What is iUTAH?

 

iUTAH - What’s in a Name?

iUTAH stands for innovative Urban Transitions and Aridregion Hydro-sustainability.

 

Hydro (water)-sustainability:
Broadly defined, iUTAH’s mission is to strengthen science in Utah to provide for a secure water future for the citizens of this state.  This means an ample supply of high quality water, now and in the future.

 

Arid (dry) region:
Utah is a dry state, the second driest in the nation after Nevada. In 2014, all of Utah’s 29 counties were designated as being in drought.  As a dry state with a rapidly expanding population and thriving industries that rely heavily on water, securing our water resources to meet future demand is a major challenge.

 

Urban Transitions:
Utah’s water depends on snow. Our majestic mountains serve as the “water towers” for our population.  Nowhere is this more true than along the Wasatch Front, where 80% of Utah’s population is concentrated in an increasingly urbanizing setting.  The transition to urban land use requires new engineering and management decisions about water to ensure our cities are sustainable.

 

As water from snow, in the form of runoff, is discharged over the course of the summer, it makes a transition of its own: from wildland into an urban setting.  iUTAH’s GAMUT monitoring network tracks this transition, providing us with critical information on associated changes in water chemistry and other important properties of what will eventually become our drinking water.

 

innovative: 
iUTAH is a novel, groundbreaking research effort unprecedented in the history of our state. iUTAH brings together researchers, policy makers, water resource professionals, educational organizations, government agencies, and non-profits from across the state in pursuit of a common goal: sustaining our most precious natural resource. 

 

iUTAH university researchers and students from all three major research universities and every primarily undergraduate institution in the state work side-by-side every day to advance our body of knowledge on Utah’s water resources.  In iUTAH, we may be Utes, Aggies, and Cougars, but our shared mission always comes first.

 

 

What is iUTAH?

 

 

iUTAH—Science for Utah’s Water Future