Northern Arizona University

CSE's Involvement in Research

Energy
Better efficiency and new renewable energy sources are needed to help meet our nation's present and future energy needs, assist national security and reduce negative environmental impacts. CSE conducts research on the interrelations of water and energy, the use of water and energy by Arizona's farms and ranches, and ways in which NAU can improve energy efficiency and implement renewable energy initiatives (more...)

Food and Agriculture
CSE is involved in a number of projects and collaborative initiatives which focus on increasing food security and agricultural sustainability on the Colorado Plateau. While some of these projects are focused on individual communities, in many cases the vision, ideas, and practical solutions of these projects have broader implications and applications (more...)

Land Projects
CSE has revived and revamped regional efforts to document and save over sixty of the Southwest's most celebrated fruits and nuts in historic orchards. The project was begun in 1991 in Tucson as Arizona Regis-Tree by Kevin Dahl and Gary Nabhan of Native Seeds/SEARCH (more...)

Sustainable Communities
CSE's Sustainable Communities Research Program seeks to examine the effectiveness of existing community sustainability programs, identify the practices that are most effective, and train environmentalists and urban planners on how to optimize sustainability program benefits (more...)

The Erdene Initiative
Environmental Research, Development and Education for the New Economy (ERDENE) funds support innovative research, education and outreach initiatives seeking to understand, sustain or restore environmental and ecological health. ERDENE focuses on projects applicable to the real world and particularly on environmental initiatives that promise to strengthen economic well being and community viability in Arizona (more...)

Water and Drought
Hundreds of NAU-based environmental projects have as their focus water conservation, allocation and use by humans or by other species. Many of these projects are interdisciplinary, involving not only hydrologists and engineers, but groundwater geologists, riparian ecologists, political scientists, historians and environmental educators. (more...)