Faculty Incentives


UA Incentive Awards


The University of Arizona (UA) has awarded faculty research grants to two projects. These awards are for researchers to use in preparation of larger grant applications to federal or other agencies such as NSF. These two projects address major issues facing Arizona and the border region. This background work will provide the focused arguments for researchers to seek larger investments to investigate alternative sources of water and the interface of energy and water - two critical areas of water management. The U of A 2007 Faculty Incentive recipients are:


Stephanie Buechler (BARA), Terry Sprouse (WRRC), Diane Austin (BARA), and Jim Riley (SWES) - "Creating a Successful Rainwater Harvesting and Greywater Reuse Program: Combining Community Participation, Technology and Design to Enhance Urban Water Sustainability" This research will focus on how to increase the use of rainwater harvesting and greywater systems in a broad range of socio-economic groups in Tucson. Problems related to stormwater management as well as drought can be ameliorated with the use of these two systems; if properly incorporated into urban planning and policymaking, such strategies can be an important part of current and future water management in the Southwest, particularly in light of climate projections that indicate we will experience more extreme climate events, both floods and droughts. With the projected increase in costs of infrastructure and water use fees, the incentive for residential water savings via these and other methods will increase. The proposed project will include collaborations with local NGO’s and government agencies.

Christopher Scott and Robert Varady (Udall Center) - "Coupled Water and Energy Demand in the Arizona-Sonora Border Region" The goal of this effort is to inform and support domestic (state and federal) and bi-national policies that couple the anticipated needs for both water and energy. This effort addresses the AWI priority area of international applications and research and aquifer management and sustainability, in addition to the energy-water nexus. The water management implications of energy generation are considerable, and the energy implications of water delivery have historically not received much scrutiny. For example, few are aware that 30% of the total rgy use in the State of California is for pumping water. This work will develop background data and conduct a needs assessment to focus future work on the US-Mexico border region, where such issues are of increasing concern. The research will include UA and Sonora colleagues as well as agency representatives.



NAU Incentive Awards


Northern Arizona University (NAU) has awarded faculty research grants to project. These awards are for researchers to use in preparatin of larger grant applications to federal or other agencies such as NSF. The 2007 NAU Faculty Incentive recipients are:

Dr. Yeon-Su Kim (Foresty) - "Economic Feasibility of Tamarisk Utilization"This study is to determine financial thresholds of small-scale biomass plant designed to use tamarisk plants as a heat source and identify ideal locations where such small-scale biomass plants would be an economically and ecologically viable option in the West. This study will generate time-sensitive information that communities and land managers can use to plan and implement Tamarisk control in the West while meeting some of local energy needs and possibly promoting rural economic development.

Dr.Michael Ketterer (Chemistry) - "Rapid Chronology of Holocene Carbonate Sediments"The objective of the research is to further develop a low-cost, rapid, sensitive and pragmatic environmental monitoring method for simultaneous determination of radium-226 and thorium-230. Having demonstrated the feasibility of these measurements, the focus of the NSF-EAR proposals will be to apply them in a feasible but underdeveloped dating system based upon the accumulation of excess radium-226 in lake systems dominated by precipitated calcium carbonate sediments. While other methods such as carbon-14 exist for chronology of Ilolocene sediments, the envisioned dating system would fill an important time gap between carbon-14 and shorter timescale methods (e.g., lead-2 10 dating). The NSF proposals will further demonstrate the dating tool by comparison to independent sediment chronologies, and will use excess radium- 226 chronology in investigating specific hypothesis-driven research questions. Preliminary work by Ketterer and students has shown that the required measurements can be made by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, a capability that exists at NAU and which Ketterer has extensive experience in. The AWl incentive proposal requests $1000 in supplies and $6000 in summer salary to complete one additional experimental step and to develop the planned proposals. Besides the application in dating of Holocene sediments in the 300-7000 year timeframe, the measurement technology could be widely used in drinking water monitoring, since radium-226 is regulated by EPA’s drinking water standards. At present, the determination of radium-226 in water is expensive and tedious, and this isotope is not being adequately monitored in many public and private water supplies. Measurements of radium-226 and thorium-230 are also essential to studies of the environmental impacts of uranium mining and milling, as both of these isotopes occur naturally in association with uranium-238. Studies of this nature are ongoing at NAU and additional emphasis is needed on working with Colorado Plateau Tribal groups living in locations affected by past uranium mining/milling activities. This AWl Incentive proposal is relevant to the following research theme areas: I) climate variability and change; II) water quality and treatment; and III) tribal support. Support from AWl would make a critical difference in terms of being able to successfully develop proposals that will be competitive for NSF-EAR funding.

Dr. Dieter Otte (Engineering & Natural Sciences) - "Hydrologic Information Management"AWl is a unique effort to bring together researchers, stakeholders and decision makers in the realm of water management to share, analyze and integrate water-related data. However, it takes a strong sense of community to make synergy effects actually happen. A sophisticated software infrastructure is necessary to facilitate the creation and maintenance of such a community. This paper proposes the development of a full grant proposal to be submitted to the NSF to design and implement an online research forum for thc AWl.

