This research explores the mechanisms of Track III diplomacy employed by EcoPeace Middle East, in the context of environmental peacebuilding within the Jordan Basin region. Focusing on how these mechanisms contribute to improving water quality and quantity, the study delves into their processes in facilitating cooperation among conflicting parties—Israelis, Palestinians,...
The success or failure of river basin organization (RBO), when they deal with disputes, might rely on the source of conflict along with other factors such as institutional design, legal attributes and conflict resolution mechanism of the organization. However, little attention has been paid to the research which studies a...
Given the recent attention to dams in developing countries as a means to efficiently utilize water resources, mitigating the negative environmental and social impacts they have on riparian states is of utmost importance. This thesis presents a global review of how basin countries, through international water treaties (IWT), ensure that...
Although newly independent Central Asian states in 1991, including Kyrgyzstan, started developing their own foreign water policies, Kyrgyzstan’s independence period demonstrated the challenges of determining foreign water policy independently. The conceptual framework of a two-level game was applied in the study to understand and answer the question about how domestic...
The conservation community has long recognized the critical role that agricultural landowners play in efforts to improve fish and wildlife habitat in order to recover threatened and endangered species. In many rural areas dominated by agricultural working landscapes, government agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) struggle to...
In the past fifty years, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have become alarming global pollutants. In 2019, the United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ultimately classified them as emerging contaminants and established an action plan to address PFAS and protect public health through developing, identifying, monitoring, and remediating current...
Water and climate change are interconnected with each other. Water is a medium through which the climate change manifests its far-reaching consequences on society. Sustainable water management practices are fundamental in implementing effective climate change adaptation. Given an influential position as global water actors, international water organizations (IWOs) play a...
Despite being internationally recognized as basic human rights, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) insecurity continues to exist throughout the United States, particularly among low-income and unhoused portions of the population. Previous investigations into the intersection of WASH and people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in the US have primarily taken place in...
Power can be defined as the ability to influence the processes, decisions, and outcomes of an activity in favor of the will of a strong actor and its allies. Strategic actions in situations where there is asymmetric power can change the result of decisions. In this research, I will examine...
Ambiguity is a typical element of treaty documents. Its success in accommodating divergent interests, creating boundary conditions leading to dispute prevention and facilitating the conclusion of agreements has been widely recognized, yet less is known whether or not intentional ambiguity or unintentional ambiguity, or perhaps both, lead to challenges or...
In this research, the paradiplomacy concept is analyzed in terms of transboundary water cooperation and called "Blue Paradiplomacy", where two case studies: 1) the Great Lakes region and 2) the Central Asian region, are presented and compared. The concept of paradiplomacy is applied within the context of multi-level governance, and...
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...
The Klamath River Basin (KRB) is one of the most contested basins of the Western U.S. with respect to water. Multiple stakeholders, including Tribes, farmers, state and federal agencies, and environmental advocates, are in frequent conflict over water rights and water use. Removal of the four hydroelectric dams is one...
In the process of building international water policies and management institutions, like international treaties and River Basin Organizations, States simultaneously signal the values that they view as most important in these different institutions. Examining expressed and acted-upon values for transboundary freshwater management are currently under-explored areas where overlapping lenses of...
Considering the negative impacts of climate change along with the rapid increase in population in Islamic dominated states, e.g., the Middle East, water tension among upstream and downstream states is increasing. Despite the importance of water in Islamic culture and studies, the role of religion has been under-valued and under-emphasized...
This study explores the role of emotions in extensive hydraulic projects that become part of nation-state building processes and have transboundary impact. The main objective is to investigate how political leadership uses emotional narratives to foster water nationalism in the case of the Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP) in Turkey. The...
Countries with shared common resources increasingly encounter water issues that transcend national borders, and international actors (IAs) like international organizations or development agencies play a significant role in addressing them. Realizing the benefits that IAs provide by contributing to peaceful reconciliation of diverging interests over shared water management, states have...
Despite increased understanding of the benefits of wetlands, global wetland area continues to decrease. Wetlands are being lost at an alarming rate, and with them, biodiversity, floodwater storage, water purification, and countless other functions. There is little information available about mechanisms to manage transboundary wetlands. While the Ramsar Convention is...
