abstract: Over the past century in the southwestern United States human actions have altered hydrological processes that shape riparian ecosystems. One change, release of treated wastewater into waterways, has created perennial base flows and increased nutrient availability in ephemeral or intermittent channels. While there are benefits to utilizing treated wastewater for environmental flows, there are numerous unresolved ecohydrological issues regarding the efficacy of effluent to sustain groundwater-dependent riparian ecosystems. This research examined how nutrient-rich effluent, released into waterways with varying depths to groundwater, influences riparian plant community development. Statewide analysis of spatial and temporal patterns of effluent generation and release revealed that hydrogeomorphic setting significantly influences downstream riparian response. Approximately 70% of effluent released is into deep groundwater systems, which produced the lowest riparian development. A greenhouse study assessed how varying concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, emulating levels in effluent, influenced plant community response. With increasing nitrogen concentrations, vegetation emerging from riparian seed banks had greater biomass, reduced species richness, and greater abundance of nitrophilic species. The effluent-dominated Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona, with a shallow groundwater upper reach and deep groundwater lower reach, served as a study river while the San Pedro River provided a control. Analysis revealed that woody species richness and composition were similar between the two systems. Hydric pioneers (Populus fremontii, Salix gooddingii) were dominant at perennial sites on both rivers. Nitrophilic species (Conium maculatum, Polygonum lapathifolium) dominated herbaceous plant communities and plant heights were greatest in effluent-dominated reaches. Riparian vegetation declined with increasing downstream distance in the upper Santa Cruz, while patterns in the lower Santa Cruz were confounded by additional downstream agricultural input and a channelized floodplain. There were distinct longitudinal and lateral shifts toward more xeric species with increasing downstream distance and increasing lateral distance from the low-flow channel. Patterns in the upper and lower Santa Cruz reaches indicate that water availability drives riparian vegetation outcomes below treatment facilities. Ultimately, this research informs decision processes and increases adaptive capacity for water resources policy and management through the integration of ecological data in decision frameworks regarding the release of effluent for environmental flows. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Plant Biology 2011

Submitted by Maria Medeiros (maria.dilva1@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-07-17T11:24:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JOÃO VIRGILIO FELIPE LIMA - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGECA) 2008.pdf: 1580123 bytes, checksum: 646e6481713a3034daf096d2a8ef020c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-17T11:24:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JOÃO VIRGILIO FELIPE LIMA - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGECA) 2008.pdf: 1580123 bytes, checksum: 646e6481713a3034daf096d2a8ef020c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-09 / Capes / A água, até bem pouco tempo, era considerada um recurso livre da natureza e para qualquer que fosse a demanda sobre ela, esta poderia ser suprida, indefinidamente. Porém, o desenvolvimento econômico, industrial e social, ligado ao aumento da poluição industrial e os problemas decorrentes da falta de saneamento e abastecimento de água contribuiu para a formação de uma consciência mais adequada à realidade, não existindo dúvidas de que deve haver uma forma eficaz de controle do uso da água. A Lei Federal 9.433/97 que instituiu a Política Nacional de Recursos Hídricos e criou o Sistema Nacional de Gerenciamento de Recursos Hídricos traz como fundamento que a água é um bem de domínio público, dotado de valor econômico. Ela prevê a gestão integrada e tem dentre seus instrumentos a cobrança pelo uso da água bruta. O objetivo desta pesquisa é levantar funções de demanda ordinária e a partir das mesmas, estabelecer a elasticidade-preço para cada um dos usuários e as reduções de benefícios resultantes de possíveis exigências de diminuição da carga poluidora. A Bacia Hidrográfica do rio Pirapama (em Pernambuco) e seu setor sucro-alcooleiro foram selecionados como caso de estudo. Os resultados obtidos indicam um alto potencial poluidor oriundo principalmente da vinhaça, efluente gerado no processo de fabricação do álcool e aguardente, e uma série de perda de benefícios quando são incorporadas aos custos privados às externalidades provocadas aos demais usuários. / The water, until recently, was considered a free resource of nature and whatever the demand about it, this could be supplied indefinitely. However, the economic, industrial and social development, related to increased industrial pollution and the problems arising from poor sanitation and water supply contributed to the formation of more adequate awareness to reality. There is no doubt that there must be an effective way to control water use. The Federal Law 9.433/97 established the National Water Resources Policy and created the National System of Water Resources Management. It defines water as a public good with economic value. The Law defined an integrated water resources management. It has among its instruments, charging for the use of raw water. The objective of this research was to get ordinary demand functions and from them, the price elasticity for each of water user and the reductions of benefits resulting from possible demands for reduction of pollution load. Pirapama River Basin (Pernambuco State, Brazil) and its sugarcane industry were selected as case study. The results indicate a high potential pollutant derived mainly from vinasse effluent generated in the manufacturing process of alcohol and spirits, and a number of loss of benefits when incorporated into private costs to externalities caused to other users.

