Water is the most valuable natural resource in the arid to semi-arid upper Snake River basin of eastern Idaho and western Wyoming. The Snake River provides water for the second largest area of irrigated land in the United States but at the same time supports world-class trout fisheries and other river-related recreation. Because of competing demands on these water resources and increasingly complex legal and sociological constraints, there is a large demand for interdisciplinary water resources research and education in the region. The Principal Investigator (PI) is formally trained as a mathematician but conducts research in hydrology and aquatic ecology. This grant will provide the PI, through a sabbatical year at the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute at University of Idaho (UI), with the time and resources needed to allow full-time involvement in water resources research and education. Specific objectives are to 1) expand the PI's knowledge of surface and subsurface hydrologic processes; 2) increase the ability of the PI to impart understanding of and appreciation for mathematical methods in hydrology to students and professionals; 3) develop interdisciplinary water resources research collaborations; 4) enhance the PI's effectiveness in facilitating broad, interdisciplinary understanding of water resource issues among professionals, stakeholders, students, and the lay public; and 5) allow the PI to gain the scientific credentials needed for him to become an established leader in interdisciplinary water resources research and education at his home institution.
To meet these objectives, the PI will, during the course of the project, 1) participate as a student and co-instructor in UI's Quantitative Hydrogeology course, 2) participate as a student and co-instructor in a water resources course for nonspecialists, 3) give presentations of original, interdisciplinary hydrology research at the national meetings of the American Fisheries Society and the Geological Society of America, 4) deliver a one-credit short course in mathematical methods for hydrogeology, 5) develop and submit two grant proposals in interdisciplinary water resources research, and 6) submit three manuscripts for publication on the subject of anthropogenic hydrologic alteration and its ecological effects. Following the sabbatical year, the PI expects to formally join the faculty of the Idaho State University (ISU) Department of Geosciences (while retaining his appointment in Mathematics), which will allow him to integrate mathematics into Geosciences programs through interdisciplinary courses and supervision of Geosciences graduate students working on water-related research. The PI will also continue to lead an effort begun in 2004 to establish an interdisciplinary watershed science graduate program at ISU.
This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).
