WaterWired

John H. Matthews' Thursday Twofer Treat: 1) Award-Winning CRIDA Article: 2) University of Idaho FREE CRIDA Workshop

1) Award-Winning CRIDA Article

I last wrote about John H. Matthews' article on 5 December 2018:

John H. Matthews, a good friend and one of the smartest water-climate guys in the room, is the lead and co- founder of the dynamic organization Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA). In just a few short years John and AGWA have catapulted themselves to the climate and water A-list. His success is well-deserved. 

One of the many nice things about John is that all his fame has not gone to his head and he still talks to me. He'll even write a brief article for a special issue of Water Resources IMPACTI edited, Climate Change: Resilient Infrastructure or Infrastructure for Resilience?. He begins the article as few people can - by recounting an invitation he received to an informal dinner in Europe with investors and their ilk. What happened there? Read on, gentle reader....

Download Matthews

Don't forget to check out Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA).

So why am I repeating the above here? Perhaps trying to curry favor with Dr. Matthews? Or fearful that he might drop me from his cellphone contact list?

None of those is true. John's article, Climate Change: Resilient Infrastructure or Infrastructure for Resilience?, has recently been awarded the Water Resources IMPACT best article for 2018. It's the first time we have made such an award. I love the way John starts his article:

Recently I was invited to an informal dinner in Europe withnvestors and groups that interact with investors. I’m a freshwater scientist, working on climate change and water management issues for about 15 years. I had been seated across from a smartly dressed woman from southern Africa, affiliated with a group funded by British foreign aid to support resilient infrastructure in the region.

I was intrigued. Infrastructure is especially exposed to climate change risks. By its nature, infrastructure lasts a long time, but we typically evaluate success/failure and “sustainability” over much shorter periods. Worse, our ability to predict future impacts in a shifting climate with confidence and certainty is limited—especially for investments that interact with the water cycle, that require a quantitative evaluation framework such as engineering or economics, or that have low tolerance for failure. Climate models provide limited and often weak confidence and conflicting projections about conditions 10 years from now, much less 50 or 100. Worldwide, we see many pieces of twentieth-century infrastructure in cities, along rivers and on shorelines that no longer match their climate conditions. Some, like the Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams in the United States, require billions in retrofitting or demand adjustments in order to maintain their fit with current and emerging patterns.

  Read it all:

Download MatthewsArticleOfYearNov2018IMPACT

Here is a presentation John gave here at OSU in January 2019:

Download 2019_i_18_osu_matthews_climate

 2) Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIIDA) Workshop - University of Idaho, 22-23 April 2019

Mary Engels, a PhD student at the University, just sent me information about a workshop John is consucting at UI. There are some spots still available. Please register by 17 April. Click here. The workshop fee and a light breakfast and lunch are provided free of charge; attendees must cover dinner, travel, and lodging. Want more information? Contact Mary Engels: enge5729@vandals.uidaho.edu

Enjoy!

"We build things that last 300 years. Why don't we think about sustainability for that long?" - Senior manager, The World Bank, February 2017 (thanks to John H. Matthews)

Gerald Sehlke AWRA IWRM Conference Presentation: 'A Conceptual Model for Developing and Implementing IWRM'

IWRM guru Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Sehlke presented this innovative approach to Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). You can read Jerry's abstract here (bottom right of page 1 and top left of page 2). I have also pasted it below.

Abstract

The most broadly accepted definition of IWRM is:

“A process, which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.”

In order to develop such processes, we must design, develop and implement holistic approaches that integrate and harmonize water resources governance (policy and laws), socioeconomic policies and goals, and the physical and environmental aspects of water resources management.  IWRM programs need to develop the governance, institutional, scientific, and operational capacities necessary for implementing these activities. In addition, IWRM programs need to inventory, develop, and manage all hydrologically interconnected water resources as a unitary source from a hydrologic cycle perspective, at the appropriate basin, sub-basin or “catchment” (watershed) scale. This includes developing water policies and laws that are scientifically-based such that they comport with the physical laws that govern the movement and storage of water.  It also includes developing physically-base conceptual models for identifying, delineating, and linking hydrologically interconnected water resources in a consistent and scalable manner.  

This discussion provides a conceptual model that demonstrates the links between such policies and laws, and physically-base conceptual models of a “competent hydrologic unit.”

Download Conceptual Model Presentation_Sehlke_032419

Enjoy!

"I am so excited about this year’s course evaluations! Students will evaluate how biased their professors are in presenting their course materials!" - @ass_deans

Tony Willardson AWRA IWRM Conference Presentation: 'Governing with Imagination: Managing the Unmanageable'

At the recent AWRA IWRM conference in Omaha Tony Willardson, the scholarly and gentlemanly Executive Director of the Western States Water Council, gave an excelent keynote presentation.

Here is a PDF of his PPT:

Download 2019 AWRA Willardson Omaha 0325

From the presentation:

                 Our Present Condition

Water in the West is an increasingly scarce and precious resource.  Western States have and will continue to face unique hydrologic, legal and infrastructure challenges.  Population growth, competing economic and ecological demands, and changing social values have left surface and ground water supplies stressed in many areas.  This has increased the number and complexity of conflicts among users and uses. 

A secure water future is becoming more costly and increasingly uncertain given our unpredictable climate, aging and often inadequate infrastructure, data limitations regarding water supplies and demands, competing or poorly defined water rights, and a constantly evolving regulatory landscape.  Effectively addressing these challenges will require stronger collaboration and cooperation that transcends political and geographic boundaries between states, federal agencies, tribes, and local communities.

