Finding My Place in the World of Water

Photo: Courtesy Aldric Ulep

Aldric Ulep will graduate from Stanford in September with a bachelor’s degree in public policy and interdisciplinary honors in environmental science, technology and policy. He developed his honors thesis topic—a case study of the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan—in conjunction with scholars from Water in the West, a joint program of the Bill Lane Center for the American West and the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. The Bill Lane Center and Stanford’s Program in Public Policy supported his attendance at the American Water Resources Association’s conference “Integrated Water Resource Management—From Theory to Action,” where he presented his research.

“What’s your thesis about?”

People fighting over water and making up.

Inhale, exhale. “Broadly, it’s about collaboration in water management. More specifically, it’s about how competing stakeholders in Washington’s Yakima Valley came together to create the Yakima Integrated Plan.” I never answer that question with the same description twice because it would limit the way I understand my research.

I value research that is readily accessible and relevant. To move beyond the academic perspective and interact with those who wrestle with water management issues in their jobs, I presented my case study of the Yakima Plan at the American Water Resources Association’s 2014 Integrated Water Resource Management conference.

The AWRA is a multidisciplinary association of water resource professionals in academia, government, NGOs, and others. At its conference in July, we unpacked Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) theory through various case studies. Although it can be defined in many ways, I understand IWRM to be a mode of water planning that equitably involves a broad array of stakeholders and their interests, including social, economic, cultural, and environmental ones.

I shifted uneasily to and fro behind the oversized podium. Inhale, exhale. I had practiced the night before and morning of, and I had even delivered similar thesis presentations three other times. The key difference was that those audiences were university affiliates, most of whom knew little about water. This audience had been involved in water issues for many years. I was just a student who started independently studying water management issues a year ago.

To adapt to the audience, I had to go deeper: no more definitions of watersheds or overview of water uses. Instead, I described the timeline of the planning process in detail and explained how the Yakima Integrated Plan was pieced together from failed planning attempts and concessions. I pointed out the importance of how the planning group involved a variety of stakeholders who created relationships along shared values and balanced voices. I also included reflections on the Yakima Integrated Plan as a demonstration of IWRM at work, noting that “collaborative” processes may mask power imbalances, and “recipes” for IWRM might not always apply because historical and cultural contexts matter.

For my first oral session at a professional conference, I had a very generous and receptive audience. Some even asked me to send them my slide deck. I entered a student, and I left feeling more connected to the water professional community.

It was great to see people devoted to better water management, engaged in good work all over the nation. Though I didn’t know anyone beforehand, and though I was possibly the only undergraduate there, I made new friends through the educational tour of the Truckee River, through pizza and the World Cup, and through shared interests in drought management, environmental justice, and the potential of IWRM.

As I flew home over California’s Central Valley, over reservoirs and croplands, I continued to reflect on the significance of these lands and water, the communities that depend on them, and how I might be a part of it all. My experience in Reno was about so much more than presenting my thesis—I witnessed firsthand some of the histories embedded in the West; I learned more about what makes me tick; and I mused over my place in this world of water: Have I pigeonholed my career path into a lifetime of water management; should I go to grad school for water resources engineering or for an MPPA; should I study collaborative policy; should I spend my 20s exploring instead of committing? Do I want to continue to do this?

I imagine myself in 15 years, attending another AWRA conference as a seasoned professional. I like this future.

I think about the roads not taken. Inhale, exhale.