Doctoral Dissertation Research: Water Use and Recharge in Arizona and Sonora

跨界水管理是一个关键问题，因为超过263个河流流域和数目不详的含水层跨越国际边界。学术界和国际机构的专家都主张将“利益分享”作为促进国际共享水域合作的关键机制。分享来自跨界水域的利益，而不是共享水本身，有可能增加合作，因为它允许一种正和游戏，而共享水必然是一种零和游戏。然而，利益分享的具体例子很少。此外，关于跨界水的文献往往几乎只关注经济利益，而忽视了存在于边界两侧的许多利益相关者和非经济利益。本博士论文研究项目旨在通过调查关于上圣克鲁斯河流域Nogales国际污水处理厂废水分配的谈判，推进利益分享的概念，该污水处理厂位于亚利桑那州和索诺拉州之间的美墨边境。博士候选人的目标是确定通过使用废水可以获得的效益，同时考虑到境内外多个参与者的多重利益。在景观保护、濒危物种保护、改善供水服务和经济增长方面，好处可能是显而易见的。为了实现这一目标，将开发一个流域水的两国数学模型，以确定效益的范围以及这些效益如何根据水的使用方式而变化。由于不是所有的文化和政治因素都能在一个模型中得到体现，因此将使用定性访谈和机构绘图来确定边界两侧负责水管理的利益相关者和机构如何影响跨境合作。双方的水资源管理人员将被邀请参加一个研讨会，在此期间将介绍模型的初步结果。参与者将被要求提供关于模型规范、偏好和管理目标排序的反馈。该项目应通过考虑到边界内和边界外的多方以及水的非经济和非市场价值，促进对跨界水管理的基本了解。通过提出一种机制来确定通过用水可以获得的多重利益和管理目标之间存在的权衡，项目结果应该有助于扩大谈判空间的规模，从而增加未来合作的可能性。这项研究还将导致建立一个两国水文模型，这将有助于评价未来的水管理备选办法。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Transboundary water management is of critical concern, as more than 263 river basins and an unknown number of aquifers span an international border. Experts from both academia and international institutions advocate "benefit sharing" as a key mechanism for promoting cooperation over internationally shared waters. Sharing the benefits that can be derived from transboundary waters, rather sharing than the water itself, has the potential to increase cooperation because it allows for a positive-sum game, whereas sharing water is necessarily a zero-sum game. Concrete examples of benefit sharing are few, however. Moreover, the literature on transboundary water tends to focus almost exclusively on economic benefits and overlooks the many stakeholders and non-economic interests that exist on each side of the border. This doctoral dissertation research project aims to advance the concept of benefit sharing by investigating negotiations over the allocation of the effluent from the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Upper Santa Cruz River Basin located along the U.S.-Mexico border between Arizona and Sonora. The doctoral candidate's goal is to determine the benefits that can be derived through the use of the effluent while accounting for the multiple interests of the multiple players within and across the border. Benefits may be manifest in terms of landscape preservation, endangered species protection, improved provision of water service, and economic growth. To accomplish this goal, a bi-national mathematical model of water in the basin will be developed to determine both the range of benefits and how those benefits vary depending on how the water is used. Because not all cultural and political considerations can be captured in a model, qualitative interviews and institutional mapping will be used to determine how the stakeholders and agencies responsible for water management on each side of the border impact cross-border cooperation. Water managers from both sides of the border will be invited to a workshop during which preliminary model results will be presented. Participants will be asked for feedback on model specification and about preferences and ranking of management goals.This project should contribute to basic understanding of transboundary water management by accounting for the multiple parties within as well as across the border as well as the non-economic and non-market values of water. By presenting a mechanism for determining the multiple benefits that can be derived through the use of water and the tradeoffs that exist between management goals, project results should be useful in enlarging the size of the bargaining space and thus increase the possibilities for future cooperation. The research also will result in the creation of a bi-national hydrologic model, which will be useful for evaluating future water management alternatives. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.