Whether your organization has been looking at resilience and adaptation for years or is just starting to explore how it can support your mission, the conference will expand your knowledge and understanding and connect you to practitioners and policy-makers who are also seeking to improve and share. In Nevada, we will confer about what engineering solutions and policy conditions are needed for improving water resources resilience of our nation, we will discuss what has or hasn’t worked as we have tried to adapt to water related risks, and what innovative data and tools are being developed and used to support our efforts to improve resilience and adapt to new water realities.
Plenary Speakers
Dan Cayan is a Research Meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Cayan’s work is aimed at understanding climate variability and changes over the Pacific Ocean and North America and how they affect the water cycle and related sectors over western North America, with focus on California. Cayan has contributed to a series of California climate vulnerability and adaptation assessments, including serving as lead editor for scientific contributions to the Fourth California Climate Change Assessment, released in 2018. He is also involved with programs to deliver improved climate information to decision makers: the California Nevada Applications Program (CNAP), sponsored by the NOAA RISA Program and the Southwest Climate Science Center, sponsored by the US Geological Survey, Department of Interior.
Michael Dettinger is a senior research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Resources Mission Area (Water Cycle Branch), a resident scientist at the University of Nevada Reno, distinguished visiting researcher at the Desert Research Institute, and a research associate of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dettinger has monitored and researched the hydrology, climates, and water resources of the West for over 35 years, focusing on regional water resources, watershed modeling, causes of hydro-climatic variability and extremes (including atmospheric rivers and droughts), and climate-change influences.
Tony Willardson joined the staff of the Western States Water Council in 1979 and was named as the Executive Director in July 2009. Council members, representing 18 States, are appointed by their governors to advise them on water issues. The mission of the Council is to ensure that the West has an adequate, secure and sustainable supply of water of suitable quality to meet its diverse economic and environmental needs now and in the future. Tony co-chairs the Executive Council of the National Integrated Drought Information System. He has authored numerous articles and reports covering a wide range of water resource policy issues, including drought, state water planning, water conservation, water project financing and cost sharing, water use fees, ground water management and recharge, the use of remote sensing in water management, intra-state and interregional water transfers, as well as water needs and strategies for a sustainable future.
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Jason King retired from the Nevada Division of Water Resources in January of 2019 after working for the Division for more than 27 years and served as State Engineer for his final 9 years. As State Engineer, he oversaw the appropriation, management and regulation of both groundwater and surface water in the driest state in the Nation. King has negotiated on Nevada’s behalf on numerous interstate water disputes, was a member of the State Environmental Commission, the Colorado Salinity Control Council and served on Governor Sandoval’s Drought Forum.
Timothy Brown conducts applied research at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada. His primary academic interests include wildland fire-climate-weather connections; the wildfire environment; applications development for wildland fire management planning, decision-making and policy; and the interface between science and decision-making. He is Director of the Western Regional Climate Center and the Program for Climate, Ecosystem and Fire Applications (CEFA) at DRI. He is graduate faculty in the University of Nevada, Reno Atmospheric Sciences Program and quandom Adjunct and current Affiliate at the Monash University School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Science Faculty in Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Jeanine Jones is the California Department of Water Resources’ Interstate Resources Manager. She has previously been CDWR’s Drought Preparedness Manager, and still works extensively on drought. Jones represents CDWR on the Colorado River Board of California and Western States Water Council, where she is current Chair. She is a registered professional engineer in California and Nevada.
Armin Munévar is a global technologist for Integrated Water Resource Management for Jacobs Engineering and firm lead for climate change adaptation and water resources planning. Mr. Munévar is responsible for developing and implementing frameworks for evaluating impacts on water resource systems, assessing vulnerabilities, developing adaptation strategies, and helping clients achieve sustainable water management.