Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2014AZ531B

Information Transfer

Institute: Arizona
Year Established: 2014 Start Date: 2014-03-01 End Date: 2015-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $72,358 Total Non-Federal Funds: $157,011

Principal Investigators: Sharon Megdal, Susanna Eden

Project Summary: The WRRC’s Information Transfer Program will continue to produce its major component products in 2014. These include the Arizona Water Resource and Arroyo newsletters, the Annual Conference, Brown Bag seminars, and the website. The AWR, which was redesigned for full-color in 2013, continues as a source of timely information on water resources news, including summaries of 104(b) research projects. The next in the WRRC’s Arroyo series of annual, single-topic newsletters will appear in Spring 2014 on the topic of the value of water, and research on the 2015 Arroyo will be undertaken by the 2014 Montgomery & Associates Summer Intern, to be selected in March. The WRRC’s Annual Conference for 2014, “Closing the Gap Between Water Supply and Demand,” will be held in April in collaboration with the Arizona Department of Water Resources. The expanded series of Brown Bag Seminars will continue to provide a forum for researchers, students and community members to learn about and discuss water resources issues. Offsite stakeholders will have access to the Brown Bags through recently expanded live webcasts via Blackboard Collaborate and in-house video coverage. Collaborations will continue with the Water Sustainability Program, now a part of the Water, Environmental and Energy Solutions Initiative, and with Arizona Project WET. Ongoing programs of research and outreach are expanding. Although these programs are almost entirely funded from non-program sources, they are provided continuing support by the Information Transfer Program, which created dedicated web pages for the Water RAPIDS Program and the Desert Water Harvesting Initiative, among others. These pages can be maintained by the program principals. The WRRC is placing increasing emphasis on the internet as a public information tool. Social media efforts are expanding, on Facebook (facebook.com/AZWRRC) and the recently revived @AZWRRC Twitter handle. Among current efforts at consistent branding, a regular weekly update on WRRC news and events is distributed electronically in the “WRRC Weekly Wave”, which is planned as a continuing communication medium. In addition to all of the above, WRRC personnel will continue their public service activities and respond to public inquiries about water resources issues of concern.