My research focuses on the management of water in the U.S. West. I am particularly interested in the interfaces between resource management, law and policy, political economy, and social discourses. Through my research I contribute to scholarship in the areas of political ecology, water governance and hydropolitics, critical legal geography, energy geographies, and environmental justice. I also contribute to applied policy conversations by studying environmental policy and its implementation.
I examine transformations to the hydro-social cycle, including urban-rural dynamics and the transfer and diversion of water for urban and agricultural use. I study how discourses supporting water diversions and transfers are produced, translated and mediated through legal institutions, and how different human and nonhuman actors have experienced the consequences of transferring water from one place to another. I have particularly focused on examining legal geographies. I have also used ideas of the hydrosocial cycle and hydrosocial territories to examine water's social, politicial, material, and place-based dimensions. Through this research I contribute to several bodies of literature, including political ecology of water and the hydrosocial cycle, geographies of waste, critical legal geographies, urban political ecology, and and relational political ecology.
Water is political, and involves many management issues. I have researched a wide range of water policy issues including groundwater policy, wastewater innovation, and data systems for water decision-making. Some of this work has been conducted in collaboration with UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. I have also worked to conduct program evaluations for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. This research highlights challenges and solutions related to water management, and policy.
Water, food, and energy are inextricably linked. Yet, these spheres are often conceptualized and governed as separate entities. In this area of work, I examine the connections between water, energy, and food and agriculture. This work includes examination of irrigation and environmental issues, as well as renewable energy transitions, which involve a diverse range of linked and multi-sited activities and infrastructures. Both energy and agriculture are important drivers of hydrosocial (water-society) transformations in different places. The connections between water, food, and energy are important in order to understand locally-scaled community impacts, environmental justice concerns, and social acceptance of infrastructures.