5.3.1. Immediate Infrastructure Benefit

The Bonanza project has resulted in immediate and longer-term benefits to the community of Zurite. Over the two years of the program, we collaborated with the municipal government, Farmer's Union, and Water Users' Commission in Zurite to negotiate, plan, and execute a USD 71,283 canal development project. Our monetary contribution to the project, funded by Geoscientists Without Borders, totaled USD 20,000. We advised student researchers, in collaboration with Zurite's engineers, in designing the canals. In March 2020, the community of Zurite finished building the 1.3 km of irrigation canals (Figure 7). These canals extended the irrigation system, to provide water to and boost the crop yield of land owned and farmed by over 100 families.

5.3.2. Benefits of Knowledge Coproduction: Identification of the Risks and Opportunities of Current Water Resources and Irrigation Practices

Two examples illustrate our inclusive approach to knowledge coproduction, the learning that occurs in both directions, and the initial steps we have taken to develop an ILEK with the community. First, we learned of the principal concerns within the

community through discussions with Zuriteños. An elder related, "We are worried about climate change and we want our children to as well ... we think the educational aspect is the only way that we will have sustainable development in our communities." We agree that education and local training can directly contribute to the ILEK necessary for sustainable water management. As the elder expressed, younger generations are viewed as the inheritors of the land who, one day, will assume positions of authority and responsibility. Through our conversations with the community, we have gained a deeper knowledge of the issues at hand, and we are better positioned to work collaboratively to produce, share, and use knowledge [64].

**Figure 6.** (**a**) A modern concrete canal with control gates adjacent to an earthen canal. (**b**) Destruction to concrete canal following March 2019 debris flow.

**Figure 7.** The left panel shows the area of canal improvements (green-shaded area of Figure 4). Circles show the extent of the irrigation canal network, with the blue square indicating the location of a surface reservoir that regulates flow to the canals. The blue line shows canals constructed by the community prior to 2018. The yellow line shows the extent of the 1.3 km of canals built through the Geoscientists Without Borders-funded Bonanza collaboration with the community of Zurite. The entire project totaled USD 71,283 and GWB's contribution was USD 20,000. The photograph on the right shows the early phases of construction in fall 2019.

We interpreted the elder's comment as a need for bottom-up approaches to building local capacity through training and the coproduction of knowledge to form an ILEK. Our response to this comment was to train locals in basic hydrological monitoring. Although in their early stages, these training initiatives have boosted the local capacity to monitor local water resources and inform water management.

Second, our fieldwork in the URW, one vertical kilometer above Zurite and a 50-minute car ride, or approximately a 4-h walk, provided an opportunity for local representatives to see their local water source. The remoteness of the URW disconnects Zurite's primary water source from the community. Tomás Ruiz <sup>L</sup>ópez, the Community President of Zurite, remarked in 2019 that he had not seen the bofedales of the URW in twenty years. By working alongside our research team, Sr. Ruiz <sup>L</sup>ópez and other representatives from the community have gained a new perspective and ILEK that will inform land managemen<sup>t</sup> decisions in the community.

In order to disseminate our scientific findings on the importance of bofedales, and our recommendations for land conservation, we have written a progress report (2020), with a final report due in 2021, and we have presented our findings at two town hall meetings (2019 and 2020) and at a virtual symposium (2021). Our inclusion of community concerns in our reports, and our willingness to contribute our knowledge to ILEK in Zurite builds trust, and also leads to adaptive capacity and enhanced resiliency (see, e.g., [76,77]). The developing ILEK of our collaborative coproduction of knowledge identifies the risks of climate change-induced precipitation volatility, inefficient irrigation practices and limited water storage, frequent disruptions to infrastructure, and the opportunities of naturebased solutions (see, e.g., [10]), focusing on bofedal conservation or the introduction and expansion of more efficient irrigation practices, such as sprinkler irrigation.

