WyACT's goal is to enable Wyoming’s communities to anticipate and prepare for significant and lasting changes in water availability.
We strive to understand the interactions of social and ecological systems, so we can make better predictions about potential futures.
We fine-tune climate data into regional models for Wyoming and use them to explore climate-change effects on hydrology, ecosystems, wildlife, and human communities.
We examine values, information sources, vulnerabilities, and decision-making around water, generating critical input for integrated modeling.
The work concentrates on the headwaters of important river systems in western Wyoming: Snake, Wind, and Green River.
We partner with groups at the forefront of changing water resources in Wyoming, such as sovereign tribes, agencies, organizations, and communities. Their diverse knowledge and perspectives are key to understanding complex challenges and help generate more robust outcomes.
Co-producing knowledge creates outcomes that are useful and usable for decision-making.
Leveraging model outputs with place-based and practical knowledge to imagine a range of scenarios about changes to water resources as a way to prepare for an uncertain future.
Over 100 researchers, students and staff from 16 University departments have participated so far.
WyACT connects with Wyoming communities, practitioners, and decision-makers to understand, anticipate, and prepare for significant changes in climate and water and the impacts of those changes on interconnected human and natural systems.
WyACT is an interdisciplinary five-year National Science Foundation-funded project led by the University of Wyoming.
The CoLaborative for Intersectoral Modeling of the Earth System (CLIMES) will develop national leadership in integrated human-earth systems modeling.
The lab will provide quantitative, computational projections of regionally relevant environmental futures for Wyoming and beyond. It will produce innovative research with practical applications, aiming to make a real difference in how we understand and respond to environmental change.
The Center for Climate, Water, and People (CCWP) will sustain and extend WyACT’s applied research, climate services, and educational work.
The CCWP is driven by a vision where all Wyoming and Western residents thrive amid a changing climate. It will partner with communities and decision-makers to foster interdisciplinary research, education, and climate service offerings related to the challenges and opportunities posed by shifts in climate and water availability.
The Socio-Environmental Observatory Network (SEaSON) provides trusted, freely available data on coupled human-environment systems and their responses to changing water availability.
SEaSON monitors watershed health, ecological disturbances, community responses and feedbacks. Sensors and observations record hydrological flows and storage, lake and stream ecological states, fish population, forest structure, and human movements and experiences.