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New IWIRI director seeks stakeholder‑driven research and water data integration
Summary
Kendra Kiser, director of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, outlined a renewed IWIRI focus on stakeholder engagement, an advisory structure and data‑integration tools to support streamflow forecasting and other water research across Idaho.
Kendra Kiser, the new director of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWIRI), told the House Agricultural Affairs Committee the institute is rebuilding capacity to plan and coordinate water research, support workforce development and disseminate results to communities across Idaho.
"The Water Resources Research Institutes were established by an act of Congress in 1964," Kendra Kiser said, describing IWIRI’s federal origin and land‑grant alignment. She said the institute is reconstituting an executive board and a research advisory committee with representatives from state and federal agencies, industry, irrigation districts and nonprofit organizations to identify statewide research priorities.
Kiser described recent IWIRI work and priorities: stakeholder engagement across diverse Idaho geographies, development of streamflow‑forecasting tools for the Big Wood watershed (a project with Bureau of Reclamation funding), and efforts to bring disparate datasets together so users do not have to consult multiple agency websites. She said IWIRI has a Boise‑based director and staff in Coeur d'Alene, and that the institute aims to host tools and data on a public website.
Kiser told the committee IWIRI tried to secure National Science Foundation funding to support water‑data integration in the Treasure Valley and is continuing to pursue similar opportunities. She emphasized that funding for pure data integration is difficult to obtain, but said integrated data are critical for faster, more effective research and decision making: "Once we have integrated water data, then all of the other research projects that we need to do across the state will be that much easier to do because we won't be spending 9 months trying to combine data." Representative Sautner and others praised the institute’s engagement on lake‑level and aquifer issues.
The presentation listed partners and potential collaborators including Ada County, the Treasure Valley Water Users Association, the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee and the Lakes Commission. Kiser said IWIRI intends to publish tools and underlying data on its website and continue building its advisory structure to set research priorities.
