Tri-State's Innovation Working Group (IWG) Program

A key mechanism for facilitating collaborations is the Tri-State’s Innovation Working Group (IWG) Program, which supports collaborative, trans-disciplinary work by the three member states. The IWG provides a venue for engaging scientists and educators, along with key nationally and internationally recognized experts. This program supports week-long working group activities that are modeled after those hosted by the highly successful NSF-supported National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS).

IWGs

January 2013: Building resilience in water governance: an interdisciplinary investigation into the social-ecological system dynamics of climate change, Melinda Benson (Synergia Ranch, New Mexico)
February 2011: Indicators of Ecological Thresholds, Robert Heinse (University of Idaho)
February 2011: CyberEnabled Science IWG, Karl Benedict (University of New Mexico)
September 2010: Western Tri-State Diversity Innovation Working Group, Michele Casella (Nevada EPSCoR)
May 2010: Identifying the Most Relevant Spatial and Temporal Scales of Climate Change with Respect to Surface Hydrologic Processes, Amanda White (New Mexico Tech)
March 2010: Paleo-rainfall and Groundwater Recharge in Southern Nevada over the Past 11,000 Years from Cave Calcite Deposits, Matthew Lachniet (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
October 2009: The Effects of Climate Change on Ecosystems and Societies: A Focus on Native American and Hispanic Communities, Karletta Chief (Desert Research Institute)
Additional New Mexico EPSCoR IWGs


May 2010: Identifying the Most Relevant Spatial and Temporal Scales of Climate Change with Respect to Surface Hydrologic Processes, Amanda White (New Mexico Tech)

Predicting regional climate change and its impacts is of vital importance as we journey into a world of non-stationarity. Indeed, the IPCC, NSF, DOE, and many other organizations have identified regional climate change as one of the grand challenges humans will face in the 21st century. However, key questions remain on how best to determine the impacts of regional climate change. The goal of our IWG was to outline a clear path forward in approaching one of these key questions: what are the most relevant spatial and temporal scales of climate change with respect to surface hydrologic processes? To achieve this goal, experts in a broad swath of earth science fields congregated in a three-day workshop to distill what the essential problems and possible solutions are, identify who would be best suited to undertake these issues, and which grant opportunities and granting agencies would be more appropriate for the proposed research topics. Our IWG will help further our understanding of the effects climate change will have on our mountain sources of water, and as warming trends continue and droughts increase in intensity and frequency in the Western U.S., this will become of the utmost importance.
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This material is based in part upon work supported by: The National Science Foundation under grant number(s) IIA-1329469, IIA-1329470 and IIA-1329513. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.