News

Monday was the opening of the long-awaited, twice-delayed World Water Congress in Daegu, South Korea, where Udall Center researchers were awarded Best Paper for their 2018 article in Water International titled “Water security and the pursuit of food, energy, and earth systems resilience.” Part of a special issue on the Global Water Security Challenge, this article addresses the emergence and interrelation of food, energy, and water security in relation to resource use and societal and environmental outcomes.

In a recent article published in Environmental Science & Policy titled “The unjust distribution of urban green infrastructure is just the tip of the iceberg: A systematic review of place-based studies,” the authors draw on past projects to lay out the many dimensions involved in understanding the breadth of injustice surrounding the implementation of green infrastructure (GI).

Join the Arizona Institutes for Resilience for the sixth and final episode of the Water Solutions for Our Warmer World series, Biodiversity, Water, and Climate Change in the Southwest, co-hosted by the UArizona Udall Center and WRRC! The public webinar will run from 4 to 5:30 pm PT on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 and will explore how climate change will impact water and biodiversity in the Southwest. Cycles of more intense rainfall and longer, hotter drought are expected to directly impact wildlife and vegetation, especially in riparian areas. What solutions are available/possible?

After a comprehensive national search that attracted more than 100 applicants, Senior Vice President Betsy Cantwell named Andrea Gerlak as the next director of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona. After serving as interim director since May 2021, Andrea assumed the directorship on November 1.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted all our lives in countless ways, but has also sparked creativity and resilience as we find innovative approaches to coping with those impacts. This is particularly true for one of NNI’s former Indigenous Data Sovereignty Doctoral Scholars and recent doctoral graduate, Dr. Lydia Jennings, who is featured in a newly released video titled “Run to Be Visible,” produced by Patagonia Films.

Kudos to the Udall Center’s Interim Director, Andrea Gerlak, and her colleagues in the School of Geography, Development and Environment, Greg Barron-Gafford (a 2020-21 Udall Center Fellow) and Moses Thompson, who were all featured in UA News for their recently awarded U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant in support of agrivoltaic research, part of a new multi-institutional $10M USDA grant ($1.725 million scope at UArizona) called 'Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems' (SCAPES). Greg is the UArizona physical science lead for the project, Andrea is the deputy director of the project's social science research, and Moses will be heading up the education component.

Water Solutions for Our Warmer World Episode 5 – Water and Infrastructure: Building for the Future October 20, 2021 | 4-5:30 pm PT

​The Udall Center proudly participated in a week-long series of events marking the opening of the new UArizona Center for Outreach and Collaboration in Washington, DC. The Native Nations Institute’s Executive Director, Joan Timeche, led a panel on the best practices for engaging Native American communities titled Building Relationships with Native Nations: Native Know How. A second event featuring the Udall Center, titled Fulfilling NEPA’s Vision through 21st Century Data Science, was led by Professor Laura Lopez-Hoffman, who holds a joint appointment with Udall Center and with the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

On August 31, 2021, the Udall Center was honored to host Tom Udall, a recently retired U.S. Senator (NM) and newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand. Via a series of meeting sessions, the objective was to brief Sen. Udall, a Tucson native, on the Udall Center work in Indian Country through the Center’s 20-year-old Native Nations Institute (NNI) and its longstanding efforts on environmental policy.

Join the Arizona Institutes for Resilience for the fourth episode of the Water Solutions for Our Warmer World series, Drought in the Colorado River Basin, co-hosted by the UArizona Udall Center and WRRC! The public webinar will run from 4 to 5:30 pm PT on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 and will explore how a decades-long drought is impacting water management decisions and anticipated discussions of new management guidelines for Lakes Powell and Mead. Panelists include: Chairwoman Gloria Gray, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board of Directors Chairwoman Amelia Flores, Colorado River Indian Tribal Council Terry Goddard, Central Arizona Project Board Taylor Hawes, The Nature Conservancy Paul Bruchez, Colorado River Basin Roundtable and Interbasin Compact Committee