HR: 0800h
AN: H21F-0809    [Abstracts]
TI: Lessons for Integrated Water Resources Management from the San Pedro HELP Basin on the U.S.-Mexico Border
AU: * Browning, A
EM: browning@u.arizona.edu
AF: Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719, United States
AU: Goodrich, D
EM: Dave.Goodrich@ars.usda.gov
AF: USDA-ARS, Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson, AZ 85719, United States
AU: Varady, R
EM: rvarady@email.arizona.edu
AF: USDA-ARS, Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson, AZ 85719, United States
AU: Richter, H
EM: hrichter@tnc.org
AF: The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 16, Bisbee, AZ 85603, United States
AB: The San Pedro Basin sits within an intermountain ecotone with the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts to the west and east and the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Madre Mountain habitats to the north and south. The headwaters of the basin originate in northern Sonora and flow north into southeast Arizona. As the region's only remaining perennial stream, the San Pedro River serves as an international flyway for over 400 bird species. It is one of the western hemisphere's most ecologically diverse areas with some 20 different biotic communities, and "possesses one of the richest assemblages of land mammal species in the world." Large mining, military, and municipal entities are major users of the same groundwater resources that maintain perennial flow in the San Pedro. This presentation describes empirical evidence of the positive impacts on watershed management of scientists and policy researchers working closely with water managers and elected officials in a functioning HELP basin. We posit that when hydrologists help watershed groups understand the processes controlling water quality and quantity, and when managers and stakeholders connect these processes to social, economic and legal issues then transboundary cooperation in policymaking and water management is most effective. The distinctive physical and socioeconomic characteristics of the basin as well as differences in institutional regulations, water law issues, and their local implementations in Arizona and Sonora are discussed. We illustrate how stakeholders and scientific researchers in both countries strive to balance ecosystem needs with human demands to create new, integrated basin management. Finally, we describe how the accomplishments of the San Pedro collaborative process, including the use of environmental-conflict-resolution tools, have contributed to the UNESCO HELP (Hydrology for the Environment, Life, and Policy) agenda.
DE: 1813 Eco-hydrology
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
DE: 1834 Human impacts
DE: 6620 Science policy (0485)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting