About SWES
Statement of Mission and Goals
The Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science (SWES), with comprehensive expertise in Environmental and Soil Sciences, is and will continue to be an invaluable resource for Arizona in the areas of water quality and sustainable land and water management. It is our central mission to provide:- Training and education
in the area of critical zone science to the future generation of scientists, land and water resource managers, engineers, and policy makers.
- Relevant
and innovative information to aid in sustainable management and decision-making
of our increasingly stressed land (soil) and water supplies.
- Technical expertise for addressing critical zone and water quality issues in rural (agriculture), urban centers. and the rapidly changing interfaces between them.
Critical zone science and water quality, along with their relation to sustainable land (soil) and water management, will continue to be the primary focal areas for training, research, and service/extension/outreach activities of the Department.
The Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science is to supports training, research, service, and extension/outreach in the broad area of soil, water and environmental science. The faculty and staff are dedicated to establishing and maintaining excellence in all four of these endeavors.
- The goal of our education and training program is to produce graduates that have the necessary skills and knowledge to address issues associated with abiotic-biotic interactions within the Earth’s near surface environment (e.g., biogeochemistry, agriculture, land (soil) and water use, waste management, etc.) and interaction across the soil-atmosphere interface.
- The goals of our research activities are to produce new knowledge in environmental science and relevant fields of study and to develop a better understanding of abiotic-biotic interactions within the Earth’s Critical Zone.
- The goal
of our service and extension/outreach activities is to provide support
and information in relevant areas to the citizens of the state of Arizona,
and to other interested parties (government agencies, industry, other
scientists).
The SWES Department addresses the management of soil and water resources primarily in the context of terrestrial ecosystems and their sustainable management with good land and water stewardship. These ecosystems include agricultural, urban, industrial and native systems. Critical zone science encompasses the breadth of the programs in the SWES Department. The Department integrates fundamental physical, chemical, and biological science with an understanding of managed terrestrial ecosystems and strives to bring science to bear on practical problems and issues in a sustainable manner.
Programs in the SWES Department are primarily oriented toward two areas:
Critical Zone Science The critical zone is the “heterogeneous, near surface environment in which complex interactions involving rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms regulate the natural habitat and determine the availability of life-sustaining resources” (NRC, 2001). The critical zone, the most heterogeneous portion of the Earth, includes the land surface, vegetation, and water bodies, and extends through the pedosphere, unsaturated vadose zone, and saturated groundwater zone.
Water Quality (urban, industrial, and agricultural)
The programs are designed to integrate theory with practical applications, and to synthesize cutting-edge research with basic knowledge.
An issue key to the continuing growth and prosperity of Arizona is water quality. Water is a limited resource throughout the State and management of this precious resource is increasingly governed by issues such as groundwater contamination from agricultural and industrial sources and wastewater reuse. This Department, with strong focal areas in Environmental and Soil Sciences, is and will continue to be a key resource for the State in the area of water quality.
last updated 03/2009