Political culture and water politics in Nevada: Las Vegas attempts to quench its thirsts

Today it is clear that the issue of water and its unavoidable scarcity in many areas has secured a permanent place on the public policy agenda. Certainly in Las Vegas, Nevada the rapid population growth, great economic development and extreme arid climate make the region vulnerable to the dangers of a water shortage. While some estimates suggest that Las Vegas will use all of its water by 1997, Las Vegas appears to be unprepared to deal with the challenge of water scarcity. This lack of real planning and conservation has led to the Las Vegas Valley Water District\u27s water grab , which is essentially an attempt by Las Vegas to secure water from Central and Eastern Nevada; This study is twofold in nature, relying on both a case study and survey research. The political culture of Nevada as it applies to the politics of water is explored. Additionally, the impact of factors such as socioeconomic/background characteristics, value orientations, and residency factors, which may affect support for particular water policies, is examined

Governing a shared hidden resource: A review of governance mechanisms for transboundary groundwater security

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Globally, groundwater is by far the largest store of liquid freshwater, making it a key component of a secure water supply. However, over the past few decades the amount of usable groundwater available around the world has rapidly decreased. This depletion is caused primarily by mismanagement (e.g., overpumping, contamination, and under-regulation), but also by reduced natural recharge due to climate change and urbanization. Management of groundwater resources is particularly challenging for the nearly 600 aquifers that are transboundary, meaning that they extend across international political borders. To understand how governance mechanisms can reduce water insecurity in transboundary groundwater contexts, we review key literature from what we view as the most relevant fields: groundwater management, water security, international water law and international water governance. We then formulate a set of recommendations for improved groundwater governance that can address the specific physical nature of groundwater systems, enhance water security, and apply to transboundary groundwater settings. We argue that groundwater governance in transboundary contexts requires processes that (1) enhance context-specific and flexible international mechanisms; (2) address the perpetual need for groundwater data and information; (3) prioritize the precautionary principle and pollution prevention, in particular; (4) where appropriate, integrate governance of surface and subsurface water and land; and (5) expand institutional capacity, especially of binational or multinational actors

Embedding social inclusiveness and appropriateness in engineering assessment of green infrastructure to enhance urban resilience

Urban resilience emerges not only from ‘what’ is done in relation to critical infrastructure systems, but in the ‘how’ of their conception, co-creation and integration into complex socio-ecological-technical systems. For green infrastructure, where ownership and agency may be distributed amongst organisations and diverse communities, inclusiveness and appropriateness require embedding in engineering assessments of green infrastructure and resilience. Through consideration of past, present and future engineering and resilience assessments – from monetising, through greening, to humanising – this paper examines the ways in which GI may be or has already contributed to enhancing urban resilience and types of assessment and indicators that have been or could be used. We suggest that enhancing visibility of the ‘whos’ (individuals, communities) is crucial to fully diversifying assessments. We also suggest some ideas for additional indicators and assert that co-production of future indicators needs to be undertaken with appropriate professionals (e.g. social impact assessment professionals)

Interdisciplinary research networks and science-policy-society interactions in the Uruguay River Basin

The Uruguay River Basin (URB) that extends along Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay has been the hub of increasing pressures caused by the expansion of industrial agriculture, forestry and infrastructure projects in hydroenergy and transportation. There are growing concerns that the fragmented institutional framework is inadequate to address the growing challenges. Interdisciplinary research networks can contribute to creating perspectives of the basin that are policy and governance relevant. In this paper, we set out to interrogate the potential scope of interdisciplinary research networks (IRNs) for the advancement of basin governance framework for the URB. We envision IRNs as knowledge actors that can open up opportunities to mediate and connect basin actors across different spaces - academic, policy, technical-administrative and social. We highlight a series of pathways to advance networks actions in creating opportunities to fill the gaps of transboundary basin governance, and acknowledge the challenges associated with doing this work in the URB and other basins around the world.Fil: Saguier, Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Escuela de Política y Gobierno; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gerlak, Andrea K.. University of Arizona; Estados UnidosFil: Villar, Pilar Carolina. Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Baigún, Claudio Rafael M.. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental; ArgentinaFil: Venturini, Virginia. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Hídricas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lara, Albina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas; ArgentinaFil: Dos Santos, Marco Aurelio. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasi

Building a framework for process-oriented evaluation of Regional Climate Outlook Forums

In many regions around the world, Regional Climate Outlook Forums (RCOFs) provide seasonal climate information and forecasts to decision-makers at regional and national levels. Despite having two decades of experience, the forums have not been systematically monitored or evaluated. To address this gap, and to better inform nascent and widespread efforts in climate services, the authors propose a process-oriented evaluation framework derived from literature on decision support and climate communication around the production and use of scientific information.The authors apply this framework to a case study of the Caribbean RCOF (CariCOF), where they have been engaged in a collaborative effort to integrate climate information and decision processes to enhance regional climate resilience. The authors’ examination of the CariCOF shows an evolution toward the use of more advanced and more diverse climate products, as well as greater awareness of user feedback. It also reveals shortfalls of the CariCOF, including a lack of diverse stakeholder participation, a need for better understanding of best practices to tailor information, undeveloped market research of climate products, insufficient experimentation and vetting of communication mechanisms, and the absence of a way to steward a diverse network of regional actors. The authors’ analysis also provides insight that allowed for improvements in the climate services framework to include mechanisms to respond to changing needs and conditions. The authors’ process-oriented framework can serve as a starting point for evaluating RCOFs and other organizations charged with the provision of climate services

It’s time to learn about learning:Where should the environmental and natural resource governance field go next?

This Commentary reflects on the state of the scholarship on learning for environmental and natural resource policy and governance. How have we been learning about learning? We highlight theoretical and empirical advancements related to learning, as well as areas of divergence between learning theories and frameworks, and underdeveloped knowledge around processes and outcomes. To address these limitations and improve progress in both theory and practice, we offer recommendations for learning scholarship by focusing on how to collectively engage in ‘learning about learning’

New directions in earth system governance research

The Earth System Governance project is a global research alliance that explores novel, effective governance mechanisms to cope with the current transitions in the biogeochemical systems of the planet. A decade after its inception, this article offers an overview of the project's new research framework (which is built upon a review of existing earth system governance research), the goal of which is to continue to stimulate a pluralistic, vibrant and relevant research community. This framework is composed of contextual conditions (transformations, inequality, Anthropocene and diversity), which capture what is being observed empirically, and five sets of research lenses (architecture and agency, democracy and power, justice and allocation, anticipation and imagination, and adaptiveness and reflexivity). Ultimately the goal is to guide and inspire the systematic study of how societies prepare for accelerated climate change and wider earth system change, as well as policy responses