Friday, May 4, 11 and 18, 7 p.m.

Water conservation is an important lesson to learn when living in the desert. The Tempe History Museum will host a three-part film series on what will happen to the future of water. Join the museum to enjoy these documentaries:

Blue Gold: World Water Wars. A film that reports on various powers trying to take control of the public’s water for personal profit. (Friday, May 4)

Tapped. A film examining the role of the bottled water industry (Friday, May 11)

The American Southwest: Are we running dry? A definitive look at how the water crisis affects the American Southwest (Friday, May 18)

Expert presenters will host each session with introductory remarks, the film screening and a question and answer period. Refreshments (including water) will be served.

Who: You and your fellow CAP colleagues are invited to attend AND participate in CAP Ignite presentations and an end-of-semester celebration.

What: CAP Ignite presentations are short, 2-3 minute presentations in which you introduce your research. PowerPoint slides are optional.

Why: Our purpose is to get as many people as possible sharing their research as a means of stimulating discussion and research integration.

When: Friday, May 4^th from 3-5 pm

Where: Wrigley Hall 481

Food: Of course, there will be food. And stimulating conversation.

RSVP to Marcia Nation if you intend to do a CAP Ignite presentation.

An interdisciplinary group of CAP researchers has been instrumental in studying the Phoenix urban heat island (UHI), creating a substantial and influential body of research, which is detailed in a recent article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

The article’s authors, CAP researchers Winston Chow and Anthony Brazel with their colleague Dean Brennan from the City of Phoenix Planning Department, note that peer-reviewed research on the Phoenix UHI (55 articles by mid-2011) significantly exceeds that on other major American metropolitan areas, such as New York, Houston, and Los Angeles. They identify three factors that have influenced the flourishing of UHI research in Phoenix: partnerships between the academy and private sector agencies, a well-developed and extensive urban meteorological station network, and strong local media coverage on the UHI. Regarding the former, the authors point to the importance of interdisciplinary research within CAP LTER in forwarding UHI research and integrating scientific and social science inquiry in urban meteorology and climatology.

What the humble authors do not mention is the significant leadership and mentoring role Anthony Brazel, a Professor Emeritus in ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and a CAP senior scientist, has played in forwarding Phoenix UHI research. He and his students have authored many of the Phoenix UHI papers.

Four ASU students have won a place in the premiere international student technology competition by taking first place, April 23, in the U.S. Finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup in Seattle.

Their team, named FlashFood, earned a trip to the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in Sydney, Australia in July. Team members include senior biomedical engineering major Eric Lehnhardt, senior materials science and engineering major Katelyn Keberle, senior computer science major Steven Hernandez and senior marketing and sustainability major Jake Ervin.

Read the story »

The Parking and Transit department here at ASU recently completed all three levels of the Green Office Certification program on all four campuses! This was a blistering accomplishment indeed and the Sustainability Practices office really commends their efforts! Way to go green devils!

San Diego Takes Water Fight Public: Fees and Anger Rise in California Water War

by Adam Nagourney and Felicity Barringer at The New York times

There are accusations of conspiracies, illegal secret meetings and double-dealing. Embarrassing documents and e-mails have been posted on an official Web site emblazoned with the words "Fact vs. Fiction." Animosities have grown so deep that the players have resorted to exchanging lengthy, caustic letters, packed with charges of lying and distortion.

And it is all about water.

Water is a perennial source of conflict and anxiety throughout the arid West, but it has a particular resonance here in the deserts of Southern California.

Read the article at The New York Times.

Since 1998, local high school students have had the opportunity for advanced study in cutting-edge research labs with talented mentors from ASU. This opportunity is possible through the Southwest Center for Education and the Natural Environment (SCENE), an organization within ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability that links science expertise and resources at Arizona State University with the community at large, and with schoolchildren and their teachers.

This year, all eleven high school student participants in the SCENE research program won at least one award at the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair.

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In recognition of ASU employees' efforts and achievement, ASU President Michael Crow presented select employees with President's Awards at a reception April 18. Among the awards were the President’s Award for Innovation, the President’s Award for Sustainability, the President’s Medal for Social Embeddedness, and Top Multiple SUN Awards for Individual Excellence – all part of the 2011-2012 Employee Recognition Program.

