1. CSU / Riverside Global Water & Climate Initiative

2. What is the problem and why is it important?
Pressure on global water resources from population and climate change
Needs:
Thoughtful solutions
Roadmap for action in policy, implementation, funding and education
Defined roles and responsibilities

3. Other implementation needs? Roles? Leadership, partnering?
Key questions for implementation agencies, governance authorities, funding organizations, and universities included:
Research needs?
Education needs?
Other implementation needs?
Roles? Leadership, partnering?
Potential funding sources?
Workforce Gaps?
New degree or educational programs?
How better position CSU/Partners to lead?

4. Topic Area 1. Hydrologic Uncertainty and Extreme events

5. Hydrologic uncertainty and extreme events
Critical challenge: Suitability of climate model output for use in hydro models for water security and water infrastructure planning and management
Solutions:
Examine existing model output from a hydrological perspective
Ensemble methodology – ex. can non-stationarity of climate signals explain non-stationarity in streamflow response?
Needs:
Need to develop realistic and replicable methods for downscaling from global climate models to local project and sub‐basin levels to allow for better project and program design.
More tools needed for downscaling from global models to project level given poor local hydrologic and meteorological data availability especially in the developing world.

6. Same for severe droughts Needs:
Hydrologic uncertainty and extreme events
Critical challenge: Conduct forensic investigation of large floods and severe droughts – unique and specific forcing factors
Solutions:
Examine large floods to better attribute causes to meteorological events, climate change, and the built environment
Same for severe droughts
Needs:
Water infrastructure planning must better integrate root causes of existing floods to extrapolate to future conditions that may not be represented in models.

7. Hydrologic uncertainty and extreme events
Critical challenge: Understand ecosystem response and feedbacks to changing climate, changing surface water, and groundwater quality and quantity
Solution:
Increased interdisciplinary focus on the interaction between ecosystems and water availability, and how these systems may be pushed over thresholds due to climate change.
Needs:
Tools to help water managers and planners predict climate induced changes in water quantity and quality and feedback responses.

8. Topic Area 2. Politics, People and Governance

9. Politics, people and governance
Critical challenge: Importance of improved governance at all levels [local, national, transboundary]
Solutions:
Promote social justice and water as a human right
Support transparency and trust to reduce conflict and promote confidence in governance
Assessment of international law to facilitate policies and regulations [including water rights]
Include necessary regulations and enforcement of them
Foster culture of involvement, cooperation and ethical decisions
Promote subsidiarity with solutions at local levels
Facilitate communication and stakeholder engagement
Link water solutions and fight against poverty, terrorism, migration
Link hard and soft sciences with comprehensive view of issues
Educate public and managers about climate and social uncertainties
Provide access to technologies for low income people
Needs:
New interdisciplinary approaches to water education
Research into links between water and justice

10. Politics, people and governance
Critical challenge: Water solutions require integration but institutions are fragmented
Solutions:
Promote “One Water” for infrastructure (all waters under one management)
Promote water integration with other sectors (energy, health, environment)
Strengthen vertical linkages between institutions and local level
Foster culture of cooperation
Develop tools to develop integrated and multi-disciplinary solutions
Shared vision modeling
Needs:
Methodologies to fight fragmentation and promote cooperation
Teach engineers about management solutions through integration
Promote water data standardization and sharing

11. Politics, people and governance
Critical challenge: Bridging gaps in workforce capacity to promote integrated and effective water management
Solutions:
Global training platforms
Professionals exposed to innovation and entrepreneurship
Workforce to succeed under risk and uncertainty
Enhance professional knowledge networks
Develop comprehensive, systems thinking
Promote communication and awareness raising at all levels of management and society (e.g. to address sovereignty within the context of transboundary water)
Needs:
New style of educated workforce (e.g. certification in IWRM)
Educate engineers, managers and technicians
Educate about management under risk and uncertainty

