Date: 2022 to 2026
Primary Contact: Caryn Vaughn
Research Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Funding: The National Science Foundation
Disputes over water resources are common worldwide. In response, societies make massive investments in water conservation and allocation to support human water security and freshwater ecosystem services. There is growing interest in voluntary incentives (e.g. payments/subsidies offered to water users) as a strategy for reducing conflicts in and beyond water conservation. Incentive-based programs hold promise, but uncertainties remain regarding how state and non-state environmental organizations may implement them effectively and efficiently.
This project will investigate how interactions among social, hydrological, and biological spatial dynamics affect the sustainability of human-freshwater systems under incentive-based conservation. These dynamics shape the viability and effectiveness of incentive-based water conservation programs in river basins around the world.
The focus of this project is on the Red River, the 2nd largest basin in the southcentral US and an area of extensive agricultural use, but the findings will be relevant for understanding the dynamics of incentive-based conservation programs for many types of resources (e.g. marine fisheries, energy, waste, forestry). Thus, results have the potential to transform understanding of the ways in which conservation incentives might enhance the sustainability of a wide range of integrated human-natural systems