Esta é uma tese sociológica sobre formas de assimilação social de novas institucionalidades para regulação do uso e acesso aos recursos hídricos. Busca empreender, a despeito do recorte disciplinar de sua problemática, um esforço no diálogo de saberes com os campos da economia, filosofia, antropologia, geografia humana, agronomia, ecologia e direito ambiental. Sua apresentação geral consta de uma revisão teórico-conceitual crítica sobre o princípio neoclássico da valoração ambiental e da apresentação de dois estudos de caso sobre os possíveis impactos que a política de valoração da água trará para a agricultura paulista. Na revisão teórico-conceitual, a tese discute a necessidade de elaboração de estratégias epistêmicas alternativas de interpretação dos modernos conflitos sócio-ambientais. Propõe a superação dos enfoques formalistas de modelagem da relação sociedade-natureza. Nos estudos de caso, a tese apresenta diferentes possibilidades de ajustamento entre distintas configurações territoriais - dotadas de relações específicas de produção material e de exercício do poder social - e os anseios do princípio da valoração da água. As conclusões gerais do trabalho apontam para uma crítica às intervenções institucionais de gestão ambiental baseadas em modelos universalizantes de supostas condutas racionais de agentes e/ou grupos sociais. / This is a sociological thesis about ways of social assimilating of new institutional inovations for the regulation of the use and access to water resources. It seeks to make an effort to obtain a knowledge dialogue with the fields of economy, philosophy, anthropology, human geography, agronomy, ecology and environmental laws. The thesis\'s general presentation consists of a critical theoretical review about the neoclassical principle of environmental valuation and the presentation of two case studies about the possible impacts that the water valuation policy will bring to the agriculture in São Paulo state. In the theoretical review, the thesis discusses the necessity of elaborating alternative strategies for the interpretation of the modern social and environmental conflicts. It proposes to overcome the formalist approaches of modeling in the relation society-nature. In the case studies, the thesis presents different possibilities of adjustment among different territorial configurations - with specific relations of material production and the exertion of the social power - and the aims of the water valuation principles. The general conclusions of the work point to a criticism to the institutional intervention of environmental policy based on models of suposedly rational bahaviors of agents and/or social groups.

Water governance in South Africa is challenged by natural as well as socially constructed water scarcity. 15 years after the transition from Apartheid to the new democratic era, this paper shows that water resources are still distributed along racial lines. Based on a case study in rural KwaZulu Natal, results indicate that outcomes of water policies which aimed at redressing historic inequalities have not yet been able to create the expected benefits for the disadvantaged black farming community. This paper uses an ecosystem service (ESS) approach to assess how those benefits that are derived from different water-related ecosystem services (WES) developed in the smallholder community and its adjacent commercial farming area. The change in the distribution of water for household use, water for irrigation, water flow regulation and water for scenic beauty is further discussed in regards to its response to water policies on local and national level. Hereby, the paper addresses the research need to provide insight into ESS responses to policy outcomes, which in turn is expected to reveal challenges and opportunities for policy makers to incorporate the complex yet important interactions between social and ecological systems into their decision making. Practically, this paper contributes by making gaps in ESS utilization between smallholder and commercial farmers explicit. Focusing on the material aspects of equality, i.e. the redistribution of water resources is argued to be neither feasible nor unequivocally desirable in the near future. Rather, I encourage capacity building to increase possibilities of the smallholder farmers to effectively use existing resources.

