The State of the System Report is a compilation of the physical inventory and status of the Maricopa County Department of Transportation’s infrastructure. It addresses roadway congestion, traffic safety, low volume road paving, bridges, and pavement conditions. Also, included are recommendations for future improvements within each of the infrastructure categories. The SOS report has been produced annually since 1998.

Presents results of a 2010 survey aimed at understanding water resource and land use planning. First it explores how professional views about water resource stressors and management strategies converge and diverge among water resource managers and land use planners. Second, it examines the degree to which water managers and land planners are engaging in integrated planning.

The Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University—funded by the National Science Foundation since 2004—conducts research relevant to water resources and urban climate dynamics under multiple uncertainties. This report summarizes and synthesizes research findings and achievements of DCDC after almost a decade of research and science-policy interactions. Water resource decision-making is complicated by climate change and variability, population growth and economic development, diverse stakeholder interests and fragmented governance. While these factors generate various uncertainties and complexities for decision-makers, DCDC pursues research to create a more sustainable future. The DCDC contributes to water management and urban sustainability by conducting basic science and collaborating with policymakers and stakeholders to solve real-world problems. As detailed herein, DCDC research, education, and community outreach have made substantial contributions to improving water-resource governance and climate adaptation.

The 2009 Navajo Nation Long Range Transportation Plan is a twenty-year comprehensive plan developed and updated by the Navajo Division of Transportation in a five-year cycle. The plan identifies the Nation’s multi-modal transportation needs over the next 20 years and develops strategies to meet them. The plan provides long range planning policies and implementation strategies for the Navajo Indian Reservation Roads Program improvements. It is based on a comprehensive analysis of all pertinent factors and issues affecting the Navajo Nation’s existing and future transportation needs.

The research presented here documents institutional and organizational factors affecting fire management on tribal lands. Two case studies of fires occurring on tribal lands in Arizona provide insights into how these factors converged to influence the course of events. This study considers historic as well as current conditions and events because these affect whether or not people are receptive to information, to planning, and to working together. Though it focuses on decision making within tribes and agencies responsible for tribal lands, its findings are relevant for other locations as well.

Tribes have a direct government-to-government relationship with the U.S. government wherein no decisions about their lands and people are made without their consent. In Arizona, for example, American Indian reservations occupy nearly 30 percent of the land. Native Americans have a legal and moral claim to significant quantities of water as well. Because of their special legal standing in the United States, tribes are not just another group of stakeholders to be considered in the research and policy process. The purpose of this paper is to provide a legal and political background for interactions between the United States and tribal governments and provide models for those interactions, with special attention to research and outreach.