Research into the phenomenon of adaptation has surged in recent years as people across the globe face evolving climate situations. The role of women in this adaptation research, and in policy discussions, is often unclear or entirely unaddressed. An array of literature exists on the inclusion of women into environmental...
This is a comparative analysis of groundwater conflict and surface water conflict in Idaho from 1950-2019. The work looks at Idaho's exceptional experience with water and demonstrates that water conflict in Idaho is different than in other PNW states. The work outlines that Idaho's water conflict is almost solely focused...
This research is conducted to identify factors that contribute to understanding the relations between states and increasing the cooperation between countries which share transboundary watercourses, and enable countries to continue, also in difficult periods, cooperation in mutually beneficial relationships in a sustainable manner. This is an important issue especially in...
In the western United States, climate change is likely to bring greater uncertainty and extreme events outside the range for which water infrastructure, governance, and allocation mechanisms have been designed. In addition, many water systems already struggle with issues of institutional fragmentation, ineffective governance, and unsustainable management practices. Adaptive capacity,...
Global surface water quality has been degrading with predictions of negative trends in meeting the Sustainable Development Goal ambient water quality targets (Mead, 2019; WWAP & UN Water, 2019). These water quality impacts can cross borders and impact populations in world’s 204 transboundary lake and reservoir basins (ILEC & UNEP,...
In the last two decades, there has been an increase in substantial body of work on the inclusion of women in the water management and governance field. However, these scholarly inquiries have mostly focused on cases from the Global South, where women are still underrepresented in decision-making positions in the...
Drinking water access is a global concern. While drinking water is widely available in much of the U.S., there are still vulnerable communities that lack access, which signifies the presence of inequity in drinking water access distributions. In response, this research sought to explore solutions and develop reconnaissance-level plans to...
The levels of cooperation in efforts towards transboundary water management in the Aral Sea basin have ranged from high to low over the past few decades, due in part to diverse purposes for water use in the region. Two important and often conflicting uses are agriculture and hydropower, which tend...
International donors play a significant role in the mitigation and prevention of transboundary water disputes and the promotion of cooperation. In doing so, donors can exercise water diplomacy through a wide range of instruments from facilitating or mediating the negotiations to financing capacity building and specific activities in official and...
Although there is a substantial body of work on the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated processes of water management and water governance (Earle & Bazilli, 2013), these efforts have mostly been concentrated in the Global South and women are still lacking in positions with decision-making power, making water governance...
“Water security” is an umbrella term that explains a wide arrange of concerns over water despite the absence of agreement on its definition and use. Attaching the term “security” to “water” has often been regarded as an act of securitizing water, but its versatile application implies the need to carefully...
Basin-wide approach in managing water resources is believed to be the most effective way in addressing upstream and downstream flows. However, this poses certain challenges as water basins tend to be transboundary and include a plethora of stakeholders and their interests. In order to avoid conflictive and rival behavior riparian...
According to a number of scholars in transboundary water management, mistrust is considered to be one of the main obstacles to cooperation, especially for the exchange of hydrological data and information between newly-independent riparian states. The research presented here is focused on identifying the ways in which trust and mistrust...
Ensuring long term water security is the essential pathway towards development, prosperity, and stability in Afghanistan. However, the country is faced with water challenges that can be ascribed to governance failure at multiple levels of governance rather than to the resource base itself. Hence, studying the water governance system in...
In recent decades, watershed managers have increasingly turned to collaborative models of governance for water resource planning in the Western United States. By involving a wide array of stakeholders in decision-making, these place-based partnerships promise many benefits: better understanding of local needs, increased public support, and reduced conflict. Yet, many...
The majority of dam removals are small structures that are governed primarily by state and local bodies. The objective of this study is to characterize and evaluate the governance that has driven recent decisions to remove small dams. In the governance literature on small dam removals, three aspects remain unclear....
Reconciling working landscapes with Endangered Species Act (ESA) requirements is a vexing challenge playing out in watersheds across the western United States. Beaver-related watershed restoration (BRR) methodologies have the potential to reconcile competing demands for resource extraction and recovery of ESA-listed species by restoring ecosystem functionality more effectively and at...
