Loretta Singletary is a Professor in the Departments of Extension and Economics at the University of Nevada, Reno, the University’s Interdisciplinary Outreach Liaison, and affiliate faculty in the Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences. She is also the program leader of the “Living with Drought” initiative which focuses on helping Nevada communities understand and adapt to persistent and emerging drought conditions.
Her work centers on water management under chronic water scarcity, drought, and increasing climate variability across Nevada and the western United States. Drawing on long-term engagement in Nevada’s river systems, she leads interdisciplinary, community-engaged research that integrates hydrology, economics, and governance to address complex water allocation and adaptation challenges in snow-fed arid environments.
Dr. Singletary’s research emphasizes practical strategies for improving drought resilience, including water reallocation, water markets, and adaptive water governance, as well as water reuse to enhance long-term water security. In the Walker River Basin, she evaluates water markets as a climate adaptation tool, examining how voluntary transfers can improve flexibility and support agricultural producers under increasingly constrained water supplies.
She also works with agricultural producers statewide, studying how farmers and ranchers are adapting to drought and shifting hydrologic conditions. This work spans diverse agricultural systems and scales on Tribal and non-Tribal lands and focuses on decision-making under uncertainty, barriers to adaptation, and strategies for sustaining production under water-limited conditions.
In the Truckee–Carson River System, Dr. Singletary leads collaborative modeling efforts that integrate hydrologic and institutional analysis to evaluate how water allocation systems perform under pervasive drought conditions. These efforts inform adaptation strategies that reflect both physical water availability and the social and economic realities of diverse, competing water uses.
Additional work in the Humboldt River Basin examines how rural communities are responding to overlapping stressors of drought, heat, and wildfire, while related efforts advance decentralized water reuse systems to support communities facing chronic water scarcity. She also leads initiatives focused on Indigenous water and land stewardship, with an emphasis on sustainable agriculture and climate resilience on Tribal lands.
Across all programs - including Living with Drought - Dr. Singletary emphasizes collaborative, place-based approaches that connect science, stakeholder engagement, and policy-relevant solutions, with the goal of strengthening water resilience in Nevada’s increasingly water-limited landscapes.
Integrated Research and Extension Programs
Where We Live (W2L): Local, Place-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Rural Communities
The Where We Live (W2L) project is a three-state research collaboration led by the University of Idaho, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of South Carolina, supported by the National Science Foundation (EPSCoR RII Track-2 FEC; $6M total, including $1.77M to UNR). Learn more at Where We Live project website.
W2L focuses on how underserved rural communities are responding to the growing pressures of drought, extreme heat, and wildfire. Although these communities make up the majority of U.S. land area, they often have fewer resources to adapt - despite their critical role in supporting food systems, water supplies, energy production, and natural ecosystems.
In Nevada, the project centers on the Humboldt River Basin, where climate impacts are becoming more pronounced. Researchers are working to understand how communities are experiencing and responding to these changes on the ground. At the same time, the team is conducting a statewide assessment of agricultural producers to examine how farmers and ranchers are adapting specifically to drought and shifting water availability.
What sets W2L apart is its emphasis on connecting environmental change with human experience. The project combines measurements of climate and environmental risk with research on how people perceive and respond to those risks. By partnering directly with local, state, Tribal, and federal organizations—and working closely with rural residents—the team is co-developing adaptation strategies that are grounded in local knowledge and conditions.
This integrated approach helps reveal how perceptions influence decision-making and, ultimately, how communities take action. The goal is to identify practical, place-based solutions that strengthen resilience, improve risk management, and support long-term adaptation in rural Nevada and similar regions. In doing so, W2L advances not only scientific understanding, but also the partnerships and tools communities need to navigate a changing climate.
Mobile Energy–Water Reuse Systems (MEWRS)
Empowering Community Resilience with Sustainable Energy and Water Reuse Systems
Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation through the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement–Focused Collaborations program ($6M total; $1.7M to the University of Nevada, Reno), MEWRS is a multi-institutional collaboration led by Louisiana Tech University, Jackson State University, and the University of Nevada, Reno.
