Understanding Human Dimensions of Hydrologic Systems as a Scientific Project

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Understanding Human Dimensions of Hydrologic
Systems as a Scientific Project

• Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith
• Associate Professor
• Dept. of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
• Utah State University, Logan, Utah
• douglasj_at_hass.usu.edu

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Collaborators Colleagues

• David Chandler
• Joanna Endter-Wada
• Theresa Selfa
• Jack Schmidt

• Craig Forster
• Nancy Mesner
• Peter Nowak
• David Tarboton and the USU Water Initiative

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Starting Points

• Traditional approaches to hydrologic modeling are
  limited
• Focused on understanding the basic dynamics of
  natural systems
• Most hydrologic systems have been significantly
  affected by human behavior
• In fact it is difficult to find pristine
  hydrologic areas
• Particularly true in the arid Intermountain West
• Complex irrigation and culinary water diversions
• Urbanization, suburbanization, exurbanization
• I will argue that the advance of hydrologic
  modeling efforts will require systematic
  integration of information about human dimensions
  of hydrologic systems
• Social Scientists have something to offer

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Potential Social Science Contributions

• Different stages or degrees of involvement
• Stage 1 Document Understand Water-Related
  Human Behavior
• Stage 2 Linking Human and Hydrologic Research
  Efforts
• Stage 3 Rethinking Hydrologic Systems

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Stage 1 Involvement Study Water-Related Human
Behavior

• Must recognize different categories of behavior
  are water relevant
• MICRO e.g., household water consumption
  landscaping livestock manure management
• MESO e.g., community stormwater management,
  water rate structures, land use policies
• MACRO
• Markets (water, commodity, labor, housing, etc.)
• Law and Policy
• Intentional/Direct vs Unintentional/Indirect

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Data Collected by Social Scientists

• Demographic data (pop trends, migration,
  settlement patterns)
• Water use handling
• Consumption (by categories residential,
  industrial, ag, etc.)
• Transfers Disposal (water rights, irrigation
  systems, etc.)
• Changes in water-related land uses
• Land Cover Indicators (within ag, ag to urban,
  diff urban forms)
• Land Use Indicators (changes in type land mgt
  practices)
• Water law and policy

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More complicated than it seems

• Example 1 Measuring water-relevant demographic
  changes
• Recognize differences between net migration
  natural increase (births-deaths)
• Net changes mask variability in gross flows
• Recognize important threshold effects
• Not all populations have same impact on water
• Housing type patterns of residential
  development
• Affluence water consumption

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Example 2 Measuring water-related behaviors

• Sampling challenges
• Convenience vs Random sampling
• Finding a sampling frame
• Lessons from 2 decades studying agriculture
• Data collection techniques
• Official records
• Mail or telephone surveys
• Personal interviews

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Going Beyond DESCRIPTION

• Understanding social, economic, policy drivers of
  human behavior
• Key to enable modeling projections
• Needs different types of information
• Needs different data collection techniques
• Even nore difficult messy
• Yet it can be done well
• There is order lurking in the chaos
• We are used to working in non-experimental
  conditions

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Observations on Stage 1 Work

• Requires social science research expertise
• Experience helps avoid common errors
• Yes there is a science to what we do
• CAN be done independently of hydrologic studies
• But not likely to provide the right social
  science data for integrating with hydrologic data
• Wrong scale, wrong time period
• Costs -- you have to have a budget for it

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Stage 2 InvolvementLinking Social Hydrologic
Studies

• Interdisciplinary Teams
• Integrated Research Designs
• Examples
• Selecting Sites for Hydrologic Study
• Can strategically select areas to highlight
  important dimensions of water-related human
  landscape
• Collecting Data on Hydrology in an Explicitly
  Human-Impacted Landscape

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What it might look like

• Hydrologic study sites could be chosen to
  represent the full range of important human land
  uses that affect water dynamics
• STRATEGIC SELECTION Identify what these land use
  types are
• COORDINATION Collection of social and
  biophysical data with matching temporal spatial
  scales
• BENCHMARKING To enable extrapolation of results,
  
• Need to know how common each type is in larger
  landscape
• Need to understand dynamics of landscape land
  use change

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Examples of Land Use Typologies

• Rural/Agricultural Landscapes
• Different levels of land use intensity
• Many important changes within ag category
• Intensive vs non-intensive, commercial vs
  subcommercial
• Exurban and Rural-Urban Interface
• Ag adaptations in the urban context diverse
• Attributes of important non-ag land uses
• Urban environments
• Neighborhood design, density, landscaping

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Challenges of Stage 2 Work

• Requires interdisciplinary
• Mindset (sincere interest)
• Practices (contrast multi- with
  inter-disciplinarity)
• Budget
• Non-social scientists must understand some social
  science issues methods
• Social scientists must understand some non-social
  science issues methods

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Stage 3 Involvement Deep Thought

• Is it possible to RECONCEPTUALIZE HYDROLOGIC
  SYSTEMS to include humans?
• Human activities become central part of the way
  we conceive of the functioning of the hydrologic
  cycle
• Humans role more than just agent of
  disturbance
• Exemplar Urban Ecology?
• Challenges Humans are unique animals
• Adapt to socio-cultural and biophysical
  constraints
• Inhabit symbolic cultural world

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MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL Examples from the field
LITTLE BEAR RIVER WATERSHED PROJECT (Cache
County, UT)
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Background

• The Issue
• Nonpoint pollution of surface water (phosphorus)
• Animal agriculture perceived key contributor
• Numerous USDA/State projects implemented to
  change land mgt. practices (1990-present)
• Recommended Best Mgt Practices (BMPs)
• Rangeland Mgt., Stream Access, Manure Storage
• The Research Question
• Did the land mgt changes have desired impact?

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The Original Idea

• Gather water quality flow data
• Identify location, type, timing of BMPs
• Develop spatial model for surface water flow
  paths
• Phosphorus mainly surface transport problem
• Helps identify critical landscapes and enables
  modeling with appropriate spatial and temporal
  lags
• Test for statistically significant relationships

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Data Availability Issues

• Water data was good (relatively speaking)
• Climactic events (short long-term)
• Water flow records
• Water quality records
• Land management data was fair
• Formal records (program participants only)
• Actual behaviors (frequently deviates from plan)
• Exogenous force data was weak
• Other human impacts that might confound
  analysis
• Residential construction, dam mgt., irrigation
  mgt.

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What we foundso far

• Essentially a Human Impacted Surface Water System
  (probably groundwater too)
• Irrigation diversions everywhere
• Critical Landscape not always near the river
• River actually dry in several stretches
• BMP implementation
• Not everything done
• Maintenance problems
• Exogenous forces critical

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Complex Human Behavior Problems

• Clash of Researcher/Landowner Perspectives
• Water scientists see world as a hydrologic system
• Focus on biophysical conditions processes
  water-relevant human behaviors
• This particular group focused on water quality
  issue
• Land managers see through household/business
  lenses
• Most optimizing more than just phosphorus flows
• Labor capital constraints are critical factors
• Diverse population makes logic of decisions
  complex

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CONCLUSIONS

• Social scientists can be productive partners
• Integrating social science into hydrologic
  studies can lead to
• Better hydrologic science
• More accurate hydrologic models
• More relevant science
• Most important societal interest in water
  research is where humans are part of picture
• Funding agencies recognize this