Groundwater tables are dropping quickly in many regions of the world. Central Asia is an arid region where groundwater abstraction rates often exceed recharge rates. The Pretashkent Aquifer is a crucial transboundary groundwater resource for the Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Both countries rely on the aquifer as a primary...
Aquifers are a whole lot more than groundwater. Aquifers are composed of many kinds of different resources, including storage space, geothermal energy, surface interactions, and various minerals. However, unlike these resources, groundwater is treated as something different. The transition from groundwater management to groundwater governance expanded the role of social...
In watersheds across the American Pacific Northwest, changes in the cultural and regulatory landscape have increased pressure to restore and protect populations of anadromous fish. But restoration of anadromous fish populations constitutes a ‘wicked problem’, relentless in character, affecting diverse stakeholder groups, and defying ‘once and for all’ solutions (Weber...
Groundwater is often misunderstood because of its subsurface nature. Consequently, policies intended to govern the resource are fragmented as is evident in the Supreme Court case between Mississippi and Tennessee. Here, disagreements over ownership and the scientific-hydrogeological scope of groundwater in the Memphis Sand Aquifer have led to an 11-year...
This research is conducted to contribute to the enhancement of the transboundary water cooperation in the Euphrates and Tigris Basin. The main research questions answered are: “Is operationality of the transboundary water cooperation adequate to address the problems of the ET Basin and to reach sustainable development goals that are...
Oregon has already experienced the impacts of climate change, and these impacts are expected to become increasingly severe and varied. In response, the State of Oregon has taken a number of actions to adapt to changing conditions, including coordinated planning approaches to climate change adaptation. However, climate change adaptation actions...
Oregon’s coast draws millions of visitors every year to witness the natural wonders of one the world’s most vibrant and publicly accessible areas where mountain forests meet sandy beaches and the sea. Communities along the Oregon coast are restricted to narrow stretches of developable land overlying sand deposits between the...
With too many demands placed on too little water, the Klamath Basin and itsresidents - human and otherwise - are in dire need. There exists a significant opportunityfor mitigation in the purposeful conversion of seasonal wetlands to permanent wetlandsmanaged to increase baseline water storage levels in the Upper Basin. A...
Communities across the American West face new challenges in water management: historical management structures devised to prioritize economic uses, predominantly agriculture, are being tasked with adapting to address growing and changing populations, unaddressed species and ecosystem needs, and climatic changes. Scholars in the field of collaborative governance posit that collaborative...
In transboundary river basins, political borders oftentimes trace shared rivers across a basin. A border between territories can be seen as a space that is separated; however, it is actually one with the potential to unite populations and environments. A river basin is generally defined by its topography and hydrology....
The Willamette River Basin supports 70% of Oregon’s population and contains the richest native fish fauna in the state, (Hulse, Gregory, & Baker, 2002). The Basin is facing changes that stress its water management regimes. Is the Basin’s water management regime able to adapt in the face of these changes?...
Among the suite of water resources management strategies, water banking can be a tool for water resource management in areas with high water demands or localized water scarcity. This research aims to further the understanding of water banking by conducting a review and analysis of relevant state legislation. This research...
There is a significant gap in academia in the field of transboundary water management of the non-sovereign entities. The objective of this master’s thesis is to work towards filling this gap.
The first part of this master’s thesis research identifies potential hydro political tension risks of the transboundary basins in...
This study examined the Water Footprint Computer Assisted Board Game (WFCABG) as a tool for enhancing the social learning of water resources issues surrounding commodities trade. The study engaged 73 students from various countries and professional backgrounds, in two academic settings in two different countries: Oregon State University (United States)...
This research paper investigates the water conflict management approaches of the Anuak indigenous people in Gambella, Ethiopia. The paper poses the question do indigenous approaches to water conflict management provide some effective mechanisms that help to resolve conflict? If so, how? In order to provide answers to the research question,...
In recent years, several interrelated forces—prolonged drought, growing populations, height-ened environmental protections, sustained agricultural use, and hydrologic alterations due to climate change—have increased pressure on water users in the Western United States, where the agricultural sector accounts for up to 90% of total water withdrawals. Technology im-provements developed since the...
This study addresses the questions: 1) What kind of transboundary water management institution is needed for Afghanistan; and 2) what expertise is required for the institution and which stakeholders should be involved?
