The Rio Grande/Río Bravo is the lifeline of the region, including the Chihuahuan Desert, supplying drinking water for more than 6 million people, including numerous Native American tribes, and irrigating about 2 million acres of land. The river also forms about 1250 miles of the international border between the United States and Mexico from El Paso/Ciudad Juarez to the Gulf of Mexico. The Rio Grande/Río Bravo and its tributaries are increasingly stressed by growing water demands, invasive species, and alterations that impact its flow and water quality.These stressors are likely to be exacerbated by extreme droughts and floods.
The South Central Climate Science Center (SC CSC) has funded projects to synthesize the state of science in the Rio Grande Basin and work with stakeholders to understand how people value the river. Outreach is currently being conducted to identify collaborative and creative initiatives underway in the Basin that can help conserve water and riverine ecosystems while supporting human needs. The South Central Climate Science Center (SC CSC) has partnered with the Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Coca-Cola, the Rio Grande Joint Venture and Tecnológico de Monterrey (the Forum Organizing Committee) to help share important stories at a binational Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin Forum. The Forum will bring together a variety of water users such as farmers, ranchers, city officials, tribal leaders, policymakers, business leaders, conservationists and scientists from both the United States and Mexico in El Paso, Texas in the spring of 2017. Outcomes of the Forum are intended to promote creative strategies for balancing water needs among people and ecosystems, specific actions that can be applied in high priority areas, and identification of additional science and information needs for conservation and management of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin.
To achieve these outcomes and to promote an integrated process and learning experience with efforts occurring in the Red River Basin, DJ Case & Associates (DJ Case) will work with the Forum Organizing Committee to collaborate on ideas for how to engage effectively with people and institutions at the Forum. In particular, this project will focus on working with the Forum Organizing Committee to facilitate and host the event and collaborating with existing researchers and partners to identify future research prioritization relating to climate change.