The President's Award for Sustainability recognizes ASU teams that have demonstrated excellence in fostering the successful development, implementation, and promotion of sustainability principles, solutions, programs, and services in the teaching, learning, research and business missions of the University. The 2012 winners of this award were Farmers Market @ the ASU Tempe campus and the Sustainable Cities Network.

Read more »

Walmart integrates TSC’s Knowledge Products to guide supply chain engagement

TEMPE, Ariz,- April 20, 2012 – During its annual Global Sustainability Milestone Meeting on April 18th, Walmart announced that it is integrating the knowledge products produced by The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) into the retailer’s Sustainability Index and Live Better Scorecard. Walmart will use these tools to help its merchants evaluate suppliers and their products and collaborate to make the products on Walmart shelves more sustainable.

Walmart representatives expressed that they are particularly excited about integrating TSC’s Category Sustainability Profiles (CSPs) and corresponding Key Performance Indicators into their Sustainability Index this year. Both Walmart and Sam’s Club will be using these tools as a basis for ranking suppliers in a particular category according to their sustainability progress and to inform buyers about actionable opportunities for improvement.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Arizona State University signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to increase their outreach to diverse and underserved communities by offering internships, joint projects, and scientific research opportunities to ASU students and faculty.

“EPA will benefit from the tremendous pool of talent, energy and commitment offered by Arizona State students,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “This collaboration will enhance participation in environmental studies by students from every corner of the state.”

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Along with Barack Obama and Stephen Colbert, ASU's own Elinor Ostrom was named among TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2012.

Ostrom, a research professor and distinguished sustainability scientist at ASU and the founding director of ASU's Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics for her analysis of economic governance.

"Ostrom's work sheds light on the direction society must follow to avoid misuse of shared resources, 'the tragedy of the commons,'" writes TIME writer Robert Johnson.

Read the TIME profile »

See our interview with Ostrom »

April 2012 The Morrison Institute launches a new series about Arizona's water future. The first in the series "Let's Talk Water" by Grady Gammage, is intended to prompt discussion about our state's essential resource.

April 12, 2012 DCDC researcher Ray Quay, co-authored Opening Access to Scenario Planning Tools. In the face of increasing complexity and uncertainty, planners, public officials, and community residents need new tools to anticipate and shape the future. Opening Access to Scenario Planning Tools examines the current state of scenario planning and scenario planning tools that can help communities and regions prepare for that future through a variety of visioning, land use, transportation, and other planning efforts. Download the report.

April 12, 2012 Chicago Climate Action Plan a One NOAA Science Seminar Series. Abstract: Urban areas are responsible for 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions and cities are increasingly seen as the place where the solutions to climate change will be found. Chicago developed its Climate Action Plan in 2007 to outline the mitigation and climate readiness goals for the city. It has since been recognized as one of the leading plans in the country because of its scientific rigor, community involvement, and actionable targets.

April 10, 2012 Dot Earth: More on Extreme Weather in a Warming Climate via Andrew Revkin at The New York Times.

April 10, 2012 A Visualization of March Heat Breaking 15,000 Records in the U.S. via The Atlantic.

April 9, 2012 Volunteers Clean Up Tempe's 'A' Mountain via AZ Central.

March 22, 2012 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Global Water Security. The ICA is based on a National Intelligence Estimate requested by Secretary Clinton to assess the impact of global water issues on U.S. national security interests. The report concludes that while wars over water are unlikely within the next ten years, water challenges – shortages, poor water quality, floods - will likely increase the risk of instability and state failure, exacerbate regional tensions, and distract countries from working with the United States on important policy objectives. Read the report.

InBusiness magazine writer Sue Kern-Fleischer noted that the “Net Zero” energy concept is getting “a lot of buzz lately.” She spoke with Arizona State University’s Mick Dalrymple and Harvey Bryan for a story in the April issue of the magazine, which is a collaboration of business organizations and entities in the metropolitan Phoenix area.

Read more »

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As the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network enters its fourth decade, ecological scientists are taking stock of the contributions and future directions of the nation’s largest and longest running ecological research network. In a series of six papers in the April issue of the journal BioScience, teams of scientists drawn from across LTER take a critical look at the program’s 30 years of service to science and society in an era of unprecedented environmental change.

