From Promise to Practice: Supporting Transboundary Co-Creation in Water Action Science Across Borders

Transdisciplinary water research is widely promoted as essential for addressing climate adaptation challenges, yet many projects fall short of intended goals or impact,  despite strong commitment to collaboration. This presentation examines how the structure and design of research projects shape whether co-creation succeeds or fails, drawing on applied projects across Arizona, the Sonoran Desert, and Baja California spanning the United States and Mexico focused on arid, coastal, and marine systems, including surface water and groundwater, and their implications for rural water availability and climate adaptation. Beyond commonly cited co-creation challenges such as timelines and funding constraints, these efforts reveal less-discussed barriers related to rural–urban differences, cross-border and international coordination, mismatched governance scales, and uneven capacity to engage with scientific and technical processes. Rather than proposing a universal framework, we use these experiences to surface broader patterns that recur across transdisciplinary water research, emphasizing where communication structures, design, and governance choices most strongly influence the translation of knowledge into practice. We share strategies that researchers can adopt to strengthen co-creation and improve the translation of climate-relevant water research with diverse partners (e.g., elected officials, local community members, resource managers) for adaptive decision-making.