We are currently working with the community to design and install up to ten sprinkler systems with flexible, replaceable, and relatively cheap parts. These sprinklers will connect to the existing canal network to increase water use efficiency, thus decreasing the total water demand on water resources from the URW building resiliency through adaptive water management. The presence of the sprinkler systems may also serve as a training model for neighboring communities and thus transfer resiliency beyond the community of Zurite.

### *5.4. Impacts on Student Participants*

We used qualitative student commentaries to assess the benefits of knowledge coproduction on participating students. In particular, we focus on the high-impact practices of embedding our program in academic coursework [56], and increased self-confidence to pursue future research opportunities [57]. Below, we organize the impacts to students around three themes—the interdisciplinarity and applied nature of knowledge coproduction, the explicit inclusion of community knowledge and expressed needs, and the increased feelings of belonging and empowerment felt by students.

Bonanza leveraged the disciplinary knowledge of a diverse set of students and applied this knowledge to the objective of understanding water resources in the puna and building capacity and resilience in Zurite. Students cite the acquisitions of interdisciplinary perspectives as one of the primary benefits of research and study abroad [57]. A geology student, who participated in our program in 2018 wrote, "This project required me to utilize all of my past research and academic experience to work in a team environment with students, faculty and scientists from the U.S. and Perú to study the geology, geophysics and hydrology of a rural watershed in the Peruvian Andes." An environmental resources engineering (ERE) student from 2019 commented, "It was so valuable to ge<sup>t</sup> to work with multiple disciplines and gain new perspectives. Definitely life-changing." These sentiments were shared by a Peruvian student who participated from 2018 to 2020, "To be part of this research team was a grea<sup>t</sup> honor for me due to the learning that took place and, thanks to the members of this organization, I learned a grea<sup>t</sup> deal about geologic mapping, hydrogeology, hydrology, and geophysics."

Bonanza explicitly incorporated the knowledge and needs of the community of Zurite in the student research and learning experience. Whereas the experience of living and researching abroad is a high-impact practice that leads to greater student engagemen<sup>t</sup> [78,79] and builds a community that boosts student success (see, e.g., [80–82]), our program trained students not only to apply their knowledge for the betterment of the community but also to identify specific adaptations or actions that might be taken to build local capacity and contribute to sustainable water management. Students blended scientific knowledge with experiential learning to form their own ILEK. An ERE student who participated in both years wrote of what she gained from the cultural perspective: " ... I appreciated [learning] about indigenous communities in the Andes ... a Peruvian graduate student [co-author Yojana Miraya Oscco], who coincidentally was studying at Humboldt, discussed her research [on Indigenous community organizing]. It is super important to be informed about the communities you visit when doing research and something that is neglected far too often in the sciences ... " This response provides evidence that our students understand the community perspective and leave our program with a more open mind, characteristic of those who practice cultural humility [58].

Bonanza inspired and empowered students, through the explicit integration of scientific and societal needs and leadership training. Research experience, and the satisfaction felt by students who contribute to shared successes, cultivate feelings of belonging, increased social and psychological engagemen<sup>t</sup> and ultimately increase interest in pursuing research careers [83–85]. In our case, students were motivated to pursue water resources careers. An ERE student from 2019 wrote, "This trip made me rethink what approach I want to take to grad school (location, concentration), and made me think more about pursuing a career in water resources." Another ERE student from 2019 cited a better understanding of their career goals and increased self-confidence: "This trip solidified my reason for becoming an engineer and broadened my perspective of what an engineer's job is." A geology student from 2019 echoed this increased self-confidence, "This trip broadened my horizons immensely. It made me realize that I can do meaningful work in almost any part of the world while still doing something I enjoy."

Bonanza has empowered students to be leaders in collaborative, community-based and applied research. Four geology and geophysics students presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Conference in 2018 and 2019. Two geology students graduated from HSU to enter Ph.D. programs, and one geology and 3 engineering students have sought out and found employment in water resources management. The research generated in two seasons of fieldwork is the basis for a master's thesis at HSU [70], and the equipment purchased through this program supported the undergraduate senior theses of two Peruvian students.