This study has taken as reference, for investigation and analysis, the poor population access to water at the isolated areas in the semi-arid region of Tobias Barreto, which is located in the State of Sergipe, Brazil, from the experience of the Programa Um Milhão de Cisternas (P1MC) One Million Cisterns Program. The P1MC is a non state-owned public policy founded within the boundaries of the State reform, in the exhaustion of federal and state rural development vertical policies, in the persistence of rural Northeast underdevelopment problems, specially in the semi-arid region, and with the advent of sustainable development concept from 1992 on, at UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Conceived in the methodological source derived from Áridas Project, it foresees an articulated action at the semi-arid territory with the objective of joining to its basic premises of breaking the monopoly of access to water, land and other means of production and preservation, sustainable use and environmental reconstitution of semi-arid natural resources, other public policies actions which are capable of supplying the bare necessities of that population such as education, health, work, land, environment, leisure, technology and welfare assistance. Guided by the effort of guaranteeing the principles of the Programa de Convivência com o Semi-árido Program of Coexistence with Semi-Arid, which proclaims joint management, partnership, decentralization and participation, social mobilization, citizen education, social rights, sustainable development, civil society strengthening and construction of a new political culture capable of breaking the command of favoritism and welfarism, P1MC faces, in Tobias Barreto, the challenges of the political weakness of the mass social organizations and the low level of organization of those who are socially excluded, in spite of their need of mobilization to get involved in the Program, in order to obtain their autonomy. This analysis has shown that the non-governamental organizations are subordinated to the determinations of programs that come to the localities ready, in accordance with international and multilateral organizations interests and without the participation of the population in their definition. In contradiction, their commitment and participation in the execution of the program are required. P1MC has been introduced in 6 of the 25 villages of Tobias Barreto municipality which were selected for beeing the most isolated ones, having the most difficult access to water and the highest level of poverty, reaching, in this way, 172 of the 283 families. The Program is inserted in the spectrum of water policies of sustainable regional development of poverty mitigation. / Este estudo tem como referência, para investigação e análise, o acesso à água das populações pobres de áreas isoladas do Agreste Semi-árido de Tobias Barreto, a partir das ações do Programa Um Milhão de Cisternas (P1MC). O P1MC é uma política pública não estatal fundada nos marcos da reforma do Estado, no esgotamento das políticas verticais de desenvolvimento rural federal e estadual, na persistência dos problemas de subdesenvolvimento do Nordeste rural, em especial na região do semi-árido e na emergência do conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável a partir da ECO-92. Concebido na vertente metodológica derivada do Projeto Áridas, prevê uma ação articulada no território do semiárido visando acoplar às suas premissas básicas de quebra do monopólio do acesso à água, a terra e outros meios de produção e de preservação, uso sustentável e recomposição ambiental dos recursos naturais do semi-árido, outras ações de políticas públicas capazes de suprir as necessidades humanas básicas daquelas populações em termos de educação, saúde, trabalho, terra, meio ambiente, lazer, tecnologia e assistência. O P1MC, guiado pelo referencial da Convivência com o Semi-árido em contraposição à idéia de combate à seca que perpassou as políticas para o semi-árido até a década de 1980, tem como princípios norteadores gestão compartilhada, parceria, descentralização e participação, mobilização social, educação cidadã, direito social, desenvolvimento sustentável, fortalecimento da sociedade civil e a construção de uma nova cultura política capaz de romper com o domínio do clientelismo e do assistencialismo.Defronta-se nos áridos recônditos de Tobias Barreto, com o desafio do enfraquecimento político das organizações sociais de massa e a baixa organização dos extratos socialmente excluídos, na contrapartida da necessidade de sua mobilização para engajamento na execução do Programa e para a construção de autonomia. A análise evidenciou a subordinação das ONG s à lógica da captação de recursos e às determinações de programas que chegam às localidades prontos, em acordo com a visão e com as exigências de organismos multilaterais e internacionais, sem que a população tenha qualquer participação na sua definição, mas para os quais, é requisitado o seu engajamento ou participação. O P1MC foi implantado em 6 dos 25 povoados do município de Tobias Barreto, selecionados por apresentarem maior isolamento, mais difícil acesso à água e maior índice de pobreza, atingindo 172 famílias das 283 que ali vivem. O Programa insere-se no espectro das políticas hídricas, de desenvolvimento regional sustentável e de combate à pobreza.