Water and Climate Briefing

It is interesting how working on one big project leads to work and participation on a variety of related activities.  This effect occurred in relation to my work on a sustainability plan.  Other related projects and activities will be discussed in later blog entries; however, one such activity occurred today.   Today I attended the ASU Decision Center for a Desert City's monthly Water and Climate Briefing on behalf of the City of Maricopa.  The typical attendance at these briefings include representatives of local governments along with faculty and graduate students with ASU's School of Sustainability.   This month's topic pertained to the public awareness and knowledge regarding water issues in Arizona.  The panelists leading the discussion included Donna DiFrancesco with the City of Mesa, Shaun McKinnon, a reporter with the Arizona Republic, and Amber Wutich, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology with ASU.


The discussion covered the challenges faced by government officials and leaders in improving the discourse with citizens regarding water conservation.  One of the key themes of the discussion focused on the issue of fairness. Despite all of the technology and mechanisms available for individuals to reduce their water consumption, what are the true motivators? Research conveyed that some citizens question why they should conserve when their neighbor has a green lawn or a new golf course that was constructed down the street.  Given the validity of these concerns, it appeared that there should be more effective communication and explanation to citizens regarding the equity of policies as it regards these issues.  This leads to the other major theme of the briefing which included trade offs.  Perhaps the golf course down the street will utilize far more water than a home owner can conserve, yet the trade off is the creation of jobs and sales tax revenue from the tourists that play on the course.  This discussion lead us to understand that policies need to incorporate this balance.  Though this issue of balance may seem like part of the solution, it is also a big challenge for issues like the golf course example provided above.  Perhaps the most interesting part of this discussion regarded the needed balance in policies aimed to tackle the converse issues of water conservation and the urban heat island effect. 

These briefings do not allow participants to walk away with implementable solutions which is frustrating from a city employee perspective.  However, it provides additional issues and consequences to consider with local government decision making.