1. Southwest U.S. Water Resources Thomas Piechota, Ph.D., P.E University of Nevada, Las Vegas Director of Sustainability and Multidisciplinary Research Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

2. Important Issues for the Region Growth of intermountain west (doubling in the next 20-30 years) Climate Change Depletion of natural resources including water Aging infrastructure From Brookings, 2008

3. Intermountain West Growth Over 50% of the world now lives in urban places Much of the growth is in the intermountain west –Las Vegas: 4 million in 2030 –Phoenix – Tucson: 12 million in 2030

4. Climate Change More rain…less snow Shifts in runoff timing Higher salinity levels Adaptive water resources reservoir management From Seager et al., 2007

5. Examples of Research (non-EPSCOR) Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA) – Univ. of Arizona Decision Center for a Desert City – Arizona State University Climate Applications Project – California NEON in Utah (Onaqui-Benmore, UT) Paleohydrology (Arizona, Nevada, California) Tri-State collaboration of EPSCOR states - Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho

6. New Mexico Research Dynamics of water solutes balances in semi arid regions High resolution mapping of ground-water aquifers Large-scale climatic influences on southwest Linking climate to hydrologic variability

7. Nevada Research  NSF EPSCOR  Nevada Infrastructure for Climate Change Science, Education, and Outreach  Hydrologic Sciences and Water Resources Management Programs  Large-scale Lysimeter facility Nevada Infrastructure for Climate Change Science, Education, and Outreach

8. Challenges Lack of reliable regional scale climate modeling Measurements at high elevations Understanding the interactions of: –Surface and groundwater –Natural and urban environments Budget cuts! History of states going at it alone (this is changing)