Nevada, Idaho and New Mexico
Gayle Dana, Nevada System of Higher Education; Peter Goodwin; University of Idaho; William Michener, University of New Mexico
The mechanisms responsible for observed and projected changes affecting water resources in high-elevations are poorly understood, especially with respect to snow, surface and groundwater linkages, and interactions with vegetation. Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico will create a Western Consortium for Watershed Analysis, Visualization, and Exploration (WC-WAVE) whose overarching goal is to advance watershed science, workforce development and education with cyber-infrastructure (CI)-enabled discovery and innovation.
WC-WAVE CI will enable researchers to create better models to understand the processes that govern a large proportion of water and ecosystem services to communities. These systems are affected by climate change, which impacts the water storage, flow moderation and water quality improvement. Interactions among precipitation, vegetation growth, fire regime, soil moisture, runoff and other landscape properties create systems in which even subtle changes in climate may lead to significant environmental and economic impacts.