Award Abstract # 0727296
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Informal Water Use in Tijuana

NSF Org: BCS
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Initial Amendment Date: August 28, 2007
Latest Amendment Date: August 28, 2007
Award Number: 0727296
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Thomas Baerwald
BCS
 Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
SBE
 Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Start Date: September 1, 2007
End Date: December 31, 2010 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $12,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $12,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2007 = $12,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Paul Robbins (Principal Investigator)
    pfrobbins@wisc.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Arizona
845 N PARK AVE RM 538
TUCSON
AZ  US  85721
(520)626-6000
Sponsor Congressional District: 07
Primary Place of Performance: University of Arizona
845 N PARK AVE RM 538
TUCSON
AZ  US  85721
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
07
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): ED44Y3W6P7B9
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Geography and Spatial Sciences
Primary Program Source: app-0107 
Program Reference Code(s): 9278, 1352, 5922, 9179, SMET, 9189
Program Element Code(s): 135200
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.075

ABSTRACT

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.

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