Rocky Mountain Water - March/April 2023

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Recognizing risk and uncertainty and preparing resilient systems This past summer, the Rocky Mountain Section AWWA formed a new committee on Risk and Resilience, giving direction to the importance of pushing beyond the debate on whether water systems will be affected by change to one of intentional action on identifying strategies for the future. Taking the One Water viewpoint, the Risk and Resilience Committee will exam ine approaches that emphasize a systems approach to managing risk, looking beyond avoiding service interruptions or simply reacting to the impacts of change. It will look to innovations, new approaches for water financing, federal support of infrastructure improvements and cybersecurity, workforce training, research, and community collaborations to guide policy and practices to prepare water systems that are resilient to climate change, as well as other disturbances. The committee is looking forward to this endeavor and encourages your input.

Steven A. Conrad is an Associate Professor of System Engineering at Colorado State University, whose focus is around the water and energy industry and on the feedbacks between human-environmental systems through the coupling of social and engineering sciences to inform decision making and visualization, the quantification and

modelling of system function, system optimization and resilience, and policy and plan ning as applied to energy, water and food systems, sustainable community design, and climate change adaptation. He is also the Chair of the RMSAWWA Risk and Resil ience Committee. He can be reached at steve.conrad@colostate.edu or 970.491.7869.

Water quality sampling in the Cache la Poudre River after the Cameron Peak Fire. Photo courtesy of the City of Greeley, Water and Sewer Department.

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