Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to create a "virtual water university" involving ASU, UA and NAU by 2006 to come up with solutions for Arizona's ongoing drought.
ASU researchers will study urban water-use patterns, while UA will study water resources and NAU will study watersheds, said James Buizer, ASU special adviser to the president and director of sustainability issues.
The "water university" will not be an actual university, Buizer said. Instead, the concept will bring together research already in progress at each school and direct it toward managing Arizona's drought.
"It's actually a virtual center -- a coordination and management exercise," Buizer said. "Universities tend not to talk to each other very much."
Buizer said ASU East already has a water quality research center, and conducts studies of urban water use through the civil engineering department of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at the main campus.
The virtual water university would further link the three state universities with local water-related agencies like the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Buizer said.
Jonathan Fink, vice president for research and economic affairs, said a nearly $7 million National Science Foundation grant given to ASU's Decision Center for a Desert City will help fund research that should provide Arizona with "one place for the Legislature to look" when it needs water information.
The newly named International Institute of Sustainability, which received a $15 million grant last week from Julie Ann Wrigley and replaces the Center for Environmental Studies, also will conduct water research, Fink said.
Napolitano first announced the plan to the Arizona Town Hall on Nov. 1 at El Tovar Lodge at the Grand Canyon.
Buizer said he had been representing ASU at drought task force meetings organized by Napolitano for several weeks before Napolitano's announcement about the water university. At least two more task force meetings are planned, with a more concrete plan for the virtual university likely to be made by January, Buizer said.
Bruce Hallin, a water business development manager for Salt River Project, said the company would be collaborating with ASU as part of the water university project.
Although he said he didn't know specifically how ASU and SRP would work together, Hallin said SRP has provided funding and assistance with research studies at UA and NAU.
SRP and NAU scientists are conducting a joint study using tree rings to track water flow to the Phoenix area from the upper Colorado River and parts of the Salt River, with the first results likely to arrive in January. Since 2000, SRP has donated $400,000 for watershed research at NAU.
Buizer said he thinks the governor's plan will make better use of tax dollars that are already being spent to study water issues.
"We're spending a significant amount of tax dollars on water," Buizer said. "Between the three universities, that's a chunk of change being spent [on water research]. The truth is, not a whole lot of it is being spent on the management of water."
Reach the reporter at nicole.saidi@asu.edu.
