Patricia Gober

gober@asu.edu
480-965-7533
COOR
5614
TEMPE

Research Professor
Faculty
Mailcode

Biography

Patricia Gober is the founding co-director of the National Science Foundation's Decision Center for a Desert City which studies water management decisions in the face of growing climatic uncertainty in Greater Phoenix. She is a past president of the Association of American Geographers, former member of the Population Reference Bureau's Board of Trustees and the Science Advisory Board of NOAA, and former chair of the College Board's Advanced Placement Human Geography Committee. She also served on the National Research Council's Committee on Geographical Sciences. Her most recent book, "Metropolitan Phoenix: Place Making and Community Building in the Desert," was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2006. She holds an honorary doctorate of science from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was awarded the Prince Sultan Abdulaziz International Price for Water in 2008. She received the ASU's Faculty Research Achievement Award in 2009 and the AAG's Presidential Achievement Award in 2011.

CV

Gober_November 2015.pdf

Education

  • Ph.D. Geography, The Ohio State University 1975
  • M.A. Geography, The Ohio State University 1972
  • B.S. Geography, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 1970

Research Interests

Water resources management, decision making under uncertainty, urban climate adaptation

Publications

  • K. L. Larson, Dave D. White, Patricia Gober, and Amber Wutich (2015) Decision making under uncertainty for water sustainability and urban climate change adaptation. Sustainability http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/11/14761.

  • Howard S. Wheater and Patricia Gober (2015) Water Security and the science agenda. Water Resources Research, 51(7): 5406-5424.

  • Patricia Gober and Howard S. Wheater (2015) Debates-Perspectives on Socio-Hydrology: Modeling flood risk as a public policy problem. Water Resources Research, 51 (6): 4782-4788.

  • Chuang, Wen-Ching, and Patricia Gober (2015) Predicting Hospitalization for Heat-Related Illness at the Census Tract Level: Accuracy of a Generic Heat Vulnerability Index in Phoenix, Arizona (USA). Environmental Health Perspectives, 123(6): 606-612.

  • Seung-Jae Lee, Heejun Chang, and Patricia Gober (2015) Space and Time Dynamics of Urban Water Demand in Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona. Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 20(4): 1135-1147.

  • Patricia Gober, Graham E. Strickert, Douglas A. Clark, Kwok P. Chun, Diana Payton, and Kristin Bruce (2015) Divergent perspectives on water security: Bridging the policy debate.The Professional Geographer 67(1): 62-71.

  • Elmira Hassanzadeh, Amin Elshorbagy, Howard S. Wheater, and Patricia Gober (2014) Managing water in complex systems: An integrated water resources model for Saskatchewan, Canada. Environmental Modelling & Software, 58: 12-26.

  • Patricia Gober and Howard S. Wheater (2014) Socio-hydrology and the science-policy interface: A case study of the Saskatchewan River Basin. Hydrology and Earth System Science, 18: 1423-1422.

  • John B. Braden, Daniel G. Brown, Jeff Dozier, Patricia Gober, Sara M. Hughes, David R. Maidment, Sandra L. Schneider, P. Wesley Schultz, James S. Shortle, Stephen K. Swallow, and Carol M. Werner. Social science in a water observing system. Water Resources Research (2009).

  • K. L. Larson, D. D. White, P. Gober, S. Harlan, and A. Wutich. Divergent perspectives on water resource sustainability in a public-policy-science context. Environmental Science and Policy (2009).

  • Jonathan Fink and Patricia Gober. Using stakeholder engagement and visualization to aid decision-making about water use in the Middle East. Transboundary National Resource Governance in Regions of Extreme Conditions (2009).

  • Andrew Ellis, Timothy Hawkins, Robert Balling, Patricia Gober. Estimating runoff levels for a semi-arid fluvial system in central Arizona. Climate Research (2008).

  • Lee Seung-Jae, Robert Balling, Patricia Gober. Baysian maximum entropy mapping and the soft data problem in urban climate research. Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2008).

  • Patricia Gober. Climate adaptation and water resource management in Phoenix. Water Resources Impact (2008).

  • Patricia Gober. Professor. Water Resources Impact (2008).

  • Robert Balling, Patricia Gober, Nancy Jones. Sensitivity of residential water consumption to variations in weather and climate. Water Resources Research (2008).

  • Patricia Gober. Demography and sustainability of the urban Southwest. (2008).

  • Patricia Gober. Global warming aside, fresh water dwindling. (2008).

