Event Date
Speaker: Kirstin Dobbin
Title: Assessing and understanding (in)equity in Groundwater Sustainability Plans
In collaborative governance the relationship between process and outcomes is a critical one that speaks to the underlying logic of the approach itself. But there has been surprisingly limited empirical assessment of the outcomes of such efforts. As a result, we still know relatively little about the conditions under which collaborative governance achieves utilitarian or normative goals. Concerningly, what little evidence we do have suggests that equity goals are among the least realized. This paper seeks to fill this gap and investigate these dynamics using California’s landmark groundwater reform process known as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act or SGMA. After measuring drinking water and environmental justice related outputs in Groundwater Sustainability Plans, I will quantitatively test procedural and contextual drivers of these outputs with the goal of illuminating opportunities and constraints for advancing environmental justice in collaborative regimes.
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