12. Politics, people and governance
Critical challenge: Create management culture of more effective and sustainable solutions
Solutions:
Leapfrog technologies (from centralized to distributed systems, on site treatment)
Benchmarking to rate system performance
Improved communication among managers
Meaningful stakeholder communication and engagement
Promote soft path demand management
Prevention and precaution more important than false exactness and illusion of rigor.
Connections to ‘think tanks’
Improve information-based decision-making systems
Visualization of scientific findings
Triple bottom line decision support
Improved water accounting and Asset management
Ensure public access to data services
Needs:
Management training
Development and dissemination of tools
Focus on data management

13. Critical challenge: Financial capacity and affordable solutions
Politics, people and governance
Critical challenge: Financial capacity and affordable solutions
Solutions:
Balance financial sustainability and social responsibility and justice in water management
Help low income countries with water infrastructure and services
Upgrade aged facilities
Need for targeted subsidies
Improve public-private partnership models
Consider and propagate government responsibilities towards their people for adaptation measures and enhance effective, affordable adaptation measures
Needs:
Quantification of true value of water and water assets
Methods to determine appropriate subsidies for poor
Methods to develop and promulgate rates based on long-term marginal cost of water and infrastructure

14. Topic Area 3. Water Management and Planning

15. Water management and planning
Critical challenge: Effective planning for critical water infrastructure
Solution:
Resilient traditional and non-traditional infrastructure
Consider and analyze alternatives with multi-criteria analysis
Needs:
Assessment of existing infrastructure
Appropriate accounting of risk and uncertainty
Show success with technology with case studies
Identification of constraints – triple bottom line
Consider trans-boundary issues

16. Critical challenge: Implementation of critical water infrastructure
Water management and planning
Critical challenge: Implementation of critical water infrastructure
Solutions:
Integrate data, modeling, and information dissemination (DSS)
Consider new interdisciplinary approaches to building public awareness and confidence
Needs:
Determine model for sustainability and low impact
Improved seasonal and short term forecasts to prepare the society for extreme events
Address risk and uncertainty

17. Critical challenge: Support of critical water infrastructure
Water management and planning
Critical challenge: Support of critical water infrastructure
Solutions:
Taking advantage of big data
Linking measurement and management
Develop tools that will provide scientific credibility and social confidence
Needs:
Increase access to appropriate data and information
Sharing data utilizing models and tools derived from rapidly developing Information
Enhance sustainability: stakeholder support

18. CSU Water-Climate Declaration
On June 13-14, 2016 a group of experts met at Colorado State University to analyze pressures on global water resources and identify needed solutions, actions, and responsibilities. Needs are to:
Improve water governance with objective science and implementable policy;
Galvanize the power of multidisciplinary approaches using climate science, hydrology, ecology, management and accountable public policy;
Respond to uncertainty and risk by greater understanding of climate futures and institutional responses;
Utilize data resources to support informed decision-making at all levels; and
Improve professional knowledge networks with multidisciplinary knowledge applied toward water and climate related challenges.

19. Implications for Colorado State University
Initiate new faculty activities in water governance and policy by integrating science, engineering and the social sciences (faculty);
Focus on research in climate forecasting and early warning tools related to extreme events (research);
Focus on integrative knowledge across atmospheric sciences, water resources and human dimensions of water management (research);
Focus on exploitation of big data to promote global information sharing, visualization and decision support (information technology);
Advance the university service and outreach mission through vigorous international scientific cooperation (engagement).

20. Recommendations to Colorado State University
Focus on integrating knowledge across climate, water, ecology, and humans (research);
Focus on research in climate forecasting and early warning tools related to hydrologic processes (research);
Exploit global data and information to promote integration and decision support (information technology);
Advance the university service and outreach mission through vigorous international scientific cooperation (engagement);
Hire faculty using joint appointments, and allow graduate students to obtain interdisciplinary degrees in “WATER” to further integration across the above disciplines (faculty).