  • Brazel, Anthony, Gober, Patricia. Urban-scale climate change effects on water use. Southwest Hydrology (2007).

  • Elizabeth Wentz, Patricia Gober. Determinants of Small-Area Water Consumption for the City of Phoenix, Arizona. Water Resources Management (2007).

  • Patricia Gober. Pasteur's Quadrant and the Education of an Applied Geographer. Research in Geographic Education (2007).

  • Patricia Gober. Water, climate, and the future of Phoenix. Geographische Rundschau (2007).

  • Subhrajit Guhathakurta, Patricia Gober. Impact of Urban Heat Island on Residential Water Use in the city of Phoenix. Journal of American Planning Association (2007).

  • Michael Kuby, John Harner and Patricia Gober. Human Geography in Action. (2007).

  • Michael Kuby, John Harner, and Patricia Gober. Human Geography in Action. (2007).

  • Gober, Patricia. Census. Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2006).

  • Gober, Patricia. Census Tract. Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2006).

  • Gober, Patricia. Model. Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2006).

  • Gober, Patricia. Population Geography. Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2006).

  • Elisabeth Larson, Nancy Grimm, Patricia Gober, Charles Redman. The paradoxical ecology and management of water in the Phoenix, USA metropolitan area. Journal of Ecohydrology and Hydroecology (2006).

  • Gober, Patricia (Author) . Phoenix: The New American City. New American City: Artists Look Forward (2006).

  • Patricia Gober. Metropolitan Phoenix: Place Making and Community Building in the Desert. (2005).

  • Urban Geography in America: Paradigms and Personalities (2005).

  • Gober, Patricia (Author) . The Comparative Metropolitan Analysis Project. Urban Geography in America, 1950-2000 (2005).

  • Focus: Geography's Challenges for the 21st Century. (2004).

  • Kuby, Michael, Harner, John, Gober, Patricia. Human Geography in Action. (2003).

  • Elizabeth Wentz, Patricia Gober, Robert Balling, Thomas Day. Spatial Patterns and Determinants of Carbon Dioxide in an Urban Environment. Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2002).

  • Kevin McHugh, Patricia Gober, Daniel Borough. The Sun City Wars: Chapter 3. Urban Geography (2002).

  • Patricia Gober. Urban Geography in the 1970s: The Comparative Metropolitan Analaysis Project. Urban Geography (2002).

  • Thomas Day, Patricia Gober, Robert Balling, Elizabeth Wentz. Temporal Patterns in Near-Surface CO2 Concentrations Over Constrasting Vegetation Typo in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Agricultural and Forest Meterology (2002).

  • Gober, Patricia (Author) . Essential geography content for K-12. 2001 Yearbook of the Middle States Council for Social Studies (2001).

  • Gober, Patricia (Author) ,Rosenberg, Mark W (Author) . Looking back, looking around, looking forward: A woman's right to choose. Geographies of Women's Health (2001).

  • Graf, William (Author) ,Gober, Patricia (Author) ,Brazel, Anthony J (Author) . In memoriam: Melvin G. Marcus, 1929-1997. Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2001).

  • Patricia Gober. Immigration and North American cities. Urban Geography (2000).

  • Patricia Gober. In search of synthesis. Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2000).

