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Water Resources Research Center
March. 25, 2016 / Volume 4, Issue 10
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WRRC/WSP Special Guest Speaker
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Distinguished Speaker Charles Bayless Brings New Perspectives on Water and Energy
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Charles Bayless
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Speaker: Charles Bayless, retired Chairman and CEO of Tucson Electric Power and Illinois Power.
Time/Location: 12:00 p.m. / The University of Arizona ENR2 Building, Room S107
Charles Bayless, former Chairman and CEO of Tucson Electric Power, will provide insightful commentary on the water-energy-climate nexus on March 29, 2016. Launching from his experience as TEP Chairman and CEO, and as former President and Provost of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology, he will integrate critical global resource issues with technology and science information to help explain the water and energy choices we must make to ensure sustainability, and the ramification of those decisions.
This presentation is sponsored by the Water Resources Research Center and co-sponsored by the UA Water Sustainability Program, Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions, and Renewable Energy Network. There will be refreshments.
Please note: This special talk will be held in the new ENR2 building.
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Panel on Navajo Perspectives on the Gold King Mine SpillMarch 29, 2016
Time/Location: 1 p.m. / The University of Arizona Student Union Kiva Auditorium
Hear the stories and perspectives of the impact of the Gold King Mine Spill mine from a panel consisting of a Navajo farmer, community member, health advocate, and Navajo scientists.
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Brown Bag Seminar -
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Lower Santa Cruz River Basin Study
April 5, 2016
Speakers: Eve Halper, Natural Resources Specialist, Bureau of Reclamation, and Kathy Chavez, Water Policy Manager, Pima CountyTime/Location: 12:00 - 1:15 p.m. / WRRC Sol Resnick Conference Room (350 N. Campbell).The overarching goal of the three-year Lower Santa Cruz River Basin Study is to identify where physical water resources are needed to mitigate climate change impacts and to improve water reliability for the municipal, agricultural, and environmental sectors in the Basin. Through the process, the study will engage regional stakeholders, including those representing municipal, agricultural, environmental, industrial, and tribal water providers and users.
Note: This presentation will also be webcast live via GotoWebinar.
For a complete list of upcoming Brown Bag seminars click here
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Brown Bag Seminar -
DroughtView: Combining on-the-Ground Know-how with Remotely Sensed Data to Assess Drought Impacts
April 12, 2016
Speaker: Jeremy Weiss, Climate and Geospatial Extension Scientist, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of ArizonaTime/Location: 12:00 - 1:15 p.m. / WRRC Sol Resnick Conference Room (350 N. Campbell) Jeremy Weiss will present a recent drought assessment developed through DroughtView, a web-based map application that combines different types of drought-monitoring information. A DroughtView assessment provides relevant data-based perspectives and corroborates on-the-ground observations with larger, county-level patterns of high and low rangeland productivity.
Note: This presentation will also be webcast live via GotoWebinar.
For a complete list of upcoming Brown Bag seminars click here
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Sharon Megdal Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Nominated for her outstanding achievements in water policy and water resources management, Dr. Sharon B. Megdal was the recipient of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th Annual Women of Influence event. The annual event, presented by Inside Tucson Business and Tucson Local Media, brought together over 600 people from across Pima County to celebrate 47 finalists chosen from over 160 nominees in 17 categories.
Dr. Megdal's work ranges from local to international. Current projects include comparative evaluation of water management, policy and governance in growing, water-scarce regions; groundwater management and governance; groundwater recharge; transboundary aquifer assessment; and Conserve2EnhanceTM.
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Beyond the Mirage Has Launched! Join the Movement!
