UA News

The Water Resources Research Center will host its annual conference, which will focus on the role of stakeholders in water planning.

The conference, "Best Practices for Stakeholder Engagement in Water Resources Planning," will be held at The University of Arizona Student Memorial Union Center, 1303 E. University Blvd., on Tuesday.

"Planning for anything, especially water, requires both an understanding by the public and their basic approval of where we are heading," said Sharon Megdal, director of the UA Water Resources Research Center, a part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The last time the UA center held its annual conference in Tucson was in 2005.

Megdal said more than 270 people are expected to attend the conference, with individuals coming from across the state and also the southwestern and western regions of the United States. Others attendees hail from Texas and Australia.

"The people who are coming are highly interested in water, are professionals or are involved in water planning," Megdal said, adding that the conference has drawn interest from students as well.

"We will share with each other ways to better engage the public so that the public understands the decisions that need to be made by Arizona communities as we continue to grow and move forward," she said.

This year, the UA center collaborated with the Morris K. Udall Foundation to host the conference, which is geared toward anyone interested in water planning--including common citizens, not just scientists or experts.

"I do see an increased awareness and an increased interest on the part of the public as we go forward with resolving some of our water challenges," said Megdal, who also holds the UA's C.W. and Modene Neely Endowed Professorship for Excellence in Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"It is essential that the public be involved, and there is a lot of public involvement," she added.

The evidence has been seen with the public's interest in water harvesting and solar power, for instance. But Megdal also said that as individuals become more involved in personal water savings, the need for statewide and regional planning remains critical.

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will give prerecorded video remarks and Grady Gammage, a Phoenix attorney and noted author who has spoken nationally on resource policy issues, will talk about Arizona's water planning challenges during the conference's lunch.

Betsy Rieke, who was appointed by President Clinton to head the Office of Water and Science in the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1993, will give the keynote address at 8:45 a.m. Rieke was also director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources from 1991 to 1993.

The conference agenda includes plenary sessions and will feature a poster session, including several posters from watershed groups and reports on UA research. Three workshops will also be offered focusing on experiments and innovations in stakeholder engagement, experiences of planners and stakeholder with integrated water resources management and a special discussion session focusing on ways to engage people.

"Part of the conference is about trying to figure out how to do things better than we've done," she said, "and learning from each other. We expect the conversation to be very dynamic."