Research Activity

Presentations

  • Patricia Gober. Urban climate adaptation: Decision making under uncertainty. World Green Building Conference International Congress (Dec 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. Integrated water resource planning and research. National Research Council at the Linking Social and Environmental Data for Climate Change Research W (Dec 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. Water planning in Phoenix: Managing risk in the face of climatic uncertainty. Paper presented at the American Geophysical Union Meetings (Dec 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. DCDC: Integrated water resource planning and research. DCDC/Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Dec 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. Key challenges in water sustainability in Phoenix: A view from boundary science. Environmental Carrying Capacity Workshop, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (Nov 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. Climate change, water planning, and the future of Phoenix. Post Lecture Distinguished Speaker to the Department of Geography Colloquia Series at San Diego Stat (Oct 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. Does Phoenix Have Enough Water to Grow?. Canadian Business Forum (Sep 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. The future of water in the American West: Decision making under uncertainty in Phoenix. Presidential Plenary Session of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (Mar 2009).
  • Patricia Gober. The Inconvenient Truth About Phoenix. Emeritus Professors Speaker Series (Jan 2009).
  • Gober, Patricia. The Inconvenient Truth about Phoenix. Spirit of the Senses Salon (Jul 2008).
  • Patricia Gober. Modeling for Water Resource Planning in Phoenix. Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (Apr 2008).
  • Gober, Patricia. Global Water Resources and Vulnerability from Climate Change and Population Growth. World Affairs Conference (Apr 2008).
  • Gober, Patricia. Desert Urbanization: Global Challenges. American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (Feb 2008).
  • Gober, Patricia. The Inconvenient Truth about Phoenix. President's Community Enrichment Series (Jan 2008).
  • Gober, Patricia. Demographic trends and the future of Phoenix. National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers Annual Meeting (Mar 2007).
  • Gober, Patricia. Joining physical and human geography to re-imagine urban systems. University of Minnesota Colloquium Series in honor of John Adam's retirement (Feb 2007).
  • Gober, Patricia. Challenges to the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of urban regions. Annual Meetings of the National Council for Geographic Education (Oct 2006).
  • Gober, Patricia, Lant, Timothy. Is there enough water for Phoenix to grow?. Annual Meetings of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (Sep 2006).
  • Gober, Patricia. Cultural landscape as an integrating theme for Advanced Placement Human Geography. International Geographical Union Commission on Geographic Education (Jul 2006).
  • Gober, Patricia. Facilitating undergraduate research in an interdisciplinary environment. Council for Undergraduate Research (Jun 2006).
  • Gober, Patricia, Zeigler, Donald, Hildebrant, Barbara, Strauss, Tim, Sherwin, Greg. In infrastructure to support Advanced Placement Human Geography. Annual Meetings of the Association of American Geographers (Mar 2006).
  • Gober, Patricia. Metropolitan Phoenix: Place Making and Community Building in the Desert. Annual Meeting of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (Oct 2005).
  • Gober, Patricia. Population Dynamics in the Desert Southwest. AP National Conference (Jul 2005).
  • Gober, Patricia. The Future of Multidisciplinarity in Geography. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (Apr 2005).
  • Gober, Patricia. Decision Center for a Desert City. Valley Forward (Mar 2005).
  • Gober, Patricia. Closing Remarks. GELS (Feb 2005).
  • Gober, Patricia. The City of Tempe's Response to Drought. Mayor's Monthly Breakfast (Oct 2004).
  • Gober, Patricia. Decision Center for a Desert City. Luncheon for IGERT Students (Sep 2004).
  • Gober, Patricia. New Challenges in Population Geography. Annual Meetings of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (Sep 2004).
  • Gober, Patricia. Rediscovering Geography in US Secondary Schools. 30th Congress of the International Geographic Union in Glasgow (Aug 2004).
  • Gober, Patricia, Brunn, Stanley. Introducing Voices in the AAG's Second Century. Annual Meetings of the Association of American Geographers (Mar 2004).
  • Gober, Patricia, Hildebrant, Barbara, Zeigler, Donald, Sharma, Martha, Ford, Larry. New Geographers: Recruiting and Retaining Students from Advanced Placement Human Geography. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (Mar 2004).
  • Farley Metzger, E, Yabiku, S, Gober, Patricia, Casagrande, D, Redman, C, Grimm, N, Harlan, S. North Desert Village landscaping experiment monitoring human-environment interactions. LTER Annual Symposium
  • Gober, Patricia. Is There Enough Water? Supply and Demand in the Future. President's Community Enrichment Program
  • Gober, Patricia. Assessing Climate Change in Long-Term Water Resource Planning. 2007 Annual Water Resources Conference
  • Gober, Patricia. Decision Center for a Desert City Experience. Western States Water Council Climate Change Research Needs Workshop
  • Gober, Patricia. Pasteur's Quadrant: Challenges and Opportunities of Boundary Science. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting
  • Gober, Patricia. The Role of Population in Integrated Environmental Modeling. Ohio State University Colloquium Presentation
  • Gober, Patricia. The Social Science of Climate Change. Climate Change: The Role of Higher Education in Arizona
  • Gober, Patricia. Urban Sustainability and the Future of Phoenix. Advanced Placement Annual Conference
  • Gober, Patricia. Water Forum. Water Forum
  • Gober, Patricia. Water, Climate, Growth and the Future of Phoenix. Biltmore Kiwanis Club
  • Gober, Patricia. WaterSim: An Integrated Model for Research and Decision Support. Colorado River Delta Research Coordination Network
  • Gober, Patricia, Redman, Charles. Decision Making Under Uncertainty: The Challenge of Sustainable Well-Being. Annual Meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Honors/Awards

