Braving the Currents: Evaluating Environmental Conflict Resolution in the River Basins of the American West
Tamra Pearson d’Estrée, Bonnie G. Colby, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 404 pp., $125. (For ordering information check: http://www.wkap.nl/)

With various interests competing for what they believe is their fair share of limited water supplies, conflict is inevitable, and its occurrence has greatly increased during the last 25 years. Points of contention include surface and groundwater development, use, allocation and quality. Interests with a competing stake in these issues include agricultural and environmental interests, municipalities, industry, tribes and non-human species.
A contribution to the field of dispute resolution evaluation, this volume will assist those working to understand and resolve water disputes in their search for the most effective approach for their particular situation. Along with a theoretical framework, the authors present various case studies that demonstrate how conflicts emerge and tensions build. Also, the role of mediators is shown as they design and implement processes to bring conflicts to some sort of resolution.

What has long been needed is a means to evaluate the viability, success rate and costs of various approaches. The authors examine 28 “success” criteria from various angles and offer a method for systematically considering all the elements necessary for successful environmental conflict resolution. This analytic framework then is applied to eight specific western U.S. water conflicts.

“Appendix A” is a guidebook that provides detailed instructions for case documentation and analysis.

Severe Sustained Drought: Managing the Colorado River System in Times of Water Shortage
Powell Consortium, Arizona Water Resources Research Center. It can be purchased for $15 from the Water Resources Research Center, The University of Arizona, 350 N. Campbell, Tucson, AZ 85721, or by calling 520-792-3124.

With the continuation of drought, some items from the past are getting increased exposure. Two examples: the subsiding waters of Lake Mead have exposed the foundations of the old Mormon town of St. Thomas, and a 1995 publication, “Severe Sustained Drought: Managing the Colorado River System in Times of Water Shortage,” is attracting renewed attention because it raises issues relevant to the ongoing drought.

Written during flush times with reservoirs brimming, the publication includes the results of a multi-and interdisciplinary research project begun in the early 1980s and completed in 1994. The work of a cadre of western water scholars, the study creates a scenario of severe and sustained drought. The scenario then provides the means to assess what the hydrologic, social and economic impacts of such a drought would be under the current law of the river.

Further, the researchers have explored combinations of changes in institutional arrangements affecting the operation of the river that might reduce or mitigate the impacts of a severe, sustained drought. For example, a research finding indicates that the law of the river limits the flexibility of states to deal with a water crisis. The Colorado River Water Conservation District recently reprinted the 1995 bulletin containing the study to distribute to Colorado’s chief water-decision makers.

The Powell Consortium is an alliance of seven water resources research institutes and centers from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Confronting the Nation’s Water Problems: The Role of Research
Committee on Assessment of Water Resources, The National Academies Press, $47 paperback, $42.30 if purchased online at http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11031.html. Also it can be read free online.

This congressionally mandated report calls for a new U.S. commitment to water resource research to confront the nation’s increasingly severe water problems. An identified priority is for a new strategy to coordinate water research currently fragmented among nearly 20 federal agencies. According to the committee, various developments — competition for water among farmers, communities, aquatic ecosystems and other users, climate change and the threat of waterborne diseases — justify that an additional $70 million in federal funding be annually allocated to water research. Areas identified in special need of research include water demand and use and water supply augmentation. The report notes that overall real-term federal funding for water research has been stagnant for the past 30 years, with the portion dedicated to research on water use and social science topics actually having declined considerably.

Web Site Offers Forecast, Climate Info
Stakeholders in the Southwest may have difficulty finding and interpreting forecasts and climate information issued by various agencies. To assist those seeking such information, the University of Arizona’s Climate Assessment for the Southwest Project (CLIMAS) gathers and publishes this information, along with interpretive summaries written by the CLIMAS team, in the “Southwest Climate Outlook.” Each month the outlook, available in PDF and HTML formats, includes summaries of recent conditions and forecasts for temperature, precipitation, drought, fire, streamflow, reservoir levels and El Niño. In addition, the outlook provides feature articles and special “focus pages” on relevant topics. Recent feature articles have detailed the North American Monsoon Experiment and an experimental East Pacific hurricane forecast, while recent focus pages have spotlighted internet resources for drought and local forecast information.

The latest Southwest Climate Outlook in html format is available at: http://www.ispe.arizona.edu/climas/forecasts/swoutlook.html.
An archived list of past outlooks can be accessed at:
http://www.ispe.arizona.edu/climas/forecasts/archive.html

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