Paper Reading #4

Comments:
Comment #1
Comment #2
Reference:
Title: Cross Currents: Water Scarcity and Sustainable CHIAuthor: Tad Hirsch, Ken AndersonVenue: CHI 2010, Atlanta, Georgia
Summary:
This article discusses the water scarcity in arid climates such as the western United States, and more specifically New Mexico. 

New Mexico uses a "use it or lose it" policy when it comes to water rationing.  This means that if someone does not use the water, it gets appropriated to others.  This then promotes over consumption of water because people do not want to lose their rights to the water.  An example used is Native Americans building soccer fields just because soccer fields use a lot of water rather than having a genuine interest in soccer. Combined with a growing population, this presents a serious problem.  The people surveyed in the article stated that they believe fixing the political issues is more important than using water-saving technologies.

Based on their findings, the authors stated that sustainability in this type of scenario is difficult because of all the different political, cultural, and economic factors.  Modeling techniques may be useful, but the extent is not known because policymakers and stakeholders must understand and interpret the data.  Also this scenario is difficult because "policy implications are indeterminate." Getting public participation is also an issue facing this dilemma, and enforcing the policies would be difficult.  The last and most basic finding was that the science was hard, as it pertains to understanding the human interactions and hydrologic cycles.
Discussion:
I didn't know that such water scarcity issues existed in the United States. I knew it was an issue, but not to this extent.  Also, it's difficult reading about how corrupt our policies in our nation can be.  Overall, I didn't really like this article.  It didn't really pertain to HCI at all in my opinion.  They didn't discuss anything with computers except a mention of simulations.  It seemed to me like it was just a way of voicing political concerns over water consumption in these areas.  While this may be an important issue, I think it is one that should be saved for other venues.  Nonetheless, I do think that we'll be able to solve this issue as our technology continues to expand and the need becomes more and more apparent.  As the demand rises, so will the potential profit off such innovation, which will result in more interest and more research into the issues.