Comment 1
Comment 2
References:
Title: Cross currents: water scarcity and sustainable CHI
Author: Tad Hirsch and Ken Anderson
Venue: CHI EA 2010
Summary:In this paper, Hirsch and Anderson describe water conservation in New Mexico and how HCI can help in easing the process, as well as the word sustainability and the liquidity of its definition. The authors undertook a study in which they interviewed various inhabitants of the Albuquerque area about their water conservation habits and what they thought of legislative efforts.
Hirsch and Anderson discovered that many of them didn't conserve for monetary reasons, instead conserving for environmental reasons. In addition, some residents were unsatisfied with the current legislation, observing that big businesses got more water allocation than they did. Other residents were concerned about the lack of legislation on groundwater, which was being welled heavily and could cause sinkholes. All in all, they discovered that conservation and sustainability had many definitions just in the area, not to mention the changes it might have in other locales.
Discussion:
I found this paper interesting because, just like the last paper, I didn't really think of HCI having an influence in environmental matters like these. However, their research is important if only to discover better methods of conservation. Especially with regards to the welling of groundwater, if care isn't taken to preserve the water now, the consequences could be dire, since it could cause natural disasters like sinkholes, as well as increasing the damage from conditions like drought.
(Image courtesy of: Planetware)
As someone who lived through the big drought in Colorado the first half of the 00s, if they are only conserving for environmental and not financial reasons, they still have plenty of water.
ReplyDeleteDid they say what the current, allegedly inadequate, level of legislation is?
I also hadn't considered matters like these a focus for HCI. It sounds like this paper is paving the way for a new area of research that could benefit a lot of people later down the line.
ReplyDeleteI am a bit confused as I cannot see the "computer" aspect of this paper. If it deals with human COMPUTER interaction, wouldn't there need to be a computer? But none the less, it is interesting to me because I grew up close to the Edward's Aquifer.
ReplyDeleteNot being from Texas, I didn't realize how many factors were involved with things such as welling. I also didn't think of this as a HCI topic at first. It seemed like they didn't mention technology much in the article, beyond the household monitors.
ReplyDeleteI too am a bit confused about the "computer" aspect of this paper. I can see how it relates to HCI and they shed a little light on it but they spend most of the paper talking about the people part of the problem in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI'm with everyone else on this article. I felt like this was much more a study in public policy than anything. The only thing I took away from this article was that "sustainable" is hard to put a time frame on and conservation is more than just using less.
ReplyDeleteSad thing is, this isn't just about New Mexico, this is happening world wide, because drinkable water is being used for industrial purposes and at a massive scale. Once polluted, it takes a lot of time and energy to undo the contamination. But really if they focus was geared more towards policy makers then they might be more open to implementing it. Sad but true.
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