Project Description: 

More than one million people in California don’t have access to safe, accessible drinking water. Many more face unaffordable water rates. These challenges disproportionately burden low-income communities of color. Addressing drinking water inequalities, therefore, is a matter of Environmental Justice and critical to implementing the state’s Human Right to Water (AB 685). While scholars and practitioners have a long history of studying and addressing the technical, managerial and financial constraints limiting progress on the Human Right to Water, only recently have we begun to look at the importance of water system governance. One particularly underexplored factor is the role of representation in local water decision-making. Yet evidence from other contexts, from corporate boards to school districts, indicates that representation is important in shaping outcomes, particularly equity outcomes. As a first step to filling this gap, this project seeks to describe the composition of local water board members in the bay area (or another California region of interest to the student) in terms of race/ethnicity and gender and compare the results to the residential population of the region.

Note: Work can be done on campus, remote or a hybrid of the two

Department: 
ESPM
Undergraduate's Role: 

This project is designed to be led by the student researcher with mentorship and support from the faculty advisor. To complete this project the student researcher will do the following: Collect key information on board members for each of the region’s water systems from public records; Organize this information in a manner conducive to analysis; Utilize publicly available computer programs for race and gender coding of board members names; Analyze collected data using descriptive statistics; Communicate research findings orally and in writing (e.g., development of a research brief, presentation of a poster at a conference); and Document data collection and analysis procedures to ensure replicability.

Undergraduate's Qualifications: 

Necessary qualifications:

  • Attention to detail
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Self-directed learner
  • Desire to learn about water justice and civic engagement in California
  • Ability to set and meet deadlines

Helpful (but not mandatory) qualifications:

  • Familiarity with excel
  • Familiarity with R
  • Experience calculating and presenting descriptive statistics
Location: 
On Campus
Hours: 
3-6 hours