Research Briefs

The following WSC studies have direct policy or management implications.

Meeting Our Future Water Needs: Key lessons and opportunities

Summary

This report outlines some of the key messages from the WSC project's model results. It also presents further opportunities that emerged from a workshop held on May 2nd, 2017, which convened professionals in land and water management who work in the Yahara watershed and statewide to discuss implications of the results. These findings and opportunities are important steps toward solutions that will enable the watershed to meet the needs of future generations. Read more.

Related research areas: scenarios, water quality, policy and governance

Public support for water policy is driven more by people's beliefs about government than their self-interests

Summary

Clean water consistently ranks high as a public priority, and people’s support for policy tools to protect water quality may be driven more strongly by their beliefs about how helpful government is to society than their self-interest. To ensure broad public support for water quality policies, policymakers should consider the differing worldviews of their constituents in policy design. Read more.

Related research areas: policy and governance, water quality

A method to bridge scenario narratives and biophysical models to explore multiple drivers of regional socio-ecological change

Summary

Ensuring a sustainable future requires an ever-improving ability to assess potential directions and impacts of socio-ecological changes. The method described here offers a comprehensive way to examine potential trajectories of long-term change in a given region. Read more.

Related research areas: scenarios

Crop yields benefit from shallow groundwater most in dry years and coarse soils

Summary

How sensitive crops are to water stress caused by drought or heavy rains is dependent on soil texture and groundwater depth, which vary across fields and ultimately affect yields. In particular, shallow groundwater can be advantageous to crops during dry conditions, especially those planted in coarse-grained soils, offering implications for how farmers can improve yield efficiency to meet rising global food demands, especially given climate change. Read more.

Related research areas: groundwater and agriculture

Understanding a city's urban heat island effect improves preparation for climate-related risks

Summary

Given climate change and growing urban populations worldwide, cities must factor the potential impacts of their local climates, especially the urban heat island effect, into efforts to prepare for climate-related risks. Urban heat islands tend to be densely populated areas, and certain weather conditions, especially heat waves, can increase the extremity of temperatures experienced in these areas, posing greater public health and economic risks. Read more.

Related research areas: urban heat island

Unaccounted-for changes in land use, climate, and agriculture undermine efforts to improve water quality

Summary

Long-term changes in land use, agriculture, and climate, which are often unaccounted for in models and management practices to reduce nutrient pollution in surface waters, are undermining efforts to improve water quality. To achieve water quality goals, policy and management will need to address these shifting drivers in goal setting, program design, and evaluation. This may require more transformative thinking and interventions. Read more.

Related research areas: water quality, policy and governance

Are water quality policies hitting runoff hotspots? Maps reveal a disconnect

Summary

Mapping where soil erosion and nutrient reduction policies are applied on the landscape provides a holistic view of how multiple government efforts work together to improve lake water quality, enhancing decision making. Maps of Wisconsin’s Yahara Watershed revealed a disconnect between where policies are applied and where major sources of phosphorus pollution are located. Read more.

Related research areas: policy and governance, water quality

Yahara 2070 scenarios can inspire ideas and actions for a desirable future

Summary

Yahara 2070 is a set of scenarios that depict what life for future generations in Wisconsin's Yahara Watershed could be like if current generations made different decisions about environmental challenges. It is a tool to help decision makers build regional resilience and to facilitate broad public discussion about a desirable future. Read more.

Related research area: scenarios

Optimizing the benefits of our ecosystems will require holistic landscape management

Summary

Different pieces of a given landscape provide different sets of natural benefits that sustain human life, called ecosystem services. The occurrence of both synergies and tradeoffs within ecosystem service bundles suggests that sustaining these natural benefits requires holistic landscape management. Read more.

Related research area: landscape analyses