The Midwest Big Data Innovations Hub will lead a conversation on “Cultivating Regional Resilience: Water, Data, and Climate Challenges at Scale.” This discussion will explore how water data are used to address issues associated with climate and land use across broad geographic scales. A curated panel discussion with subject matter expertise professionals will be followed by Q&A.

Moderator: Dr. Derek Kauneckis, Affiliated Associate Research Faculty, Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute
Dr. Kauneckis is associate research faculty in the Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at the Desert Research Institute. He holds of Ph.D. in Public Policy from Indiana University, Bloomington and M.S. from the University of California, Davis.  His research focuses on regional environmental governance and the emergence of cooperative institutions.  Dr. Kauneckis currently teaches courses on ‘resilience theory and practice’ and ‘environmental sustainability assessment’.  He has examined behavioral and institutional components of resilience planning, local climate policy networks, and the role of technology in the management of natural systems.  His research has been published in the Journal of Coastal Management, Simulation & Gaming, Environmental Management, Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, among others.  Dr. Kauneckis currently serves as an Advisory Committee Member for the Department of Homeland Security’s Resilient Investment Planning and Development Working Group (RIPDWG) and on the Advisory Group on Professional Education for the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP).

Panelists:

• Dr. Grace Wilson, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Dept of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota
  Dr. Wilson received a Bachelors of Art’s in Biology from Macalester College, following with an M.S. in Applied Plant Sciences, and then a PhD in Land and Atmospheric Sciences, both from the University of Minnesota.  My long-term research interests involve finding solutions to water quality issues, using tools that combine crop, soil, and water sciences.  My research and academic experiences have focused on utilizing hydrologic and water quality models to study the impact of land management and land use decisions on nutrient pollution to local surface and groundwater. My applied research experience with hydrologic and water quality models has focused on the effects of land-use and management scenarios on water quality. In my PhD dissertation work and current post-doctoral research with Dr. David Mulla, I have used the field-scale model, DRAINMOD-NII, to examine changes in nitrogen lost through subsurface drainage from corn fields utilizing fertilizer application based on monitoring of in-season crop nitrogen requirements compared to more traditional fertilizer application methods.  The results of model simulations were used in a regression analysis to develop equations that predicted regional nitrogen losses based on fertilizer application rate and timing, and regional climate.
• Dr. Chris Jones, Research Engineer at IHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, University of Iowa
  Dr. Chris Jones is a Research Engineer at IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa, where he manages the university’s network of real time water quality sensors deployed at 65 stream sites around the state of Iowa. His research interests include contaminant hydrology in agricultural landscapes, nutrient and sediment loss and transport, and municipal water supply. He holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Montana State University, and previous work experience includes positions at Des Moines Water Works and Iowa Soybean Association.
• Dr. David Mulla, Larson Chair and Professor for Soil & Water Resources, University of Minnesota
  Dr. David Mulla is the Larson Chair and Professor for Soil & Water Resources in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate at the University of Minnesota.  His research focuses on non-point source water quality pollution and applications of spatial statistics to agriculture and the environment.
• Dr. Brent Dalzell, Research Soil Scientist, USDA ARS
  Dr. Dalzell is a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA-ARS Soil and Water Management Research Unit located in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Dalzell employs a range of model- and field-based approaches to work on issues related to protection and conservation of soil and water quality in agricultural landscapes. Brent’s current work is focused on quantifying field-scale export of water, sediment, and nutrients under different management scenarios as well as watershed-scale processes that can influence export to downstream water bodies.