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About UMI

The UMI promotes research partnerships between the UA and CNRS and expand research funding opportunities, comparing water resources management and governance in the Southwest U.S., the Americas, France, the European Union, and elsewhere.

It will develop new research partnerships between scientists from the social sciences, humanities, environmental sciences, and engineering to work on collaborative water resources research projects.

The UMI’s mission is to develop interdisciplinary, comparative, and international knowledge on water.

The agreement between the UA and CNRS, initially for four years, was facilitated by the collaborative efforts of Udall Center deputy director Robert Varady and Dr. Graciela Schneier-Madanes, a senior researcher and director of “rés-EAU-ville” (an urban water research network) at CNRS. Schneier-Madanes is also a visiting professor at the Udall Center.

Varady directs the UMI, with Schneier-Madanes as deputy director.

Three French scientists already have visited the UA, three currently are assigned to the UMI, and others are expected to arrive over the course of the UMI’s implementation. At the same time, UA researchers are expected to work with French and European colleagues in France and elsewhere.

The UMI is created to develop new research partnerships between scientists from the social sciences and humanities, earth science, and environmental sciences, working on mutually interesting problems of water management with a view of expanding research opportunities and undertaking joint research throughout the world. UMI’s mission is to develop interdisciplinary, comparative, and international knowledge on water.

To achieve this goal, a general scientific program was established with the following objectives:

> to develop theoretical and comparative approaches
> to enlarge the space of area studies in an international perspective
> to define instruments and methods for water governance

Three projects on the following topics are currently in progress:

> water systems in arid areas
> governance and access to water in the Americas
> perceptions and uses of water

For more information, contact Robert Varady at rvarady@u.arizona.edu or Graciela Schneier-Madanes at
schneier@u.arizona.edu, or either at (520) 626-4393.

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UMI on Water, Environment, and Policy (UA/CNRS)