Carrying Water for his Community Carlee McClellan, Navajo Nation
Carlee McClellan, senior hydrologist for the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources. Credit: Rebecca McClellan Water is a crucial resource for the Navajo Nation, which spans some of the driest states in the U.S. – Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Sparse infrastructure leaves more than 40 percent of Navajo households without running water. That makes Carlee McClellan's job critical. Born and raised Navajo, McClellan is the senior hydrologist for the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources. He's working with NASA's Earth Applied Sciences Program to include NASA Earth observations in the Nation's water decision making. Called the Drought Severity Evaluation Tool, this user-friendly web application combines many datasets such as precipitation and temperature from NASA satellites with drought metrics from models and ground-based rain measurements. It's a high-tech, space-based way to monitor the Nation's resources for drinking water and irrigation – and McClellan says working with NASA data is just one of the many...