Dr. Cathy Propper (Biological Sciences) - "Effect of Environmental Exposure to Wastewater Effluent: Molecular, Morpholigical, Physiological and Behavioral Outcomes" Many chemical compounds used in agriculture and industry are known to influence the endocrine system of adults and developing individuals (reviewed by Colborn et a!. 1993); (Norris & Carr 2006). While the data available for many of these compounds clearly demonstrate that they may individually influence vertebrate endocrine physiology, less is known about how mixes of these compounds impact development and adult function. Among the largest sources of chemical mixtures with endocrine disrupting properties are municipal wastewater effluent discharges to local rivers and streams. Such waters can produce endocrine disrupting effects in exposed wildlife or affect the quality of local surface and ground waters. Many of these compounds affect development by targeting either the reproductive system and/or the thyroid hormone system. However, studies that investigate the outcome of such expression from the molecular to the physiological and behavioral levels are rare. The proposal to address the hypothesis that developmental exposure to wastewater has lifelong effects on gene expression, physiology and behavior will be submitted to the National Science Foundation’s Physiological and Structural Systems Cluster within the Integrative Organismal Systems Program. This NSF program supports research into how the environment impacts systems fi.inctions leading to emergent organismal properties The grant will include co-Pi’s from ASU and TGEN. Because aquatic ecosystems are becoming increasingly polluted with emerging contaminants, it is critical to determine how organisms respond through all levels of organization. Furthermore, as the need for use of reclaimed wastewater for the development of riparian refuges increases, especially in the arid Southwest, it is critical to understand how such exposure will affect aquatic wildlife. This proposal therefore fits in the Water Quality section of the Arizona Water Institute’s Mission.

Dr. Rand Decker (Civil & Environmental Engineering) - "Water Supply Augmentation: The Technical Feasibility, Experimental Design, and Costs and Benefits of Cloud-Seeding for Snowpack Augmentation Using Modern Meteorological Synpotic, and Ground and Aircraft Based Logistics" The objective of this NAU-AWI faculty incentive award is to research and prepared a proposal to establish the technical feasibility, verification study requirements and scope, costs and cost-benefits of a modern ground and aircraft based snowpack augmentation program for the state of Arizona. This ground and aircraft based cloud-seeding program would include the use modern synoptic meteorology tools and aviation logistics. Such a program has the potential to provide some relief from the embedded regional drought that continues to plague the Southwest. There are four sites northern Arizona sites where ground based snowpack augmentation has already been identified as potentially feasible. The implementation of water supply augmentation efforts, including winter cloud-seeding, is an area of major new impetus for the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR). The conceptual area of water supply augmentation that utilizes cloud-seeding is also forefront in the minds of many regional water supply managers, including the Southern Nevada Water Authority as a lead agency for the other Colorado River Basin states. There is congressional legislation - the National Weather Modification Program (NWMP) poised to bring significant resources into this arena. Arizona is the only Colorado River Basin state that does not presently have any operational snowpack augmentation efforts underway or under consideration. Moreover, at the present time, Arizona does not have a viable plan by which it would plan, implement and operate a snowpack augmentation program and its counterpart verification study. The proposal that would the result from this NAU-AWI faculty incentive award would, by design, alleviate much of this unacceptable scenario. It is anticipated that much of the actual ground based cloud-seeding, as well as the aircraft base-of-operations for airborne cloud-seeding would be in northern Arizona. Pursuant to the spirit of the Arizona Water Institute (AWI) and given their attendant expertise, the resulting proposal would include partners from both the UA (Meteorology) and ASU (Aviation).


AWI Sponsored or Attended Upcoming Events

For additional information on other events, please see the calendar

  • July 30 - "Getting the Waters Right - Water, Energy, & Climate Change" SWCS conference in Tucson, AZ.
  • August 12-13 - "Climate Change: "Implications for California Groundwater Management" Radisson Hotel Sacramento, CA.
  • September 17 - "Making the Connection" The first University of Arizona Translational Environmental Research Symposium 9a-4:30p University of Arizona, Student Union.
  • September 20-24 - American Institute of Professional Geologists & Arizona Hydrological Society present - "3rd International Professional Geology Conference", Flagstaff. For more information, click here.
  • October 23-24 - "Border Energy Forum XV - United States/Mexico", Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico click here.
  • November 1- "Troubled Waters: Religion, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis" in Phoenix, Az.
  • November 18-20 "Coming Together: Coordination of Science and Restoration Activities for the Colorado River Ecosystem" Doubletree Hotel, Scottsdale, AZ. Look here for full brochure.
  • January 22-23 2009: "Adaptation to Climate Change in the Desert Southwest" Westward Look Resort, Tucson, AZ.

Thank you to our sponsors:

Visit the sponsors page for a complete list of our sponsors