WWA-04. Western Water Assessment: The Coming Five Years

Abstract
Western Water Assessment is proud to be part of CIRES, and we are excited to share that we were refunded as a NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program through August 2026. This poster will share more about our vision and projects for the coming years. We welcome CIRES researchers and staff to reach out with opportunities for collaboration. Our vision is to build water sector and community resilience to compound hazards in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, with a particular focus on underserved Indigenous and small rural communities and utilities. We will also integrate social and physical sciences to advance resilience science from theory to practice. This work draws on our 20-year history of climate adaptation research and activities in the region, and the deep interdisciplinary social and natural science expertise in our team. Research projects fit within two themes: resilient water systems and resilient communities. We will integrate tracking of resilience metrics to identify needs and opportunities and evaluate our success in building resilience. We will also conduct a small-grant competition in Wyoming to build the resilience of underserved communities and leverage successes to inspire other communities to engage in climate adaptation actions.