Final Report: Armstrong 2013 Exploratory Interviews of Water Managers

This report summarizes results from my first year’s iUTAH fellowship (2012-13), which involved exploratory, qualitative research on local water management in the Wasatch Regional Metropolitan Area, specifically focusing on Cache Valley, Heber Valley, and the Red Butte Watershed of Salt Lake City, Utah. Data collection consisted of two types of activities: meeting observations and semi-structured interviews. I reviewed meeting notes and synthetic notes for prevailing themes, and distinguished between patterns that emerged both within and across the three study areas.

The structure of water management in the WRMA crosses macro-institutional, meso-watershed, and micro-individual scales. The focus of my research has been at the meso-scale, within which many local water management organizations (LWMOs) make critical decisions surrounding water quality and quantity. In this first phase of my work, I identify five types of key organization decisions made by LWMOs: operational, maintenance, water supply, infrastructure change, and enforcement. I then describe four types of linkages among WRMA water actors and provide examples of how these linkages impact LWMOs’ decisions. I then describe and analyze the ways in which LWMOs are making adaptive decisions in the face of key changes in urbanization and water availability. Two common adaptive processes are: (a) improving infrastructure efficiency, and (b) engaging in organizational partnerships. The report concludes with directions for future research. The LWMO interview instrument is included in the appendix.

本报告概述了作者在iUTAH奖学金（2012-2013年度）第一年的研究成果，该奖学金涉及对瓦萨奇区域都市区（Wasatch Regional Metropolitan Area）地方水管理的探索性、定性研究，尤其是聚焦于犹他州的凯斯谷（Cache Valley）、海伯谷（Heber Valley）和盐湖城的红岩流域（Red Butte Watershed）。数据收集包括两种活动：会议观察和半结构化访谈。作者通过回顾会议记录和综合笔记，提炼了主导主题，并区分了三个研究区域内及跨区域出现的模式。

WRMA的水管理结构跨越了宏观制度、中观流域和微观个体三个尺度。本研究聚焦于中观尺度，在此尺度上，众多地方水管理组织（LWMOs）就水质和水量做出关键决策。在本研究的初步阶段，作者确定了LWMOs做出的五种关键组织决策类型：运营、维护、供水、基础设施变更和执法。随后，作者描述了WRMA内水行动者之间的四种联系类型，并提供了这些联系如何影响LWMOs决策的实例。接着，作者描述并分析了LWMOs在面对城市化与水可用性关键变化时采取的适应性决策方式。两种常见的适应性过程包括：（a）提高基础设施效率，（b）参与组织合作。报告最后提出了未来研究的方向。LWMO访谈工具包含在附录中。