Research

Our group studies environmental policy, governance, and management. Specifically, we focus on learning how to optimize environmental decision-making processes to result in better environmental and social outcomes. To do this, we explore how decision-making processes, governance structures, and the socio-ecological system they are embedded in influence one another, and how they jointly affect short- and long-term outcomes like effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. Our work on decision-making processes is often focused on inter-organizational collaboration, but also includes features like transparency and use of science. Our work on structure explores institutional complexity, network configurations, and regulatory requirements. To develop generalizable lessons on the structure, process, and outcomes of environmental decision-making, we draw on empirical case analysis from diverse socio-environmental contexts, from water, to coastal management, to remediating nuclear waste.

Because solving environmental problems requires interdisciplinary approaches, our group draws on the fields of environmental governance, public management, and water resources engineering to link the design of environmental decision-making processes to their long-term performance. We use both qualitative and quantitative analysis, including surveys, econometric modeling, archival research, computational text mining, case studies, and ethnography.

Ongoing Research Projects

Environmental Impact Assessment as a tool for adaptive and equitable infrastructure governance

What can we learn about infrastructure governance from Environmental Impact Statements? What factors do federal resource managers consider in infrastructure siting? Does public participation influence the process? Do they learn from climate change? How do they incorporate environmental justice considerations? Funding: UC Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative; UCI Solutions that Scale Initiative

• • How does stakeholder involvement affect environmental impact assessment?
  • Environmental hazards, rigid institutions, and transformative change: How drought affects the consideration of water and climate impacts in infrastructure management
  • NEPA and National Trends in Federal Infrastructure Siting in the United States
  • Use of boilerplate language in regulatory documents: Evidence from Environmental Impact Statements
  • NEPA and climate change: Consideration of climate mitigation and adaptation in infrastructure review processes
  • Concise or comprehensive? Predictors of impact assessment choices for electric transmission line projects
  • Barriers and opportunities to incorporating environmental justice in the National Environmental Policy Act

  • Environmental justice, infrastructure provisioning, and environmental impact assessment: Evidence from the California Environmental Quality Act

Wildfire collaborations and environmental justice

How are collaborative forest planning efforts building new social capital? Is added capacity benefitting underserved or vulnerable communities? What goals related to wildfire and forest resilience do forest plans articulate, and how do these intersect with environmental justice and climate adaptation? Funding: National Forest Foundation (PI: Matt Williamson)

SedRISE (Sediment Resilient Infrastructure & Sustainable Environments)

What are the geological, ecological, and institutional dimensions of the sediment system in coastal Southern California? Can participatory modeling help managers envision more sustainable sediment management practices? Funding: NOAA Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise (PI: Brett Sanders)

• • Barriers and opportunities for beneficial reuse of sediment to support coastal resilience

  • Toward improved sediment management and coastal resilience through efficient permitting in California

Longitudinal Dynamics of Collaborative Governance Regimes

How do collaborative governance regimes adapt and evolve over time? What factors shape a CGR’s long-term structure, participation, deliberation, and performance? When and how should collaborations end?

• • Patterns of participation and representation in a regional water collaboration
  • How does collaborative governance evolve? Insights from a medium-n case comparison

  • Drivers and Dynamics of Collaborative Governance in Environmental Management

Past Research Projects

Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative

A global team conducting systematic reviews of climate adaptation research. What types of climate adaptation responses are occurring globally, by region, and by sector? How are historically marginalized groups included in adaptation processes? What policy tools are used to incentivize adaptation?

• • A Global Assessment of Policy Tools to Support Climate Adaptation
  • A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change
  • Equity in human adaptation-related responses: A systematic global review
  • Tradeoffs and Synergies Across Global Climate Change Adaptations in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus

Headwaters to groundwater: Resources in a changing climate

What are key uncertainties in the movement of water from snowpack to rivers and groundwater in the Central Valley? How will the system change as precipitation varies, temperatures warm, and population grows? What policy and management approaches will help communities and the state manage its water system more effectively under climate change? Funding: UC Lab Fees Research Program (PI: Jeff Dozier)

• • Comparing Complexity in Watershed Governance: The Case of California
  • Assessing the Feasibility of Managed Aquifer Recharge in California
  • Plan writing as a policy tool: instrumental, conceptual, and tactical uses of water management plans in California
  • Planning for effective water management: an evaluation of water management plans in California

Collaborative Governance in FERC Hydropower Relicensing

What are the environmental and economic impacts of collaboration in the licensing and operation of hydropower facilities? Does collaborative development of computer simulation models affect stakeholder trust in and use of scientific information in planning processes? How do collaboration and uncertainty interact to produce effective resource management? How does stakeholder engagement evolve over time?

• • Tracing process to performance of collaborative governance: A comparative case study of federal hydropower licensing
  • Collaboration in federal hydropower licensing: Impacts on process, outputs, and outcomes
  • Linking network structure to collaborative governance
  • Does collaboration affect the duration of environmental permitting processes?
  • Collaborative model development increases trust in and use of scientific information in environmental decision-making
  • Collaborative governance: a tool to manage scientific, administrative, and strategic uncertainties in environmental management?
  • Stakeholder involvement in collaborative regulatory processes: using automated coding to track attendance and actions

Modeling the Social Ecology of Coastal Flood Risk

How might floods affect low-income and vulnerable populations in California? How might modeling and visualization tools improve these group’s resilience and recovery? Funding: NSF Coastlines & People (PI: Richard Matthew)

• • Framing the Problem of Flood Risk and Flood Management in Metropolitan Los Angeles
  • Large and inequitable flood risks in Los Angeles, California

Building Efficient & Effective Environmental Permitting Processes

What factors lead to delay in approval of environmental permits? Do faster permitting processes have less stringent environmental protections? Does the timing of permitting delay affect overall project costs or benefits?

• • A Framework for Building Efficient Environmental Permitting Processes
  • Evaluating environmental permitting process duration: the case of clean water act Section 404 permits

Creativity in Research

How can scientists and scholars develop abilities to become more creative and productive researchers? 

• • Creativity in Research: Book available from Cambridge University Press
  • Research as Design: Developing Creative Confidence in Doctoral Students Through Design Thinking
  • Reflecting, Iterating, and Tolerating Ambiguity: Highlighting the Creative Process of Scientific and Scholarly Research for Doctoral Education