Water Center - Overview of Programs and Opportunities

Overview of Programs and Opportunities

Focus Areas for Programs

Water is fundamental to all life forms, affecting all ecosystems. The various uses to which it is put often compete both quantitatively and qualitatively with one another. Faculty and students at Colorado State concentrate on functional problems that cross disciplinary lines, such as the following:

The release of water for new and expanding demands. Water is a primary determinant of the character of natural ecosystems and modern economies. Society depends on a plentiful supply of water for municipal, recreational, agricultural, and industrial uses. Growing populations, rising incomes, urbanization, and renewed environmental values cause demands for water to increase rapidly, often in areas already at capacity or with limited supplies. Solutions include conservation and better management, new technologies, reallocation, and social adjustments.
Habitat management for fish and wildlife. Sustaining environmental resources calls for a focus on the species that live there. Pressures to develop and use water and land for human needs pose a threat to these species unless we develop balanced management methods and decisions. Providing secure habitat can be thought of as a use of water, as in instream flows in the West. It can also be viewed as an investment in the future of our world.
Maintaining productive agriculture. As the world's population grows, so will its need for food resources. Water makes possible and sustains productive agriculture, both in irrigated regions and even in rainfed regions where drought, pollution, or poor drainage can ruin crops. Technologies, management methods, and social adjustments are needed to enable agriculture to prosper along with rising demands in other sectors.
Expanding economies dependent on water. As an input to economic development, water is critical to almost all industries. Although impressive conservation methods are available, many essential industries still demand large quantities of water and compete with other uses. Urban growth also requires large quantities of water to provide for people, businesses, and amenities. As living standards increase, so do people's demands for water-based recreation. Better management, conservation, and new technologies are necessary for short- and long-term solutions.
Security against floods and droughts. Despite technological advances, water management, and land-use control, flood and drought as natural and man-made hazards continue to cause serious losses. Flooding causes greater property damage in the United States than any other natural hazard, and drought causes widespread human suffering worldwide. Solutions require social adjustments, as well as both structural and non-structural management solutions.
Minimize water quality degradation. According to Water Quality 2000, a U.S. policy study group, the fundamental causes of water pollution stem from the way we live, farm, produce, consume, transport people and goods, and plan for the future. That so many factors contribute to deteriorating water quality has far-reaching implications for our ability to achieve sustainable development. Since 1972, the U.S. has invested $500 billion in water quality, with about $85 billion coming from the federal government. Still, water quality goals remain unmet. Poor water quality is an even more serious threat to health and the environment in other nations. Rather than relying on narrow approaches, we need integrated policies such as watershed-based approaches, preventing pollution, developing individual and collective responsibility for water, and new technologies.
Appropriate institutions for a complex and interdependent environment. Of all water concerns, our institutions are the most interdependent and ultimately will determine whether our management efforts fail or succeed. Institutions include laws and standards, organizations, regulatory procedures, ways of doing business, and other issues that affect how people live and work together. Engineers and scientists, as well as social scientists, must work on institutional improvements for more equitable distribution of resources and to improve citizenship for water management.

In addition to viewing Colorado State's programs from the standpoint of problems worked on or of academic units, the work can be viewed by function: water research for a changing environment, education and training for students and professionals, and outreach and transfer of knowledge. Each of these charges is aimed at the same important societal goal of managing water for sustainable development.

Programs and Units

The Water Center is a coordinated partnership intended to present the best capabilities of Colorado State and its departments and programs as they relate to water issues and problems, and as they provide educational opportunities for students. The Water Center's participating organizations include three colleges, six departments, and a number of other units and individual scientists. The total number of units is too great to describe in detail. The primary units include the following:

The College of Agricultural Sciences is concerned with improving the quality of life and maintaining a productive quality environment. Two of its departments, agricultural and resource economics and soil and crop sciences, have strong programs in water resources. Several other departments in the college also offer courses or conduct research related to water space.

The Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics focuses on natural resource and environmental economics, including: the effects of water transfers, values of instream flows, recreation values, solidity costs and controls, urban water and land use, agricultural soil and water conservation, groundwater quality, environmental effects of agricultural production, and regional economic development.

The Department of Soil and Crop Sciences focuses on applied and basic sciences to understand soil, crop, and environmental systems; improved production and management efficiency of food, feed, fiber, and biomass crops; and applying soil and crop sciences to problems of environmental quality.

The College of Engineering focuses on education and research in areas of engineering and technology that include agricultural engineering, atmospheric science, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Three departments - atmospheric science, chemical and bioresource engineering, and civil engineering - focus on water. In addition, the Department of Atmospheric Science focuses on important aspects of water resources.

The Department of Chemical and Bioresource Engineering includes the agricultural engineering programs that focus on areas in environmental engineering, groundwater hydrology, and irrigation and drainage.

The Department of Civil Engineering studies a number of aspects of water resources and has the largest number of faculty members working in water resources at Colorado State University. Educational programs include environmental engineering, fluid mechanics and wind engineering, geoenvironmental engineering, groundwater and environmental hydrogeology, hydraulics, hydrologic science and engineering, and water resources planning and management.

The College of Natural Resources is one of the largest colleges of its kind in the world and addresses fields that include forestry, geology, wood products, wildlife and fisheries, park management and administration, tourism, rangeland ecosystems science, ecology, and watershed sciences. The main participating departments are earth resources and fishery and wildlife biology.

The Department of Earth Resources includes fields of study in geology and watershed sciences. Geology students may specialize in environmental geology, hydrogeology, tetrology, sedimentology, and other fields related to water. Watershed sciences students may specialize in land-use hydrology, watershed management, water quality, biogeochemistry, geomorphology, watershed modeling, cumulative watershed effects, and hydrogeology.

The Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology offers programs that prepare students to work in interdisciplinary teams to understand and solve today's complex environmental and natural resource problems. The Colorado Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is also housed in the department. Programs in fishery biology include fishery management, fish ecology, fish culture, aquatic ecology, ecotoxicology, and early life history of fish. The department's faculty have expertise in pond and reservoir ecology and management, stream-fish habitat, stream and river ecology, aquatic ecotoxicology, upper Colorado River fishes, and endangered species.

Faculty and students from a number of other colleges, departments, and institutions also participate in the Water Center. Several of these programs focus on water research and outreach. These include the Agricultural Experiment Station, Cooperative Extension, and the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute. CWRRI is especially active identifying the state's water programs, organizing research projects to solve them, and delivering the results to users.

In addition to the colleges and departments, The Water Center includes a number of cooperating units. Some that play key roles in The Water Center are listed below.

Other agencies related to the Water Center:

Partnering agencies also have headquarters at Colorado State University:

Agricultural Research Service
Colorado Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Colorado Division of Wildlife
Colorado State Forest Service
Midcontinent Ecological Science Center
National Park Service
Resource Conservation Service
Rocky Mountain Forest Service and Range Experiment Station
Terrestrial Ecosystems Regional Research and Analysis Laboratory