War over Water. The Battle That Has Been Simmering for Decades.
Disciplines
Geographic Information Sciences
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Freshwater may know only of its natural and human-made boundaries – by way of aquifers, lakes streams, and dams – but competition for freshwater is evident in various parts of the world, even the United States, particularly where water boundaries cross established political borders. This is apparent with the ongoing competition of freshwater among Georgia, Alabama, and Florida in what is often referred to as the Tri-State Water Wars. The water basins in question include the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa basin, which crosses Georgia and Alabama, as well as the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin, which crosses Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The wars pit Georgia, with its well-established agriculture industry and growing Atlanta metropolitan statistical area to Alabama’s needs for its population, hydroelectric power and fishery economies, and Florida’s water-stressed, multi-million-dollar shellfish industries. This project will showcase the role of geography in delineating water needs among these three states, and the current ecological, political, economic and judicial stances regarding this decades-long water dispute.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - Geography & Anthropology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Nancy Pullen
War over Water. The Battle That Has Been Simmering for Decades.
Freshwater may know only of its natural and human-made boundaries – by way of aquifers, lakes streams, and dams – but competition for freshwater is evident in various parts of the world, even the United States, particularly where water boundaries cross established political borders. This is apparent with the ongoing competition of freshwater among Georgia, Alabama, and Florida in what is often referred to as the Tri-State Water Wars. The water basins in question include the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa basin, which crosses Georgia and Alabama, as well as the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin, which crosses Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The wars pit Georgia, with its well-established agriculture industry and growing Atlanta metropolitan statistical area to Alabama’s needs for its population, hydroelectric power and fishery economies, and Florida’s water-stressed, multi-million-dollar shellfish industries. This project will showcase the role of geography in delineating water needs among these three states, and the current ecological, political, economic and judicial stances regarding this decades-long water dispute.