Beneath the surface: complexities and groundwater policy-making

William Blomquist

doi:10.1093/oxrep/grz033

Beneath the surface: complexities and groundwater policy-making

Oxford Review of Economic Policy ◽

10.1093/oxrep/grz033 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 154-170 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

William Blomquist

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Policy Making ◽

Western United States ◽

Groundwater Depletion ◽

Policy Recommendation ◽

Water Transfers ◽

Groundwater Aquifers ◽

Worldwide Phenomenon ◽

Groundwater Policy

Abstract Groundwater depletion is a worldwide phenomenon that has prompted calls for improved policy and management. A prominent policy recommendation, especially among economists, is the establishment of well-defined transferable groundwater rights and the promotion of water transfers or markets. Modelled effects and actual results in limited sites show promising potential, but progress has been slow, even in areas of significant need and capacity such as the western United States. This article identifies some of the complexities associated with defining groundwater rights and with managing groundwater aquifers. Those complexities may account to some degree for the incremental and limited progress toward transferable rights. Recent groundwater policy developments in California and other western states are reviewed briefly in light of those complexities.

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Incorporating the environment into the market: The case of water trusts and environmental water transfers in the western United States

Incentives and Instruments for Sustainable Irrigation - WIT Transactions on State of the Art in Science and Engineering ◽

10.2495/978-1-84564-406-2/08 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 107-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ereney Hadjigeorgalis

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Environmental Water ◽

Western United States ◽

Water Transfers

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Declining Woody Vegetation in Riparian Ecosystems of the Western United States

Western Journal of Applied Forestry ◽

10.1093/wjaf/16.4.169 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 169-181 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Robert A. Obedzinski ◽

Charles G. Shaw ◽

Daniel G. Neary

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Woody Plant ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Timber Harvesting ◽

Western United States ◽

Water Diversion ◽

Groundwater Depletion ◽

Riparian Ecosystems ◽

Gravel Mining ◽

Hydrologic Condition

Abstract Riparian ecosystems serve critical ecological functions in western landscapes. The woody plant components in many of these keystone systems are in serious decline. Among the causes are invasion by exotic species, stress-induced mortality, increases in insect and disease attack, drought, beaver, fire, climatic changes, and various anthropogenic activities. The latter include agricultural development, groundwater depletion, dam construction, water diversion, gravel mining, timber harvesting, recreation, urbanization, and grazing. This article examines the factors implicated in the decline and discusses the importance of interactions among these factors in causing decline. It also clarifies issues that need to be addressed in order to restore and maintain sustainable riparian ecosystems in the western United States, including the function of vegetation, silvics of the woody plant species involved, hydrologic condition, riparian zone structure, and landscape features, geomorphology, and management objectives. West. J. Appl. For. 16(4):169-181.

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Writing Time in Metaphors

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423939.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer J. Smith

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Western United States ◽

Entire System ◽

Language And Culture ◽

Space Race ◽

Do So

Coherence of place often exists alongside irregularities in time in cycles, and chapter three turns to cycles linked by temporal markers. Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950) follows a linear chronology and describes the exploration, conquest, and repopulation of Mars by humans. Conversely, Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1984) jumps back and forth across time to narrate the lives of interconnected families in the western United States. Bradbury’s cycle invokes a confluence of historical forces—time as value-laden, work as a calling, and travel as necessitating standardized time—and contextualizes them in relation to anxieties about the space race. Erdrich’s cycle invokes broader, oppositional conceptions of time—as recursive and arbitrary and as causal and meaningful—to depict time as implicated in an entire system of measurement that made possible the destruction and exploitation of the Chippewa people. Both volumes understand the United States to be preoccupied with imperialist impulses. Even as they critique such projects, they also point to the tenacity with which individuals encounter these systems, and they do so by creating “interstitial temporalities,” which allow them to navigate time at the crossroads of language and culture.

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