Agricultural Water Data Intern

About the Environmental Defense Fund

EDF internships provide high-quality experiences that form the foundation for individuals serious about pursuing an environmental career. This Agricultural Water Data Intern position is a learning-focused, applied research experience, contributing to scoping future research, pilot studies, and collaboration around agricultural water use in water-limited regions.

You will report to the Manager, Climate Resilient Water Systems and work closely with other CRWS team members.

Program/Department Overview: Agriculture, Water and Food Focus Area

The Agriculture, Water and Food Focus Area at Environmental Defense Fund is dedicated to protecting food, water, and shelter in a changing climate and reducing climate impacts. Our mission is to lower climate emissions from agriculture, enhance food production resilience, safeguard water resources, and mitigate flood risk, ensuring people, economies, and ecosystems thrive amidst extreme weather. The Climate Resilient Water Systems (CRWS) workstream specifically focuses on developing water management and policy solutions to balance supply and demand and increase water system resilience. Our Water Strategy aims to help agricultural communities adapt and become more resilient to climate change, with a 2030 goal to benefit over 40 million people in the Western U.S. and at least two regions in India and China through sustainable groundwater management.

Overall Function of the Agricultural Water Data Intern

The intern will support an exploratory analysis of consumptive water use associated with beef production systems utilizing OpenET and related datasets. Responsibilities include conducting a focused literature review, developing familiarity with satellite-based evapotranspiration (ET) data via the OpenET platform, and completing preliminary, high-level analyses of consumptive water use and forage and feed production relevant to beef supply chains. The intern will create exploratory maps, charts, or tables based on patterns found in the analyses and develop a short set of recommendations outlining next steps for deeper analysis or future research.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct a targeted literature review on water use associated with beef and livestock production.
• Review and summarize existing methodologies for linking ET, irrigated forage production, and livestock supply chains.
• Access, process, and interpret OpenET data for selected forage or feed crops (e.g., alfalfa, pasture, silage, feed grains) in one or more pilot regions.
• Perform exploratory spatial and temporal analyses of consumptive water use relevant to beef production.
• Integrate OpenET outputs with complementary datasets (e.g., crop type, land use, agricultural statistics) as appropriate for a preliminary analysis.
• Identify and document key assumptions, data limitations, and uncertainties associated with satellite-derived ET in livestock-related contexts.
• Develop concise technical summaries, figures, and maps to communicate findings to project staff and partners.
• Participate in advancing EDF’s organizational effectiveness and culture goals, ensuring inclusivity and empowerment for all colleagues and stakeholders.

Qualifications

We are looking for candidates who possess the following:

• Currently enrolled or recent graduate of a graduate degree or PhD program in hydrology, environmental science, agricultural science, geography, remote sensing, or a related field.
• Graduate-level coursework or research experience in water resources, agriculture, or geospatial analysis.
• Working knowledge of GIS and data analysis tools (e.g., QGIS/ArcGIS, Python, R, or similar).
• Experience with evapotranspiration or satellite-based remote sensing datasets.
• Familiarity with irrigated agriculture, forage systems, or livestock production.
• Interest in applied research that informs agricultural water management and sustainability.
• Experience synthesizing technical findings for mixed technical and policy audiences.
• Strong analytical writing and communication skills.
• Demonstrate self-awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across all cultures and backgrounds.
• Demonstrate initiative and problem solving skills.

Location & Term

This is a U.S. Remote position, with the option to be hybrid out of any EDF office in Austin, TX, Boston, MA, Boulder, CO, New York, NY, Raleigh, NC, Washington, DC, or San Francisco, CA. The intern supervisor is in Oregon, and many team members are spread across California, Oregon, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. This full-time internship (35 hr/week) is for Summer 2026.

Compensation

Compensation for this internship is competitive with leading non-profits, paid at a rate of $20-24/hr.

Application Materials

Interested applicants should attach their cover letter and resume to the EDF application. More information about internships at EDF can be found at http://www.edf.org/environmental-careers/internships.

Key skills/competency

• Water Management
• Remote Sensing
• GIS
• Data Analysis
• Evapotranspiration (ET)
• Agricultural Science
• Hydrology
• Environmental Science
• Python
• R