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.