1. Erick Carlson
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5106
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. Dylan Harrison-Atlas
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5105
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. Laurel Lynch
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5127
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. Alexander Maas
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5025
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. David Martin
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5103
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. Isaac Medina
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/4739
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. Grace Miner
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5049
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. Joel Sholtes
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5104
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
  1. Nicholas Sutfin
  2. http://www.igert.org/profiles/5124
  3. Graduate Student
  4. Presenter’s IGERT
  5. Colorado State University
Judges’ Queries and Presenter’s Replies
  • Icon for: Patricia Culligan

    Patricia Culligan

    Judge
    Faculty: Project PI
    May 20, 2013 | 01:40 p.m.

    Hello: I thought the sound of water in your video was great, and very effective! You say in your summary that “by looking at spatial relationships and coupled disciplines we have identified some of the major knowledge gaps”. Can you please list some of these gaps and explain the methodologies you plan to use to fill them? Thank-you.

  • Icon for: Joel Sholtes

    Joel Sholtes

    Co-Presenter
    Graduate Student
    May 22, 2013 | 11:18 p.m.

    An example of the knowledge gaps that we have identified and will address with our work is in the current understanding of what makes coupled economic, hydrologic, and agricultural systems more or less sensitive to water scarcity. We propose three metrics (described in the poster) that combine readily attainable information from these systems to provide assessments of a community’s resilience, sensitivity and adaptability to water scarcity. In essence we are distilling multiple data sources from various systems to describe a coupled, overall response. By comparing relative values of these metrics during historic periods of water scarcity, we can test how well this integrated approach describes a community’s response to water scarcity in general and in the future.

  • Icon for: Catherine Gehring

    Catherine Gehring

    Judge
    Faculty: Project Co-PI
    May 20, 2013 | 05:38 p.m.

    Hello students,
    You are integrating a variety of disciplines and I appreciated how clearly you laid out the three teams in your poster. Your abstract mentions that you use the Cache la Poudre watershed as an area to apply your approach. Can you provide an example of how the integration you are developing lead to novel insights regarding the problems facing this watershed?
    Thank you,
    Catherine

  • Icon for: Joel Sholtes

    Joel Sholtes

    Co-Presenter
    Graduate Student
    May 22, 2013 | 11:22 p.m.

    The metrics that the Social-Ecologic-Atmospheric group proposes will combine information from regional-scale economics and markets, human water uses, and environmental water needs to assess how the coupled human-environmental systems in the Cache la Poudre watershed will respond to future water scarcity. Existing drought metrics tend to consider single systems such as the economy or the aquatic environment. What is novel about this is how we are combining data from these different systems into integrative metrics, which can assess the the relative sensitivity, resilience, and adaptability of these coupled systems to water scarcity.

  • Icon for: Catherine Gehring

    Catherine Gehring

    Judge
    Faculty: Project Co-PI
    May 23, 2013 | 09:10 a.m.

    Thank you, Joel.
    Catherine

  • Icon for: Liliana Lefticariu

    Liliana Lefticariu

    Judge
    Faculty: Project Co-PI
    May 21, 2013 | 06:03 p.m.

    Hello: Nice video that goes straight to the point presenting the freshwater resource challenges and has a good concept behind it. Could the same strategy be used for other bodies of water in other states, or is this specific to policies surrounding Colorado water management?
    Thank you.

  • Icon for: Joel Sholtes

    Joel Sholtes

    Co-Presenter
    Graduate Student
    May 22, 2013 | 11:20 p.m.

    The strategies and frameworks we are developing could in fact be applied to any geographic region. Colorado and the intermountain west have unique water-environmental-social challenges due to western water law and large water dependent economies in this arid and semi-arid environment. However, these coupled interactions among the physical, biological, and social processes exist with any water management issue. Therefore, it is our hope that this work will contribute to the larger discussion of managing water for beneficial outcomes in all of these systems.

  • Icon for: J Yeakley

    J Yeakley

    Judge
    Faculty: Project Co-PI
    May 21, 2013 | 11:04 p.m.

    Hi all. Nice video – I like the fact that everyone had an equal voice in the presentation. If you could choose one main research outcome for your work, what would it be? Thanks, Alan

  • Icon for: Joel Sholtes

    Joel Sholtes

    Co-Presenter
    Graduate Student
    May 22, 2013 | 11:25 p.m.

