Division: Special Sessions

Title: Symposium--the Grand Challenge – Water: Food, Energy and Environmental Security

Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor: SSSA Division: Soil and Water Management and Conservation, ASA Section: Land Management and Conservation, SSSA Division: Soils and Environmental Quality
Community Cosponsor: Nutrients and Environmental Quality Community, Soil and Water Management Professionals Community
Format: Oral Symposium
Keywords: Energy, Environment, Food and Water

Session Description: This proposal is for the development of the 17^th Annual SWCS-SSSA Joint Symposium which would be held at the 2016 SWCS and SSSA annual meetings. Food, energy and environment are inextricably linked by water and that actions in one area more often than not have impacts in one or both of the others. Improved food, energy and environmental security can be achieved through approaches that integrate management and policy sectors and scales. This symposium will explore how challenges and opportunities related to water supply and water quality intersect with meeting future food, energy and environment goals. This symposium will explore how systems science can provide sound solutions and multiple options for decision making by producers, manufactures, consumers and those involved in conservation professions. Invited presentations will include contemporary and visionary addresses on the connectivity between water and future food, energy and environmental security. A series of six, 30 minute presentations will include various perspectives on Water for food, energy and environmental security. This joint symposium will continue the tradition of cooperation between the two societies and will help create opportunities to disseminate information regarding solutions to new opportunities in soil and water management and conservation.