Pan-American Studies Institute (PASI): Adaptive Water-Energy Management in the Arid Americas; La Serena, Chile, 2013

This Pan-American Advanced Studies Institutes (PASI), jointly supported by the NSF and the Department of Energy (DOE), will take place in La Serena, Chile, in 2013. Dr. Christopher Scott (University of Arizona) will be joined in the organizing committee by scientists from Chile and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. The institute will focus on developing a cadre of multidisciplinary scientists with conceptual understanding, skills and tools to address the inter-linkage of water resources (primarily freshwater) and energy (electrical power and biofuels). Regions experiencing scarcity of freshwater and inadequate availability of energy are especially vulnerable to global change. The interrelationship between water and energy raises challenges for policy and planning. This PASI will provide participants with diagnostic skills and water and energy co-management tools that maintain or increase resource-use productivity while enhancing adaptation outcomes. Foci will be on tailoring new tools such as resource and efficiency inventories, analytical and computational models, and stakeholder engagement methods. The PASI will train young researchers, agency personnel, and non-governmental organization staff. The objectives are to provide participants with diagnostic skills and water and energy co-management tools that maintain or increase resource-use productivity while enhancing adaptation outcomes.

This PASI will introduce U.S. students to many important techniques in the above subjects. The PASI will also strengthen a regional knowledge network within the Americas for the inclusion of adaptive management principles in water and energy decision-making. Participants will gain hands-on experience working with models in interaction with decision-makers.