Graduate Project
 

Scoring Water Stewardship at Academic Institutions: A Water Resources Management Scoring Framework for Future Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/g732dh83g

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  • In the face of the global climate crisis, paired with current and future risks over water resources, the importance of effective water resources management cannot be overstated. However, there is a significant lack of specific metrics used to track water stewardship on a broad scale. Thus, in order to track sustainable, resilient water management practices, a need clearly exists to develop numeric targets to aim for. As a scale example for implementation or scoring metrics, this research focuses on applications for colleges and universities. In other words, what specific metrics are most useful for scoring water resources stewardship, sustainability and resilience at academic institutions around the world? The methods used for this research included a literature review, semi-structured interviews, and feedback from three case study universities. The literature review focused on relevant publications on water scoring metrics. Additionally, research was closely conducted with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to establish specific criteria for potential water scoring metrics. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve experts and academic leaders to collect ideas and get critical feedback during the process of developing the scoring framework. Finally, three universities were used as preliminary case studies to assess the proposed water scoring framework, but the framework was not fully tested by assigning actual numerical scores to these case study universities. The three case study universities that participated were Oregon State University (OSU), Portland State University (PSU), and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). From synthesizing common, reoccurring themes throughout the research process, a number of key categories for water stewardship emerged as essential and relevant at the university scale. Ultimately, this research proposes seven specific categories for scoring water stewardship at academic institutions, and proposes an updated water scoring framework for the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), a highly accredited framework that has been used to rank colleges and universities around the world. In the end, this research does not propose specific metrics that can be used universally to score water stewardship. Rather, seven categories of water stewardship are outlined with specific targets, requirements and associated point value scores. Future research is needed to identify case study examples for academic institutions to follow as they score themselves. If this proposed Framework is implemented by STARS, it would challenge academic institutions to bolster their water management systems in strategic ways to build a more sustainable, resilient and innovative future.
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