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Water allocation and management in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) watershed is characterized by a high degree of technical, political and legal uncertainty. This uncertainty has led to a highly litigious process at odds with fundamental practices of adaptive management. The core of the ACF dispute lies in the challenges involved in balancing a variety of water resource needs, such as environmental interests, commercial fisheries of Apalachicola Bay (Florida), rural agricultural water users in Alabama and Georgia, and municipal water supply for metropolitan Atlanta. In the ACF, models were developed to provide water managers and stakeholders with an enhanced ability to explore the dynamics of river flows and releases under different demand and release alternatives. Greater stakeholder participation and more democratic decision making processes are needed. The management and policy decisions are currently relying upon increasingly sophisticated scientific tools (simulation models) that most stakeholders are ill-equipped to understand and incorporate in decision making. This research explores the elements of both social and technical uncertainty with respect to selected ACF water issues.
The project research and education activities seek to link social dynamics and technical measures in statistically defendable analyses, by exploring an integrated model for use by focus groups and classes. Related activities have included research, case study development, and collaborative education efforts. See complete document for more details. |
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Educational Materials |
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Integrated model |
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Research Papers |
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| Title: | Adaptive Management as Anti-Politics Machine, presented at the Society for the Social Studies of Science, Crystal City, VA, October 2009. Pending submission Fall 2010 |
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| Title: | The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin: Complex Challenges, Integrated Solutions? See PRESENTATIONS |
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