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The Idaho Water Center -- Idaho’s center of collaboration among government, business and higher education, is dedicated to research, scholarship and service to Idaho and the nation.
With a unique focus on stewardship, policy and research related to Idaho’s critical water and other natural resources, the Idaho Water Center advances our knowledge of water and energy conservation and the importance of sustaining our economy and ecosystems.
The Idaho Water Center is the primary base of the University of Idaho Boise and the University’s unique collaborative research and programs focusing on river and water quality issues. The University of Idaho Boise also offers select programs in architecture, education, engineering and law. Specialized University of Idaho research units in Boise include:
- Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI)
- Center for Ecohydraulics Research (CER)
- Idaho Urban Research Design Center (IURDC)
- Integrated Design Laboratory (IDL)
- Idaho Geological Survey (IGS)
- National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology (NIATT)
Joining the University of Idaho in the Idaho Water Center are:
- Idaho Department of Water Resources and its Division of Energy
- USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station
- CH2M Hill, Engineers and Planners
- Idaho State University Geosciences
Idaho Water Center – Sustainable Design
The Idaho Water Center is a 215,000-square-foot, six-story, pre-cast concrete and glass office, classroom and laboratory building that includes a world-class River Simulation laboratory. The “green” building design incorporates environmental features that help conserve water and energy.
- The building is heated with geothermal water from the City of Boise’s geothermal utility system - hot water is processed through a heat exchanger and is returned to the city system, eliminating the need for a supplemental heat source.
- The building is cooled by an electric chiller. The Idaho Water Center has two groundwater production wells and two separate injection wells. Water is pumped from a shallow aquifer, routed through the chiller to absorb the waste heat and then is returned to the aquifer eliminating the need for a cooling tower.
- All levels of the building above the ground floor have 18” raised floors providing the plenum distributing conditioned air through floor diffusers. •
- Energy-efficient (high performance) glass reduces the amount of solar gain while allowing ample daylight in to minimize electric lighting energy consumption. Additional efforts are made to reduce solar heat gain by use of fritted glass and exterior shading elements. These shading efforts reduce the peak demand for space cooling and energy use in the summer.
- The electric lighting is high quality indirect-direct lineal fluorescent with motion sensors to turn lights out when spaces are not occupied.
- The Idaho Water Center’s courtyard utilizes drought-resistant plants that conserve water.
The University of Idaho Boise – Idaho’s premier integrated professional development and graduate center serving as the Treasure Valley’s gateway to the world of University of Idaho services and intellectual resources.
Center Research Facilities
Students are offered hands-on opportunities to work with world renowned scientists in state-of-the-art facilities:
- The Center for Ecohydraulics and its partners use a high elevation hydraulic flume to simulate the active dynamics of the geomorphology of steep mountain rivers.
- The Hydroinformatics Computational Laboratory employs advanced computational and mapping equipment.
- The Field Technology Laboratory has state-of-the art hydrologic field data collection equipment. Its uses include manufacturing and development of customized field. equipment such as samplers of sediment and water quality.
- The Sediment Processing Room houses a drying oven that dries stream sediment and sieves that analyze the particle sizes. Analyzing and classifying sediment gives understanding of the sediment delivery, erosion and deposition along streams.
- Multi-media equipped classrooms and seminar rooms situated throughout the Idaho Water Center. All have advanced technical capabilities. Some also have enhanced distance learning capabilities.
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