DISES: Understanding the Use of Discretion and its Socio-Environmental Consequences for Reservoir Systems

As one of the most heavily impounded large rivers in the world, the Columbia River system provides an outstanding model in which to investigate integrated biophysical and socioeconomic dynamics of river impoundment. This NSF DISES project focuses on the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between environmental and social systems by examining dam operations, the decision-making process governing those operations, and feedbacks between this decision-making process and the environment. As a well-characterized system with quantifiable outcomes (e.g., water levels, volumes, flows, fates) and a well-established but diverse and evolving regulatory environment, dam and reservoir management offers an opportunity to test fundamental hypotheses about tradeoffs between rules-based and discretion-based management approaches to gain deeper understanding of adaptive management of reservoirs specifically, and of the nature of socio-environmental integration generally. In pursuing this goal, WSU investigators will generate fundamental knowledge about how environmental conditions affect resource management and vice versa. The project will also involve training for undergraduate and graduate students; education of K-12 teachers; and engagement of reservoir managers, stakeholders, and the public.