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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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;...
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...
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...
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...