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 Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University was established in 2004 with funding from the National Science Foundation to advance the scientific understanding of environmental decision making under uncertainty. With additional funding awarded by NSF in 2010, "DCDC II" has expanded its already extensive research agenda, engaged the policy-making community, and built stronger ties between scientific knowledge and decision making enterprises. New DCDC research has developed fundamental knowledge about decision making under uncertainty from three interdisciplinary perspectives: climate impacts, urban dynamics, and adaptation decisions. Simulation modeling and boundary organization studies cut across these themes and are a core component of DCDC activities.

DCDC is focused on developing, implementing, and studying an interdisciplinary decision-support process for environmental decision making based on principles derived from social science research. Through an integrated approach to research, education, and community and institutional outreach, DCDC is training a new generation of scientists who can work successfully at the boundaries of science and policy. Broader impacts are realized as research informs innovative solutions to society’s pressing environmental challenges. To accomplish these goals, DCDC has built a dynamic bridge between ASU and local, regional, and national policy communities to foster local to-global solutions for water sustainability and urban climate adaptation.

Prior to developing and approving new ordinances that would further regulate sex- offender distance restrictions and clustering, the Phoenix City Council approved a study to examine the nature and impact of sex-offender clustering. Their overall goal was to use the study to fill in some important knowledge gaps about the issue of sex-offender residential clustering in order to inform the development of effective policy. To examine this issue on behalf of the city council, we relied on a multi-methodological research design. We wanted to incorporate information from several different points of view, giving policy makers a more comprehensive perspective from which to inform their decision making. For this study, we relied on four resources: official police data, offender interview data, citizen survey data, and key stakeholder interview data.

This Campaign Effectiveness Study, conducted for the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, was designed to evaluate the specific effectiveness of the 2013-2014 Clean Air and Clean Stormwater Program Campaigns. This project analyzed and tracked the overall effectiveness of the Clean Air Program after 24 campaign sessions. For the second consecutive year, the survey also measured and tracked attitudes, knowledge, awareness, and behaviors related to stormwater management for the Clean Stormwater Program Campaign.

This Campaign Effectiveness Travel Behavioral Study, conducted for the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, was designed to evaluate the specific effectiveness of the 2012-2013 Clean Air Campaign, as well as analyze the overall effectiveness of the air quality media campaign after 23 campaign sessions. New to the current study, the survey also measured baseline awareness/knowledge related to storm water and hazardous waste issues.

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Program has been in existence since the 1997 Pima County bond election established General Obligation Bond funding for construction of small scale capital improvement projects to be selected through a neighborhood consensus process. Specific projects are recommended by the citizen committees to the Board of Supervisors for final approval.

The Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison (DTAP) Program enables drug addicted criminal defendants to plead guilty to an offense and then enter a residential, therapeutic community treatment system for three years as an alternative to a prison sentence. The Program begins with three months of in-patient, residential drug treatment followed by wraparound recovery support services managed by a resources specialist, including transitional housing, literacy services, higher education, job training and placement services, and counseling, accompanied by drug testing, probation monitoring, and regular court hearings.

The purpose of this Pima County roadway project is to improve operations on Colossal Cave Road within the project limits while being sensitive to the surrounding environmental features and land uses. Potential impacts of the project are on the historic adobe building; the historic Shrine of the Santa Rita property during construction on biological resources, utilities, access, traffic operations, noise, and air quality.