An Analysis of Current Trends and Potential Applications of Sociohydrology

Humans live in an ever-changing, increasingly-complicated world. As the fundamental understanding of systems changes, those tasked with managing these may find themselves faced with new situations with problems more complex than previously thought. Recently, an increased interest in fully integrating society into hydrologic research has given rise to a new subfield of hydrology: sociohydrology. I performed a meta-analysis of the sociohydrologic literature from its coinage in 2012 until early August 2017. There has been a steady increase in the number of sociohydrology-related publications since 2012. Articles constituted over 75% of all publications. Multidisciplinary collaborations were common for sociohydrologic publications; however, authorship was heavily biased towards engineering and the natural sciences. Studies were largely conceptual, and the most common foci included modeling, flooding, land use-land cover change, agriculture, water security, and rivers or streams. I developed a conceptual framework for constructing a model capable of analyzing long-term success of rural infrastructure projects. I did so in the context of the flood-reducing capabilities of drainage infrastructure on Texas colonias. This model was designed to estimate long-term flood risk on development. I developed a conceptual framework for constructing a model capable of analyzing long-term urban natural disaster vulnerability. I did so in the context of potential contaminant risk in the event of a rainfall-induced industrial contaminant spillage in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metropolitan area. This model was designed to estimate two varieties of storm hazards: risk of inundation by flood waters and risk of contamination by industrial plant spillage. This study provides information on the development of sociohydrology and conceptualizes potential applications of its methodology