The establishment of a transboundary water resources management institution/unit is an essential step for Afghanistan in order to...
The Columbia River Treaty (CRT) is often used as an example of how treaties can work to normalize, regulate, and improve the cooperative management of shared water resources between basin countries. Few would argue that, in its limited mandate to regulate hydropower generation and flood risk management for downstream communities,...
Land management policies are ideas about nature projected onto the landscape. Culminations of social, economic, and scientific influences, these policies create standards affecting the function of ecological systems. In the case of riparian lands in the Oregon Coast Range, policy requirements vary considerably across federal, state, and private land ownerships....
This study explores how environmental governance mechanisms affect state management of forest roads to address the chronic delivery of sediment to streams in Oregon, Washington, and California on private and state forestlands. Forest roads can degrade water quality and harm aquatic life when runoff mobilizes fine sediments from the road...
Aggregate, which consists of crushed rock, sand, and gravel resources, is one of the most extracted resources in Oregon. Floodplain sites throughout the Willamette Valley -- particularly along the Willamette River -- are of particular importance because they produce high quality sand and gravel, located close to the aggregate market....
In the wake of policies catalyzing settlement through agrarian-based land ‘improvement’, private property rights absorbed water resources through Western water law. Consequently, these dominant user regimes and the doctrine of prior appropriation allocated nearly 80 percent of freshwater resources to agricultural use. Following enactment of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)...
From the 1960s to 1990s, the water quality of Dian Lake (滇池), China's sixth largest freshwater lake located outside the capital of Yunnan Province, Kunming City, rapidly declined causing livelihood disruption, decreased water availability, and biodiversity loss. Despite significant investments in remediation efforts, only small water quality improvements have been...
Sewerage infrastructure, including wastewater treatment facilities and conveyance pipes, is reaching the end of its useful life throughout the United States. Aging infrastructure may be more susceptible to fracturing and collapses due to deterioration. Further, sewerage infrastructure is usually designed to discharge untreated wastewater or stormwater into nearby waterways during...
This study sought to better understand the voluntary adoption of water quality improving practices by agricultural producers in Northern Malheur County, Oregon. The Reasoned Action Approach/Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a theoretical framework to identify barriers and incentives to adoption. Study findings suggest that producers primarily consider practical...
The rapid proliferation of exempt wells since the settlement of the West has left the State of Washington with little knowledge of the existing number of exempt wells within its boundaries. Exempt wells are primarily a rural phenomena that when abandoned leave aquifers vulnerable to contaminants and create a general...
Hardrock mining is associated with severe environmental and economic costs. Of particular concern is acid mine drainage which has contaminated several thousand kilometers of streams across the United States representing a formidable danger to watershed health. Given the high risks of this activity, ensuring high regulatory standards may be an...
The Oregon Coast's small water systems, like the vast number of small water systems across the U.S., are greatly vulnerable. Failing infrastructure, limited financial capital, and inadequate staff combined with future changes in climate, population size, and regulatory stringency spell out a potentially dire future for the region's water supply...
Surface water in the Deschutes Basin of central Oregon has been largely over
allocated since the early 1900s. Therefore, rapid population growth and urban
demand for water in the upper Basin lead to an increased reliance on groundwater in
the last three decades. The Oregon Department of Water Resources (OWRD)...
This study uses interviews with 18 businesses in Oregon's Willamette Valley to explore business investment in the environment, and how this relates to ecosystem services, payment for ecosystem services programs, and the water-energy nexus. Our research led us to outline 5 factors that influence business investment in the environment, those...
China's Minqin Oasis once welcomed traders along the ancient Silk Road with rivers, lakes, and lush forests, yet today the region's farmland and grassland are increasingly being engulfed by the sands of the Gobi Desert. The severity of this incremental catastrophe for a declining population of 300,000 residents has brought...
This study addresses the question: "What are the incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention and mitigation in the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and how do they factor into Reclamation's management of water in the western United States?" Incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention (i.e., actions taken to avoid conflict) and...
Irrigated agriculture accounts for 90 percent of consumptive use of freshwater in the western US and is considered the largest contributor to nonpoint source water pollution. The diffuse nature of most water quality and quantity challenges necessitates institutions that can more effectively engage agricultural producers in strategic, integrated, watershed-scale approaches...
