HSD: Changing Societal Attitudes Towards Water Scarcity: Ethanol Production and Increasing Groundwater Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer

有限的石油库存和不断上涨的汽油价格刺激了乙醇和其他生物燃料的生产;这反过来又会导致现有水资源的进一步枯竭，因为生物燃料作物的灌溉和乙醇的生产都要使用大量的水。因此，在奥加拉拉含水层上覆盖着美国八个州的半干旱地区，水的供应将成为一个更大的问题。这一地区对于理解社会对日益严重的水资源短缺的反应至关重要，因为它长期以来一直是一个农民？中国对灌溉的需求与其他不断增长的消费需求相冲突。农民、农村社区、企业和城市市政当局等群体之间对水的竞争预计将变得更加激烈。该项目将采用最新的地理空间技术，确定奥加拉拉含水层区域的有效和有代表性的样本。农业和乙醇工业在该国的这一地区很突出，这项研究将使用创新的调查方法来衡量人们对替代市政节水计划的态度。调查结果将使调查人员能够开发一个灵活的模型，奥加拉拉含水层区域的社区可以输入人口，地理和经济信息，以计算什么样的价格配给和监管措施的政策组合将是最有效的，以实现特定水平的城市水资源保护。它还将有助于评估或多或少依赖乙醇工业的社区对水资源保护替代政策的反应。结果将显着提高了解哪些城市节水战略最有希望在解决用水的挑战与新兴的乙醇industrial.The多学科的研究团队，包括地质学，地理学，地理信息科学，人口学，自然资源经济学，计量经济学和实证建模的专业知识。该项目将为扩大代表性不足群体的参与做出重大贡献。牵头机构是一所历史悠久的黑人大学，学生中近90%是非洲裔美国人，合作机构有近25%的西班牙裔学生，许多学生将参与研究。 该研究的方法和结果将被纳入PI和co-Pis教授的课程中，为未来的农业综合企业管理人员，环境科学家和政策制定者的教育做出贡献。四名CoPI中有两名是女性，一名女性正在指导调查项目。调查人员将与社区和农业管理人员以及从工程到法律等学科的科学家和学者进行广泛合作。将通过在农业和环境经济学家专业会议上的介绍、在同行审查的媒体上发表的出版物以及调查人员的网页，向包括该区域利益攸关方在内的广大受众报告项目结果。其结果将有助于解决分配和保护往往是有限的资源，水。该奖项是作为2008财年人类和社会动力学（HSD）组合的一部分，在所有NSF董事会和办事处参与的竞争之后颁发的。 HSD奖励是通过特定的计划管理的，这些计划可能会在奖励期间发生变化。 所有HSD奖的管理是在整个国家科学基金会的基础上协调的。

Limited oil stocks and growing gasoline prices have stimulated the production of ethanol and other biofuels; in turn, this will lead to increased depletion of available water resources, since irrigation of biofuel crops and the production of ethanol both use large amounts of water. Thus, water availability will become an even greater concern in the semi-arid region that encompasses the eight U.S. states overlying the Ogallala aquifer. This region is of paramount importance for understanding societal response to increasing water scarcity, as it has long been an area where a farmer?s need for irrigation conflicts with other growing needs for consumption. Competition over water between groups such as farmers, rural communities, businesses, and urban municipalities is expected to become even more heated. This project will employ the latest geospatial technology to define an efficient and representative sample of the Ogallala aquifer region. Agriculture and the ethanol industry are prominent in this area of the country, and the study will use innovative survey methods to gauge attitudes toward alternative municipal water conservation schemes. The results of the survey will allow the investigators to develop a flexible model into which communities in the Ogallala aquifer region can input demographic, geographic, and economic information to calculate what policy mix of price rationing and regulatory measures would be most effective in achieving a particular level of municipal water conservation. It will also allow evaluation of the response of communities more or less dependent on the ethanol industry to alternative policies for watear conservation. The results will significantly enhance understanding of which municipal water conservation strategies the most promise in addressing water use challenges linked to the emerging ethanol industry.The multidisciplinary team of researchers includes expertise in geology, geography, geographic information science, demography, natural resource economics, econometrics, and empirical modeling. The project will make strong contributions to broadening participation by underrepresented groups. The lead institution is an historically black university with a student body that is nearly 90% African American, a collaborating institution has nearly 25% Hispanic students, and many students will be engaged in the research. The methodology and results of the study will be incorporated into the classes taught by the PI and co-Pis, contributing to the education of future agribusiness managers, environmental scientists, and policymakers. Two of the four CoPIs are female, and a female is directing the survey project. The investigators will collaborate extensively with community and agricultural managers, and with scientists and academics in disciplines ranging from engineering to law. The results of the project will be reported to a broad audience, including stakeholders in the region, via presentations at professional conferences of agricultural and environmental economists, publications in peer-reviewed outlets, and the web pages of the investigators. The results will contribute to solutions for allocation and conservation of an often limiting resource, water. This award is made as part of the FY 2008 Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) portfolio, following a competition that involved participation from all NSF Directorates and Offices. HSD awards are administered through specific programs that may change over the duration of the award. Management of all HSD awards is coordinated on an NSF-wide basis.