Limited oil stocks and growing gasoline prices have stimulated the production of ethanol and other biofuels; in turn, this will lead to increased depletion of available water resources, since irrigation of biofuel crops and the production of ethanol both use large amounts of water. Thus, water availability will become an even greater concern in the semi-arid region that encompasses the eight U.S. states overlying the Ogallala aquifer. This region is of paramount importance for understanding societal response to increasing water scarcity, as it has long been an area where a farmer?s need for irrigation conflicts with other growing needs for consumption. Competition over water between groups such as farmers, rural communities, businesses, and urban municipalities is expected to become even more heated. This project will employ the latest geospatial technology to define an efficient and representative sample of the Ogallala aquifer region. Agriculture and the ethanol industry are prominent in this area of the country, and the study will use innovative survey methods to gauge attitudes toward alternative municipal water conservation schemes. The results of the survey will allow the investigators to develop a flexible model into which communities in the Ogallala aquifer region can input demographic, geographic, and economic information to calculate what policy mix of price rationing and regulatory measures would be most effective in achieving a particular level of municipal water conservation. It will also allow evaluation of the response of communities more or less dependent on the ethanol industry to alternative policies for watear conservation. The results will significantly enhance understanding of which municipal water conservation strategies the most promise in addressing water use challenges linked to the emerging ethanol industry.
The multidisciplinary team of researchers includes expertise in geology, geography, geographic information science, demography, natural resource economics, econometrics, and empirical modeling. The project will make strong contributions to broadening participation by underrepresented groups. The lead institution is an historically black university with a student body that is nearly 90% African American, a collaborating institution has nearly 25% Hispanic students, and many students will be engaged in the research. The methodology and results of the study will be incorporated into the classes taught by the PI and co-Pis, contributing to the education of future agribusiness managers, environmental scientists, and policymakers. Two of the four CoPIs are female, and a female is directing the survey project. The investigators will collaborate extensively with community and agricultural managers, and with scientists and academics in disciplines ranging from engineering to law. The results of the project will be reported to a broad audience, including stakeholders in the region, via presentations at professional conferences of agricultural and environmental economists, publications in peer-reviewed outlets, and the web pages of the investigators. The results will contribute to solutions for allocation and conservation of an often limiting resource, water. This award is made as part of the FY 2008 Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) portfolio, following a competition that involved participation from all NSF Directorates and Offices. HSD awards are administered through specific programs that may change over the duration of the award. Management of all HSD awards is coordinated on an NSF-wide basis.
