Water Policy Fellowships

Alice Cohen

Alice is a doctoral student in the department of Resource Management and Environmental Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her M.A. thesis (completed in August 2007) dealt with comparative groundwater management, using the case of the Gulf and San Juan Islands in the Strait of Georgia to explore the relationship between regulation and on-the-ground management of groundwater resources.

Her current project through the Gordon Foundation is being undertaken in partnership with the Sierra Club of Canada and focuses on transboundary groundwater. The project addresses two related questions. First, what lessons can be learned from existing examples of transboundary groundwater management, both in Canada and elsewhere? And second, how might these lessons be incorporated into federal water policy in Canada? Research will be carried out through legislative reviews and interviews, and findings will be integrated into a policy report and distributed through the Sierra Club and UBC's Program on Water Governance (http://www.watergovernance.ca). It is anticipated that the report will be a useful tool for policy makers and will contribute to evolving work by groups calling for a national water strategy.