Leveraging opportunities and managing challenges from a use-inspired hydrologic research portfolio

Abstract:

Use-inspired hydrologic research has been conducted through state and federal agencies for decades and is becoming increasingly recognized as a valuable mechanism for knowledge production in pursuit of advancing basic research. Humans have firmly inserted their activities into Earth’s water cycle and, therefore, advancing understanding of hydrologic processes increasingly necessitates understanding where, how, and why humans are influencing flows and stocks of water. Finding ways to integrate human processes into basic hydrologic research both conceptually and in practice will continue to provide rich research avenues. Doing this work through traditional academic funding mechanisms does pose challenges that arise from the history of and mechanisms for federal research funding, the mismatch of timeframes between traditional research models and stakeholder needs, and the central role of relationship building and stakeholder engagement in use-inspired research. Here, I highlight a diverse research portfolio focused on identifying locally relevant research questions with both basic and applied implications for a range of social-environmental systems. This has entailed over two years of building local relationships, co-authoring a few review papers, and a co-production research fellowship through the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. This fellowship resulted in new data streams for an urbanizing irrigation district while contributing data points for a new groundwater model being developed by the Idaho Department of Water Resources. Being engaged with a range of water resources professionals across the state has led to a modeling project with the Wood River Water Collaborative, a resource management group who are seeking new tools to help predict water rights curtailment dates. Working with the people managing and integrated within these complex systems provides invaluable insights as to how these social-environmental systems function and where our uncertainties lie both conceptually and quantitatively. This research trajectory highlights novel challenges, unique opportunities, and the need for additional training for researchers that are interested in pursuing use-inspired hydrologic research.