Sara Hughes
 Sara Hughes |
U.S. Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar
Media Profile
“My project will provide a greater level of social and political knowledge of Australia’s changing approach to water management.”
Sara Hughes, a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will conduct research on sustainable water governance in collaboration with the University of South Australia’s Centre for Comparative Water Policies and Law. She undertook her Masters in Science at Michigan State University on the topic of collaborative groundwater policy making. By conducting extensive interviews and assessing existing institutions, she will investigate how South Australia’s water governance systems reflect the goals and values of users of the resource and those who make decisions about its use.
Sara chose Australia as her study destination as it is considered a world leader in developing alternative water management strategies, having drafted several forward-thinking national water laws and policies. The Centre is an important and active organisation for water policy research in Australia.
“There is a need for research that can help us determine the underlying system of beliefs and values regarding water that is motivating decisions and guiding policy processes. Such an understanding will provide insight into the process behind institutional and legislative change and help promote effective management of scarce water resources. Australia is an ideal setting for such research.”
A winner of several competitive undergraduate awards and scholarships, Sara has a strong appreciation of the role of citizen stakeholders and scientific experts in formulating environmental policies. Sara will take an interdisciplinary approach in this project, working closely with federal and state agencies, local communities and non-government organisations. She also plans on using ‘mixed methods’ so that in addition to conducting interviews she will also use environmental data on water resources, printed news stories and policy reports, and historical information about the area.
“This will give me a better understanding of the relationship between the goals of Australia’s legal framework, the nature of the resource, the beliefs and values of users and leaders involved in decision making and the opportunity or necessity for institutional change.”
Sara’s ambition is that the work she is involved in will have a real world impact on how society determines the conditions and sustainability of the environment, particularly scarce water resources, now and in the future.
“I want to help develop creative solutions to water management problems that allow society’s needs to be met – supporting industry, agriculture, healthy ecosystems and basic human needs – in a way that allows those benefits to continue into the future. I’m looking forward to learning from Australia’s experience and sharing what I can in return.”