World Wildlife Fund

Managing Demand, Rethinking Supply: Adaptation, Conservation, and Planning in the Drought-prone Southwestern U.S. and Northwest Mexico

CLIMAS Lead
Project Dates
Status
Ongoing

Adaptation in water management is a greatly revered yet poorly understood goal and concept. The U.S. suffers from what's been called an “adaptation deficit”, but there is little comprehensive research on how to advance adaptation. Previous research has found that case studies of how adaptation is actually being delivered, and barriers to effective delivery (e.g., information, capacity, institutions), is a critical missing component of existing adaptation research. This project addresses this gap both theoretically and methodologically in four study sites in the Arizona-Sonora region of the U.S-Mexico border: Tucson, AZ; Yuma, AZ and the Colorado River delta; the Upper Gulf of California (from Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, north); and Hermosillo, Sonora. The key research questions guiding this project include: what is the role of networks in governance and the implications for using climate knowledge; what are the most effective climate services to support efforts to adapt; and how can decision-support tools build institutional adaptive capacity. Researchers examine these questions via interactive semi-structured interviews, a webinar series on the border climate, and a scientist-stakeholder symposium. Project outputs will include pilot development of an institutional adaptive capacity index; presentation of results at professional meetings, papers in peer-reviewed journals, workshop and symposia reports, the Webinar series, quarterly production of the Transborder Climate newsletter, and a project website.

Transborder Climate Communication

Project Dates
-
Status
Completed

Climate and its impacts extend across the U.S.-Mexico border, affecting many economic activities, including the management of natural resources, agriculture and ranching, and public health. This project aims to (a) provide information on climate and the environment for the binational border region, and (b) assess the effectiveness of social media for building the capacity to convey and us climate information in decision making.

Previously, this project was called Transborder Climate: Adaptation Without Boundaries. Transborder Climate was a newsletter with reports on research and forecasts related to climate and its impacts in the transboundary United States-Mexico border region. Transborder Climate provided information for resource management and policy, with a special emphasis on information relevant to adaptation to climate variations and trends. It was produced in English and Spanish.

Currently, the project is focused on the borderlands within the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo transboundary river basin encompassing the New Mexico, Texas, and Chihuahua borders. The first Rio Grande/Bravo Climate Impacts & Outlook was produced during winter 2013-14. This was the first of multiple experimental quarterly binational/bilingual climate outlooks designed to provide climate information to stakeholders in this region. The product is produced on behalf of the North American Climate Services Partnership, a collaboration between the weather services of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This is also part of a NIDIS pilot project for the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo transboundary region.
http://drought.gov/media/pgfiles/Rio-Grande-Bravo-Climate-Outlook13.pdf
http://drought.gov/media/pgfiles/Rio-Grande-Bravo-Climate-Outlook-spani…

English

Spanish

January 2013 Transborder Climate

enero de 2013 Clima Transfronterizo

September 2012 Transborder Climate

septiembre de 2012 Clima Transfronterizo

February 2012 Transborder Climate