Nevada Water | College of Science | University of Nevada, Reno

What is Nevada Water?

Nevada Water is focusing on building a trusted network that can address urban-rural water challenges across the state.

We are in Phase 1, which is a 12-month network-building effort, funded by the National Science Foundation, that will include partners that represent the full range of water users, purveyors, managers, decision-makers, educators and researchers. Our guiding principle is Science With Society, which emphasizes inclusion, communication, connections and collaboration. Importantly, Nevada Water will not be developing policies or changing water law. Rather, it is intended as a learning network where we co-identify diverse challenges, fill knowledge gaps, understand the social and hydrologic dimensions of water issues, and co-develop strategies for addressing seemingly intractable water issues.

Photo credit: Janel Johnson – Nevada Division of Natural Heritage

During the planning phase, our leadership team and partners will:

Listen to and learn from various groups of water providers, users, managers, etc. about how we each experience water-related challenges, and what issues are most important to our respective communities, organizations and livelihoods.
Brainstorm ideas for how a well-funded network of public, private, tribal, research, nonprofit and educational water resource partners can come together to facilitate equitable solutions.
Help design a Nevada Water network that will provide trusted information, collect unique and targeted data to answer key questions, offer research opportunities for students across the state, help educators create learning content, and develop equitable solutions to complex and seemingly intractable water problems.

How will we accomplish these goals?

Holding online small-group discussions
Touring the diverse urban and rural parts of Nevada to hear from network partners about their water challenges
Holding a two-day conference (in partnership with the Nevada Water Resources Association) to discuss what we’ve learned
Sharing our visions
Workshopping ideas for a fully-developed Nevada Water network

What's next?

Following this one-year effort, we will craft a five-year $15 million follow-on proposal to the National Science Foundation to implement the full Nevada Water Network.

What would the network do?

This question is what we seek to answer during the planning stage. The full implementation of Nevada Water could include developing advanced monitoring networks, data analysis, information sharing, education programs, funding for seed projects, fellowships for researcher-practitioner partnerships, webinars, workshops and more.