Introducer(s): Gary L. Gaile - University of Colorado Session Description: Climate change will increasingly and acutely impact both water resources and regional studies. Related issues such as drought, desertification, flooding, changes in biodiversity, sea level rise, massive coastal industrial development and migration, urbanization, and globalization will dynamically alter research agendas. There will be overlapping effects on both water resources and regional researchers, as well as impacts on particular groups that will impact the other in vital ways. Geographers need to look towards the future to explore what overlapping research areas will emerge, and also engage in discussion with each other about future data and information needs, as well as spaces for collaboration that will address gaps. A simplistic example is that changes in climate will create changes in aquifers, and this will impact regional development, which also represents a demand for water from aquifers. Regional and water resources geographers do not normally study the same scope of phenomena, but they now share the need to adapt to integrate changes in climate into their research. To do so will require each group to understand the other's shifting agendas and needs as society moves forward. Of course, what researchers learn will also provide feedback to climate change scientists and policy makers. We will initiate dialogue across sub-themes and regions.