CAP scientists Nancy Grimm, Kelli Larson, and Arnim Wiek are co-authors for two of the papers. Grimm and Larson contributed to "Ecosystem Processes and Human Influences Regulate Streamflow Response to Climate Change at Long-Term Ecological Research Sites," and Wiek was the second author on "Scenario Studies as a Synthetic and Integrative Research Activity for Long-Term Ecological Research."

BioScience’s retrospective look at LTER and its network of scientists, observations, and cutting-edge experiments comes at a time when public agencies and other entities charged with stewarding the nation’s environmental health are increasingly challenged to provide a sound scientific basis for their decision making. The BioScience special section demonstrates how LTER provides resource managers and policy makers the relevant information they need to address the nation's environmental challenges and secure a more sustainable future.

For more information, please read the press release from the LTER Network Office http://bit.ly/HnE0VD . A full listing of the articles in this special section is below. Please contact the authors for copies of the papers. For copyright reasons, we cannot distribute these on our website.

Editorial

David R. Foster

Long-Term Ecological Research in a Human-Dominated World

G. Philip Robertson, Scott L. Collins, David R. Foster, Nicholas Brokaw, Hugh W. Ducklow, Ted L. Gragson, Corinna Gries, Stephen K. Hamilton, A. David McGuire, John C. Moore, Emily H. Stanley, Robert B. Waide, and Mark W. Williams

Scenario Studies as a Synthetic and Integrative Research Activity for Long-Term Ecological Research

Jonathan R. Thompson, Arnim Wiek, Frederick J. Swanson, Stephen R. Carpenter, Nancy Fresco, Teresa Hollingsworth, Thomas A. Spies, and David R. Foster

Past, Present, and Future Roles of Long-Term Experiments in the LTER Network

Alan K. Knapp, Melinda D. Smith, Sarah E. Hobbie, Scott L. Collins, Timothy J. Fahey, Gretchen J. A. Hansen, Douglas A. Landis, Kimberly J. La Pierre, Jerry M. Melillo, Timothy R. Seastedt, Gaius R. Shaver, and Jackson R. Webster

Ecosystem Processes and Human Influences Regulate Streamflow Response to Climate Change at Long-Term Ecological Research Sites

Julia A. Jones, Irena F. Creed, Kendra L. Hatcher, Robert J. Warren, Mary Beth Adams, Melinda H. Benson, Emery Boose, Warren A. Brown, John L. Campbell, Alan Covich, David W. Clow, Clifford N. Dahm, Kelly Elder, Chelcy R. Ford, Nancy B. Grimm, Donald L. Henshaw, Kelli L. Larson, Evan S. Miles, Kathleen M. Miles, Stephen D. Sebestyen, Adam T. Spargo, Asa B. Stone, James M. Vose, and Mark W. Williams

The Disappearing Cryosphere: Impacts and Ecosystem Responses to Rapid Cryosphere Loss

Andrew G. Fountain, John L. Campbell, Edward A. G. Schuur, Sharon E. Stammerjohn, Mark W. Williams, and Hugh W. Ducklow

The Economics of Water Demand: The Dynamics of Water Use and Price

Panelists:

V. Kerry Smith, Regents Professor, W. P. Carey School of Business, Department of Economics

Doug Frost, Principal Planner, Water Services Department, City of Phoenix

Gary Niekerk, Director of Corporate Citizenship, Intel Corporation

When and Where:

Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 12:00-1:30pm

Decision Center for a Desert City

21 East 6th Street, Suite 126B, Tempe

Map: /dcdc/about-us/contact/

Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to estella.ohanlon@asu.edu.

Abstract:

Price is often suggested as a simple straightforward tool to encourage people to be more efficient in how they use water. However, the economics of water demand are not that simple. Water is used for many purposes. Water is used to meet the basic necessity of life, consumption and hygiene. Water is used to create an atmosphere that suits our lifestyles, landscapes and pools, and perhaps long hot showers. Water is used for economic gain, from creating places attractive to customers to washing silicon chips. The sale of water is also used to finance the infrastructure and costs associated with making water available to a community. Each of these water uses has its own economic dynamics based on behaviors and motivation for water use which can vary among the consumers in each category. At the same time, the economics for each of these water uses are related, changes in one can affect the other. Thus, decision making about the price of water is not as clear as it may initially appear. The goal of this climate briefing is to increase the awareness of the complexities associated with the price of water by facilitating a discussion about the differences and relationships that exist in the economics of different water uses.

Download the flyer.

