Daanish Mustafa University of Colorado Boulder The doctoral dissertation research will examine the social structural factors underlying the inequities and inefficiencies of the Pakistani irrigation and flood management regime. The primary hypothesis is that the working of three structures of state, property ownership regime and relevant power relations on water resources management practice leads to increased vulnerability to flood hazard and irrigation water scarcity for underprivileged social groups. The technique of realist epistemology is employed to investigate the relationships in the water geography of Pakistan. The research will entail field work in four central Pakistani communities using ethnographic methods and household surveys, a government institution and NGO surveys and library research.