    From Dylan Harrison-Atlas:

    Great question, Alan. Historically, the allocation of limited water resources has been dominated by economic interests. Increasingly, however, scientists and the general public have come to appreciate the benefits and values conferred by functional ecosystems. The framework adopted by our Social-Ecological-Hydrologic group integrates the relevant social, economic, and environmental domains to provide a more complete assessment of the outcomes produced by management decisions. In the future, we aim to operationalize this holistic approach in the form of a decision support tool for water resource management.

  • Icon for: Rafael Rios

    Rafael Rios

    Judge
    Faculty: Project PI
    May 21, 2013 | 11:22 p.m.

    I liked the way the music was used in the video. Could you give me a ballpark estimate of the water balance in the watershed?

  • Icon for: Alexander Maas

    Alexander Maas

    Co-Presenter
    Graduate Student
    May 22, 2013 | 11:21 p.m.

    I’m not entirely sure I understand the question, but I assume you’re asking for the breakdown of use types. The ballpark estimate is 75% of water rights go to agriculture, with the remaining mostly going to municipalities. There is some industrial use, but it is pretty minimal in the basin. Obviously the specific amount depends on the year and the total amount of available water.

    If you meant physical balance, the Poudre flow amounts to roughly 250,000 acre feet per year.

  • Icon for: Rafael Rios

    Rafael Rios

    Judge
    Faculty: Project PI
    May 23, 2013 | 02:45 p.m.

    Yes, the question refered to the breakdown of use types.

Presentation Discussion
  • Icon for: Tony Reames

    Tony Reames

    Graduate Student
    May 23, 2013 | 12:22 a.m.

    Great integration of all the presenters. Have you presented your research to any local policy makers? If so, what’s been their response?

  • Icon for: Nicholas Sutfin

    Nicholas Sutfin

    Co-Presenter
    Graduate Student
    May 24, 2013 | 06:24 p.m.

    Thanks for the suggestion. One of our IGERT fellows from the social-ecological-hydrological subgroup is working with land managers on the social-ecological framework. This coming academic year we will be inviting speakers from management and policy makers to present specific challenges regarding the issues addressed by our whole interdisciplinary group. We will then select a specific
    problem to address as a team where we will apply our research.

  • Icon for: Kathryn Furby

    Kathryn Furby

    Graduate Student
    May 23, 2013 | 12:38 a.m.

    Nicely done. I really like the way you used interviews to tell the story. Compelling to let the researchers tell the story.

  • Icon for: Kathy Hoogeboom-Pot

    Kathy Hoogeboom-Pot

    Graduate Student
    May 23, 2013 | 02:07 a.m.

    Good and very important work. Thanks for sharing it so clearly!

  • Icon for: Graham Fogg

    Graham Fogg

    Faculty: Project PI
    May 23, 2013 | 01:42 p.m.

    Good effort at integrating many disciplines. It’s tough to do that! Your project is largely about adaptation to various stressors, including climate change. Seems to me an important question then is the unknown effects of future climate change on the hydrology and streamflows. Aside from the uncertainty about what the local climate actually will be, there is the uncertainty about the hydrologic chain reaction that changes in climate will produce, including snowmelt timing, shifts in vegetation and hence ET, shifts in groundwater conditions and, in turn, streamflow. These are some issues being addressed at our UC Davis and Co School of Mines CCWAS IGERT that might be complementary to yours. Best Wishes!

  • Icon for: Nicholas Sutfin

    Nicholas Sutfin

    Co-Presenter
    Graduate Student
    May 24, 2013 | 06:42 p.m.

    Thanks for the comments. You certainly bring up very important questions regarding the uncertainty of hydrologic conditions in light of global climate change. While these are the very reasons we are compelled to address challenges confronting water resources, we are not necessarily attempting to model changes in hydrology associated with climate change. Our individual research, however addresses various related topics including micro-climates associated with irrigation of agricultural fields, by Isaac Medina. Perhaps we will get another I-WATER fellow who will address uncertainties of hydrologic modeling a bit more directly. We are operating under the primary assumptions that climate change will result in higher average global temperatures, earlier snowmelt, and higher variability in precipitation and snowpack. Perhaps we should reexamine these assumptions. Regardless of the assumptions, we see the need for improved water management to develop flexible strategies for addressing water scarcity. Research like yours, which addresses feedbacks in the hydrologic cycle, will be needed to inform approached such as ours so we will, certainly stay tuned to what you produce!

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.