Inter-American Institute for
Global Change Research
INFORMATION FLOWS AND POLICY
USE OF CLIMATE DIAGNOSTICS AND CYCLONE PREDICTION FOR ADAPTIVE WATER-RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT UNDER CLIMATIC UNCERTAINTY IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA
Tucson,
Arizona
Hermosillo,
Sonora
Guaymas,
Sonora
La Paz,
Baja California
Sur
Binational North American Monsoon Region including the Sonoran desert
of Mexico and the United States
PROJECT GOALS
• Introduce climate information to decision-makers in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United
States in a manner that improves critical water-management decisions.
• Address the impacts of climate variability on both urban and rural areas.
• Link assessment of risks with introduction of a tailored decision tool to advance scientific understanding
of how best to integrate climate science with decisionmaking in the binational North American Monsoon
Region.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
• Use climate diagnostic information to identify and assess societal vulnerabilities posed by cyclonic and
monsoon processes including drought in both urban and rural contexts.
• Assess the institutional and policy implications of these vulnerabilities.
• Work with stakeholders to bring the study findings to bear on assessing the salience, relevance, and
credibility of the science, as well as the formulation of scientific research questions.
Map courtesy NASA
INTRODUCTION
The coupling of human and natural systems
poses at least three major types of climaterelated risks to human populations and
economic activity in western North America:
• exposure of human communities to
weather extremes—from cyclones to
drought,
• dependence of growing populations
on limited water supplies in this arid
region, and
• climate and water-related agricultural
production risk.
This human dimensions project supported by
the Inter-american Institute for Global Change
Research (IAI) builds on the IAI’s CRN II Project
2048 on tropical cyclones by improving
understanding of the combined impacts of
East Pacific cyclones and the North American
Monsoon on human systems, and mobilizes this
knowledge to disseminate climate and water
information to decision-makers, managers, and
water users.
Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy
The University of Arizona
803 East First Street
Tucson, Arizona 85719
phone: 520.626.4393
fax: 520.626.3664
udallctr@u.arizona.edu
courtesy CBS news
CONTACTS
Lead Agency: The University of Arizona (USA)
Christopher Scott (Deputy PI) – Udall Center for Studies in Public
Policy and Dept. of Geography and Regional Development
cascott@email.arizona.edu
Robert Varady (PI) – Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy
rvarady@email.arizona.edu
Hurricane Henriette flooding
Investigators:
Anne Browning-Aiken – Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy
Gregg Garfin – Institute for the Study of Planet Earth
Barbara Morehouse – Institute for the Study of Planet Earth
Margaret Wilder – Center for Latin American Studies and Dept.
of Geography and Regional Development
Collaborators:
Nicolás Pineda (Co-PI) – El Colegio de Sonora (México)
Martín Montero (Co-PI) – Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del
Agua (México)
David Gochis – National Center for Atmospheric Research (USA)
Andrea Ray – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA)
Graciela de Raga (PI, CRN 2048) – Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México
Luís Farfán (Co-PI, CRN 2048) – Centro de Investigación Científica y de
Educación Superior de Ensenada – CISESE (México)
PROJECT STATUS (APRIL 2008)
• Project partners met at The University of Arizona for a project
inception and planning meeting (Oct. 2007).
• Research assistant Ashley Coles (Geography and Regional
Development) joins the UA team (Jan. 2008).
• Research assistants Luís Miguel Silva and Hugo Briceño join the
COLSON team (Feb. 2008).
• IAI hosts project PIs and information management workshop,
Panama (Feb. 2008).
• Regional Climate Forum for Northwest Mexico and the
Southwest United States planned at CICESE, Mexico
(April 2008).
depleted reservoir near Hermosillo
Flood evacuation