“Whiskey’s for drinking, and water is for fighting,” or is it? This quote, attributed to Mark Twain, is largely being proven inaccurate. After researching the broader and conclusive portion of my project, I found an extraordinary amount of evidence which points to transboundary watershed cooperation. By investigating directly within national water ministry’s databases for information, current treaties […]
Broadening the Scope: Precautionary Collaboration
Due to the depth of analysis current complexities behind the Colorado and Brahmaputra management systems require, I revamped the Focussed Assessment page. Now that I feel confident about the information presented there, I have been working on broadening the scope of my study to all major transboundary basins. I’m finding that the pattens and similarities I […]
Potential Adaptations to Static Watershed Management Structures
To reach a more in-depth understanding of the Colorado and Brahmaputra’s current management responses, I contacted Aaron Wolf, and expert in the transboundary basin realm. After discussing my study with him, in addition to other research, it became clear that potential transboundary conflict is ultimately a road to necessary cooperation. Colorado has made many mistakes in terms […]
Rediscovering the Brahmaputra
After pushing through initial research difficulties, Chinese data being much harder to gather than U.S. data, information that I had not previously been aware of surfaced. For example, Mao Zedong, chairman during China’s Communist Revolution, was greatly influenced by the intense dam building period in the U.S., including the construction of the Hoover Dam. This […]
The Law of the River
This week I specifically dove into researching the historical context of the Colorado River watershed. I tried to find the most major agreements, surface water projects, and developments to focus on and discuss them in a chronological manner. Minus the decision to enact the Prior Appropriation doctrine rather than the Riparian, one of the most […]
Transboundary Watershed Conflicts: Water Scarcity and Multi-Level Power Struggles
This week I focused on answering my ‘top of the hourglass’ question: In transboundary water basins, what key forces have propelled increased use, and how does their transboundary status affect that exploitation? In doing so, I discovered vital background information in addition to more basic stats like how many transboundary basins exist. Some of the information I […]
Identifying the Watershed Hourglass: Historical Paths and their Global Implications
Due to the many complexities the Colorado and Brahmaputra watersheds present, I have developed an hourglass research approach. Using the questions I created last week, I determined major issues that could potentially be addressed during my study. There are important factors that I will not have time to properly research this semester. However, the plan […]
Defining Watershed Research: How do the Colorado and Brahmaputra compare?
I have created these questions in order to help focus my 499 study and sort out the most important aspects of the watersheds I will research. GENERAL How do land and water management agencies coordinate effectively? Do they? How are public lands managed in comparison to private? How has population and agricultural expansion impacted the watersheds? […]