After working in a virtual environment for nearly two years on the US Department of Agriculture-funded project, Secure Water Future, researchers from NM WRRI and NMSU joined their counterparts from UC Merced, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Utah State, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Public Policy Institute of California for a two-day in-person project team meeting. The meeting took place on the campus of UC Berkeley from January 5 through January 7. The main purpose of the meeting was to build stronger collaborations and coordination between researchers at the different research sites in three states working across four main research thrusts at three spatial scales (region, district, and farm). The research thrusts include climate integration, markets, management, and measurement with education and outreach as overarching activities to achieve the goal of understanding, enabling, and envisioning water management strategies for agricultural and ecological systems in the Southwest. The research is important for New Mexico, as water managers and researchers work together to find innovative solutions to sustain agriculture in times of continued water scarcity.
Several main outcomes resulted from the meeting. The primary outcome was a greater connection between team members, which is necessary to build trust, align individual goals with project goals, and integrate the broad depth of knowledge each team member brings to the project. Progress was made in envisioning the utility of Water 3D, the web-based tool being developed for the project. Another outcome was an outline of
project deliverables for year 2 of the project, which will include numerous publications, presentations, and the development of an educational game to teach about the impacts of water management decisions.
Although only a subset of the team was able to attend, the entire project team includes over 70 researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and support staff.
The team will convene again July 17-19 in Denver for the American Water Resources Association meeting to present the most recent results of the research.