Five University degree programs. Three years. One river. It’s not nearly as simple as it sounds.

Tuesday night, the University’s Fanning Institute will celebrate the culmination of three-year brainchild, “Project Riverway,” an effort to sustain and revitalize rural areas along the Chattahoochee River.

Students from the office of Public Service and Outreach, the School of Environmental Design, the Odum School of Ecology, the Center for Community Design and Preservation and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication all developed solutions for areas from Georgia to Alabama to Florida.

The main objective was to promote ecotourism and foster growth in each individual region. The Fanning Institute, headed by Danny Bivins and Leigh Askew, specializes in economic, community and leadership development and create projects that cater to specific needs and areas in and around Georgia.

“The Chattahoochee River affects three states,” Bivins said. To unite regions affected by the river, “Project Riverway” has teamed with Riverway South, an organization that promotes economic development in the lower areas of the Chattahoochee River.

As local economies dwindle, sources of income and tourism could, according to Bivins, be “a vital new life force to these regions, and could sustain environmental preservation to these beautiful undisturbed farmlands.”

The students involved have traveled during the course of summer classes from areas of Columbus to Chattahoochee, Fla.

Each year, a group of students focuses on a new section of the river. After hosting forums with residents and exploring the regional area, the students formulate diverse, conceptualized plans.

Finding affordable housing, creating artistic signs and tourist brochures and landscape design are all parts of what Bivins calls the “student-generated input.”

“It’s rare to have public service and the academic sphere come together,” Bivins said.

With so many different organizations involved, it’s difficult to ascribe individual programs to individual successes, but the outcome of “Project Riverway” is what the Fanning Institute will be celebrating Tuesday night.

“The University had the resources to act as a catalyst for our goals,” Bivins said. The Public Service and Outreach Office had a considerable role, by helping fund the trips, which were estimated at $1,000 per student.

Riverway South, a nonprofit organization, has provided funding and functioned as an advisory committee to the program.

“The communities themselves have been so helpful. The people of Apalachicola welcomed us with open arms and had a large amount of input into how we could revitalize the area,” Bivins said.

To see the final plans, designs and creative artwork of the Project Riverway students, the College of Environmental Design is holding a reception at the Circle Gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday. The event also will be an opportunity to welcome Dean Dan Nadenicek, the new dean of the College of Environment and Design. The exhibit runs until Friday.