ALEXANDRIA, VA – March 15, 2010. Stacy Langsdale, PhD, along with co-authors Allyson Beall, PhD, Jeff Carmichael, PhD, Stewart Cohen, PhD, Craig Forster, PhD, and Tina Neale, PhD, will receive the 2010 ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management Engineering Best Policy-Oriented Paper Award for the paper “Exploring the Implications of Climate Change on Water Resources through Participatory Modeling: Case Study of the Okanagan Basin, British Columbia.” It was published in the September/October 2009 issue of the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. Stacy is IWR's National Research Council Research Associate for 2007-2010.
Incorporating the implications of climate change into water resources planning initiatives is difficult both because relevant information is not readily accessible and the methods for adjusting policy and operations are not obvious. To address these issues, the team engaged stakeholders in a group model building process to explore plausible water resources futures for the Okanagan Basin, British Columbia, Canada, through a series of five one-day workshops held over a 12-month period. Workshops were intended to create a shared learning experience, develop a customized exploration tool, and create participant trust in the model. Survey results indicated the exercise helped participants to expand their thinking to the basin scale, appreciate the complexity of water management, and develop a model suitable for futures exploration and outreach.
The award will be presented at EWRI’s World Environment & Water Resources Congress in May 2010.
More about EWRI and the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
The Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) is a civil engineering specialty institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE’s Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management reports on all phases of planning and management of water resources. The papers examine social, economic, environmental and administrative concerns relating to the use and conservation of water.
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