UNL wins $3.1 million water research grant

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is playing to its strengths in water education and research in launching a doctoral program focused on creating a new breed of water experts who understand the science, economics and laws involved in the use of one of Nebraska’s most in-demand resources.

With a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program, UNL will train 26 doctoral students from around the country in the natural, social and computer sciences and public policies governing water. The program begins in January and lasts five years.

Students who understand natural sciences (ranging from climate variability to water flow), social sciences (why humans use water the way they do), computer sciences (how to use technology to store and organize data) and law (the policies that regulate water use) will be better prepared to manage water that’s in high demand but short supply, said Craig Allen, leader of the program and professor in UNL’s School of Natural Resources.

A lot goes into managing watersheds, both because they’re large areas (the Platte River watershed encompasses almost all of Nebraska) and “important decisions are made by several disparate groups,” Allen said.

For example, the Fish and Wildlife Service decides how water can best provide habitats for cranes, while various Nebraska Resource Districts regulate farming irrigation.

“There is really no central management authority,” Allen said. “Our goal is to train students so they can understand the complex trade-offs that go on” between governing bodies, hence the program’s interdisciplinary emphasis.

Students will start by studying the Platte River, a lifeblood for Nebraska that’s “stressed,” meaning there are more claims on the water than the river actually has, Allen said. That makes managing it properly all the more crucial.

The program focuses on teaching resilience theory – how a water system deals with disturbances such as drought and climate change – and adaptive management, in which management is an ongoing, evolving process of experiments rather than a set strategy.

Such emphases were natural for UNL, which is active in the 17-member international Resilience Alliance and is the only university in the nation that already offers an academic emphasis in adaptive management.

The U.S. Department of Interior has mandated that adaptive management be used as a tool among resource managers, but opportunities to train in the field are scarce, said Sheri Fritz, a geosciences professor.

“We have people on campus who are experts in this,” Fritz said. “Now we have an opportunity to take this expertise and use it to fit a national need.”
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com