Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2012HI361B

Satisfying Growing Water Demand Through Integrated Groundwater and Watershed Management

Institute: Hawaii
Year Established: 2012 Start Date: 2012-03-01 End Date: 2013-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $10,503 Total Non-Federal Funds: $21,146

Principal Investigators: Kimberly Burnett

Abstract: The proposed research would extend the traditional groundwater economics management model to include climate change and watershed conservation planning, and in doing so, improve assessments of the current and future states of groundwater scarcity on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. Specifically, the framework would explore the sensitivity of economically optimal water management to declining groundwater recharge, as well as recommend demand and supply-side management strategies to delay the substitution of groundwater extraction with costly alternatives such as desalination. While the assessment using data from Hawai‘i would be valuable to local resource management agencies, the envisioned transferable methodology would also be a useful tool for resource managers in other locales.