MEWRS is designed to address a growing reality in many rural areas: chronic water scarcity and intensifying drought, coupled with limited or unreliable infrastructure. Instead of relying on centralized systems or distant water sources, the project is developing mobile, self-contained units that can produce safe drinking water and energy on-site. By turning locally available and reused water into a reliable supply—and powering treatment with renewable energy—these systems offer a practical, drought-resilient alternative for communities facing uncertain water futures.
At its core, MEWRS rethinks how water and energy are delivered. The systems integrate advanced treatment technologies with off-grid renewable energy, allowing them to operate independently and be deployed where they are needed most. This decentralized approach is particularly valuable in regions where water availability is highly variable and traditional infrastructure cannot keep pace with changing conditions.
In Nevada, the project is grounded in direct engagement with rural communities. Through focus groups held across the state and a statewide survey of water and wastewater operators, the team is identifying the most pressing water quality concerns, understanding current management practices, and assessing willingness to adopt water reuse technologies. These insights are shaping the design of MEWRS to ensure it reflects real-world constraints, priorities, and opportunities—not just technical innovation.
The project also advances new approaches in water treatment and energy integration, including the use of nanomaterials and electrochemical processes, while working closely with communities to co-develop systems that are practical and scalable. By pairing scientific innovation with community input, MEWRS aims to expand reliable water access, reduce vulnerability to long-term shortages, and support more resilient rural systems.
Ultimately, MEWRS positions water reuse as a central strategy for adapting to drought, offering a flexible and deployable solution for communities facing persistent water scarcity in Nevada and beyond.
Drought Communications: Living with Drought
This USDA NIFA Smith-Lever Special Needs-funded ($92,606), Improving Drought Communications program, focuses on improving how drought information is developed, shared, and used by decision-makers across Nevada’s agricultural and rural communities. These funds have been used to target improvements to the Extension Living with Drought initiative and its supporting website Living with Drought.. The website has been updated to provide current drought information resources, including monthly updates from the U.S. Drought Monitor, links to interrelated integrated research and extension programs and publications – including Extension fact sheets, special publications, and audiovisual materials. USDA NIFA Smith-Lever Capacity Building formula funds also assist in supporting this statewide initiative. Recent accomplishments include: focus groups conducted with Tribal Nations in Nevada to assess drought information planning needs; audio visual materials filmed in the Walker River Basin tackling water scarcity and food security challenges, produced in collaboration with the UNR Reynolds School of Journalism; and in-person presentations on drought resiliency to key agricultural, water management, and rural community stakeholder groups statewide.
Building on long-standing Extension partnerships, Living with Drought translates complex climate, hydrologic, and water supply data into clear, timely, and actionable information that supports on-the-ground decision-making during periods of water scarcity. A key emphasis is strengthening two-way communication between researchers, water managers, and producers so that drought messaging reflects both scientific forecasts and local experience with conditions in the field. The program also evaluates how drought information influences management decisions, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of communication strategies that support adaptation to increasingly variable water supplies across Nevada’s river basins.
Evaluating Alternative Water Institution Performance: Are Food Production Systems at Risk from Changing Water Availability?
This USDA-NIFA–funded project ($4.9M) brings together researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno and partner institutions across the West to better understand how changing water availability is reshaping agriculture. Learn more at SNOWPACS project page.
Across the Intermountain West, declining snowpack and earlier runoff are making water supplies more variable and less predictable. For agricultural producers, this creates real uncertainty about when water will be available during the growing season—and whether it will arrive when crops need it most. This project examines how well existing water management systems can adapt to these shifts and what the implications are for long-term food production and rural economies. Learn about the project’s collaborative research framework here: SNOWPACS project overview video.
