Knowledge Transfer

The Center aims to be a significant, visible vehicle for promoting research-user partnerships across the broader water resources field. We will do this by engaging the agencies and companies who have both a direct and indirect stake in water resources decisions. Knowledge transfer will be multi-directional. Center researchers will use a structured approach to get stakeholder impact, bringing researchers and other stakeholders together to jointly evaluate research needs and set research priorities. Technology transfer will be an ongoing and integral part of the day-to-day operation of the Center, and will rely heavily on research partnerships with private and public sector end users of new technology emerging from the Center. Participating institutions include the U.S and international academic, governmental and private sector organizations listed in Section 9. Collaborating institutions are initially those public and private sector stakeholders that have indicated an interest in and commitment to the proposed STC as indicated by the appended letters of support (see also Section 9).

Participating Institutions

Formal communication between investigators from the ten U.S. educational institutions, two Mexican institutions and five governmental agencies (see Section 9) will be at the annual meeting of the Center (see Section 8.3). At all times, Thrust area leaders will have responsibility for ensuring coordination of subtasks within and between thrust areas.

A critical aspect of knowledge transfer will be data sharing. The Center will have a database manager who will archive data, including metadata, as soon as possible after the data are developed. Data will be available for sharing among Center participants immediately, and available to the larger water resources community shortly thereafter, pending quality checks on data.

Short-term visits of personnel between participating institutions, paid out of Center funds, will be used for more in-depth transfer of information. Knowledge transfer to the broader scientific community will rely on traditional journal and meeting papers, in addition to the Internet.

Examples of ways in which the Center expects to interact with participating institutions follows (not exhaustive). Some of these interactions are committed (see appended letters) and others are projected (see also Section 13).

  • Scripps, UC, San Diego: Experimental forecasts from Scripps will be used by researchers at UA and other institutions.
  • USGS: Common scheduling of intensive field campaigns on riparian study areas in the Southwest and sharing of data will lower costs and increase data availability for USGS and the Center alike.
  • Penn State University: Successful development of tools to investigate water balance components in the Salt River basin and Rio Grande basin during the first five years of the STC will lead to testing of methods in Eastern U.S. catchments in the later years of the Center.
  • Northern Arizona University: Successful use of isotope and chemical tracers to delineate salinity sources in the Rio Grande basin will lead to incorporation of similar methods by NAU researchers into their studies of salinity on the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona.
  • ARS, U.S. Salinity Laboratory: New techniques developed at USSL will be tested for watershed-scale application through collaboration with the STC.
  • USACE/CRREL: Techniques for modeling snow accumulation and melt in the Boreal forest will adapted and included in watershed-scale research for forecasting snowmelt runoff. The resulting watershed-scale modeling will then be applied to catchments/reservoirs operated by USACE regional offices.
  • International Boundary and Water Commission: Knowledge transfer with Mexican colleagues will be strengthened through direct contacts set up through the IBWC.
  • Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua: Colleagues from IMTA make short (few days to weeks) visits to UA in order to adapt measurement techniques or decision tools developed at UA to local problems in northern Mexico.

Collaborating Institutions

Growth of the Center will be largely through greater participation of collaborating institutions in Center research and knowledge transfer activities. It is in part through collaboration with public and private sector partners that the Center will become self-sustaining. All collaborating institutions will be invited to participate in the Center’s annual meeting (Section 8.3), and will have access to selected results from research carried out under the Center. Active collaborators (see Section 9) will have earlier access to selected results of research under the Center by actively participating in or supporting the research. The appended letters provide an excellent beginning and good cross-section of the collaborators that the Center needs in order to succeed. Some example means of collaboration follow.

  • Bureau of Reclamation: Sharing of Bureau of Reclamation data and field sites will be valuable for testing models, with Center-supported personnel working on questions of common interest.
  • Campbell Scientific: Center field campaigns can be a test bed for Campbell equipment, with Center research providing expanded applications or opportunities for Campbell.
  • Riverside Technologies: Results of Center research can be further tailored for end users and marketed through Riverside.
  • California Department of Water Resources: Technologies or approaches developed by the Center can be independently tested by California DWR.
  • NASA Hydrological Sciences Branch: Exchanges of data and visits of Center personnel to NASA will be valuable for training and collaborative research.
  • Burr-Brown Corp: Use of Center forecasting tools as indicators of water availability, will provide data for corporate planning.
  • Salt River Project: Sharing of data and field sites will be valuable for testing models, with Center-supported and SRP-supported personnel working on common projects.
  • Elephant Butte Irrigation District: This district is a possible site for testing the application of decision-making tools developed through the Center.
  • Tucson Water: New isotopic tools developed for water balance studies on the middle Rio Grande will be applied to the Tucson basin.
  • Northern Arizona University-Science and Mathematics Learning Center: K-12 curriculum materials developed and tested at UA will be delivered to reservation schools/teachers through summer workshops offered by SMLC.

Decision Makers

To effectively transfer knowledge and scientific information generated by the research components to the wide range of decision makers, the Center will work with the UA Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy to undertake a series of activities aimed at the interested members of the public, key stakeholders, and public policymakers. The Arizona Water Resources Research Center and the Arizona Cooperative Extension will collaborate in these activities.

Interested Members of the Public
Bales, Brookshire, Hutchinson, Liverman, Maddock, Varady, Woodard

The Udall Center will organize a large (300-person), tri-annual symposium on Sustainable Water Use and Management in Semi-arid Regions, a conference for an array of participants: teachers, private-sector persons, non-governmental organization representatives, individuals in the media, and other interested members of the public-at-large. The event will compliment the schedule of and build upon discussions from the stakeholder dialogues and policy briefings described below. In general, the topics of the presentations and panels will parallel those of the Center’s thrust areas and case studies. These presentations will be tailored for a general audience. The symposium will be proceeded by preparation of white papers aimed at a general audience, and will include formal proceedings.

Stakeholders
Aparicio, Arias, Bales, Collado, Dracup, Little, Liverman, Maddock, Sorooshian, Valdés Varady

The Center will convene a series of semi-annual regional Dialogues on Sustainability of Water Resources Use and Management in Semi-arid Regions. These events will be small meetings of scientists, local officials (elected and appointed), and other stakeholders (ranchers, developers, water managers) -- with about 20 to 30 persons for each meeting and held periodically in different venues in the Southwest (e.g., Tucson, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Las Cruces), including locations convenient for Native American stakeholders. The forums will offer opportunities for detailed discussions about how the Center’s research findings will facilitate sustainable water use and management, and about the unmet needs of stakeholders that will help determine new Center research efforts. These forums will build on meetings that we have already instituted under a NOAA-supported pilot project on impacts of climate variability and change in the Southwest (R. Bales, PI). Stakeholders on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border will be engaged in the meetings.

Policy Makers
Glennon, Liverman, Maddock, Sorooshian, Varady

The Udall Center will organize half-day briefings for policymakers -- specifically state legislative, administrative, or judicial officials in Arizona, New Mexico, and California. These briefings will examine ongoing or emerging, and often scientifically complex, water-resources issues in the region and will include tutorials that focus on the transfer of new knowledge generated from the Center research projects, as well as facilitated discussions to solicit recommendations from the policymakers about what new areas of research might prove most useful. Separate briefings will be organized for the legal community, making use of existing meetings where possible.


 
       
Universidad de Arizona Departamento de Hidrologia y Recursos del Agua