William Blomquist

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https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25231

Water Policy Resource

Professor William Blomquist is an IUPUI School of Liberal Arts faculty member within the Department of Political Science. He teaches American politics, constitutional law, public policy, and research methodology. He is the associate editor of the Water Resource Research Journal and a member of the Policy Studies Journal editorial board.

Professor Blomquist has collaborated with local governments, state and federal agencies, and nongovernmental organizations in the United States and elsewhere on decisions about how to organize policy making and implementation in water resource management, how to allocate water resources among competing uses, and how to involve multiple stakeholders and communities in those processes. He has led workshops and provided consultation for government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, and conducted collaborative research with local governments and nongovernmental organizations.

Professor Blomquist's translation of research into water policy resource solutions is another excellent example of how IUPUI's faculty members are TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 30

Dispute Resolution Processes. Thinking Through SGMA Implementation
(Stanford University, 2019) Moran, Tara; Martinez, Janet; Blomquist, William
This report examines 74 multi-entity parties formed as Joint Powers Authorities or Memorandums of Understanding to guide Groundwater Sustainability Agencies through the process of including dispute resolution clauses in their Groundwater Sustainability plans.
California’s New Landscape for Groundwater Governance (Water in the West Reports and Working Papers)
(Stanford University, 2017) Conrad, Esther; Gordon, Beatrice; Moran, Tara; Blomquist, William A.; Martinez, Janet; Szeptycki, Leon
Putting Adaptive Management into Practice: Incorporating Quantitative Metrics into Sustainable Groundwater Management
(Stanford University, 2019) Conrad, Esther; Moran, Tara; Crankshaw, Ilana; Blomquist, William; Martinez, Janet; Szeptycki, Leon
This report uses four cases to examine how agencies have used adaptive mangement and quantitative metrics to set minimum thresholds, measurable objectives and interim milestones to measure groundwater in California. The report offers recommendations for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies as they write their sustainability plans.
Resolving Common Pool Resource Dilemmas and Heterogeneities Among Resource Users
(International Association for the Study of Common Property, 1998) Schlager, Edella; Blomquist, William
Heterogeneities among resource users are commonly viewed as anathema to resolving common pool resource dilemmas. Ostrom (1990:211) states that resource users are more likely to adopt a set of rules that improves joint welfare if 'appropriators will be affected in similar ways by the proposed rule change', which is only possible if appropriators are homogeneous in all important respects. While heterogeneities may, in many cases, confound attempts to resolve common-pool resource dilemmas, they are ubiquitous. As the IAD framework demonstrates, there are numerous dimensions on which resource users may differ. Furthermore, most attention to heterogeneities has focused on attempting to reach agreements for solving shared problems. As both Ostrom (1990) and Scharpf (1997) argue, reaching an agreement is only one step in resolving shared problems, attention must be paid to implementation, including commitment and monitoring. Heterogeneities may effect resource users' willingness to follow as well as enforce rules. "Even though in many instances heterogeneities present substantial challenges to users of a shared resource, they nevertheless surmount such obstacles and devise and implement institutional arrangements. The issue then is how those arrangements address and overcome the obstacles presented by differences among resource users. In general, most institutional arrangements devised to address common-pool resource dilemmas also address heterogeneities by separating resource users into homogenous groups, forcing resource users to work together, or removing groups of users from the resource. Thus, in evaluating institutional arrangements for managing common pool resources, attention must be paid not only to their efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness, but also to how the resolve resource user heterogeneity.
Institutional and policy analysis of river basin management: the Guadalquivir River Basin, Spain
(World Bank, 2005-02-25) Blomquist, William; Giansante, Consuelo; Bhat, Anjali; Kemper, Karin
The authors describe and analyze river basin management in the Guadalquivir River Basin in Spain. The Guadalquivir river flows westerly across southern Spain, with nearly all of its 57,017 km2 drainage area within the region of Andalusia. Water management issues in this semi-arid, heavily agricultural, but rapidly urbanizing region include drought exposure, water allocation, water quality, and in some areas, groundwater overdraft. A river basin agency (Confederacion Hidrografica del Guadalquivir, or CH Guadalquivir) has existed within the basin since 1927, but its responsibilities have changed substantially over its history. For much of its life, CH Guadalquivir's mission was water supply augmentation through construction and operation of reservoirs, primarily to support irrigation, under central government direction with little provision for water user participation. Following the Spanish political system's transformation and Spain's accession to the European Union, water law and policy changes greatly expanded CH Guadalquivir's responsibilities and restructured it to incorporate representation of some basin stakeholders. Although the basin agency's accomplishments in reservoir construction have been prodigious, its record of performance with respect to its newer responsibilities has been mixed, as have perceptions of its openness and responsiveness to basin interests other than irrigators. This paper - a product of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to approach water policy issues in an integrated way. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project "Integrated River Basin Management and the Principle of Managing Water Resources at the Lowest Appropriate Level: When and Why Does It (Not) Work in Practice?"
