Engagement Impacts

This year, the Telegraph and Mescal Fires impacted hundreds of lives and charred over 250,000 acres of land in central Arizona. On October 29 and 30, the public is invited to hear from their natural resource managers and community leaders about the expected short and long-term impacts of the fire on the landscape and watershed.

Quite often events described as “Black Swans” are really not quite that. They are more like grey swans—almost black, but not quite. In other words, there are some hugely important events in life that are disproportionate in their effects but not entirely foreseeable.

There are at least three water-related examples that come to mind; events in Arizona that were almost Black Swan events, and the moral to the story in each case seems to be that we can always do a better job of planning and should try to do so.

The WRRC is celebrating “Imagine a Day Without Water” on Thursday, October 21, with a special webinar featuring a 19-minute video on global water issues followed by a panel of emerging leaders in water and environmental management and policy.

/sites/wrrc.arizona.edu/files/pdfs/Wicked-Water-Problems-CRB-Oct-2021.pdfA 20-minute presentation, Tackling Wicked Water Problems in the Transboundary Colorado River Basin, is available for viewing on the WRRC website.