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By Colorado River Basin: Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology August 15, 2022

The Colorado River Basin Pilot Project is exploring new approaches for the USGS to answer complex earth systems questions identified in partnership with stakeholders, which cannot be answered through a single discipline approach. Science coproduction is a method where scientists, managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders first identify specific decisions to be informed by science, and then jointly define the scope and context of the problem, research questions, methods, and outputs, make scientific inferences, and develop strategies for the appropriate use of science. 

The CRB ASIST project engages in science coproduction including co-planning, co-development, co-delivery, co-application, and co-assessment to plan, design, produce, and deliver science on the landscape. A stakeholder is anyone with a vested interest in a resource or a location. Many stakeholders represent, protect, use, and manage resources in the Colorado River Basin. These stakeholders include land and resource management agencies of Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments. Stakeholders also include nongovernmental organizations that represent groups with specific concerns about the environment, recreation, or economic interests. Such stakeholders include industries that supply materials and services, associations that connect and inform agencies about resources, and research institutes that study features of the basin to help inform management decisions. 

This approach brings together collective knowledge across the basin, expand stakeholder engagement, leverage partner capacity, integrate science at spatial and temporal scales, and use advanced technologies to develop and deliver timely, interoperable, and actionable science products.  Examples of stakeholder driven topics in the Colorado River Basin with opportunities for USGS science and technology integration include:  

  • Colorado River Basin Drought Prediction, Integrated Predictive Modeling, and Early Warning Indicators; 

  • Integrated Science to Address Climate Change Impacts to Drought Conditions in the Colorado River Basin; 

  • Groundwater Dependent Streams, Ecosystems, and Research in the Colorado River Basin; 

  • Wildfire Risk and Post-Fire Impacts in The Colorado River Basin; 

  • Impacts of Drought at High Elevations in The Colorado River Basin: Landcover, Forest Health, Snowpack, and others; 

  • Integrating Ecosystem Responses to Drought and Climate Change in the Colorado River Basin; and 

  • Impacts of Drought on The Human System and Development in the Colorado River Basin. 

The Colorado River Basin Pilot Project is exploring new approaches for the USGS to answer complex earth systems questions identified in partnership with stakeholders, which cannot be answered through a single discipline approach. Science coproduction is a method where scientists, managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders first identify specific decisions to be informed by science, and then jointly define the scope and context of the problem, research questions, methods, and outputs, make scientific inferences, and develop strategies for the appropriate use of science. 

The CRB ASIST project engages in science coproduction including co-planning, co-development, co-delivery, co-application, and co-assessment to plan, design, produce, and deliver science on the landscape. A stakeholder is anyone with a vested interest in a resource or a location. Many stakeholders represent, protect, use, and manage resources in the Colorado River Basin. These stakeholders include land and resource management agencies of Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments. Stakeholders also include nongovernmental organizations that represent groups with specific concerns about the environment, recreation, or economic interests. Such stakeholders include industries that supply materials and services, associations that connect and inform agencies about resources, and research institutes that study features of the basin to help inform management decisions. 

This approach brings together collective knowledge across the basin, expand stakeholder engagement, leverage partner capacity, integrate science at spatial and temporal scales, and use advanced technologies to develop and deliver timely, interoperable, and actionable science products.  Examples of stakeholder driven topics in the Colorado River Basin with opportunities for USGS science and technology integration include:  

  • Colorado River Basin Drought Prediction, Integrated Predictive Modeling, and Early Warning Indicators; 

  • Integrated Science to Address Climate Change Impacts to Drought Conditions in the Colorado River Basin; 

  • Groundwater Dependent Streams, Ecosystems, and Research in the Colorado River Basin; 

  • Wildfire Risk and Post-Fire Impacts in The Colorado River Basin; 

  • Impacts of Drought at High Elevations in The Colorado River Basin: Landcover, Forest Health, Snowpack, and others; 

  • Integrating Ecosystem Responses to Drought and Climate Change in the Colorado River Basin; and 

  • Impacts of Drought on The Human System and Development in the Colorado River Basin. 

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