Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:44:17.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Managing Water in Western North Carolina: Decision-Maker Perceptions and Policy Implementation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2014

Kristan Cockerill*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
Christopher Badurek
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar
Robin Hale
Affiliation:
Instructor, Department of Geography and Planning, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
*
Address correspondence to: Kristan Cockerill, Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608; (phone) 828-262-7252; (fax) 828-262-6400; (e-mail) [email protected].
Get access

Abstract

Western North Carolina is water rich, with high annual rainfall and historically low population. Therefore, water management has traditionally not been a significant policy issue. Recent droughts and high population growth, however, have stressed many water supply systems. To deal effectively with these stresses, new policies and management practices have been initiated, prompted by both state mandates and local pressure. As pressures are likely to continue, there is a need to understand what motivates policy development and what processes decision makers use when creating water management policies and programs. Previous research finds that decision makers are apt to base decisions on perceptions, personal beliefs and historical practice rather than on relevant water data. In this study, survey results are used to understand how decision-maker perceptions about water availability, growth, and environmental concerns correlate with water allocation and conservation policies. Results indicate that respondents are only moderately concerned about water availability and drought is the primary concern, rather than population growth. Few of these decision makers have implemented water education programs, but many have implemented drought-related conservation programs. Environmental concerns related to water management are quite low among all respondents.

Environmental Practice 16: 94–101 (2014)