In transboundary water resources policy and management situations, such as the governance of the Columbia River Basin, complex social, ecological, and economic factors seem to be in irreconcilable competition with one another. However, cooperative negotiation provides an outlet for entities and stakeholders to "expand the pie" and develop creative alternatives...
Tribal water rights and instream flows for species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been a source of tensions in the western United States, particularly when tribes have undetermined water rights to support tribal fisheries listed under the ESA. Understanding the mechanics of past tribal settlements and their...
Women and marginalized populations often encounter adversity associated with access, planning, and management of water and sanitation (WatSan) resources in rural India. The Government of India (GOI) has shifted to decentralized, participatory WatSan systems and developed policies to include women and marginalized populations from rural areas in WatSan. Many NGOs...
Stormwater has traditionally been conveyed off a developed site as quickly as possible, primarily through pipes. This runoff is often stored in large ponds and/or treated in central facilities. As cities grow and development continues, more runoff is generated via impervious surfaces. Excessive runoff impacts the water quality of water...
Dams are often promoted as a tool to reduce poverty and spur economic development. Dam construction worldwide, and particularly in China, which has built nearly half the world's large dams since 1949, remains contentious due to the potential for negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Despite numerous case studies, there is...
In the Middle Rio Grande region of New Mexico, challenges such as droughts, growing urban demand for water, and newly listed endangered species have forced people to change the way that they manage water. New challenges in water governance have created cooperation among agencies that often have conflicting interests, goals,...
Before 2002, almost all of the approximately 40,000 acres of land in the Wood River Valley, Oregon were used for intensive, flood-irrigated summer cattle grazing, as it had been for over 100 years. Conservation activity in the valley was limited to a couple of wealthy landowners. But a year after...
In October 2006, the Oregon State University Extension Service Well Water Program began a groundwater monitoring project to learn more about well water nitrate levels in the Southern Willamette Valley and increase community involvement in groundwater management activities. The primary objectives of the program were to elucidate trends in spatial...
Water governance has been identified as a crucial component to improving conditions and balancing supply and demand of water resources in the water-scarce Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Finding a method for, and commencing the process of, evaluating water governance is thus imperative. This study analyzes the potential to...
Numerous water supply systems and community based water boards have been created with the aid of international organizations and NGOs in developing countries. These water systems have great potential to improve people’s social life and health in these countries. However, in reality, these water systems are often not effectively managed;...
Emerging river policy has launched small dam removal as a viable option to meet the ecological and social demands for river restoration. As small dam removals gain precedence as a policy tool in river restoration projects there exists a glaring gap in the social considerations, in particular how small dam...
Collaboration between scientists and decision makers is a critical element in mobilizing science into action. Likewise, the United Nations defines collaboration between scientists and policymakers as a requisite component in the process of sustainable development. Despite the UN sustainability movement beginning in 1983, scientists may still be frustrated by their...
Several reports related to dams and dam removal have been released this decade by non-governmental organizations including Dam Removal: Science and Decision Making by The Heinz Center which focused on small dams, since most of the dams removed to date as well as those likely to be removed in the...
Globally, access to safe, reliable drinking water sources is a major challenge of this generation. Protected sources of drinking water provide communities with a sustainable, vital resource, yet many public water suppliers lack legal authority over their source water protection (SWP) area, especially in surface water systems. Absence of legal...
Growing urbanization, shifting water uses, and a focus on ecosystem health in the Deschutes River Basin in Central Oregon led to experimentation with new voluntary market-based approaches to water management in the last decade. To meet groundwater demands while maintaining instream flows and upholding prior water allocations, the Oregon Water...
The goal of this thesis is to identify the factors which have most significantly contributed to historical dam removals in the United States. The trend of increased dam removals over time is specifically analyzed for evidence that increased scarcity of environmental goods and services is motivating dam removals. A theoretical...
Massively multiplayer role-playing games (MMORPG) are becoming a popular leisure activity world-wide. MMORPG players have created a new kind of market, one for virtual possessions. Some players will buy and sell virtual goods for real-world money. Many game developers oppose this real-market trade because it threatens the control of their...