Activities

In the News

January 14, 2021: "How a group of Kansas ressearchers' plan to make U.S.'s rural communities more viable" in the Wichita Eagle.

December 15, 2020: KU researchers' unique microgrid technology aims to boost rural resiliency on Centered Technology News from the Midwest.

Presentations

December 15-19, 2024: AGU Fall Meeting. Five presentations: 1) Teaching Online the Shock of Being an Earth Scientist and then a Policy Maker-A Class from the NSF FEWtures Project. Hill, MC, R Wittman, A Titley, M Griesemer, M Donnellan, T Coole. 2) Using national hydrologic models to obtain regional streamflow estimates in heavily-stressed basins, as needed to evaluate climate-change induced disturbances. Bosompemaa, P, A Brookfield, SC Zipper, MC Hill. 3) FEWtures: NSF Project Exploring Agricultural Decarbonization Approaches, Economic Feasibility, and Interdisciplinary Modeling for Stakeholder Communication. Hill, MC, C Nichols, A Brookfield, SC Zipper, P Bosompemaa, H Wu, X Liu, ... 4) Exploring Green Ammonia Fertilizer for Sustainable Agriculture: An Integrated Assessment of the Impact on Food, Water, and Land Use in the United States. Nyarko, N, RW Barron, P Pfromm, MC Hill. 5) A Graph Analysis of External Faults to Improve the Resilience of Food, Energy, and Water Systems with Application to the NSF FEWtures project in the Arkansas River basin. Modarresim, A, J Symons, MC Hill, X Liu.

December 11-15, 2023: AGU Fall Meeting.Two presentations: 1) Systematic Approach to categorize Faults in a Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) system. Modarresi, A, J Symons, MC Hill. 2) Low Carbon Opportunities for Arid Agricultural Areas Impacted by Climate Change: The FEWtures Experience in the Central Arkansas River basin (CARB) with Global Interaction Evaluation using GCAM. Hill, Mary C, Robert W Barron, Peter Pfromm, Vincent Amanor-Boadu, Hongyu Wu, Lawryn Edmonds, Andrea Brookfield, Sam C Zipper, Patience Bosompemaa, Alex Modarresi, James Bloodgood, John Symons.

December 12-16, 2022: AGU Fall Meeting.Two presentations: 1) Transitioning to Low-Carbon, Productive, Prosperous Agricultural Communities: The Opportunities of Locally Powered, Locally Produced Green Ammonia. MC Hill, V Amanor-Boadu, S Stover, P Pfromm, H Wu, RW Barron. 2) Food, Energy, Water, the Environment, and Public Policy-Opportunities, Tradeoffs, and Analysis using ABM and ML. Hill, MC , P Bosompemaa, W Swanson.

October 9-12, 2022: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting.Two presentations: 1) Policy Conferences for Environmental Challenges: Role Playing to Integrate Science and Policy. Hill, M. 2) Economic Analysis for Preparedness and Adaptation: the Case of Local Green Energy and Ammonia. Hill, M, V Amanor-Boadu, O Ofori-Bah, P Pfromm, H Wu, S Stover.

May 19, 2022: EngageINFEWS Lightening Talks. Role of Stakeholder Expectations in Facilitating Stakeholder Engagement. Barron, Robert.

December 6-17, 2021: AGU Fall Meeting. FEWtures: Building Rural Economies, Reducing Carbon, and Supplying Food for the Future. Hill, Mary, Susan Stover, Vincent Amanor-Boadu, Peter Pfromm, Lawryn Edmonds, Robert Barron, Hongyu Wu, Jirapat Phetheet.

October 12, 2021: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting. Capturing Wind for Food-Energy in the High Plains. Stover, S, MC Hill.

August 19-20, 2021: Kansas State University Risk and Profit Conference. Vincent Amanor-Boadu & Catherine Obiribea Ofori-Bah presented on "Wind, Green Ammonia, and Wealth Retention: A Novel Ecoomic Viability Strategy for Small Towns and Rural Communties" during the 2021 Risk and Profit Conference at Kansas State University.

May 5, 2021: EngageINFEWS Lightening Talks. INFEWS/T2 FEWtures: Innovation analysis framework for resilient futures with applications to the Central Arkansas River Basin. Robert Barron. https://data.nkn.uidaho.edu/dataset/infewst2-fewtures-innovation-analysis-framework-resilient-futures-applications-central

February 11, 2021: Kansas Water Office Webinar. Mary Hill, Vincent Amanor-Boadu, and Susan Stover presented during the Kansas Water Office's webinar series on Economic Feasibility of Ammonia Production & Water Treatment Using Wind Energy.

January 14, 2021: Kansas Water Office Webinar. Mary Hill, Ted Peltier, and Peter Pfromm presented during the Kansas Water Office's webinar series on Farm to Regional Scale Ammonia Production, Water Treatment.

December 1-17, 2020: AGU Fall Meeting. Climate Change and Food-Energy-Water Systems in Arid Regions: Dynamics and Economics Simulated Using FEWCalc and DSSAT. Hill, MC, J Phetheet, M Rossi, V Amanor-Boadu, RW Barron

November 9-10, 2020: Kansas Water Office 2020 Governor's Conference.Mary Hill and Ted Peltier presented at the Governor's Conference sponsored by the Kansas Water Office. Mary presented on "Solutions to Declining Resources in Agriculture" and Ted presented on Treating Produced Water for Beneficial Reuse".

