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Holistically Evaluating the Impact of Water and Land Use Management in the Santa Cruz Watershed
Citation:
TALLENT-HALSELL, N. G., L. Norman, W. Labiosa, M. WEBER, R. K. HALL, C. L. ERICKSON, AND L. Lopez-Hoffman. Holistically Evaluating the Impact of Water and Land Use Management in the Santa Cruz Watershed. Presented at Celebrating the Sonoran Desert; a Tri-National Sympoisum, Ajo, AZ, March 16 - 18, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation materials
Description:
Governments, tribal leaders and citizens within the Santa Cruz watershed (United States, Mexico, the Tohono O'odham and the Pascua Yaqui Tribes) face environmental and economic issues of ensuring people have access to clean water and sanitation while vital ecosystems are protected without undermining economic growth. The objective of the Santa Cruz Watershed Ecosystem Portfolio Model (SCWEPM) prototype is to provide a regional water- and land-use planning Web-tool combining information about the environment, economy, and society. This allows users, planners, and policy makers of the Santa Cruz watershed to evaluate holistically the impacts of water- and land-use decisions across borders. The USEPA and USGS propose piloting a Tribal study in collaboration with the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui Nations that will allow a better understanding of the goods and services derived from natural and cultivated ecosystems. The pilot study will concentrate on the linkages among the historic ties tribal populations have to the land, their unique cultural and dietary practices and ecosystem services. The goals ofthe Tribal pilot study are to investigate the feasibility of using an ecosystem services approach in the SCWEPM to assess the ecological, economic and social ramifications of alternative water allocation and land-use scenarios.