The conflicting opinions of Western water resource stakeholders are the centerpiece of a unique new summer course at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
As part of "Western Issues: Science, Policy and Public Perception," students will meet with competing interests in the fight for control of the West's most precious resource. The students will then attempt to create solutions to water-related conflicts.
"Â鶹ÒùÔº learn how people feel about the problem firsthand," said instructor Mike Hannigan, a research associate in CU-Boulder's department of mechanical engineering. "That's the part I'm most excited about. When you get out in the world, you realize how people feel and students normally don't get the chance to do that. The students in this class have to defend their work to a group of stakeholders."
Hannigan is now lining up speakers to visit the class who represent a wide variety of water interests. Already slated to visit are a local rancher, a Division of Wildlife representative, a river rafting business owner and a golf course greenskeeper. Hannigan is hoping to schedule a metro wastewater representative, some urban Denver residents, a representative from Trout Unlimited who can discuss how fish are affected and a California resident to represent downstream Colorado River interests.
Hannigan believes the new class's multidisciplinary format - from both a stakeholder and student perspective - is unique. The class appears in the registration listings for three different CU-Boulder departments: engineering, history and environmental studies. Hannigan hopes the resulting array of student perspectives will demonstrate both how a problem can be harder to solve when approached from many angles as well as the creative solutions that are possible with a multifaceted approach.
"This class represents a different way of getting students to work together than has been attempted before," he said, adding that budget cuts might make his class the only one of its kind in the next year.
Before speakers visit the class to give their perspectives, students will study the water usage problem during the first week of class. Toward the end of the course, students will get a series of scientific and policy primers from expert guest lecturers. Because the students come from diverse academic backgrounds, the primers are designed to fill in gaps in students' scientific or policy knowledge.
Hannigan will teach an "energy link" primer that focuses on the energy involved in transporting water to users. While many people might be familiar with how water is used to generate electricity, most don't appreciate how water usage is connected to energy use, Hannigan said.
"The energy cycle - including fossil fuel usage - is tied closely to water usage. Many people don't understand that, and it's important to realize," he said.
Hannigan holds a doctorate in environmental engineering and his current research focus is energy and air pollution. "I'm very interested in water, growth and environmental pollution. Anyone who is an environmental engineer loves to study water," he said.
More information about the Western water issues class is available online at . For enrollment information, visit the CU-Boulder Summer Session Web site at or call (303) 492-5148.