Aussie Scientists Visit Campus to Discuss 'Down Under' Water Crisis

Utah State University’s Water Initiative kicks off its fall seminar series with a visit from water scientists David Lemon and Peter Fitch from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. The pair presents “Managing the Australian Water Crisis through Investment in Water Information Research” Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 3:15 p.m. in the Engineering building, room 101. Their talk is free and open to all.

Issues to be discussed by the CSIRO scientists will resonate with Utahns. Large areas of Australia’s food production zones are now entering their eighth straight year of drought, which has resulted in unprecedented lows in water storage inflows, river flows and irrigation water. Worse still, the water scarcity is threatening the water supply to a number of towns and environmental assets within the Murray-Darling Basin of southeastern Australia.

 

Lemon and Fitch will discuss their country’s new research collaboration, Water Information Research and Development Alliance. Formed by CSIRO and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, the alliance is developing systems to provide real-time interactive analysis of water information and advanced methods of forecasting water availability throughout the country.

 

The USU Water Initiative is an interdisciplinary collaboration of the university’s Utah Water Research Laboratory, the colleges of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Natural Resources, Science, Engineering, Agriculture and the Huntsman School of Business. Established in 2003, the initiative fosters collegial sharing of water-related research and ideas throughout campus and the community.

 

 

Contact: Kim Schreuders (435) 797-2941, kim.schreuders@usu.edu
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto (435) 797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu