We all have assumptions about water access in the desert - usually associated with scarcity, higher-costs, and infrequent or inconsistent supply. However, water access in Arizona is a bit different than what is commonly thought of in the desert. With an infrastructure that seamlessly moves water throughout the Southwestern United States, this robust system provides a reliable and cost-efficient flow of water throughout Arizona. In fact this infrastructure is so seamless, it manifested a completely different problem - enabling a complex ecosystem of agriculture and farmland to be established in the desert. 

Nearly three quarters of Arizona’s water is used for agriculture and when this enabling infrastructure was set up, the issue of water scarcity in the US wasn’t a concern. Now with changing climate patterns and global warming resulting in increased, more widespread, and longer lasting droughts in the US we must reevaluate our agricultural usage of water. But this problem is not as simple as just stopping agricultural land use in Arizona. Doing so would have widespread impacts - from economic, environmental, and air quality to emissions outputs, fossil fuel use, and crop yields. 

This project seeks to better understand the impacts of historic droughts on water availability in Arizona and asks students to explore whether to retire agricultural land in Arizona and what the implications to the recommended change in land use would be. Further, students are asked to explore mitigation strategies to address the impacts on the region’s economy, environment, and “lost food”. Satellite data can be used to build recommendations based on current land use, climate conditions, and soil moisture, as well as modeling mitigation strategies for the future.