Colleges Collaborate on Water Research

Written for The Utah Statesman on November 5th, 2007

USU has six different colleges and 20 different departments that work with water, "and most of them have no clue what anybody else is doing," said Kim Shreuders, the system administrator and project manager of the Utah Water Research Lab.
Established in 2003, "the USU Water Initiative is an attempt to try and help tie together all the disparate pieces here at the university of departments, activities, programs and things that do stuff with water," Shreuders said.
There are seven colleges at USU, and the only one not involved with water is the College of Education, "but we know there are people who work on water education, we just haven't figured out who they are yet," Shreuders said.
"There is a lot of field science that people do with water around here," said David Tarboton, professor of civil engineering. "One of the things we are trying to do is integrate them together, get the data from them all in to common data bases, and stimulate collaboration by sharing data. If you can go to a single database and get information, you are likely to do more with that information."
Tarboton said this research is important because "water resources are critical to Utah and the waste we've got.
"We have got great populations and great agriculture, with people to feed, and with this scarcity and possible climate change, we don't know what that is going to do to our water resources."
Shreuders said the program is putting on water activities to bring people together and get them started in collaboration "because the sum is going to be greater than the total pieces."
The program focuses on anything that academically has to do with water, Shreuders said.
"This goes from landscape architecture and their water conservation programs, analysis and research, to the water lab that is doing water instrumentation development and analysis," she said.
Shreuders said one of the focuses of the program is trying to get graduate students interested in water to come to USU.
"If you are looking to be in that next generation of movers and shakers in water, then we want you to come to USU," she said.

As part of the program, there are monthly seminars held in Room 413a in the Engineering building. The next seminar will be on Nov. 13, and the topic will be "Aging Infrastructure, Ecosystem Restoration, and the New Economy of Rivers," presented by Martin Doyle, a professor from the University of North Carolina. All students are welcome to attend.

Shreuders said there is a run-off conference in the spring. The conference will be held at the Eccles Conference Center March 31 and April 1.

Students who would like to learn more about the USU Water Initiative or get involved can contact Shreuders at 797-2941.