In 2022, the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air announced the ILWA Impact Grant, a research funding opportunity for USU faculty and researchers who wish to do a project regarding land, water, and/or air that can make a difference on policy within Utah. The research grant is an annual, one-time award of $15,000.
2024 ILWA Impact Grant
We awarded two grants to USU faculty members for the 2024 application cycle. Their research will contribute to the annual report. We look forward to learning more about how Utahns perceive environmental issues and their wellbeing.
ILWA Funded Grants:
Environmental Dimensions of Wellbeing and Policy in Utah Communities
The team will conduct a survey in 47 cities and towns about the experiences and perspectives of residents on environmental issues and their impacts on wellbeing and quality of life.
Courtney Flint
Environment and Society
Quinney College of Natural Resources
Emma Epperson
Environment and Society
Quinney College of Natural Resources
Nicolas Holden
Mathematics and Statistics
College of Science
2024 Utah People and Environment Poll
The team will conduct a survey of Utahns’ attitudes and behaviors in relation to land, water, and air issues, then provide state and local decision- and policy-makers with the results. The research will help document and understand how Utahns view critical environmental and natural resource issues.
Jessica Schad
Sociology and Anthropology
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Peter Howe
Environment and Society
Quinney College of Natural Resources
Sydney O’Shay
Journalism and Communication Studies
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Scott Hotaling
Watershed Sciences
Quinney College of Humanities and Social Sciences
2023 ILWA Impact Grants
In the Spring 2023 application cycle, 16 high-quality proposals were submitted. Although funding was originally designated for one grant, additional appropriations from the state legislature made it possible to budget for four awards. Additionally, the Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL) at USU funded another six grants through their Mineral Lease Funds. These impact grants included the following projects:
ILWA Funded Grants:
Agriculture Water Optimization and Policy Advancement for Sister Lakes: Great Salt Lake and Lake Urmia
The team proposes three major related objectives to improve water management in the Great Salt Lake Basin. These include 1) Publish a scientific article on the method and results of the Great Salt Lake Policy Assessment; 2) Identify the site-specific potential of agriculture water optimization for the Great Salt Lake Basin; and 3) Conduct agricultural optimization policies, efforts, and management comparisons of Great Salt Lake and Lake Urmia in Iran.
Matt Yost
Plants, Soils and Climate
College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Burdette Barker
Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Earl Creech
Plants, Soils and Climate
College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Alfonso Torres
Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Formalizing Threats and Linkages of Land and Water Use within the Great Salt Lake Basin
This interdisciplinary team seeks to address the following research questions: 1) How do drought, water use urban form, land-use change, and water policies interact to affect the long-term outcomes of the Great Salt Lake Basin? And 2) What are the major threats and barriers to long-term security of future land development and water resources?
Brent Chamberlain
Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
Jeannie Johnson
Political Science
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Jeffrey Taylor
Extension
Sarah Null
Watershed Sciences
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Investigating Charged Perspectives on Converting Water-Intensive Cropland to Solar Photovoltaics
The team will conduct interviews with 30 farmers to then inform a survey of 200 growers to determine whether farmers would support and implement a conversion of crop land to solar photovoltaics. More generally, they seek to understand what collaborative governance efforts growers in the Weber, Jordan, and Bear River watersheds would support.
Sarah Klain
Environment and Society
S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Stacia Ryder
Sociology and Anthropology
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Chloe Francis
Watershed Sciences
S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Brynn Watkins
Environment and Society
S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Utah Recreation Asset Database (RAD) Web Mapping System
The team will develop a web-mapping application for the state’s comprehensive outdoor recreation asset database. It will provide an intuitive interface where municipal, county, and regional governmental organizations can view, explore, and query the statewide, authoritative database of outdoor recreation assets within the state.
Jordan Smith
Environment and Society
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Chase Lamborn
Environment and Society
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Casey Trout
Environment and Society
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
UWRL Funded Grants:
Use of Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) for Aerial Drone-based Water Use Studies
The team will use SWIR data to find moisture in surface soil by extending code for new software functionality to use SWIR data for aerial drone surveys. This type of SWIR surveillance is useful to detect conditions for agriculture and managing water infrastructure, such as finding canal leakage.
Cal Coopmans
Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering
Alfonso Torres
Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Forecasting Water Use for the Western U.S.
Dr. Kulmatiski will inject tracers into the ground and analyze how various roots and plants absorb the tracers. This study will use collected data to measure how grass, forb, and woody plants grow to predict future forest response to climate change.
Andrew Kulmatiski
Wildland Resources
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Quantifying Future Decline of the Great Salt Lake’s Water Level
The team will project the water level of the Great Salt Lake in Utah based on climate model simulations of groundwater levels and water storage modeling under different scenarios.
Simon Wang
Plants, Soils, and Climate
College of Agriculture and Applied Science
Aaron Weaver
Plants, Soils, and Climate
College of Agriculture and Applied Science
The Potential of Utah’s Mountain Rock Glaciers to Buffer Streamflows and Support Biodiversity as Snowpack Declines
This research will provide data on the relevance of rock glaciers to Utah’s water supply and aquatic biodiversity, thereby informing management planning.
Scott Hotaling
Watershed Sciences
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Voluntary Incentive Policies for Saving the Great Salt Lake: A Spatially Explicit Economic Approach to Conserve Water
Dr. Li will research voluntary incentive policies for irrigated water conservation by integrating remote sensing and Earth observing products with socioeconomic data. The study will estimate landowner willingness to accept conservation payments in exchange for using irrigation based on land use and crop type.
Man Li
Plants, Soils, and Climate
College of Agriculture and Applied Science
Reducing PFAS Contaminants in Municipal Biosolids Through High Temperature Composting
The team will conduct experiments using biosolids from four wastewater treatment plants in Northern Utah to assess the effectiveness of composting mixtures on reducing PFAS concentrations. The study hopes to develop best practices in creating composting to reduce contaminants in biosolids that are used in commercial and residential agricultural settings.
Ryan DuPont
Utah Water Research Laboratory
College of Engineering
Joan McLean
Utah Water Research Laboratory
College of Engineering
2022 ILWA Impact Grant
For the inaugural year of this award, ILWA was able to fund one impact grant to study air quality in Cache Valley. This grant sponsored students at USU to complete a research project under the mentorship and guidance of a faculty expert.
Ambient Ammonia in Cache Valley
Cache Valley is known to have the highest concentration of ammonia in the nation. During winter, concentration levels increase. The study measured ammonia levels during the winter of 2022/2023 at various sites in Cache Valley to compare with previous years after large losses of poultry and livestock in 2022 due to avian influenza and drought.
Randy Martin
Civil and Environmental Engineering; Utah Water Research Laboratory
College of Engineering
Megan Lambright
Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Ian Parvin
Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Megan Wilson
Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering