The grand challenge we address is sustaining societies coupled with their physical environments. Applied policy research on water, energy, and climate allows us to engage decision-makers, researchers, and other stakeholders to strengthen societal resilience to global change. Our approach is interdisciplinary, focusing on the interactions between institutions and resources. With an emphasis on semi-arid geographies, we prioritize urban growth, globalizing markets, water resources variability, and climate change as principal, inter-related challenges.

Given our location and collaborative opportunities, U.S.-Mexico transboundary water resources are of special interest; however, we have ongoing work in the Southwest U.S., Mexico, South Asia (India and Nepal), and West Africa. Current areas of research and outreach (with funding sources) include:

• Water and growth (Water Resources Research Center, US Geological Survey)

• The water – energy nexus (Arizona Water Institute)

• Effluent and wastewater management and policy (National Science Foundation, WateReuse Foundation)

• Agricultural-urban water transfers (International Water Management Institute)

• Transboundary water and climate (Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Geological Survey)