DISES: RUI: Understanding the Use of Discretion and its Socio-Environmental Consequences for Reservoir Systems

作为世界上蓄水最多的大河之一，哥伦比亚河系统为研究河流蓄水的综合生物物理和社会经济动力学提供了一个杰出的模型。该项目通过研究大坝运行、管理这些运行的决策过程以及决策过程与环境之间的反馈，重点研究环境和社会系统之间的动态、互惠关系。大坝和水库管理是一个具有可量化结果(如水位、水量、流量、命运)和成熟但多样化和不断变化的监管环境的特征良好的系统，它提供了一个机会来检验关于基于规则的管理方法和基于裁量的管理方法之间的权衡的基本假设，以便更深入地理解具体的水库适应性管理以及一般的社会-环境一体化的性质。在追求这一目标的过程中，调查人员将产生关于环境条件如何影响资源管理的基本知识，反之亦然。该项目还将包括对本科生和研究生的培训；对K-12教师的教育；以及水库管理人员、利益攸关方和公众的参与。以哥伦比亚河系统为模型，该项目将促进人们对以下问题的理解：1)管理的自由裁量权如何以及在多大程度上影响生物物理结果；2)依赖管理的自然系统结果如何以及在多大程度上影响规则的制定、自由裁量权的行使和决策结果；3)社会和环境因素如何影响管理决策的生物物理结果与管理规则的结构之间的动态相互关系。这项研究将整合对河流生物地球化学和生态学的基本理解，如何将适当的灵活性水平与环境管理挑战相匹配，以及环境管理中自由裁量权的成本和收益如何影响经济，同时提供可操作的见解。它将经济契约和机制设计理论应用于大坝和水库运营的适应性管理范式，这种设置既具体又普遍，足以允许对基本假设进行新的实证测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As one of the most heavily impounded large rivers in the world, the Columbia River system provides an outstanding model in which to investigate integrated biophysical and socioeconomic dynamics of river impoundment. This project focuses on the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between environmental and social systems by examining dam operations, the decision-making process governing those operations, and feedbacks between this decision-making process and the environment. As a well-characterized system with quantifiable outcomes (e.g. water levels, volumes, flows, fates) and a well-established but diverse and evolving regulatory environment, dam and reservoir management offers an opportunity to test fundamental hypotheses about tradeoffs between rules-based and discretion-based management approaches to gain deeper understanding of adaptive management of reservoirs specifically, and of the nature of socio-environmental integration generally. In pursuing this goal, the investigators will generate fundamental knowledge about how environmental conditions affect resource management and vice versa. The project will also involve training for undergraduate and graduate students; education of K-12 teachers; and engagement of reservoir managers, stakeholders, and the public. Using the Columbia River system as a model, this project will advance understanding of: 1) how, and to what extent, the degree of discretion in management affects biophysical outcomes; 2) how, and to what extent, management-dependent natural system outcomes affect rule setting, exercise of discretion, and decision outcomes, and 3) how social and environmental factors shape the dynamic reciprocal relationship between the biophysical outcomes from management decisions and the structure of rules governing them. The research will integrate fundamental understanding of river biogeochemistry and ecology, how to match the appropriate level of flexibility to environmental management challenges, and how costs and benefits of discretion in environmental management influences economics while providing actionable insight. It employs economic contract and mechanism design theory to an adaptive management paradigm for dam and reservoir operations, a setting that is both specific and ubiquitous enough to allow for novel empirical testing of fundamental hypotheses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.