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study examines the problems of implementing water allocation policy in the context of the local state bureaucracy as well as the specific experiences of local black emerging farmers in the Breede Gouritz Water Management Area. This study used qualitative research methods and is based on many hours of interviews and observing bureaucrats and stakeholders at the receiving end of the bureaucratic business process of water allocation. It is not only concerned with the physical and technical aspects of access but explores how the different role players interact, navigate, shape, frame and manage challenges to gain access to and control water for productive use. The actual experiences and understandings of the stakeholders in their own contexts when engaging with the access to water are crucial to gain a comprehensive understanding and insight into the influence of bureaucracy and power relations. This thesis therefore maps the confusions and incapacities and shows that even though the South African laws are based on the best international frameworks, they fail, as they do not sufficiently address the unique environment and landscape. Existing scholarship has not adequately researched local bureaucratic power. At the coalface of implementation, bureaucrats make up their own rules to cope with rapid policy churning. Combined with existing power relations, policy implementation and policy direction is steered towards different and unintended trajectories, making transformation a challenge to achieve. Consequently, my main finding is that there have been constant and rapid legislative and policy changes but they have simply added to the confusion and instability.

No description available.

The US Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), established in 1974, has improved water quality nationwide through the introduction of maximum contaminant levels, source water protection, and treatment guidelines and requirements. Despite the obvious success many important water quality issues are not covered by regulation. These include the following four topics in this dissertation: 1) Support infrastructure for private well users, 2) Identification and analysis of contaminants in private wells, 3) Leaks or corrosion within building plumbing, and 4) The role of citizen scientists in addressing water quality concerns. Private wells, which provide water for approximately 13% of the population (42.5 million people), are not subject to any federal regulation and well users are responsible for ensuring their own water safety. When water quality issues do arise, state or local organizations can provide critically important support. For instance, in North Carolina (NC) local health departments (LHDs) are required to have private well programs that enforce statewide well construction standards, offer water testing services, and provide well water outreach and assistance. Little is known about the effectiveness of such programs, however, so this work conducted a survey of all NC LHDs to determine their capacity for well water outreach and identify differences among programs around the state. All LHDs reported overseeing the construction of new wells as required by law. However, services provided to existing well users were offered infrequently and/or inconsistently offered. Lack of uniformity was observed in the number of LHD staff and their assigned responsibilities; the costs and availability of well water testing; and the comfort of LHD staff communicating with well owners. While the total number of staff was lower in LHDs in rural counties, the number of outreach activities and services offered was typically not related to the number of well users served. Variations in structure and capacity of well programs at LHDs has created unequal access to services and information for well users in NC. Such gaps in NC, which has among the most stringent state guidelines for well water support, suggests the need to examine conditions in other states nationwide. While direct support to private well users is more common at the state and local levels, the scientific information and resources needed by these officials can be supplemented at the federal level or through academia, especially with respect to emerging contaminants, which many officials may not yet have experience with. For instance, following Hurricane Florence in 2018, dam failures and flooding of coal ash disposal and reuse sites in NC prompted concerns about potential contamination of well water with hexavalent chromium. There is also widespread naturally occurring Cr(VI) in the groundwater however, and methods accessible to state and local officials to identify sources are needed. Literature was reviewed related to source tracking techniques and they were applied to Cr(VI) data we collected from 1,265 private wells across 22 NC counties. Almost two thirds of private wells tested (62.0%) exceeded the Cr(VI) public health goal of 0.07 ppb, with concentrations ranging from <0.02-13.9 ppb (median=0.12 ppb). In the literature review, we identified 33 Cr(VI) groundwater tracking techniques from 51 publications and only 5 techniques were used in more than 12 papers. All papers used different combinations of techniques. We applied these techniques to our well sampling data, and inconclusive results were reported for 7 techniques, while three techniques suggested potential geogenic sources whereas three techniques indicated anthropogenic Cr(VI) sources. Specifically looking at coal ash, two techniques did not support coal ash as a primary source and three were inconclusive. Overall, these techniques did not agree as to the origins of Cr(VI) in well water. This may be due to the fact that these techniques primarily focused on