Resilient Rural Water Systems Intern

Organization: Climate Impacts Group (CIG)

Available Internship Positions: 1

Total Hours: 35 (30 hours per week with the CIG and 5 hours per week with the EarthLab cohort)

Total Summer Stipend: $6,930 disbursed over the 9-week internship plus a one-time $180 transportation stipend

Location: Internship Activities: Hybrid – In-office days are typically Mon/Wed, but remote days would also be fine.

Cohort Meetings: In-person and required every Tuesday at the EarthLab Office located in Condon Hall

About Host Organization: The University of Washington Climate Impacts Group (CIG) builds climate resilience by advancing understanding of climate risks & enabling science-based action to manage those risks. We are widely recognized for scientific discovery, as an experienced creator of impartial & actionable science and as a catalyst for building regional climate resilience. This position would be a collaboration between CIG and Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), a non-profit that partners with underserved rural and Indigenous communities to achieve their vision and well-being through technical assistance, training, financial resources and advocacy.

Tasks and Activities: Rural water systems are often impacted first and worst by extreme events and climate change while also often having fewer resources to plan for and manage these impacts. RCAC provides technical assistance (TA) to rural and Tribal communities across thirteen western states in a variety of areas, including the planning, operation, and maintenance of water systems. As part of this process, RCAC staff collect data on the types of technical assistance communities are requesting and various aspects of their technical, managerial, and financial capacity. In this project, the intern will be working with CIG and RCAC staff to analyze a subset of the data collected by RCAC to better understand more about the types of technical assistance water systems are requesting related to climate resilience and/or source water protection.

Tasks include completing:

• Background reading on rural water systems
• Preliminary analysis of a subset of RCAC technical assistance data
• Production of summary figures/tables sharing key findings
• Short report/document summarizing key findings and next steps

The intern in this position will contribute to analysis of RCAC’s rural water system technical assistance data and provide short report summarizing methods, key findings, and recommended next steps.

Takeaways: The intern in this position will:

• Gain a deeper understanding of climate-related challenges and adaptation strategies in rural water systems in the western US both practically and through the data analysis and GIS skills they develop through this position
• Build their skills in writing and synthesis, summarizing key findings, and making recommendations for future work in a short report.

The Candidate best suited for this position: Required:

• Exposure to water systems, infrastructure, and/or planning related topics (e.g., hydrology, civil/environmental engineering, water management, water quality, environmental science, planning)
• Basic data analysis skills

Preferred:

• Basic GIS skills
• Experience cleaning/working with messy real-world data
• Experience with exploratory data analysis