Enjoy!

“I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.” - Joseph Smith, Prophet, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (thanks to Tony Willardson) 

Pat Mulroy: Visionary, Water Czar, Deal-Maker, SNWA Maven, Water Buffalo Wrangler, Moses-Like, and....Senior Citizen?

Patricia (Pat) Mulroy turns 65 today. I know she's a legend because she's featured on Mike McGuire's This Day in Water History blog for 24 February, along with Robert Fulton.

But I am not kidding; she is a legend in Western water circles and a transformative figure if there ever was one.

Her water legend began when she created the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas out of seven smaller agencies who couldn't seem to get along. She convinced them that with one 'super agency' to act as water purveyor to speak with a unified voice for southern Nevada (read 'Clark County and Las Vegas') that all parties would benefit. She was right, became the SNWA's first head, remaining there for 25 years.

As head of the SNWA she was the spokesperson for southern Nevada's water needs. She also became Nevada's point person for the Colorado River Compact  (CRC) and related water allocation issues. Virtually all of southern Nevada's water came from the Colorado River Basin (CRB) and Las Vegas' growth was sucking that source dry. She started a outdoor water conservation program that paid people to take out lawns. You didn't need those in a place with about 4 inches of annual rainfall. Indoor conservation? Not so much (return-flow credits?)..

Mulroy soon became a feared advocate for Nevada's CRC water, a paltry 300,000 acre-feet out of a total of 15,000,000 acre-feet for the seven basin states. At the signing of the CRC in 1922, Nevada had about 1.5% of the CRB's population (80K out of almost 6M) and it got just about that fraction of the available (at the time, anyway) water. No one could foresee what Las Vegas would become or the drought that would hammer the CRB.

She was a tough, savvy, and smart negotiator.  The famed 'water buffaloes' (OWGs and MAWGs - old and middle-aged white guys) of the Western water world did not faze her. She was criticized at times for being unreasonable, heavy-handed and unrealistic (and she was). I suspect some of that arose from sexism. But I believe there was really grudging admiration for this fashionable woman with the gold lamé slippers who knew so much about Western water and did things differently. There's even a nefarious character (Catherine Case) in Paolo Bacigalupi's dystopian novel The Water Knife that seems based on her.

Many rural Nevadans despised her for the SNWA's plan to pipe groundwater 300 miles from east-central Nevada to slake Clark County's thirst. She even opined about capturing Mississippi River floodwaters and piping them to Las Vegas and other points west. (note: as a former 13-year resident of the Reno area I must point out that the Las Vegas gambling revenues pay for the state income taxes Nevadans avoid).

She was just doing her job, a civil servant following the 'go-go growth' mantra of the region she served. I actually likened her to New York City's Robert Moses (see Mulroy as Moses) another unelected official who left his mark on a major metropolitan area.

Pat has become more collaborative these days...Will wonders never cease! I have to admit that I would love to see her appointed to straighten out the Bay- Delta mess in California. I made that recommendation when I served on the  NRC Committee almost 10 years ago. I think her skill set would work where no one else's could. Worth a try. 

Here is an excellent article by Matt Jenkins from High Country News. And a three-year old blog post I wrote. 

I met Pat on a few occasions. The only time I really had a conversation with her was at La Guardia Airport in 2011. Did we talk about Western water? No - we chatted about whether we would take off on time. We did.

Senior citizen? I don't think so. Elder stateswoman? Yes.

Happy birthday, Pat!

"As God is my witness, I will never be thirsty again." -- apologies to Scarlett O'Hara, Gone With The Wind

The American Water Resources Association (AWRA) Announces New Executive Vice President Dresden Farrand

 

MIDDLEBURG, VA, December 18, 2018

 

The Board of Directors of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) is pleased to announce that Dresden Farrand will join the association as its executive vice president effective January 2, 2019.

 

"I am honored to be selected to serve as the executive vice president of the American Water Resources Association,” commented Farrand. “I am joining an organization that for decades has brought value to multidisciplinary water resources education, management, and research.”

 

"Dresden’s ability to capture a vision and see it through is one reason why she has been chosen to lead the American Water Resources Association into the future," noted AWRA President Brenda Bateman. "As a well-credentialed expert in association management, she will partner with the board, staff and members to help AWRA continue to thrive. We are delighted to have her on board."

 

Prior to joining the AWRA team, Farrand was the vice president of membership and chapter development for the Independent Electrical Contractors Association (IEC), a national trade association, where she created strong new sources of revenue and organizational growth. Her other association successes include building programs and services, increasing membership and fostering high performing teams that put members at the center of their work. She is a certified association executive (CAE), and holds a masters degree in public administration from University of Missouri-Columbia and a masters degree in public policy from St. Louis University.

 

“With the addition of Dresden, we are confident that the organization will continue to grow and provide meaningful services to our members and stakeholders,” noted AWRA President-Elect Lisa Beutler. “We welcome Dresden and look forward to her professional stewardship."

 

Farrand succeeds Ken Reid who will retire on January 4, 2019 after serving as Executive Vice President of AWRA for 37 years.

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Note: the aforementioned is a press release written by Christine McCrehin, AWRA's Director of Membership and Marketing.  

Disclosure notice: I am the AWRA Technical Director.

“Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker