Doctoral Dissertation Research: Informal Water Use in Tijuana

博士论文研究：蒂华纳的非正式用水

• 批准号: 0727296
• 负责人: Paul Robbins
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2010-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0727296&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Informal; Water

Provision of municipal water supply is a formidable challenge for environmental planning and governance in urban areas. Desert cities, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border, face critical shortages in water supply due to persistent droughts, rapid urbanization, and the broader politics of municipal distribution. New efforts to transform wastewater into supply, however, raise key questions of institutional change, political economy, and the role of informal water use in communities located off the infrastructure grid. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how informal water reuse, such as harvesting rainwater and recycling greywater, transforms formal efforts to reclaim wastewater in Tijuana, Mexico. The doctoral candidate will seek to determine how informal water institutions and infrastructure operate, how they direct resource flows, and how they transform state-society relations. Using ethnographic and geospatial modeling techniques, the student will: (1) analyze the infrastructure systems, institutions, and economic strategies formed in water harvesting through participatory research; (2) model the potential hydrologic effects of water harvesting on stormwater flows and formal reclamation in a geographic information system (GIS); and (3) measure the political effects that water harvesting has on community autonomy and urban development using a survey with a Q-method component. The findings are expected to demonstrate that informal water harvesting and reuse constitute an alternative economy, redefine community autonomy in relation to the state, and improve local conditions of urban runoff and water quality. As Tijuana's wastewater transitions from an environmental "bad" into an economic "good," this research project will help explain the institutional and equity challenges for wastewater reuse in a rapidly growing city. The study will advance scientific knowledge by providing primary data on informal water use systems, institutions, economies, and flow quantities in Tijuana, elucidating hydrologic and management challenges for water provision and reuse. The research results should improve the socioeconomic dimensions of urban hydrologic modeling and evaluate institutional alternatives to formal reclamation, such as household water harvesting. These data will benefit current initiatives to mitigate stormwater pollution and improve water quality management in metropolitan Tijuana-San Diego. Furthermore, as informal settlements continue expanding in cities around the world, this study offers potential insights for policies on equitable water development, urban planning, and community development. This approach can open new theoretical terrain by uniting methodological techniques in water resources modeling with critical insights from literature on political ecology and diverse economies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

提供市政供水是对城市地区环境规划和治理的巨大挑战。 沙漠城市，特别是沿着美墨边境，由于持续的干旱，快速的城市化和更广泛的市政分布政治而面临供水的严重短缺。 但是，将废水转化为供应的新努力引发了机构变革，政治经济学以及非正式用水在基础设施网格附近社区中的作用的关键问题。 该博士学位论文研究项目将研究非正式的水再利用，例如收获雨水和回收灰水，改变了在墨西哥蒂华纳收回废水的正式努力。 博士候选人将寻求确定非正式的供水机构和基础设施的运作方式，他们如何指导资源流动以及如何改变国家社会关系。 使用人种学和地理空间建​​模技术，学生将：（1）分析通过参与性研究在水收集中形成的基础设施系统，机构和经济策略； （2）建模收集水对雨水流和地理信息系统（GIS）正式填充的潜在水文影响； （3）使用Q-Method组成部分的调查来衡量水收集对社区自治和城市发展的政治影响。 预计这些发现将表明，非正式的水收集和再利用构成了另一种经济，重新定义了与国家有关的社区自主权，并改善了城市径流和水质的当地条件。 随着蒂华纳（Tijuana）从环境“不良”转变为经济“善”的废水过渡，该研究项目将有助于解释在一个快速增长的城市中废水再利用的机构和公平挑战。 该研究将通过提供有关蒂华纳的非正式用水系统，机构，经济和流量数量的主要数据，阐明水文和管理挑战以提供水的水平和再利用，并提供科学知识。 研究结果应改善城市水文建模的社会经济维度，并评估正式填海诸如家庭水收集之类的机构替代方案。 这些数据将受益于当前的举措，以减轻雨水污染并改善蒂华纳大都会山太地区的水质管理。 此外，随着非正式定居点在世界各地的城市继续扩展，这项研究为公平水发展，城市规划和社区发展的政策提供了潜在的见解。 这种方法可以通过将方法论技术与有关政治生态学和不同经济学的文献的批判见解结合在一起，从而打开新的理论地形。 作为博士学位论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究职业。