensive agrarian systems and their sustainability through time. I focus on investigating their capacity to cope with socio-environmental shocks and manage uncertainty. My approach is holistic and merges anthropological frameworks with methods from the environmental sciences, ecology, modeling and statistics.
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I am currently the PI of the EU-funded project SIZE, which aims at assessing the risks and benefits of promoting "large" and "small" irrigation systems through dynamic models and uncertainty/sensitivity analysis. This project is coordinated by the University of Bergen and has Princeton University as a partner institution.
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I am used to work on water-related topics with a wide range of scientists from different fields, including engineers, hydrologists, archaeologists, mathematicians, ecologists and computer and environmental scientists. So if you are interested in collaborating, please drop a line!
My full CV can be downloaded here.
ACADEMIC TRAJECTORY
Present and previous posts
September 2019Â - August 2022
MARIE-SKLODOWSKA CURIE FELLOW (GF)
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department (Levin Lab), Princeton University, USA.
Center for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen, Norway.
PI of the project The Role of Size in the Sustainability of Irrigation Systems (SIZE), funded by the European Commission H2020 framework.
January 2018 - August 2019
RESEARCHER
Centre de Recherches en Archéologie et Patrimoine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
September 2015 - August 2017
MARIE CURIE FELLOW (IEF)
Department of Maritime Civilizations (Sedimentary Archaeology Lab), University of Haifa, Israel.
PI of the project Bloom the Dry: The Creation of Traditional Mediterranean Irrigated Fields (DryIR), funded by the European Commission FP7 framework.
May 2014 - August 2015
HUMBOLDT RESEARCH FELLOW
Department of Geography, University of Cologne, Germany.
PI of the project Bloom the Dry: The Creation of Traditional Mediterranean Irrigated Fields, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
PI of the project Building Up Intensive Labour Areas: Terraces, Irrigation and Agrarian Change in the Ricote Valley (Murcia, Spain) After 711 AD, funded by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
September 2012 - May 2014
Complexity and Socio-Ecological Dynamics (CaSEs), Institut MilĂ i Fontanals, CSIC Barcelona, Spain
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
EDUCATION
September 2008 - August 2012
PHD IN STUDIES IN ANTIQUITY AND MIDDLE AGES
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain
Dissertation title: Construction Criteria of Andalusi Irrigated Fields. The Case of Ricote (Murcia, Spain)
Grade: Summa cum laude
UAB Outstanding PhD Award
September 2001 - August 2006
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain
BA IN HISTORY
Andrea Saltelli, Gabriele Bammer, Isabelle Bruno, Erica Charters, Monica Di Fiore, Emmanuel Didier, Wendy Nelson Espeland, John Kay, Samuele Lo Piano, Deborah Mayo, Roger Pielke Jr, Tommaso Portaluri, Theodore M. Porter, Arnald Puy, Ismael Rafols, Jerome R. Ravetz, Erik Reinert, Daniel Sarewitz, Philip B. Stark, Andrew Stirling, Jeroen van der Sluijs, Paolo Vineis. 2020. Five ways to ensure that models serve society: a manifesto. Nature 582.7813, 482–484.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01812-9
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Arnald Puy, Samuele Lo Piano, and Andrea Saltelli. 2020. Current models underestimate future irrigated areas. Geophysical Research Letters 47.8.
doi: 10.1029/2020GL087360
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Arnald Puy, Samuele Lo Piano, and Andrea Saltelli. 2020. A sensitivity analysis of the PAWN sensitivity index. Environmental Modelling & Software 127, 104679.
doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104679.
Arnald Puy, Emanuele. Borgonovo, Samuele Lo Piano, and Andrea Saltelli. 2019. Are the results of the groundwater model robust?. arXiv: 1912.10814
Arnald Puy, Manuel Herzog, Pedro Escriche, Amou Marouche, Yousef Oubana, and Olaf Bubenzer. 2018. Detection of sand encroachment patterns in desert oases. The case of Erg Chebbi (Morocco). Science of The Total Environment 642, pp. 241- 249.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.343.
Arnald Puy. Irrigated areas grow faster than the population. 2018. Ecological Applications 28.6, 1413-1419.
doi: 10.1002/eap.1743.
Andrea L. Balbo, Arnald Puy, Jaume Frigola, Fèlix Retamero, Isabel Cacho, and Helena Kirchner. 2018. Amplified environmental change: Evidence from land-use and climate change in medieval Minorca. Land Degradation & Development 29.4, 1262-1269.
doi:10.1002/ldr.2869.
Arnald Puy, Racahata Muneepeerakul, and Andrea L. Balbo. 2017. Size and stochasticity in irrigated social-ecological systems. Scientic Reports 7, 43943.
doi: 10.1038/srep43943.
Arnald Puy, José M. Garcia Avilés, Andrea L. Balbo, Michelle Keller, Svenja Riedesel, Daniel Blum, and Olaf Bubenzer. 2017. Drip irrigation uptake in traditional irrigated fields: The edaphological impact. Journal of Environmental Management 202, 550-561. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.07.017.