The "Beyond the Mirage" web experience was launched in Phoenix and Tucson last week. Launch attendees could explore the story of Southwestern water ---- journeying through past achievements, current realities, future challenges, and innovative solutions for Arizona and region ---- by navigating through a constellation of hundreds of short video clips especially created for Beyond the Mirage. This innovative digital outreach program aims to raise the level of water knowledge in people of all ages across Arizona and the Southwest. "The public needs a sophisticated understanding of our water situation in order the help leaders make the hard choices that will have to be made", said Cody Sheehy, the innovator behind the "Beyond the Mirage" concept. Site users create "stacks" (or mini-documentaries) of clips organized to their liking and share them on social media. As Sheehy said, "we are starting a movement". To grow the movement everyone needs to go on the website, produce a documentary, and share it on Facebook or other social media.
"Beyond the Mirage" has three major components. Last week the first component, the video-based web experience, was released and a social media campaign is spreading the word. The second component is a feature length documentary, which will be aired on PBS stations in Tucson and Phoenix on April 15 and May 16. There will also be live screenings of the documentary at which the filmmaker and water experts will be present to discuss the film. In Tucson, these will be at the Center for Creative Photography (April 6) and the Loft Cinema (April 11). The final component is moving "Beyond the Mirage" into the classroom. In a 6th to 12th grade student stacking event on April 22, classrooms from across the Phoenix area will share mini-documentaries created on the "Beyond the Mirage" website with one another. Awards will be presented in May 2016 for Best-of-Show mini-documentaries accompanied by a paragraph-long description of the student filmmaker's intent.
Join the "Beyond the Mirage" movement by engaging with the content at http://beyondthemirage.org/, attending a screening and/or watching the broadcast. Make a documentary that reflects your interests and share it with others. Start a conversation about our water situation and get people talking.
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This report, authored by Kelly Mott Lacroix, WRRC Sr. Research Analyst, Elia Tapia, Ph.D. student in the Arid Lands Resource Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, and Professor Abraham E. Springer, School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, provides a summary of findings from the Desert Flows Database and over 40 maps and tables with data on environmental flow needs and responses to changes in flow for riparian and aquatic species.
You can read the report here
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Participants Made the WRRC Conference a Success
Approximately 275 people attended the WRRC's 2016 Annual Conference, "#AZwaterfuture: Tech, Talk, and Tradeoffs" at the University of Arizona Student Union Memorial Center on Monday, March 21st. Attendees came from 23 communities throughout Arizona and six Southwestern states. They were treated to keynote talks and panel discussions on innovations in technology, implications of water management tradeoffs, and state level water plans and programs. A special panel on Innovations in Education and Communication was organized by Arizona Project WET.
Keynote speakers offered lessons learned from experience in high-level positions and programs with major impacts on water issues. At lunch, Hunter Moore, Governor Ducey's Natural Resources Policy Advisor, provided the latest on the Governor's Water Initiative, including the recently formed Water Augmentation Council.
The post-conference Interactive Reception introduced the new UA Water Network website, and engaged participants in exploring the "Beyond the Mirage" web experience and building their own documentaries. It also featured the winning University of Arizona student posters: first, Aloah Pope, second, Tirthankar Roy, and third, Benjamin Richmond and Saige Williams.
Find more information about the UA Water Network here
Join the "Beyond The Mirage" movement here
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Science and Engineering Excellence Awards Nominations
Each year the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program at the University of Arizona honors campus and community leaders whose work exemplifies the mission and goals of WISE to increase interest and diversity in STEM fields. The award winners will be honored at the annual Science and Engineering Excellence Banquet, which will be held on April 28th, 2016. This event will feature keynote speaker, Dr. Diana Liverman, Co-Director of the UA Institute of the Environment.
You can nominate someone for the following award categories before April 1st, 2016: Excellence in Campus Outreach for STEM Diversity, University Excellence in STEM Diversity, Excellence in K-12 STEM Education and Diversity, Excellence in Community Outreach for STEM Diversity, and Excellence in STEM Diversity.
Nominate someone for the Science and Engineering Excellence Awards here
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WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH CENTER
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The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) - A unit of the University of Arizona, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Arizona Cooperative Extension - promotes understanding of critical state and regional water management and policy issues through research, community outreach and engagement, and public education.
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