Poster Session II
Project Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Karen Adams
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Political Science
Abstract / Artist's Statement
The Colorado River Basin supplies seven U.S. states, Mexico, and multiple tribal nations, sustaining a significant portion of the American West’s population. Yet accelerating aridification, ecological degradation, and legal fragmentation threaten the basin’s long-term security. This project examines how institutional governance failures pose the most significant threat to the river’s future. My guiding question asks: To what extent do outdated legal frameworks and fragmented governance structures undermine the environmental security of the Colorado River Basin?
Using the Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Assistance Framework (TVAF), I analyze the basin’s current level of security and project conditions over the next decade. Drawing on environmental security theory, I assess how climatic threats interact with institutional rigidity. I evaluate core legal doctrines such as the Prior Appropriation Doctrine and the 1922 Colorado Basin Compact, as well as intergovernmental fragmentation as systemic threats that amplify physical vulnerabilities such as drought, declining snowpack, and aging infrastructure. I argue that governance failure is the basin’s central security risk because it constrains adaptive capacity and narrows policy options in the face of worsening climate stress. Without significant reform, such as expanding definitions of “beneficial use,” incorporating Tribal and binational cooperation, and implementing science-based adaptive management, the basin’s overall security will likely decline. This research contributes to environmental security scholarship by demonstrating how legal and institutional structures can exacerbate climate risk. It is significant for policymakers, water managers, and communities whose livelihoods depend on sustainable, cooperative river governance.
Category
Social Sciences
Assessing the Security of the Colorado River Basin Through the Threats-Vulnerabilities-Assistance Framework
UC South Ballroom
The Colorado River Basin supplies seven U.S. states, Mexico, and multiple tribal nations, sustaining a significant portion of the American West’s population. Yet accelerating aridification, ecological degradation, and legal fragmentation threaten the basin’s long-term security. This project examines how institutional governance failures pose the most significant threat to the river’s future. My guiding question asks: To what extent do outdated legal frameworks and fragmented governance structures undermine the environmental security of the Colorado River Basin?
Using the Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Assistance Framework (TVAF), I analyze the basin’s current level of security and project conditions over the next decade. Drawing on environmental security theory, I assess how climatic threats interact with institutional rigidity. I evaluate core legal doctrines such as the Prior Appropriation Doctrine and the 1922 Colorado Basin Compact, as well as intergovernmental fragmentation as systemic threats that amplify physical vulnerabilities such as drought, declining snowpack, and aging infrastructure. I argue that governance failure is the basin’s central security risk because it constrains adaptive capacity and narrows policy options in the face of worsening climate stress. Without significant reform, such as expanding definitions of “beneficial use,” incorporating Tribal and binational cooperation, and implementing science-based adaptive management, the basin’s overall security will likely decline. This research contributes to environmental security scholarship by demonstrating how legal and institutional structures can exacerbate climate risk. It is significant for policymakers, water managers, and communities whose livelihoods depend on sustainable, cooperative river governance.