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Dr Dustin Garrick

• Academic Profile
• Current Research
• Current Teaching
• Publications

Academic Profile

Dustin Garrick is a researcher specialising in comparative water policy and economic analysis. He holds a PhD in Geography (University of Arizona) and Master's degree in Environmental Science and Policy (Columbia University). His research examines the effectiveness of policy responses to water scarcity and climate risk in large transboundary rivers. This research applies concepts and methods of institutional economics and draws heavily on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework developed by Elinor Ostrom and colleagues.

Dr Garrick has a decade of experience at the boundary of water research and policy. Before joining Oxford, Dr Garrick was a Fulbright Scholar in Australia (2010-2011), where his research examined water trading and river basin governance in the Murray-Darling Basin. He maintains an active water policy and economics research programme in Australia and is a research associate with the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy at Australia National University. His past research has developed and tested interdisciplinary frameworks for water policy and economic evaluation. His PhD dissertation evaluated a water rights trading programme in the Columbia Basin (U.S.A.) by measuring and explaining transaction costs and institutional performance at multiple spatial and temporal scales. He also served as a project manager for three years on an award-winning knowledge exchange programme focused on the integration of climate change information into water resource planning and drought management in the Colorado River Basin.

Current Research

1. Water reform and institutional performance in a transaction costs world

Current research focuses on institutional adaptation to water scarcity and climate risk in the Colorado, Columbia, and Murray-Darling river basins of the Western U.S. and Australia. These basins are notable for a shared set of defining challenges associated with hydroclimatic variability, overallocation, multiple jurisdictions, and an increasing commitment to climate change adaptation and environmental restoration. This research applies transaction costs economics to evaluate policy effectiveness with a focus at the intersection of water rights systems, water markets, and river basin governance institutions.

2. Adapting to hydroclimatic risk in federal rivers

Federalism has increasing international significance for water security in a context of rapid global change. This project advances a social-ecological systems research framework to investigate river basin adaptation to hydroclimatic risks in federal rivers. There are significant gaps in the evidence base about federal rivers and water security, although this challenge is hardly new in long established federations, such as the US and Australia. These gaps have become more pressing due to the diffusion of federalism across diverse geographic regions with unique economic, political and environmental challenges. This study combines in-depth, structured comparative research of the Western US and Australia with an international research network comprised of delegates from 12 of the world's 28 federal countries across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas. An inaugural workshop convened the network in Oxford in April 2012 to develop a global picture of federal rivers, the climate risks they face and the diverse adaptation and water reform strategies adopted in response. A policy brief has been released and a book project is forthcoming in 2013.

3. Water security, risk and institutional performance

A suite of projects examines institutional pathways to achieve and sustain water security. This research works closely with other disciplinary and practitioner perspectives in the Oxford Water Security Initiative to understand the status of and paths to water security in terms of multiple risks, scales, and actors. This project examines a series of questions focused on the design, sequencing, and performance of institutional arrangements to enhance water security.

Selected Projects

• Water security, risk and institutional performance
  Financial support from John Fell Fund, University of Oxford (2011-2013)
• Water security and federal rivers (2012-2014)
  Support from Australian National University and the Forum of Federations
• Economic Instruments to Manage Water Security Risks (2012)
  Financial support from the OECD
• Improving water market outcomes (Murray-Darling Basin) through a better understanding of market behaviour (principal investigators, Dr Henning Bjornlund and Dr Sarah Wheeler)
  Financial support from Australia Research Council (2010-2012)
• Water markets and environmental recovery
  Financial support from Fulbright Commission and Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) (2010-2011)

Current Teaching

Dr Garrick teaches on the Water Policy module for the MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management.

Publications

Published

• Garrick, D. and Aylward, B. (2012, in press) Transaction costs and institutional performance in emerging markets for environmental flows. Land Economics, 88(3): 536-560.
• Garrick, D., Bark, R., Connor, J. and Banerjee, O. (2012, accepted, in press). Environmental water governance in federal rivers: the opportunities and limits of the subsidiarity principle in Australia's River Murray. Water Policy.
• Wheeler, S., Garrick, D., Loch, A. and Bjornlund, H. (2012, accepted, in press). Evaluating water market products to acquire water for the environment in Australia. Land Use Policy.
• Bark, R.H., Garrick, D., Robinson, C. and Jackson, S. (2012) Adaptive basin governance and the prospects for meeting Indigenous water claims. Environmental Science and Policy, 19-20: 169-177.
• Garrick, D., Lane-Miller, C. and McCoy, A. (2011) Institutional innovations to govern environmental water in the western United States: Lessons for Australia's Murray-Darling basin. Economic Papers, 30(2): 167-184.
• Garrick, D. and Bark, R. (2011) Comparative perspective on basin governance in the Murray Darling: insights from the Western U.S. In, Connell, D. and Q. Grafton (eds.) Basin Futures: Water Reform in the Murray Darling Basin. Australia National University Press.
• Hatton-MacDonald, D., Bark, R., Garrick, D., Connor, J., Banerjee, O. and Morrison, M. (2011) Realising multiple objectives through the life cycle of the basin plan. In, Connell, D. and Q. Grafton (eds.) Basin Futures: Water Reform in the Murray Darling Basin. Australia National University Press.
• Bark, R., Garrick, D., Morino, K. and Scott, C. (2011) Climate change, water resources, and adaptive management in the Colorado River basin. In, Vieira, R., Scott, C.A. and C. Tucci (eds.) Water and Climate Modeling in Large Basins. Brazilian Water Resources Association.
• Garrick, D., Siebentritt, M., Aylward, B., Bauer, C.J. and Purkey, A. (2009) Water markets and freshwater ecosystem services: policy reform and implementation in the Columbia and Murray Darling basins. Ecological Economics, 69(2): 366-379.
• Garrick, D., Jacobs, K. and Garfin, G. (2008) Models, assumptions, and stakeholders: planning for water supply variability in the Colorado River basin. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 44(2): 381-398. Winner of the Boggess Award for the best paper of journal in 2008.