On April 4, 2012, Decision Center for a Desert City hosted the Arizona Climate and Water Resources Alliance Collaborative Workshop on Climate Extremes exploring extreme climate events and their regional implications for water management: floods and droughts. The purpose of this workshop was to build on research in atmospheric science, hydrology, and climate assessment performed by scientists at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and other partner institutions, in order to address issues related to extreme hydroclimatic events (e.g. droughts, floods), and to plan a larger meeting to discuss extreme events and their implication for flood and drought management with scientists and flood and water managers.

The goals of this informal meeting:

1. Foster dialogue among researchers and floodplain and water resources managers.
2. Share the concerns of water professionals: What kind of dcisions do flood and water managers make? What data and information (e.g., resolution, lead time) needs exist among flood and water managers (given the current state of research)?
3. Share the state of the science: present, assess, and discuss the scientific progress around projecting extreme events and assessing their implications on a regional level (flood as short-term extreme event, drought as long-term extreme event).
4. Present a strategy for moving forward on science and planning for extreme events outside of the range of historical record: The ARkStorm project, in which scientists regional engineers, emergency managers, economists, and others collaborated to combine historic floods in a scientifically plausible way, in order to examine engineering and emergency management solutions that are fiscally sound and responsible. On the dry side: a "Joseph's Drought" project.
5. Gain consensus on a short-term research strategy to address extreme events in Arizona, and identify elements needed for a long-term research strategy.
6. Identify participants for larger meeting.

The Southwest Climate Alliance [SWCA] welcomes your comments on a DRAFT version of the "Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States: A Technical Report Prepared for the U.S. National Climate Assessment".

The SWCA is a consortium of research institutions in the region, including NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (The Climate Assessment for the Southwest [CLIMAS], The California-Nevada Applications Program [CNAP], and the Western Water Assessment [WWA]) and the U.S. Department of Interior's Southwest Climate Science Center.

Written chiefly during late 2011, with revisions in early 2012, this report provides a snapshot of the current state of climate change information and knowledge related to the U.S. Southwest region. The region covers six states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah—an area that includes vast stretches of coastline, an international border, and the jurisdictions of nearly two hundred Native Nations.

Visit the Southwest Climate Assessment Report Review website.

Scientists say worldwide collections, existing experts and technology make charting 10 million species in less than 50 years achievable; a necessary step to sustain planet’s biodiversity

TEMPE, Ariz. – An ambitious goal to describe 10 million species in less than 50 years is achievable and necessary to sustain Earth’s biodiversity, according to an international group of 39 scientists, scholars and engineers who provided a detailed plan, including measures to build public support, in the March 30 issue of the journal Systematics and Biodiversity.

“Earth’s biosphere has proven to be a vast frontier that, even after centuries of exploration, remains largely uncharted,” wrote the authors, who include biodiversity crusaders Edward O. Wilson and Peter H. Raven.

“Exploring the biosphere is much like exploring the universe,” the authors argued. “The more we learn, the more complex and surprising the biosphere and its story turn out to be.”

By most estimates, about 2 million of Earth’s species are known, with about 18,000 new plants and animals discovered each year. Experts estimate at least 10 million species on Earth are yet to be discovered or accurately classified. These species are tiny, large, buried, hidden in collections, or in plain sight.

Read story »

At a White House event, the NSF Director announced a new Big Data solicitation, $10 million Expeditions in Computing award, and awards in cyberinfrastructure, geosciences, training.

Researchers in a growing number of fields are generating extremely large and complicated data sets, commonly referred to as "big data." A wealth of information may be found within these sets, with enormous potential to shed light on some of the toughest and most pressing challenges facing the nation. To capitalize on this unprecedented opportunity--to extract insights, discover new patterns and make new connections across disciplines--we need better tools to access, store, search, visualize and analyze these data.

Read more at the National Science Foundation website.

We've created a Google Scholar page for Decision Center for a Desert City publications. Google Scholar provides a review of Decision Center for a Desert City literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles. Google Scholar aims to rank documents the way researchers do, weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature.

You'll also find Google Scholar pages for DCDC researchers which provides a simple way for authors to keep track of citations to their articles. You can check who is citing your publications, graph citations over time, and compute several citation metrics. You can also make your profile public, so that it may appear in Google Scholar results.

Visit the Decision Center for a Desert City Google Scholar page.