Water Resources Research Act Program

Principal Investigators: James Sims, Maria Pautler, James Sims

Abstract: One of the major ongoing activities of the DWRC is to disseminate information on water resources to all interested individuals in Delaware and other states. The DWRC has a website to facilitate this and also bi-annually publishes a newsletter (DWRC Water News) which is distributed to approximately 400 individuals and organizations in the state and the U.S. We also distribute, through our e-mail list-serv, a frequent electronic newsletter (DWRC Water E-News) to all water-related faculty and staff at UD and many individuals in state and federal agencies, and local/regional water organizations. The Water E-News is used to rapidly distribute information on new publications, upcoming meetings, grant proposals, etc., to interested individuals. We have also established a formal link with the UDs undergraduate research program to distribute information to interested students about opportunities for water resources research. For those students who participate in a research project, they present their results during a University-wide poster session sponsored by the UD Office of Undergraduate Research. Each year the conference is held, we co-sponsor a water resources section with the UD Water Resources Agency, the Delaware Geological Survey, and the State of Delawares Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. In FY2013, the DWRC made new a range of new information available via the activities of the UD WATER Project (Watershed Action Team for Ecological Research). This information highlighted UD WATER team accomplishments and included the following: 1) evolution of and hydrologic response from a developed Piedmont watershed; 2) design of an interpretive trail of stormwater management in a Piedmont watershed; 3) assessment of forest quality along an urban-rural transition in a Piedmont watershed; and 4) a watershed plan for the Cool Run watershed. We also, along with the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) co-sponsored our annual water resources educational event held in the spring at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Ag Day. In FY2014, we will continue such activities.