DISES: Collaborative Approaches to Manage Decentralized Socio-Environmental Systems: Water Partnerships to Promote Aquifer Storage for Equitable Economic & Environmental Resilience

Water scarcity is a growing challenge for many regions, particularly in areas like California, where competition for water among cities, farms and the environment is intensifying amid increasing climate variability. Projects to intentionally infiltrate water into underground formations (aquifers), a strategy called managed aquifer recharge (MAR), are getting traction as an alternative to surface reservoirs, because they can provide long-term water storage and water resilience to groundwater-dependent communities.

Properly implemented, MAR can enhance communities’ access to safe and reliable drinking water, lower costs, reduce flood risks, and provide ecosystem benefits. However, the development of infrastructure projects by highly fragmented water management institutions has often excluded groundwater-dependent, rural communities from decision-making, resulting in inequitable and contested outcomes.

This project’s goal is to analyze the role of decentralized investment partnerships in developing aquifer storage infrastructure that promotes economic productivity and environmental benefits, while enhancing community access to safe and reliable drinking water under a changing climate. The results will be presented to communities, water suppliers and state decision makers to evaluate and model political responses and improve the overall societal outcomes.

The resulting decision-making framework for MAR development, accounting for political feedbacks, will provide useful direction to regions throughout the Western U.S. and beyond.

The project will generate a better understanding of the socio-environmental systems surrounding water management in agriculture-intensive regions. The project will analyze the role of decentralized, multi-stakeholder, investment partnerships in developing aquifer storage infrastructure that promotes economic productivity and environmental benefits, while enhancing community access to safe and reliable drinking water under a changing climate.

The research will clarify how decentralized investment partnerships can promote economic productivity and environmental benefits, while enhancing community access to safe and reliable drinking water under a changing climate. The research will integrate political and institutional feedbacks into simulation-based water resources models that can inform decision making in the challenging context of western U.S. water management.

The project will use a co-production framework that involves collaborating with fourteen cooperating partners representing a diverse array of stakeholders, to advance theory and produce actionable results related to: water portfolio design, collaboration risk in large-scale infrastructure partnerships, multi-objective assessment of MAR benefits under uncertainty, and political advocacy by groundwater-dependent, rural communities during periods of institutional development and change. Research dissemination will include policymaker briefings, stakeholder workshops and interactive web content.

The resulting decision-making framework for MAR development accounting for political feedbacks will provide useful direction to regions throughout the Western U.S. and beyond.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.