US-Chile Planning Visit: Interdisciplinary Study of Water Management in an Arid Basin

This U.S - Chile Planning Visit proposal will support five senior researchers and three graduate students from the U.S., under the direction of Dr. Terry Jordan of Cornell University, on a planning visit to Chile. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of geoscientists, economists, and engineers from Chile and the U.S. The U.S. investigators will collaborate intensively with colleagues from Pontificia Universidad Católica, Universidad del Desarollo, and Universidad Católica del Norte in Chile. Researchers will develop a plan to investigate water sustainability in a changing natural environment and under increased pressure from human withdrawals. The team will visit the Calamana Basin in Northern Chile to develop concepts, quantify uncertainties and impacts, and model water management choices. This research would also provide a systems analysis that would be applicable for other semi-arid to arid regions such as southwest U.S. The visit will involve five senior U.S. researchers, two who are female, and three graduate students. It has the potential to generate long-term interdisciplinary collaborations in sustainability science between U.S. and Chilean researchers and further our understanding of water management choices.