LAWR Strategic Plan 2007-2014
March 25, 2008

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The past several decades have seen unprecedented changes to the world’s vital resources and environments. As economies have expanded and populations have risen, pressures on land, air and water resources have intensified and will intensify even more in the coming decades. Fact is that much of the fate of the world will depend on the decisions we make now, shaped largely by interactions between human and environmental resource systems. Among many questions, we must ask ourselves how we will deal with continued environmental resource changes and whether we can develop a predictive understanding of human-environment interactions for the future? These (and many other) questions present fundamental challenges to scientists and managers.

It is in this context that by way of three retreats and intensive follow-up discussions over the past 3 years, the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources engaged in planning on the future of resources and environments– with particular focus on California. The strategic plan presents LAWR’s vision of the future, to better integrate its exemplary disciplinary core areas with multidisciplinary environmental teaching, research and outreach. We establish our plan of development along four of such integrated themes – climate change, environmental quality, agricultural sustainability, and landscape interfaces and processes that combined capture the core elements of LAWR while at the same time representing the strong disciplinary emphasis on hydrology, soils, and atmosphere. The aim of the strategic plan is to place LAWR in an unique position in which to attract top scientists in our research and teaching areas, meet student enrollment goals with high quality courses in a broad range of areas, and raise extramural support by increasing public awareness.

There were several factors that prompted this planning process. First, it was realized that future FTE allocations will be more determined than in the past by departmental teaching workload, as expressed by Student Faculty Ratio (SFR). Second, the increase in teaching load mandated a re-evaluation of the scope and themes of departmental research and outreach. Third, LAWR wanted to clarify its identity for the College, University and stakeholders. Finally, in the next 5 years, LAWR expects about 12 retirements (3 in CE), causing significant gaps in its core areas. This plan was developed, parallel to the CAES planning process and includes components requested for UCD academic planning purposes.

The main outcomes of the LAWR’s strategic planning efforts therefore are:

• The department has been instrumental in the creation of the new Environmental Sciences and Management (ESM) major, joining the ERS (LAWR) and EBM (ESP) majors. ESM will be an interdisciplinary major, which reflects interactions among (1) physical and chemical sciences, (2) biology and (3) social sciences. This integration is expected to create significant new opportunities, by including clearly defined and differentiated tracks in global climate change, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), watershed science, environmental management, and soil and biogeochemistry. That latter track allows a discontinued Soil Science major to retain its identity; the Atmospheric and Hydrologic Science majors will continue. Moreover, faculty agreed to maintain strong graduate programs in Atmospheric Science, Hydrology, and Soil & Biogeochemistry.
• LAWR faculty agreed to set minimum faculty teaching expectations and to define an expected teaching load. Faculty will develop a reward system to support both classes critical for the Department’s teaching programs as well as for broader educational goals.
• LAWR is expanding its high-enrollment course offerings, specifically by developing lower division service courses, for example in Science and Society (SAS). This expansion will be accomplished by reducing the frequency of course offerings of low-enrollment disciplinary classes and adhering to overall greater teaching expectations.
• LAWR identified four integrated research themes that collectively represent the research, outreach, and to some extent teaching efforts of the Department. These are: Climate Change, Environmental Quality, Landscape Interfaces and Processes, and Sustainable Agriculture. We anticipate leading/contributing to new integrated research proposals, training grants and outreach programs in these departmental core areas.
• To ensure high quality research and to attract the best graduate students, LAWR faculty support increased integration of its 3 departmental-based graduate groups of Atmospheric Science, Hydrologic Sciences and Soil & Biogeochemistry, such as by planning joint graduate student recruitment days and an annual joint LAWR seminar series.
• LAWR is committed to broadening existing outreach activities and to generating new ones. Goals are to generate greater interest, funding, and stakeholder connections. The Department has completed the hiring of an outreach coordinator to work with faculty/students/staff to facilitate and increase departmental outreach activities.
• LAWR proposed and implemented a change of its administrative governance, to move from 3 Program Vice Chairs in Soils and Biogeochemistry, Atmospheric Science, and Hydrology, to a Chair-Vice Chair administrative structure. These faculty administrators will be supported by department-wide committees that are charged with cross-program responsibilities of teaching and curriculum, research, outreach and resource management.
• LAWR will increase efficiency of technical & administrative operations and management of space and facilities. Among other recommendations, the Department will seek ways to use extramural funds to help pay for maintaining existing and expanded resources and technical staff support.
• LAWR has identified 20 new high priority faculty positions (including CE), that collectively reinforce the interdisciplinary nature of its teaching, research and outreach programs along the four integrated research themes and that also maintain important core disciplinary areas. The comprehensive FTE list represents the department’s integrated vision of the future, and presents departmental FTE needs in IR, AES and CE for the next decade. This list also considers expected retirements, program gaps, and strategic planning information of the 2007 CAES academic plan.

  These 20 high-priority FTE positions, including 5 CE, are no-growth (steady state) FTE positions in the integrated research themes of LAWR (in no priority order):

• Climate Change (CC): (1) Cloud Physics; (2) Global Climate Modeling; (3) Regional Climate Modeling; and (4) Snow Hydrology.
• Environmental Quality (EQ): (1) Air Quality, CE; (2) Nutrient Management, CE; (3) Ecosystem Biogeochemical Modeling; (4) Soil Microbial Genomics; (5) Environmental Geochemistry; (6) Regional and Agricultural Air Quality, and (7) Soil Biogeophysics.
• Sustainable Agriculture (SA): (1) Irrigation Management and Water Use Efficiency, CE; (2) Soil Chemistry; (3) Water Management and Policy, CE; (4) Rhizosphere-soil interactions; and (5) Groundwater Resources Management.
• Landscape Interfaces and Processes (LIP): (1) Landscape-scale Ecophysiology; (2) Remote Sensing, Informatics, and Ecosystem Change; (3) Basin-scale Hydrologic Modeling; and (4) Watershed Management (CE).

In addition, LAWR has prioritized 2 integrative growth positions in the areas of Climate Change Science (IR) and Water Resources (CE). At opportune times and when necessary, LAWR will prioritize additional growth positions in the other integrative cross-disciplinary themes.