Andrea L. Balbo and Arnald Puy. 2017. Terrace landscapes. Editorial to the special issue. Journal of Environmental Management 202.3, 495-499.
doi: 10. 1016/j .jenvman.2017.02.001. IF: 4.01
Andrea L. Balbo, Erik Gomez-Baggethun, Matthieu Salpeteur, Arnald Puy, Steffano Biagetti, and Jurgen Scheffran. 2016. Resilience of small-scale societies: a view from drylands. Ecology and Society 21.2, 53.
doi: 10.5751/ES-08327-210253.
Arnald Puy, Andrea. L. Balbo, and Olaf Bubenzer. 2016. Radiocarbon dating of agrarian terraces by means of buried soils. Radiocarbon 58.2, 345-363.
doi: 10.1017/RDC.2015.21.
Arnald Puy, Andrea. L. Balbo, Camilla Zinsli, and Morten Ramstad. 2016. High-resolution stratigraphy of Scandinavian coastal archaeological settlements: the case of Hakonshella, W Norway". Boreas 45.3, 508-520.
doi: 10.1111/bor.12166.
Arnald Puy. 2014. Land selection for irrigation in al-Andalus (Spain, 8th century AD). Journal of Field Archaeology 39.1, 84-100.
doi: 10.1179 / 0093469013Z.00000000072.
Arnald Puy, Andrea L. Balbo, Antoni Virgili, and Helena Kirchner. 2014. The evolution of Mediterranean wetlands in the first millennium AD: The case of Les Arenes floodplain (Tortosa, NE Spain). Geoderma 232-234, 219-235.
doi: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.05.001.
Arnald Puy and Andrea L. Balbo. 2013. The genesis of irrigated terraces in al-Andalus. A geoarchaeological perspective on intensive agriculture in semi-arid environments (Ricote, Murcia, Spain). Journal of Arid Environments 89, 45-56.
doi: 10 . 1016 / j.jaridenv.2012.10.008.
Arnald Puy. 2013. Tracking down the glitter of gold in the Diplomatari de Santes Creus. Imago Temporis - Medium Aevum 7, 175-224.
doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/P6KMG.
Arnald Puy. 2013. The construction of fertility in al-Andalus. Geoarchaeology in Ricote (Murcia, Spain, 8th century AD). Geophysical Research Abstracts 15, 2335.
Arnald Puy. 2012. La huerta de Ricote (Murcia, España) entre los siglos XV y XVIII. Estudiar el pasado: aspectos metodologicos de la investigacion en Ciencias de la Antiguedad y de la Edad Media. Proceedings of the First Postgraduate Conference on Studies of Antiquity and Middle Ages Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 26-28th October 2010. Ed. by A. Castro Correa, D. Gomez Castro, G. Gonzalez Germain, J. Oller Guzman, A. Puy, R. Riera Vargas, K. Krystyna Starczewska, and N. Villagra Hidalgo. Oxford: BAR International Series 2412, 199-209.
doi: 10.13140/2.1.1883.4887
Ainoa Castro Correa, Daniel Gomez Castro, Gerard Gonzalez Germain, Jordi Oller Guzman, Arnald Puy, Roger Riera Vargas, Katarzyna Krystyna Starczewska, and Nereida Villagra Hidalgo, eds. Estudiar el pasado: aspectos metodologicos de la investigacion en Ciencias de la Antiguedad y de la Edad Media. Proceedings of the First Postgraduate Conference on Studies of Antiquity and Middle Ages Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 26-28th October 2010. BAR
nternational Series 2412. Oxford.
Arnald Puy. 2010. Moneda, peces de moneda d'or i magnats a Santes Creus. Revista de l'Arxiu Bibliografic de Santes Creus 23, 39-49.
Arnald Puy. 2008. La moneda d'or al diplomatari de Santa Maria de Santes Creus (975-1225). Gaceta Numismatica 169, 39-60.
PUBLICATIONS
PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHTS
2019-2022
Here you will find the latest outputs of the project "The Role of Size in the Sustainability of Irrigation Systems", as well as presentation slides.
Any code supporting the conclusions of a paper can be retrieved from Arnald Puy's GitHub profile.
ARE THE RESULTS OF THE GROUNDWATER MODEL ROBUST?
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Despite groundwater models and water withdrawal projections being fraught with uncertainties, they are usually disregarded or assessed perfunctorily. This should cast a large shadow on the reliability of any modelling exercise. Here we briefly touch upon this topic through a criticism of the recent work by De Graaf et al., published in Nature.
CURRENT MODELS UNDERESTIMATE FUTURE IRRIGATED AREAS
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By means of a systematic uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, we found that the potential extension of irrigation in 2050 might be much larger than previously thought, with serious implications for water management and environmental sustainability.
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Check out the press coverage of our paper:
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Princeton University press release
LET’S CONNECT
Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
M31 Guyot Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ, Â 08544-2016