March 12, 2020: FEWtures Project at Kansas Legislator's breakfast.Vincent Amanor-Boadu and Susan Stover presented on the FEWtures project at a Kansas legislators breakfast sponsored by the Kansas Water Office. Seven legislators attended, and the opportunities being investigated by FEWtures were of considerable interest.

February 10, 2020: WEALTH Day Climate Hearing. Susan Stover attended the WEALTH Day Climate Hearing in Topeka, KS to present research on Water, Energy, Air, Land Transportation, and Health, to Kansas Legislators.

January 16 2020: Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) Summit.PI Mary Hill attended the Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) Policy Summit, in Topeka, with Stakeholder Advisory Group member Dorothy Barnett. CEBC was sponsored by the Climate and Energy Project (CEP). Kansas Commerce Secretary David Toland talked at an informal lunch, expressing a vision for rural Kansas that we think works well with the FEWtures program. This was followed be presentations showing how the state of Kansas lags to surrounding states in solar-friendly regulatory environment and in solar jobs (Colorado has 70,000 jobs in solar while Kansas has 7,000). Up to 10 state legislators and other political figures were in attendance.

December 9-13, 2019: AGU Fall Meeting.Two Presentations: 1) Intelligent Science for Involving Stakeholders in Making Agriculture Sustainable using Local Renewable Energy. MC Hill, RW Barron, V Amanor-Boadu, P Pfromm, H Wu, J Bloodgood, ... 2) Evaluating Use of Water and Renewable Energy in Agricultural Areas: A Coupled Simulation of DSSAT and Agent-Based Modeling. Phetheet, J, W Heger, MC Hill.

November 2019: 2019 Kansas Governor's Water Conference.PI Mary Hill attended the 2019 Kansas Governor’s Water Conference with Susan Stover, Jonathan Aguilar, Sam Zipper, and Blair Schneider in Garden City, KS and observed that talks and comments about regenerative agriculture were much more common than at previous conferences. The project staff talked briefly with FEWtures Stakeholder Advisory Group members Patty Clark and Earl Lewis. Going forward, Armando Zarco agreed to represent KWO on the FEWtures Stakeholder Advisory Group.

October 2019: Regenerative Earth Summit. PI Mary Hill attended the 2019 Regenerative Earth Summit in Boulder, CO.

September 24, 2019: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting. Using Chords, Datax, and Agent Based Modeling to Create Sustainable Agriculture with Renewable Energy. Hill, MC, V Amanor-Boadu, P Pfromm, H Wu, R Barron, AE Brookfield, ...

March 2019: Society for Applied Anthropology. Co-PI Benjamin J. Gray gave a presentation about the FEWtures project entitled "Toward Enhanced Community Sustainability with Renewable Energy Powered Water Treatment and Ammonia Production" at the Society for Applied Anthopology in Portland, OR.

FEWtures Advisory Group and USDA Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) Meetings

In addition to the news and professional conference efforts listed above, the FEWtures Project sought outside communication, advice, and guidance through regular meetings with an Advisory Group and through an invitation to participate in monthly USDA CAP project meetings. Both types of meetings were held on Zoom.

FEWtures Advisory Group Meetings

The FEWtures Advisory Group first met twice a year with Zoom meetings focused on (1) Science and (2) Stakeholders. That schedule became simpler over the course of the project. It was a learning experience for all.

Below is a list of dates when newsletters were distributed and/or Zoom meetings were held. Content from newsletters and/or presentations from selected meetings is provided using links to pdf files. Four introductory slides and lists of project and advisory group participants are available here.

  • 2024-10-17 Newsletter
  • 2023-10-19 Meeting and Newsletter. We discussed decision support options that were in the midst of what ended up being a complicated process. The final resulting applications can be viewed here.
  • 2022-10-20 Meeting and Newsletter
  • 2022-03-16 Joint Newsletter
  • 2021-10-21 Joint Meeting
  • 2021-02-18 Joint Meeting
  • 2020-10-15 Joint Meeting
  • 2020-02-20 Science Meeting
  • 2020-01-23 Stakeholder Meeting

USDA Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) Meetings

PI Mary C Hill was invited to attend the USDA CAP monthly meetings when they began in about 2020. This opportunity occurred due to her acquaintance with staff in the Ogallala Water CAP out of Colorado State University.

While the NSF FEWtures project was a factor of 4 or more smaller than most CAP projects, issues such as data management and preservation, staying on schedule, and coordinating with stakeholders were of equal importance in all of the projects involved. Staff from all projects wanted to focus to provide the most useful results possible. We had a sense of urgency because we understood the importance of agriculture and the significant difficulties being faced the farmers and their communities.

PI Hill attended about 15 meetings between April 1 2020 and the end of 2023. She led one meeting in a discussion about stakeholder efforts in the FEWtures project. Each meeting provided actionable management ideas to Dr. Hill that were much appreciated. These involved things like ideas for managing staff located remotely, data retention procedures, keeping up moral and motivation, and so on.

Thanks to Ogalla Water and USDA!