Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Comparative Analysis of Arizona and Texas Groundwater Institutions

这一博士论文研究项目将研究在城市快速发展和水需求竞争的背景下，促进和阻碍不同方法管理地下水抽水的有效性的因素。随着美国西部城市的持续发展和水需求的增加，有关已经过度分配的水资源重新分配的问题变得越来越关键。尽管在养护方面取得了一些成就，但政策效果参差不齐，往往无法控制含水层的长期下降。因此，重要的是要评估管理地下水的办法，以便找出重要的弱点并提出改革建议。这项研究项目将比较德克萨斯州更本地化的地下水地区和爱德华兹含水层地下水总量管制和交易系统与更集中、基于许可的亚利桑那州方法。这位博士生特别关注塑造人类水资源利用的不同机构(工作规则系统)，将调查凤凰城和圣安东尼奥这两个西南大都市的地下水区域如何管理地下水。该项目将关注的三个主要问题是：(1)集中式和分散式地下水治理系统中的制度安排如何在纳入新的地下水用途和管理冲突方面产生差异？(2)在将地下水从农村用户重新分配给城市用户方面，基于市场的交易与行政许可相比如何？(3)相对于国家法律、国家行政和地区政治经济因素，地下水地区控制含水层枯竭的重要性如何？书面证据将包括相关的水权法律和法院案例、监管法规、地下水地区制定规则的记录以及有关与水有关的问题和冲突的媒体报道。还将收集水交易和许可的历史数据，并将与许多利益攸关方进行访谈。学生将在这些不同的证据集合中进行三角测量，比较分析规划和决策过程、地下水冲突的发生和管理、规则制定的频率和类型，以及农村和城市水资源重新分配的频率和数量。本项目对凤凰城和圣安东尼奥案例的分析将有助于解释未能缓解地下水超采的原因，并确定是否值得其他州效仿的法律和政策。通过比较集中式和地方式地下水区域、基于许可证的系统和以市场为导向的系统，该项目将有助于就分散治理的优点以及不同组织形式在管理公共池塘水资源方面的“适宜性”程度进行学术和政策辩论。该项目还将强调将水从农村用途重新分配到城市用途可能对农村社区产生的负面社会经济影响。调查结果将通过学术出版物以及为利益攸关方编写的文件进行传播。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目将为有前途的学生建立独立的研究生涯提供支持。

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the factors that promote and hinder the effectiveness of different approaches to governing groundwater pumping in the context of rapid urban growth and competing water demands. As cities in the Western U.S. continue to grow and water demands increase, questions regarding the reallocation of already over-allocated water supplies are becoming increasingly critical. Despite some achievements in conservation, policy results have been uneven and often have been unable to bring long-term aquifer declines under control. It therefore is important to evaluate approaches to governing groundwater in order to identify important weaknesses and propose reforms. This research project will compare the more localized groundwater districts and Edwards Aquifer groundwater cap-and-trade system in Texas to the more centralized, permit-based Arizona approach. Paying special attention to the different institutions (systems of working rules) that shape human use of water resources, this doctoral student will investigate how groundwater districts manage groundwater in two major Southwestern metropolises, Phoenix and San Antonio. The three main questions on which this project will focus are: (1) How do the institutional arrangements in centralized and decentralized groundwater governance systems produce differences in the incorporation of new groundwater uses and management of conflicts? (2) How does market-based trading compare to administrative permitting in the reallocation of groundwater from rural to urban users? (3) How important are groundwater districts for controlling aquifer depletion relative to state laws, state administration, and regional political economic factors? Documentary evidence will consist of relevant water rights laws and court cases, regulatory statutes, records of rulemaking by groundwater districts, and media reports on water-related issues and conflicts. Historical water-trading and permitting data will also be collected, and interviews will be conducted with numerous stakeholders. The student will triangulate among these different sets of evidence, comparatively analyzing the planning and decision-making processes, incidence and management of groundwater conflicts, frequency and type of rulemaking, and frequency and amount of rural to urban water reallocation for the districts in the two metro areas.This project's analysis of the Phoenix and San Antonio cases will help explain failures to alleviate groundwater overdraft and identify laws and policies that might be worth copying or not by other states. By comparing centralized and local groundwater districts, permit-based systems and market-oriented ones, this project will contribute to academic and policy debates about the merits of decentralized governance and the degree of "fit" of different organizational forms for managing common pool water resources. The project also will highlight negative socioeconomic impacts on rural communities that can result from the reallocation of water from rural to urban uses. Findings will be disseminated through scholarly publications as well as through documents developed for stakeholders. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.