Social Vulnerability, Water Resources and Climatic Uncertainty in Exurban Arizona Communities
Description 
This research focuses on environmental conflict over water resources in the Central Highlands of Arizona. The study area is a rapidly growing groundwater dependent region with declining water resources. Efforts on the part of the Prescott AMA to go outside its jurisdictional boundaries to take groundwater from a regional aquifer has engendered significant opposition from a variety of environmental groups, joined by major water interests such as the SRP and downstream municipalities. At issue is the potential drying up of the upper Verde River due to aquifer decline, with attendant downstream impacts. The research has examined these conflicts both from the perspective of geographic vulnerability analysis and from the politics of scale theory. Research on the area continues with a focus on the use of science in environmental decision-making.
Presentations and Events
"Pumping groundwater, draining rivers: A political ecology of water and development in rural Arizona". Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers. April, 2007. San Francisco, California.
"Growth and groundwater in Highland Arizona: The political ecology of a contested resource." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the International Social Science Association. May, 2006. Honolulu, Hawaii.
Bolin, B., Collins, T. & Darby, K. (in press). Fate of the Verde: Water, environmental conflict and the politics of scale in the Arizona Central Highlands. Geoforum.
Collins, T. & Bolin, B. (2007). Characterizing vulnerability to water scarcity: The case of a groundwater-dependent, rapidly urbanizing region. Environmental Hazards, 7(4), 399-418.
- Bob Bolin, Professor, ASU
- Kate Darby, IGERT Fellow, ASU
- Tim Collins, Assistant Professor, University of Texas, El Paso