regional scale identification, rather than household-level occurrence. This study demonstrates the difficulty and complexity in identifying and distinguishing the source(s) responsible for Cr(VI) in well water. In addition to private wells, another gap in the SDWA framework involves corrosion of plumbing within a home or private building. The Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) was the first SDWA legislation to include sampling at the tap in private buildings, although these results are only used to inform control of the corrosivity of the water at the treatment plant. Thus, there is no maximum level of lead or copper enforced at the consumers tap, and protection against excessive private plumbing corrosion is not required. A survey conducted about a decade ago suggested that recent efforts to increase temperatures of hot water systems to better control Legionella bacteria might also be increasing pinhole leaks in copper plumbing. Recently, an overseas large building experienced at least 300 pinhole leaks in a hot water recirculation system that frequently exceeded > 65°C in 2018. The occurrence of leaks along the top of the pipes where thick deposited of metal oxides were not visibly protective, was not consistent with conventional patterns of failure, but seemed to be a manifestation of an unusual type of hot water pitting due to the presence of cathodic iron or manganese oxide suggested in prior literature. A macro-cell apparatus was developed and tested to mechanistically test this novel hot water pitting corrosion mechanism experimentally. Cathodic manganese oxides deposits were shown to drive pitting corrosion on a part of the pipe surface without deposits. Pitting occurred over a wide range of pH and was worst at a high ratio of sulfate to bicarbonate. While iron oxide coatings tested in this work did not behave cathodically, as suggested in prior literature, further research could determine if some iron oxides might behave similarly to the manganese oxide tested in this work. Past failures to follow provisions of the SDWA has undermined trust in water safety nationally. Collaborations between citizens and scientists can sometimes expose problems with water safety. Over the last decade we have helped consumers evaluated their concerns using citizen science collaborative approaches. We documented and summarized several case studies conducted by the U.S. Water Study team at Virginia Tech that had varying degrees of success in exposing problems with water supplies via citizen science collaborations. The case studies start with a discussion of work in Flint, MI (lead and Legionella bacteria) in 2015 and St. Joseph, LA in 2016 (lead and iron). Later cases included: Enterprise, LA (lead and iron), Denmark, SC (lead, iron, and Halosan), Chicago, IL (lead), Moore, OK (arsenic), Santa Barbara, CA (copper), anonymous town in SC (Acanthamoeba), and Harrisonburg, VA (Legionella). Approaches, challenges and outcomes of each case study are reviewed along with lessons learned. Overall, this dissertation explored water quality issues which, for various reasons, fall outside of the existing SDWA regulatory framework. The importance of well water support was emphasized by documenting inequalities between local health departments well services and by critically reviewing literature to find a lack of scientific guidance for source determination for an important emerging contaminant. Development of a novel apparatus for monitoring of chemistry related hot water pitting allows for a better understanding of this mechanism and provides a baseline of guidance for avoiding or mitigating such problems in the future. Finally, the use of citizen science to address past water quality concerns and that considers reasonable expectations for future work was evaluated. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the United States, drinking water is usually collected and treated by a local drinking water treatment plant before being sent out to all customers within a city or community. Since the 1970's, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulated treatment plants to make sure they do not send out water that could be potentially dangerous to the health of those drinking, cooking, or bathing with it. These EPA regulations have helped deliver cleaner and cleaner water across the country, but they do not protect every aspect of drinking water for every person in the US. This dissertation covers four topics that EPA regulations do not cover including: 1) Support systems for people getting their water from private wells, 2) Understanding dangers to safe water in unregulated private wells, 3) Leaks in plumbing within a building, and 4) The role of citizens working closely with scientists to determine if their water is safe. More than 1 in 10 people in the US get their drinking water from private wells, and EPA regulations do not protect the safety of that water. Instead, consumers are on their own to make sure it is safe to drink. When water that could be dangerous is discovered, state or local governments are important sources where residents can get help in treating it. For instance, in North Carolina (NC), local county health departments are required to have programs focused on private wells. The goals of these programs are to make sure new wells are built according to legal codes, offer to test well water for residents, and answer questions people have about their well water. No one has ever determined how well how well health departments meet these goals. This work sent a survey to each health department