Comparison of Institutional Arrangements for River Basin Management in Eight Basins
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005) Blomquist, William; Dinar, Ariel; Kemper, Karin
This study represents an effort toward understanding conditions that affect successful or unsuccessful efforts to devolve water resource management to the river basin level and secure active stakeholder involvement. A theoretical framework is used to identify potentially important variables related to the likelihood of success. Using a comparative case-study approach, the study examined river basins where organizations have been developed at the basin scale and where organizations perform management functions such as planning, allocation, and pricing of water supplies, flood prevention and response, and water quality monitoring and improvement. This paper compares the alternative approaches to basin governance and management adopted in the following river basins: the Alto-Tiete and Jaguaribe River Basins, Brazil; the Brantas River Basin, East Java, Indonesia; the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia, Canada; the Guadalquivir Basin, Spain; the Murray-Darling River Basin, Australia; the Tarcoles River Basin, Costa Rica; and the Warta River Basin, Poland. The analysis focuses on how management has been organized and pursued in each case in light of its specific geographical, historical, and organizational contexts and the evolution of institutional arrangements. The cases are also compared and assessed for their observed degrees of success in achieving improved stakeholder participation and integrated water resources management.
CPR Coding Manual
(Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 1989) Ostrom, Elinor; Agrawal, Arun; Blomquist, William; Schlager, Edella; Tang, S.Y.
"The fourth activity we have undertaken has been the identification of in-depth case studies that describe how CPR appropriators have succeeded or failed in efforts to manage inshore fisheries, small- to medium-sized irrigation systems, communal forests, or grazing lands. Identifying and coding in-depth case studies is undertaken in several steps. Most of this manual is devoted to an in-depth discussion of this activity."
Groundwater exchange pools in Los Angeles: An innovative example of adaptive management
(California Water Blog, 2018-07-27) Porse, Erik; Mika, Kathryn; Pincetl, Stephanie; Gold, Mark; Blomquist, William
Across California, Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) are devising plans to reduce long-term overdraft. As part of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, GSAs will submit plans in 2020-2022, which detail strategies to bring groundwater use into balance by 2040. Planning processes must assemble stakeholders and estimate sustainable yields of groundwater, quantify existing pumping, describe future options to limit overdraft, and identify funding. GSAs are actively searching for ways to stretch limited supplies and sustainably use the underground storage space created by decades of overdraft, drawing on lessons of previous regional agreements.
To Consolidate or Coordinate? Status of the Formation of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in California
(Stanford University, 2016) Conrad, Esther; Martinez, Janet; Moran, Tara; DuPaw, Marcelle; Ceppos, David; Blomquist, William
Institutional and Policy Analysis of River Basin Management: The Warta River Basin, Poland
(World Bank Group, 2005) Blomquist, William; Dinar, Ariel; Tonderski, Andrzej
The authors describe and analyze the emergence of river basin management in the Warta River Basin of Poland. The Warta basin’s 55,193 km2 cover approximately one-sixth of Poland, and the Warta is a principal tributary to the Oder. Water management issues include pollution of the Warta and its main tributaries, prompting cities to rely on groundwater supplies that are beginning to show signs of overdraft, and growing problems of water allocation and scarcity as the basin urbanizes and industrializes. Since the end of the 1980s, the Polish government has been promoting decentralization, constructing a federal system that includes provinces, counties, and municipalities with authority over land use, water use permits, and environmental protection. Polish authorities have also established river basin management authorities corresponding to basin boundaries throughout the nation, including one for the Warta basin. The efforts toward decentralization and integrated water resource management in Poland have been earnest, but the dispersion of water policy authority across several levels of government, the establishment of basin authorities lacking power and funding to implement resource management programs, few arrangements for stakeholder participation, and delays in Polish water law reform have complicated the development and implementation of integrated management at the basin level. This paper—a product of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department—is part of a larger effort in the department to approach water policy issues in an integrated way. The study was funded by the Bank’s Research Support Budget under the research project “Integrated River Basin Management and the Principle of Managing Water Resources at the Lowest Appropriate Level: When and Why Does It (Not) Work in Practice?”

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