⏲️ This month’s edition contains approximately 1,200 words (just over a 3 minute read).

Welcome to NEWSTide! With just one month left in the semester, things aren’t slowing down. This issue reflects on the recent World Water Day and the global importance of water, while highlighting how our work, from classrooms to communities, continues to translate into real-world impact. As always, we’re grateful for your continued support and taking the time to learn more about us.

With thanks,

Brock Parker
AWI Director of Research Institute Communications

On World Water Day, Global Water Security Center human environmental scientists Penelope Mitchell, Penny Beames, and Caily Schwartz explored how water conflict can lead to both conflict and cooperation.

Curious how Cape Town's Day Zero experience became a pathway to constructive change, and what it means for water-stressed communities around the world?

CIROH is transforming water modeling with NextGen In A Box (NGIAB), an open-source tool that reduces setup time to just 30 minutes. Supporting applications from nationwide modeling to drought research, NGIAB enables fast, flexible simulations across platforms, which expands access and advances next-generation water prediction.

CONSERVE sponsored and participated in the Alabama Rivers and Streams Network Annual Meeting, joining 72 researchers, conservationists and agency partners committed to protecting Alabama's rivers and streams. Dr. Michael Fedoroff, CONSERVE director, presented the group's aquatic restoration tools and vision, including innovative work with native giant rivercane, a crucial but frequently underutilized restoration tool, drawing interest in future collaborations.

See how CONSERVE is building partnerships to strengthen watershed conservation across the Southeast.

Most Alabama schoolchildren don’t know their state holds approximately 15% of the nation’s potable water, or that the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta in south Alabama is often called “America’s Amazon.”

"Delta Kids," a new illustrated children's book from Clean Water Alabama, is changing that, and the Alabama Water Institute created the companion teacher's guide to bring the science into classrooms.

Global Water Security Center Director Mike Gremillion recently spoke with the New York Times about the implications of drought and water scarcity in Iran.

Dr. Leigh Terry, associate professor and associate director of the Center for Water Quality Research in The University of Alabama’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, shared her work on The Noon Show on WTUGHD2/Catfish Tuscaloosa. 

Dr. Jill Brown has built her career around a simple idea: data only matters if people can understand it. An environmental communication researcher, Brown brings expertise in social psychology and risk communication to translating complex information into action. In this episode, she shares how tailoring communication to different audiences leads to better decisions.

Learn more about the Global Water Security Center’s work, what drives it, and why it matters in this interview between GWSC Director Mike Gremillion and communications intern Counts Shanks.

Since 2022, the Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology, or CIROH, has strengthened the research-to-operations pipeline in water prediction, bringing together more than 100 scientists across 28 institutions to advance flood forecasting, drought prediction and water quality forecasting.

Co-located with NOAA's National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, CIROH is the first cooperative institute aligned directly under a NOAA operational line office. This unique positioning enables rapid translation of research innovations into operational water prediction services that protect communities nationwide.

This overview highlights CIROH's research themes, education programs and collaborative platforms that advance water prediction through shared knowledge and collective innovation.

In this month's talk, discover how flow variability and intermittency in streams affect the timing and delivery of nutrients and sediments to downstream waters. Dr. Shannon Speir from the University of Arkansas examines how these hydrological changes exacerbate water quality issues in agricultural landscapes.

Drought conditions have burned hundreds of acres across Alabama, with the Alabama Forestry Commission confirming a 290-acre fire near the Tuscaloosa-Hale County line and a 100-acre fire in the Graysville community of north Jefferson County. The dry conditions mirror an official drought declaration issued March 5 by the ADECA Office of Water Resources, placing 37 counties under drought warning status and an additional 31 counties under drought watch — covering virtually the entire state. All water users are encouraged to make prudent decisions on water use to protect available resources, according to ADECA.

Want to see how drought is driving fire danger across Alabama this spring?

Sources credited: Alabama Public Radio and ADECA Office of Water Resources