In Spring 2025, a passionate and energized team of graduate students from Arizona State University’s Master of Urban and Environmental Planning (MUEP) program participated in a Planning Workshop dedicated to the Rio Reimagined (RIO) Rivershed Asset Mapping project. Working with members of the Rio Reimagined partnership, the student team developed a draft asset map to support regional planning efforts along the Salt and Gila River corridor. Spanning 55 miles and encompassing six municipalities, two Native Nations, and Maricopa County, this urban geography project bridged academic theory with real-world application in GIS, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable planning.

In 2023, a graduate student of the ASU CAP-LTER program conducted a field inventory of select ‘biodiversity hotspots’ of the Salt River to understand the plant and animal life living in the river in the face of rapid urbanization.  Partnering with Estrella Mountain Community College, Audubon Southwest, and volunteer naturalists from the community, ASU students created a bird, reptile, amphibian, mammal and plant species list where the Rio Salado has water year-round.  The work included documentation of a a rare native pollinator plant (Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis) in the shadow of the Priest Drive bridge!  ASU’s Desert Humanities Initiative supported adaptation of the study’s plant data into a hand-printed zine that can be used as an introductory field guide to the plant community of urban Sonoran rivers.

An interdisciplinary ASU graduate student team spanning ecology, sociology, philosophy, the arts, Indigenous and community created ‘Living Lands’, a free, print-and-play board game that brings university scholarship into the community.  Through the ESSA scholar network (Earth Systems Science for the Anthropocene), the game provides an interactive exploration of the ‘Onk Akimel (Salt River). Players take on the roles of local critters such as red-spotted toads, great-tailed grackles, or coyotes, each with unique abilities, and must work together to survive while navigating environmental events like floods and dams. The game expands Western narratives and fosters a sense of kinship with the river and land.