Integration of Physical and Social Sciences for Development of a Sustainable Water Resource Policy in Bolivia, South America

Principal Investigators: C.J. Poulsen, T.A. Ehlers, M. Carmen Lemos, and A.L. Steiner.

Units Involved: College of Literature, Sciences, & Arts, School of Natural Resources & Environment, and College of Engineering.

Brief Project Description: Future climate change and population growth are expected to stress existing water resources in many regions around the world. In Bolivia and other parts of South America, water availability and quality are major problems and the additional stress on this resource is likely to exacerbate existing water-related issues and create new water-related crises and confrontations. To mitigate and adapt to future water-related issues that will arise from climate change, policymakers must develop and implement sustainable water resource strategies that address future global change on this resource. There are many challenges to developing a sustainable water resource policy, including: (i) accurately predicting regional scale climate changes, (ii) estimating how these climate changes will affect watershed hydrology, and (iii) using these predictions to create effective water policy given local social, economic, political and cultural conditions.

To overcome these scientific challenges, we have organized a multidisciplinary research team consisting of physical and social scientists, with expertise in climate change, climate modeling, hydrology, and water resources policy making and management. Through this collaboration, we aim to develop a long-term water resource management strategy that can be implemented by local policymakers in Bolivia. This proposal addresses our initial goal to develop a methodology for translating regional climate predictions into water resource predictions that can be effectively utilized in policy making. To this end, we have designed a three-component research plan that integrates regional climate modeling over South America, catchment-scale hydrological modeling, and assessment of policymaking processes and cultures in Bolivia. These activities will lead to the following deliverables: (1) regional-scale predictions of climate and hydrological variables (rainfall, evaporation, surface flow) for future climate change scenarios over tropical South America using a state-of-the-science climate-land surface model, (2) catchment-scale predictions of the impact of climate change on river discharge (water availability) and drainage basin hydrology, and (3) policy guidelines, tailored to Bolivia, for mitigating and/or adapting to changes in water resources due to future climate change.

Beyond these tangible deliverables, funding from this seed grant will reap additional benefits by cultivating new collaborations across the physical and social sciences and between colleges, providing multidisciplinary training for undergraduate and graduate students, and initiating new research directions in sustainability science. Our expectation is that this new collaboration will mature into a long-term, externally funded, multidisciplinary research program in sustainable water resource management.

Significant Accomplishments
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