Common water, common ground: mapping land and water into commons to save the future of Utah and the Western U.S.

Utah and the western U.S. are facing dire circumstances regarding their current water management. Agriculture continues to use the most water, with laws enshrined that promote squandering of the most precious desert resource. Urban sprawl continues to exponentially pressure the state into finding newer projects to protect resources, public works dams and aquifers. This essay highlights the historical precedents leading up to our present failures of a government rationalization of nature. By manipulating water beyond our understanding, we base decisions in ignorance where negative externalities thrive. The goal of this thesis is to show that our capitalist economy which has historically degraded watersheds cannot be used for the basis of water management, and that a new mapping of common waters must occur in order for residents of Utah to have water in the future. By listening to ancient cultures and the ways they viewed water primary to life, we can avoid a catastrophic future of fighting for every last drop.