Scientists & Staff

Sonya Sachdeva

Research Social Scientist

People and Their Environments: Social Science Supporting Natural Resource Management and Policy

1033 University Place, Suite 360

Evanston, IL, 60201

Phone: 224-999-4004

Contact Sonya Sachdeva

News Releases

Tweets Prove to be Reliable Indicator of Air Quality Conditions During WildfiresJuly 26, 2018

Current Research

Sonya Sachdeva is a computational social scientist with the US Forest Service in the greater Chicago area. Staffed with scientists from a wide range of backgrounds, "People and Their Environments" is one of only a few Forest Service research work units that studies the human component of natural resource management within urban ecosystems. Scientists in the unit conduct research on wide array of topics including the impact of climate change on conservation decision-making, understanding perceptions of air and water pollution and addressing environmental justice issues in urban environments. Sonya also has an adjunct appointment with the Environmental Policy & Culture program at Northwestern University. She holds a Bachelors in Economics from the University of Michigan and a doctoral degree in Cognitive Science from Northwestern University. Her current projects involve large-scale automated text analysis of climate change coverage in the media, field assessments of the efficacy of environmental programs and behavioral experiments to study the impact of resource scarcity on conservation behavior.

Education

Northwestern University, Ph.D. Cognitive Science, 2010
Northwestern University, M.S. Cognitive Science, 2006
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, B.S Economics & Biological Psychology, 2005

Publications & Products

Westphal, Lynne ; Dockry, Michael ; Kenefic, Laura ; Sachdeva, Sonya ; Rhodeland, Amelia ; Locke, Dexter ; Kern, Christel ; Huber-Stearns, Heidi ; Coughlan, Michael R. 2022. USDA Forest Service Employee Diversity During a Period of Workforce Contraction. Journal of Forestry
Sachdeva, Sonya ; Zhao, Jiaying. 2021. Distinct impacts of financial scarcity and natural resource scarcity on sustainable choices and motivations. Journal of Consumer Behaviour
Garcia, Zachary ; Sachdeva, Sonya ; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika. 2020. Translating spiritual experience into environmental stewardship at Jamaica Bay, New York City. In: Cocks, Michelle L.; Shackleton, Charlie M., eds. Urban Nature: Enriching Belonging, Wellbeing, and Bioculture. New York, NY: Routledge. 144-165. Chapter 8.
Sachdeva, Sonya. 2020. Chapter 17: Using social media for research and monitoring the changing landscape of public land use. In: Selin, Steven; Cerveny, Lee K.; Blahna, Dale J.; Miller, Anna B., eds. 2020. Igniting research for outdoor recreation: linking science, policy, and action. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-987. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 257 p.
Floress, Kristin ; Sachdeva, Sonya. 2019. Novel and Controversial Methods in the Social Sciences: Introduction to Special Issue. Society & Natural Resources
Lindsey, Greg ; Qi, Yunlei ; Gobster, Paul ; Sachdeva, Sonya. 2019. Population Changes, Weather, and Congestion: Exploring Declines in Use of Chicago's Elevated Trail. The Journal of Park and Recreation Administration. 38: 127-140.
Lindsey, Greg ; Qi, Yunlei ; Gobster, Paul H.; Sachdeva, Sonya. 2019. The 606 at three: Trends in use of Chicago's elevated Rail-Trail. Proceedings of the Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning. 6(37). 14p.
Sachdeva, Sonya ; Boghrati, Reihane ; Dehghani, Morteza. 2019. Testing the Influence of Purity-Based Interventions on Pro-environmental Behavior. Sustainability
Arakawa, Sachi; Sachdeva, Sonya; Shandas, Vivek. 2018. Environmental stewardship: Pathways to community cohesion and cultivating meaningful engagement. In: Dhiman S.; Marques J., eds. Handbook of engaged sustainability. New York, NY: Springer International: 1-23
Browning, Matthew H.E.M.; Kuo, Ming; Sachdeva, Sonya; Lee, Kangjae; Westphal, Lynne. 2018. Greenness and school-wide test scores are not always positively associated - A replication of "linking student performance in Massachusetts elementary schools with the 'greenness' of school surroundings using remote sensing". Landscape and Urban Planning
Kuo, Ming ; Browning, Matthew H. E. M.; Sachdeva, Sonya ; Lee, Kangjae ; Westphal, Lynne. 2018. Might School Performance Grow on Trees? Examining the Link Between "Greenness" and Academic Achievement in Urban, High-Poverty Schools. Frontiers in Psychology
Sachdeva, Sonja ; McCaffrey, Sarah. 2018. Using social media to predict air pollution during California wildfires. In: Proceedings of the international conference on social media and society; 2018 July 18-20; Copenhagen, Denmark. SM Society. 365-359.
Sachdeva, Sonya; Emery, Marla R.; Hurley, Patrick T. 2018. Depiction of Wild Food Foraging Practices in the Media: Impact of the Great Recession. Society & Natural Resources
Schertz, Kathryn E.; Sachdeva, Sonya; Kardan, Omid; Kotabe, Hiroki P.; Wolf, Kathleen L.; Berman, Marc G. 2018. A thought in the park: The influence of naturalness and low-level visual features on expressed thoughts. Cognition. 174. 12 p.
Gobster, Paul H.; Sachdeva, Sonya; Lindsey, Greg. 2017. Up on The 606. Understanding the Use of a New Elevated Pedestrian and Bicycle Trail in Chicago, Illinois. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Sachdeva, Sonya ; McCaffrey, Sarah ; Locke, Dexter. 2017. Social media approaches to modeling wildfire smoke dispersion: spatiotemporal and social scientific investigations. Information, Communication & Society
Sachdeva, Sonya. 2016. The influence of sacred beliefs in environmental risk perception and attitudes. Environment and Behavior. 18 p. http://dx.doi.org/0.1177/0013916516649413.
Sachdeva, Sonya. 2016. Religious identity, beliefs, and views about climate change. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.335 [36 p.]
Sachdeva, Sonya; Jordan, Jennifer; Mazar, Nina. 2015. Green consumerism: moral motivations to a sustainable future. Current Opinion in Psychology. 6: 60-65.

National Research Highlights

An elementary school within the Chicago Public School system

Tree Cover Boosts Academic Performance in Chicago Public Schools

Year: 2018

An analysis of academic achievement within Chicago Public Schools suggests that a higher proportion of tree cover, relative to grass and other vegetation, on school yards is associated with higher math and reading scores.

Understanding resident use of a new elevated pedestrian and bicycle trail

Year: 2017

Monitoring use of a new elevated trail in Chicago provides important information to city managers. Preliminary results suggest that "The 606" has created connections between historically segregated neighborhoods, meeting and exceeding city managers’ objectives.

Daily correlation between PM2.5 levels (orange circles) and Twitter Activity (blue crosses.) Sonya Sachdeva, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

Using Tweets to Model Wildfire Smoke

Year: 2016

Forest Service scientists and their partners found that crowdsourced data collected from Twitter can be used to accurately predict air quality impacts from wildfire smoke.

Last modified: Tuesday, September 27, 2016