2011 - AAG Presidential Achievement Award
2009 - Faculty Research Achievement Award, ASU Alumni Association
2009 - Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2006-2008 - Prince Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, Water Resources Management and Protection (3rd Award)
2007 - President's Medal for Social Embeddedness, New American City: Artists Look Forward, Arizona State University
1998 - Honorary Doctorate of Science, Carthage College, Kenosha, WI
1977 - Outstanding Young Alumni, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI

Service

  • University of Utah Department of Geography, External Reviewer (2019 - Present)
  • National Science Foundation, IGERT Review Panel (2008 - Present)
  • NIH Special Emphasis Panel to review social science and population studies, Member (2008 - Present)
  • National Science Foundation Committee of Visitors, Member (2008 - Present)
  • University of Toronto Department of Geography, External Reviewer (2008 - Present)
  • SWIG, Advisor (2006 - Present)
  • Personnel Committee, Member (2009 - 2111)
  • Morrison Institute Sustainability Indicators, Sustainability Coordinator (2008 - 2012)
  • School Facilities Board, Governor-appointed board member (2006 - 2012)
  • State of Arizona Schools Facilities Board, Member (2005 - 2011)
  • WATERS Network Social Science Team, Member (2008 - 2010)
  • President's Award for Sustainability, Examiner (2010 - 2010)
  • WATERS Network Social Science Team, Member (2008 - 2009)
  • National Research Council Committee on Geographical Sciences, Member (2004 - 2007)
  • SOGS Director Search Committee, Member (2006 - 2007)
  • School of Sustainability Planning Committee for Water Emphasis, member (2006 - 2007)
  • GIOS Faculty Search Committee, Member (2005 - 2007)
  • Tempe Historical Museum External Advisory Board on the "Changing Face of Downtown Tempe", Member (2005 - 2007)
  • Presidential Professors Review Committee, Member (2005 - 2007)
  • Arizona Futures Council, Member (2005 - 2006)
  • Ecological Economics Search Committee, Member (2005 - 2006)
  • NSF Review Panel CCLI-A&I, Member (2005 - 2006)
  • Project Directors Committee, Member (2005 - 2006)
  • CLAS Committee on Committees, Member (2002 - 2006)
  • Advanced Placement Geography Committee, Member (2001 - 2006)
  • Urban Geography Editorial Board, Member (1995 - 2006)
  • NOAA Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP), Proposal Review Panel (2006)
  • Advanced Placement Human Geography Committee, Chair (2003 - 2006)
  • School of Family and Social Dynamics Demography Search Committee, Member (2005 - 2006)
  • National Science Foundation Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI), Proposal Review Panel (2006)
  • Department of Geography Personnel Committee, Member (2003 - 2005)
  • IIS Water Policy Search Committee, Member (2004 - 2005)
  • CSPO Faculty Search Committee, Member (2004 - 2005)
  • Population Reference Bureau Board of Trustees, Vice Chair (2001 - 2004)
  • Executive Committee, Population Reference Bureau Board of Trustees, Member (1999 - 2004)
  • Decision Theater Launch, Member (2004)
  • NSF Review Panel -- Human and Social Dynamics, Member (2004)
  • Search Committee for Human Geographer, Chair (2001 - 2003)
  • NIH Social Science, Nursing, Epidemiology, and Methods Review Panel, Member (1999 - 2003)
  • AAG Endowment Committee, Member (2003)
  • Center for Enviromental Studies Advisory Committee, Member (2003)
  • Center for Environment Studies Promotion Review Committee, Chair (2003)
  • Department of Geography Chair Search Committee, Member (2003)
  • Department of Geography Faculty Search Committee, Member (2003)
  • Department of Geography Graduate Program Committee, Member (2003)
  • NOAA Review Panel, Chair (2003)
  • NSF Committee of Visitors for Geography and Regional Science Program, Member (2003)
  • NSF Geography and Regional Science Planning Committee, Member (2003)
  • CLAS Requirements Review Committee, Member (2000 - 2002)
  • Executive Board, COSSA (Consortium of Social Science Associations), Member (1998 - 2001)
  • Science Advisory Board, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Member (1998 - 2001)
  • Subcommittee on Scientific Synthesis and Analysis, Chair (1998 - 2001)
  • Joint History/Geography Education Project, Fordham Foundation and the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education, Member (1999 - 2000)

Expertise Areas