in NC to figure out how much each was doing and identify any differences between counties. All health departments were checking new wells to make sure they were installed according to state law. But all health departments did not provide support or answer questions of people who had older wells. Some of the differences were due to the number of staff working on these problems, costs charged for well water testing, and the confidence with which staff answered well water questions. Well users in different NC counties get a different level of service as a result. The fact that these differences exist in NC, a state believed among the best in supporting private well owners, suggests a need for a similar analysis in other states. Local health departments and state agencies are more likely to work directly with people concerned about their well water. College or federal government researchers can still help support these groups. Extra support is important when contaminants that state or local officials haven't experienced before become concerning. In one example, after Hurricane Florence in NC in 2018, sites where coal power plants had been throwing away their coal ash became flooded, and coal ash was introduced into floodwaters. Coal ash has been known to contain Cr(VI), which can is believed to increase chances of cancer if consumed in drinking water. Cr(VI) also occurs naturally, when it is leached from rocks in groundwater. Figuring out where Cr(VI) found in a private well is from is difficult. To determine methods of figuring out the sources of Cr(VI) we reviewed scientific literature and documented the methods that had been used before to determine Cr(VI) sources. Then, we conducted a sampling campaign across the state, and sampled 1,265 private wells from 22 different NC counties. Cr(VI) was found in many of the wells we tested, and nearly 2/3 had Cr(VI) above the level established by the NC state government as a potential health concern. From previous literature, we reviewed 51 papers and found 33 methods that had been used to determine the source of Cr(VI) in groundwater. Only five of these methods were used by more than 12 papers and while many papers used more than one method, no papers used the same grouping of methods. When we used the methods from the literature to see how the results compared between methods, they did not all agree. Three said that Cr(VI) was coming from natural sources, three indicated it came from industry, and seven made no prediction. Overall, this study shows how difficult it can be to find out the source of Cr(VI) that occurs in private wells. Leaks in copper plumbing inside of a home or building are also not covered at all by EPA laws. The Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), passed in 1991, does include testing the water coming out of peoples' faucets for copper. But those testing results are only used to make changes at the water treatment plant to make the water less corrosive. Over the last 10-20 years, scientists have become worried that pipes may be at risk of forming more leaks, when higher hot water temperatures are used to prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria that can grow in plumbing. In one large building outside the US, at least 300 leaks were found in hot water pipes, costing large amounts of money to fix. In the past, most leaks like this were at the bottom of pipes, under settled particles with iron and manganese oxides in them. In this building though, leaks were at the top of pipes, where there was no deposit, which was very surprising. One reason for this could have been a type of reaction from past studies where iron or manganese coatings cause a reaction which forms leaks in nearby copper pipe. No experiments have ever proven this reaction though. Our study made a lab setup to learn more about this reaction and proved that it is possible and was due to manganese oxide. We found the most corrosion occurred in water with high pH and high levels of sulfate. Iron oxide particles did not cause the reaction in our study, but it is possible that other types of iron oxide could still have a role in making the reaction happen. Past examples of cities or towns not following EPA rules has caused distrust in public drinking water. Citizens and scientists working closely together have sometimes been able to find out about such problems and get them fixed. Over the last 10 years, we have helped people learn more about their water concerns by working with them to take and analyze water tests. We documented a number of those cases which had different levels of success. The first case we talk about is Flint, MI in 2015, then St. Joseph, LA in 2016. Later cases include cities in Louisiana, South Carolina, Illinois, Oklahoma, California, and Virginia, with a number of different water risks. The first two cases caused drastic and quick changes to water safety and drinking water emergencies were declared. But after that the response was less urgent. If scientists want to pursue work with citizens who have concerns, they will need to be ready for keep working on it for a long time, and face disagreement from agencies and government groups who provide the water. Overall, this work tried to help people, who were not being protected by government rules, or who felt that they were being harmed by governments or companies who were breaking the rules. Many of these problems make people worried about their water, or create worries that are not necessary, or cost consumers a lot of money. More work is needed to address this type of problem.