A central focus is the role of water markets as a flexible tool for adapting to variability. As water becomes less predictable, markets can help reallocate water through voluntary transfers, moving it to where and when it is most needed—particularly during critical periods for irrigation. In this way, water markets offer a mechanism to reduce shortages, ease constraints on farm decision-making, and improve the overall efficiency and resilience of water use. Learn more about water markets here: Water Markets of the Walker River Basin video.
To understand how these systems perform, the project integrates hydrologic modeling with economic and institutional analysis, while working closely with farmers, water managers, and policymakers. This collaborative approach allows the team to evaluate how different water allocation strategies—including market-based approaches—function under real-world conditions and future climate scenarios.
By combining science, policy, and stakeholder input, the project aims to identify practical, scalable solutions that support agriculture in a more uncertain water future. Ultimately, it advances the use of water markets and improved water governance as key strategies for sustaining food production in the face of increasing climate variability.
Water for Agriculture Challenge Area: Enhancing the Climate Resiliency of Native American Water and Land Resources (USDA-NIFA, $4.5m) in collaboration with Desert Research Institute, University of Arizona, Utah State University, and First Americans Land Grant Consortium. https://nativewaters-aridlands.com/
Enhancing the climate resiliency of agricultural water resources on reservation lands of the Great Basin and Southwestern US is threatened by the risk of prolonged drought and flash floods and projected declines in surface and groundwater supplies. Native American tribes on arid lands are especially vulnerable to climate change due to marginal soils, geographic isolation, and ongoing challenges to quantify agricultural water rights. Research and extension experts from 1862 and 1994 land grant institutions partner with tribal communities to assess the impacts of climate change on future water supplies, identify barriers and solutions, and evaluate and prioritize actions to enhance the climate resiliency of tribal agricultural water resources and food systems. A participatory research approach ensures that the local knowledge and perspectives of tribal communities remain at the forefront of the project, providing for social learning while protecting Native American cultural traditions and sensitive information. The project goals are to identify and address science information needs to support tribes in efforts to sustain or adopt innovative strategies to enhance the climate resilience of agricultural water resources and food systems as well as to support tribal college efforts to strengthen teaching, research, and outreach expertise on reservation lands.
Water Sustainability in Snow-Fed Arid Land River System: (NSF-USDA, $3.8m) in collaboration with Desert Research Institute and U.S. Geological Survey. http://waterfortheseasons.com/
Assessing and enhancing the climate resilience of snow-fed river dependent communities in the arid western United States has taken on critical importance in response to changing climatic conditions. Assessing climate resiliency involves understanding the extent to which snow-fed dependent communities can absorb climate induced variable water supplies while identifying viable adaptation strategies. Participatory research approaches, such as collaborative modeling, are well suited in this context because they are intended to draw upon local stakeholders' knowledge and their diverse, often competing, perspectives to inform science research. A key feature of this program is the collaborative modeling research design, engaging diverse water use communities to address complex public issues surrounding variable water supply, including pervasive drought conditions, water policy, and climate adaptation.
Addressing Human Health Impacts from Emerging Contaminants in Reclaimed Water to Enhance its Use for Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (USDA-NIFA, $499k)
The main goal of this project is to integrate research, education, and extension to identify, minimize, and mitigate human health impacts from emerging contaminants in reclaimed water, potentially enhancing its use for urban and peri-urban irrigated agriculture. The research team conducts basic research to: identify chemical contaminants in reclaimed water used for urban and peri-urban irrigated agriculture; determines pathways of contaminant entrainment into agricultural products; determines associated human health risks; and develop strategies for mitigation of those risks over the agricultural production chain, particularly focusing on reclaimed water production and point-of-use. Research results are used to enhance the decision-making capacity of: agricultural producers concerning the benefits and risks associated with reclaimed water use; water reclamation facility and water utility staff about the potential risks and mitigation needs and methods to improve suitability of reclaimed water for use in irrigated agricultural production; and affected stakeholder communities and policy makers about the feasibility and benefits/risks of using reclaimed water resources for irrigated agriculture.
