NM Water Resources Research Institute (NM WRRI) Undergraduate Student Assistant
Job Duties:
Several undergraduate student jobs are available starting in the Fall 2023 semester which all involve field work assessing water dynamics. Each position will assist in fieldwork and one or more of these areas: water budget analysis, spatial analysis, and hydrologic modeling. The positions are exciting opportunities to be part of a transdisciplinary group, involving collaboration between stakeholders and scientists, that is seeking innovative solutions to long-standing and pressing dryland agricultural and water management questions. The positions are for related grant projects funded by the New Mexico Environment Department. The projects’ goals focus on collaboration with regional agricultural communities to identify pathways to agricultural and water resilience in the face of current challenges, particularly climate change. The projects cover three main regions of New Mexico that include traditional agricultural communities of acequias and tribes and pueblos and larger irrigation districts. Each position would focus on one particular region. A central question in these projects is what watershed-scale strategies can optimize water supply and demand while achieving resilience of both the water and agricultural systems, as defined collaboratively with the communities. The research and fieldwork use an integrative approach between the social and the natural systems. The field positions each have different objectives, which include: 1) assessing water use of extreme drought-tolerant crops, 2) the effects of riparian restoration on downstream creek flows that supply water for a small acequia community, and 3) the ability for watershed restoration to mitigate downstream flooding.
Responsibilities:
Responsibilities will be to assist in certain portions of the following work:
- The setup, operation, maintenance, and downloading of data of research equipment for the site.
- Working with stakeholders to adapt results to be useful for their objectives.
- The research and synthesis of the analysis of the field findings.
- Assistance to specializing in one area of the research relevant across the sites. The areas include water budget analysis, spatial analysis (particularly the ability to process and analyze geospatial data in ArcGIS and ArcPro, compile and verify data, maintain basic metadata, and make maps, and work with remote sensing data), and hydrologic modeling (Hec-RAS 2-d)
- Developing materials for reports and presentations to provide the results to project partners and stakeholders, and publishing results in peer-reviewed academic journals
Opportunities exist to synthesize the research and expand work in these and other community-based planning projects to inform future land and water management. The student will work closely with team leaders, graduate students, and all will report to Dr. Fernald.
Requirements:
- Successful candidates will have a major that includes (and career interests) in one or more of the following fields: hydrology, ecology, biology, environmental science, or a similar natural resource-related field, as well as the ability to effectively collaborate and work independently.
- Preference will be given to applicants who have an interest in addressing stakeholder issues, have previous field research experience, and have an enthusiasm for working outside in southwestern US climates.
- The applicant holds a valid driver’s license or the ability to obtain a license within three months of hire, the ability to lift 40 lbs, and carry heavy equipment.
Applications will be reviewed as they are submitted and interviews will be held on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.