Scope & Purpose: Securing the SAHRA Legacy
LOCATION
Biosphere2
32540 S Biosphere Rd
Oracle, AZ
(520) 838-6200
We are now in the fourth phase of SAHRA’s Strategic plan in which our primary goal is to secure the legacy of the SAHRA Center and the new way of carrying out stakeholder-relevant science and technological development that we have created while funded by NSF. Accordingly, we have two priorities. The first is to firmly establish the past success of SAHRA by highlighting and demonstrating a defined set of our Strategic Achievements. This we will do by delivering the defined set of Signature Products which are linked to and characterize these Strategic Achievements. The second priority is to define the way that we will continue to operate in the future, and to establish plans and priorities for the activities we will undertake.
At the time of this writing, there is ongoing discussion about the nature of the enterprise we will leave in place post NSF funding, and workshops planned to define priorities for future activities. However, having sought input from SAHRA’s External Advisory Board, one possible mode of future operation would involve the creation of a new integrating Center framework, perhaps called the Center for Water Resource Sustainability. Such a framework would allow continued activities that are a direct extension of our current work under SAHRA, including research and developments which focus on improved water resource management in the southwestern US, and the management of that portion of the UA’s Water Sustainability Program that serves water manages in Arizona. However, such a framework would also allow expansion into new areas. One important and exciting area of expansion is the development and management of the participation by the US academic community in the International Center for Integrated Water resource Management (ICWaRM), this being the flagship Center for the USA’s renewed substantial participation in UNESCO’s International Hydrology Program.
In the course of this year’s SAHRA Annual Meeting there will be scope for informal discussions on the form and focus of post-NSF activities but the focus of this meeting will be on our first priority, to establish SAHRA’s success by our ongoing progress towards demonstrating success through Signature Achievements. On Wednesday evening before the meeting there will be an opportunity for participants to tour the Biosphere2 facility. During Thursday we will give emphasis to sharing our most recent results and understanding within the SAHRA Center itself through a series of short presentations. On Friday we will give greater emphasis to planning our next-stage activities to provide our Signature Products. Again we will take the opportunity to report on progress towards our mission and goals to our advisors at NSF by incorporating our annual Site Visit into the proceedings.
Professor Juan Valdes
Director, NSF Science and Technology Center for
Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA)
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