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AN ANALYSIS OF CURRENT TRENDS AND POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS OF SOCIOHYDROLOGY A Thesis by SYDNEY RACHAEL WEYAND Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Chair of Committee, Inci Guneralp Committee Members, Burak Guneralp Huilin Gao Interdisciplinary Faculty Ronald Kaiser Chair, December 2017 Major Subject: Water Management and Hydrological Science Copyright 2017 Sydney Rachael Weyand ABSTRACT Humans live in an ever-changing, increasingly-complicated world. As the fundamental understanding of systems changes, those tasked with managing these may find themselves faced with new situations with problems more complex than previously thought. Recently, an increased interest in fully integrating society into hydrologic research has given rise to a new subfield of hydrology: socio-hydrology. I performed a meta-analysis of the sociohydrologic literature from its coinage in 2012 until early August 2017. There has been a steady increase in the number of sociohydrology-related publications since 2012. Articles constituted over 75% of all publications. Multidisciplinary collaborations were common for sociohydrologic publications; however, authorship was heavily biased towards engineering and the natural sciences. Studies were largely conceptual, and the most common foci included modeling, flooding, land use-land cover change, agriculture, water security, and rivers or streams. I developed a conceptual framework for constructing a model capable of analyzing long-term success of rural infrastructure projects. I did so in the context of the flood-reducing capabilities of drainage infrastructure on Texas colonias. This model was designed to estimate long-term flood risk on development. I developed a conceptual framework for constructing a model capable of analyzing long-term urban natural disaster vulnerability. I did so in the context of potential contaminant risk in the event of a rainfall-induced industrial contaminant ii spillage in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metropolitan area. This model was designed to estimate two varieties of storm hazards: risk of inundation by flood waters and risk of contamination by industrial plant spillage. This study provides information on the development of sociohydrology and conceptualizes potential applications of its methodology. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my adviser and committee chair – Dr. Inci Guneralp – and committee members – Dr. Burak Guneralp and Dr. Huilin Gao – for their support and guidance with my research. They allowed me the freedom to pursue my interests without restraint and many opportunities for self-growth in my time completing my master’s degree; my experience would have been far different if not for them. I would like to specifically offer my heartfelt thanks to my colleague Meaghan Owens for her support – in more than one way, this work could not have been completed without her – as well as my family and friends, colleagues and coworkers, and the advice and comradery they offered along the way. Thanks you guys for everything. iv CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES This work was supervised by a thesis committee consisting of Professor Inci Guneralp and Professor Guneralp of the Department of Geography and Professor Huilin Gao of the Department of Civil Engineering. All work for the thesis was completed independently by the student Graduate study was supported by a fellowship from the Water Management and Hydrological Science program at Texas A&M University, the Diversity scholarship from the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, and the Valeen Silvy scholarship in Water Management from the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University. v NOMENCLATURE Colonia – an unincorporated settlement in Texas or the southwestern United States that may lack access to basic infrastructure, including public utility systems, safe housing, and paved roads. Commodity – a marketable resource that can be excluded from those who lack a willingness or ability to pay a given, set price. Commons – a resource that is accessible to all members of society. Ecohydrology – the study of the functional interrelations between hydrology and biota; unless explicitly specified, this is the definition used by this paper. Eco-Hydrology – the study of the dynamics and co-evolution of vegetation in the landscape in relation to water availability. Hydrosociology – the study of the hybridity of power relations in human-water or social- nature systems. Interdisciplinarity – two or more disciplines discussing their perspectives towards addressing a problem where traditional separation of the disciplines is broken down and unique connections between the disciplines are identified. Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) – a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. vi Meta-Analysis – a quantitative analysis of a large volume of literature relating to one (or more) specific subjects with the goal of identifying emerging trends and phenomena in the data. Meta-Meta-Analysis – a meta-analysis of meta-analyses. Multidisciplinarity – two or more disciplines discussing their perspectives towards addressing a problem while maintaining a separation of the disciplines. Sociohydrology – a holistic integration of the socioeconomic and environmental facets of hydrology to study the interactions, feedbacks and co-evolution of human behavior with the hydrological system; unless explicitly specified, this is the definition used by this paper. Socio-Hydrology – a new science that is aimed at understanding the dynamics and co- evolution of coupled human-water systems. Transdisciplinarity – two or more discipline perspectives integrating fully to create a unique, holistic approach to a problem that differs from what would be derived from any of the involved disciplines. Wicked Problem – a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve for any of four reasons: incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and/or the interconnected nature of these problems with other problems. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... iv CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ........................................................... v NOMENCLATURE ..................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... xv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOHYDROLOGY ...................................... 1 1.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1. Section Objectives......................................................................................... 3 1.2. History................................................................................................................. 4 1.3. Definition ............................................................................................................ 9 1.4. Application ........................................................................................................ 10 1.5.Paper Layout ...................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER II META-ANALYSIS OF “SOCIOHYDROLOGY” IN THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE ....................................................................................... 14 2.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 14 2.1.1. Section Objectives....................................................................................... 15 2.2. Methodology ..................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1. Data Collection ........................................................................................... 16 2.2.2. Data Analysis .............................................................................................. 18 2.3. Results ............................................................................................................... 19 2.3.1. Author Characteristics ................................................................................. 20 2.3.2. Study Characteristics ................................................................................... 25 2.4. Discussion ......................................................................................................... 30 2.4.1. Field Comparisons ...................................................................................... 30 2.4.2. Author Biases.............................................................................................. 32 2.4.3. Study Biases ..............................................................................................