Human and freshwater ecosystems are intrinsically interconnected. To better design effective policies, modeling tools and valuation methods are necessary to help understanding the complex reciprocal linkages between ecosystem processes and human actions, and coupled human and natural systems (CNHS) sets up a critical paradigm to do so. It is thus of both academic and empirical appeal to integrate reliable economic valuation methods with tools and models from multiple disciplines in order to quantify the feedbacks between human and natural systems and to inform better policy design. Using freshwater resources as an example, this dissertation contains three essays which integrate natural science and economics models to understand how changes in human behavior and societal policies lead to changes in ecosystem services, and how changes in ecosystem services, in return, affect human decisions. The first two essays focus on agricultural nonpoint source pollution problems in United States and examines the impacts of potential water polices on both water polluters and water demanders. Specifically, in the first essay, a novel coupling between an ecological model of within-lake hydrodynamics and an economic model of hedonic property prices has been developed to quantify the connections between nutrient loading, lake water quality, and economic outcomes. Linking ecological processes with human decision-making provides a basis for enhanced evidence-based decision making in the context of reducing nonpoint-source pollution. In the second essay, an economic mathematical programming model is coupled with an agro-ecosystem model to investigate the behavioral adjustments and environmental pollution outcomes of water quality policies. A complete quantification of costs from all regulating sources are necessary to help pinpoint the efficient water policy design and reflecting the connection between human decisions and ecosystem processes. The third essay focus on the water quantity problem in another developed country, Australia. A discrete choice experiment method has been explored and used to provide estimates of willingness to pay for purchasing irrigation rights to restore a Ramsar-convention wetland. Water policy scenario described in this essay could directly affect the feedback between human and ecosystem processes and serve as a baseline for future planning and policy designs. By offering both conceptual and methodological advancements, this dissertation aims to improve the understanding of coupled human and natural systems and the implementation of water policies. This dissertation also provides a framework to establish multi-disciplinary dialogues and cooperation between scientists and economists in the search of efficient water polices. / Doctor of Philosophy / Freshwater resources are one of the most important elements in our daily life. It provides important goods and services to our society, but at the same time, due to human behaviors, freshwater resources are under threat in both their quality and quantity. This dissertation contains three essays which integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines to help understand and quantify the linkages between human and freshwater resources, and provides information to come up with better water polices. In the first essay, I explore the connections between nutrient loading, lake water quality, and the economic outcomes. The essay illustrates how potential change in nutrient loadings affect lake water quality, and how that induces people’s housing purchase behavior, property sales price and local governments’ property tax revenue. In the second essay, I focus on the agricultural production problem, which is one of the largest source for water quality degradation. By exploring the impacts of water policy on farmers’ production decisions, the essay sheds light on how to better design water polices to maintain farmers’ profit while simultaneously alleviating the impact of agricultural production to water qualities. In the third essay, I utilize a survey method, choice experiments, to elicit people’s willingness to pay for wetland ecosystem health. This could better allocate water resources between agricultural production use and residential use and come up with better water quantity polices.

Population growth, coupled with changing weather patterns, is straining water supplies, especially in the American Southwest. A multitude of tools, including additional storage, will be needed to meet water demand and supply gaps. The Animas-La Plata Project, a reservoir in southwest Colorado, provides a case study of how groups worked for nearly 70 years to solve a water problem: insufficient irrigation for agriculture. This qualitative case study addressed a lack of first-person narratives from those most involved. Its purpose was to gather stakeholder narratives and analyze them using Kingdon's three streams theory to address the extent to which the problem, policy, and political streams converged to open policy windows that resulted in a built facility. Purposeful sampling identified 11 organizational stakeholders with the highest seniority and longest association with the project. Transcribed data from structured interview questions were inductively coded and thematically analyzed. Key findings include identification of a major federal policy change in the late 1970s to 1980s that excluded escalated benefits of water projects. Within this same timeframe, necessary elements were present to open a policy window, the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement, which resulted in project construction. If strategists can learn to predict the opening of policy windows "when the problem, policy, and political streams join" water resource planning and policy can be improved. Retrospective narrative analysis is a promising ex post audit and evaluation tool that policy analysts can use to assess program performance and lessons learned. Social change implications of the study are that its findings on the need for positive collaboration may prove valuable to those in management who seek to address water scarcity issues.