Our mission is to promote and facilitate the development of cutting edge, stakeholder-relevant, water-related basic research projects, focused on integrating the Univeristy of Arizona's disciplinary strengths in hydrological, ecological, and physical sciences.  SAHRA accomplishes this mission by: Integrating disciplinary research; Serving as an incubator for new ideas; Fostering synthesis within and among disciplines.

Many of the critical questions in Earth system science focus on how the cycling and availability of water interacts with, and is controlled by, physical, ecological, and chemical processes. Research projects within and arising from SAHRA typically: Focus on basic research on the water cycle within the Earth system; Include researchers from multiple departments and colleges; Address high-profile, research questions of critical importance to the State of Arizona, the southwest in general, and the nation as a whole. Since 2009 SAHRA has served as the springboard for over $15 million in current non-STC-funded research efforts.  Details for many of these projects can be found on our research pages.

SAHRA originated in 2000 as a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center funded to identify critical stakeholder-relevant knowledge gaps and conduct basin-focused multidisciplinary research to fill them and to convey what is known and what is being learned to improve water management and policy.  The center, based at the University of Arizona, included the partnership of over 100 other institutions, trained 222 graduate students, published over 450 peer reviewed papers and 27 books, developed novel hydrological models, and established unique capabilities in science-stakeholder engagement.

The original SAHRA webpages can be found here.