Type
Features
Copyright
© National Association of Environmental Professionals 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agnew, J. 2011. Waterpower: Politics and the Geography of Water Provision. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 101(3):463476.Google Scholar
Bolson, J., Martinez, C., Breuer, N., Srivastava, P., and Knox, P.. 2013. Climate Information Use among Southeast US Water Managers: Beyond Barriers and toward Opportunities. Regional Environmental Change 13(Suppl. 1):S141S151.Google Scholar
Butler, D., and Memon, F.A.. 2006. Water Demand Management. IWA (International Water Association), London, 361pp.Google Scholar
Caplan, N. 1976. Factors Associated with Knowledge Use among Federal Executives. Policy Studies Journal 4(3):229234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockerill, K. In press. The Water Supply Is Fine: Decision-Maker Perceptions of Water Quantity and Supply-Side Management. Water and Environment Journal, doi:10.1111/wej.12029.Google Scholar
Cowell, C., and Urban, M.. 2010. The Changing Geography of the U.S. Water Budget: Twentieth-Century Patterns and Twenty-First-Century Projections. Annals of the Association of American Geographers (Special Issue: Climate Change) 100(4):740754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falkenmark, M. 2004. Towards Integrated Catchment Management: Opening the Paradigm Locks between Hydrology, Ecology and Policy-Making. International Journal of Water Resources Development 20(3):275281.Google Scholar
Fane, S., and Turner, A.. 2010. Integrated Water Resource Planning in the Context of Climate Uncertainty. Water Science & Technology: Water Supply 10(4):487494.Google Scholar
Feldman, D.L. 2009. Prevention the Repetition: Or, What Los Angeles’ Experience in Water Management Can Teach Atlanta about Urban Water Disputes. Water Resources Research 45(4):W04422(15 pp.).Google Scholar
Feldman, D.L., and Ingram, H.M.. 2009. Making Science Useful to Decision Makers: Climate Forecasts, Water Management, and Knowledge Networks. Weather, Climate, and Society 1(1):921.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, D.M. 2000. Wicked Water Problems: Sociology and Local Water Organizations in Addressing Water Resources Policy. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 36(3):483491.Google Scholar
Gleick, P.H. 2002. Water Management: Soft Water Paths. Nature 418(6896):373.Google Scholar
Hagevik, C., and Badurek, C.A.. 2011. Temporal Analysis of Climatological Drought in Watauga County, 1940 to 2009. North Carolina Geographer 18:1933.Google Scholar
Harris, S.G. 1994. Organizational Culture and Individual Sensemaking: A Schema-Based Perspective. Organization Science 5(3):309321.Google Scholar
High Country Council of Governments (HCOG). 2010. High Country Water Resource Plan. HCOG, Boone, NC, 121pp. Available at http://www.regiond.org/FINAL_WATER_RESOURCE_PLAN.pdfGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, F.G., and Fuhrer, U.. 2003. Ecological Behavior’s Dependency on Different Forms of Knowledge. Applied Psychology 52(4):598613.Google Scholar
Kirchhoff, C.J. 2010, August 1. Integrating Science and Policy: Climate Change Assessments and Water Resources Management (unpublished PhD dissertation). Report CSS10-16. Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 292 pp. Available at http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS10-16.pdfGoogle Scholar
Labianca, G., Gray, B., and Brass, D.J.. 2000. A Grounded Model of Organizational Schema Change during Empowerment. Organization Science 11(2):235257.Google Scholar
Larson, K.L., Gustafson, A., and Hirt, P.. 2009. Insatiable Thirst and a Finite Supply: An Assessment of Municipal Water Conservation Policy in Greater Phoenix, Arizona, 1980–2007. Journal of Policy History 21(2):107137.Google Scholar
Larson, K.L., White, D.D., Gober, P., Harlan, S., and Wutich, A.. 2009. Divergent Perspectives on Water Resource Sustainability in a Public–Policy–Science Context. Environmental Science & Policy 12(7):10121023.Google Scholar
Lowrey, J.L., Ray, A.J., and Webb, R.S.. 2009. Factors Influencing the Use of Climate Information by Colorado Municipal Water Managers. Climate Research 40(1):103119.Google Scholar
MacLean, R. 2008. Ignoring Impending Disasters: Why Do the Warning Signs Go Unheeded? Competitive Strategy, January, pp. 3031. Available at http://www.rmacleanllc.com/publications/em-competitive-strategy/EM2008-01Warning_Signs.pdfGoogle Scholar
O’Connor, R.E., Yarnal, B., Dow, K., Jocoy, C.L., and Carbone, G.J.. 2005. Feeling at Risk Matters: Water Managers and the Decision to Use Forecasts. Risk Analysis 25(5):12651275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olmstead, S.M., and Stavins, R.N.. 2009. Comparing Price and Nonprice Approaches to Urban Water Conservation. Water Resources Research 45(4):W04301(10 pp.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rajbhanary, S., Borisova, T., Adams, D., Haynes, D., and Boyer, C.. 2010. Use, Perceptions, and Barriers to Water Conservation Strategies for Florida Water Utilities. Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 18pp. Available at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FE/FE85100.pdfGoogle Scholar
Rayner, S., Lach, D., and Ingram, H.. 2005. Weather Forecasts Are for Wimps: Why Water Resource Managers Do Not Use Climate Forecasts. Climatic Change 69(2–3):197227.Google Scholar
Shafir, E. 2007. Decisions Constructed Locally: Some Fundamental Principles of the Psychology of Decision Making. In. Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles, 2nd edition. Guilford Press, New York, 334352.Google Scholar
Shepherd, S., and Kay, A.C.. 2012. On the Perpetuation of Ignorance: System Dependence, System Justification, and the Motivated Avoidance of Sociopolitical Information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102(2):264280.Google Scholar
Stakhiv, E.Z. 1998. Policy Implications of Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources Management. Water Policy 1(2):159175.Google Scholar
State Climate Office (SCO) of North Carolina. 2012. Climate Change in North Carolina. SCO, Raleigh. Available at http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climate/climate_changeGoogle Scholar
Stroup, L.J. 2011. Adaptation of U.S. Water Management to Climate and Environmental Change. Professional Geographer 63(4):414428.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. 2010. Decennial Census. State and County QuickFacts. US Census Bureau, Washington, DC, Available at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37000.htmlGoogle Scholar
Viviroli, D., Archer, D.R., Buytaert, W., Fowler, H.J., Greenwood, G.B., Hamlet, A.F., Huang, Y., Koboltschnig, G., Litaor, M.I., López-Moreno, J.I., Lorentz, S., Schädler, B., Schreier, H., Schwaiger, K., Vuille, M., and Woods, M.. 2011. Climate Change and Mountain Water Resources: Overview and Recommendations for Research, Management and Policy. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 15(2):471504.Google Scholar
White, D.D., Corley, E.A., and White, M.S.. 2008. Water Managers’ Perceptions of the Science–Policy Interface in Phoenix, Arizona: Implications for an Emerging Boundary Organization. Society & Natural Resources 21(3):230243.Google Scholar
Zetland, D. 2011. The End of Abundance: Economic Solutions to Water Scarcity. Aguanomics Press, Berkeley, CA, 280pp.Google Scholar