The WRRC’s FY 2023 call for 104(b) research grant proposals has been delayed by national level changes to the 104(b) program schedule. Interested researchers at any of Arizona’s three universities should look for the Request for Proposals (RFP) in December 2022. As usual

WRRC Water Harvesting Tool on National Climate Resilience Website
A tool, developed by the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (UA-WRRC), has been added to the nation's Climate Resilience Toolkit. Throughout the Southwestern United States, climate change challenges communities to meet water demands, obtain additional water supplies, and construct additional infrastructure, all while ensuring enough water for environmental needs and for cooling the urban environment. Harvesting rainwater and stormwater provides a multitude of benefits, which include water savings, cost savings, reduced flood peaks, stormwater quality management, habitat enhancement, and reduction of urban heat island effects. The UA-WRRC created the Water Harvesting Assessment Toolbox (WHAT) to help communities in the Southwest understand the role water harvesting can play in meeting water resource challenges while providing multiple additional benefits.
Now WHAT has been recognized as a useful tool for inclusion in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, a website established to provide scientific tools, information, and expertise to help people manage their climate-related risks and opportunities. In response to President Obama's Climate Action Plan and Executive Order, U.S. federal government agencies have gathered resources that can help people take action to build their climate resilience. Communities can find WHAT among the collected tools and use it to learn about water harvesting and to develop an assessment process for employing water harvesting to capture its multiple benefits. It also introduces water harvesting techniques and suggests ways to implement locally appropriate water harvesting efforts.
You can find WHAT on the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit at
https://toolkit.climate.gov/tool/water-harvesting-assessment-toolbox
or on the WRRC's Desert Water Harvesting Initiative website at
Recent News

My name is Juliana, and I am one of four AmeriCorps Water Educators in Tucson working with Arizona Project WET (APW). So much happened in our first few weeks on the job. We all jumped right into the action. As water educators, we are tasked with teaching students from 4th grade all the way through high school through APW’s different programs. During the first month, in addition to learning about water and how to lead the lessons through training and seminars, we also had firsthand teaching experiences.

On Friday, October 28, the US Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) announced the initiation of an expedited process for developing a “Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)” on proposed revisions to the December 2007 Record of Decision relating to the Colorado River Interim Guidelines. The SEIS will lay out options to address the troubling operating conditions facing the river system now and in the future. Public comments submitted by December 20 will be reflected in the draft SEIS to be released next spring, with the final expected in late summer.

The WRRC has three great events lined up for this month. Next week, on Thursday, November 10, we will be hosting a Brown Bag webinar featuring two University of Arizona (UArizona) graduate students who will each present on their 104(b) research projects. The presentation from Chandler Noyes will address the paleoclimate and past recharge rates in the Tucson Basin across the Holocene.

The inaugural recipient of the Rodney Blaine Lewis Scholars Award is Divine Kickingbird, who is enrolled at the University of Arizona as a first-year law student and aims to join the graduate program in Tribal Governance.

Desalination is often considered as an important option for augmenting Arizona’s water supply. WRRC Director Sharon Megdal has recently been consulted for news stories from NPR and ABC regarding desalination projects.