My project proposal is granting water rights to terminal lakes in arid environments experiencing climate change driven drought. A terminal lake is defined as a lake with no natural outlet. As climate change increases global temperatures, the precipitation is expected to come as more rainfall and less snow (Hall et al., 2023). I would like to focus on lakes in the western part of the United States in the Great Basin region.<\/p>\n
An example case study is Mono Lake, a lake in California. In the 1940\u2019s, the city of Los Angeles received permits to divert water from tributary streams of the lake to the city for hydroelectric power and municipal use (California, 1994). \u00a0The lake levels dropped dramatically until the 1970\u2019s when an effort to allocate water to the lake started. Mono Lake is owned by the state of California. I am most interested in another state-owned terminal lake, Great Salt Lake in Utah. Most of the literature I have found is on granting water rights to rivers, not lakes. This is my research gap. Drying lakes have unique environmental and health concerns (Liu et al., 2013).<\/p>\n
This project would look at a few questions relating to the subject. First, why is it important to prevent terminal lakes from drying? I would look at environmental and human health concerns for drying lakebeds. Hazards relating to drying lakebeds include air pollution, vegetation degradation, bird migration disruption, and soil salinization (Gao et al., 2025).<\/p>\n
Second, I would explore lakes and rivers that have already received legal rights. This will serve as the baseline of what has happened in the past and explore the research gap of granting water rights to lakes, not just rivers. This would include how much water would be needed per square km, where the water rights would come from, and the impacts other entities have shown when given water rights. How much water rights are needed and where will they come from? What will this look like for the communities and farmers in the area, and how can this be feasible?<\/p>\n
Lastly, I would look at the process of gaining water rights for these entities. I would like to highlight community advocacy, legal requirements, and community\/political push-back. Who is advocating for or against this? What are the opposing arguments? What is the opinion of politicians, farmers, and the general public?<\/p>\n
References<\/strong><\/p>\n Daniels, B., Parker, E., & Steed, B., (2025). Great Salt Lake and the New Water Security. UC Davis Law and Review<\/em>, 58(5), 2581-2630.<\/p>\n Gao, H., Chen, G., Lu, X., Chen, J., Zhang, H., & Wang X., (2025). Toxic dust emission from drought-exposed lake beds \u2013 a new air pollution threat from dried lakes. European Geoscience Union, <\/em>V. 25(19), 12657-12673. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5194\/acp-25-12657-2025<\/p>\n Hall, D. K., Kimball, J. S., Larson, R., DiGirolamo, N. E., Casey, K. A., & Hulley, G. (2023). Intensified warming and aridity accelerate terminal lake desiccation in the Great Basin of the Western United States. Earth and Space Science<\/em>, 10<\/em>(1). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2022ea002630<\/a><\/p>\n Liu, H., Y. Yin, S. Piao, F. Zhao,M. Engelsand and P. Ciais. 2013.Disappearing lakes in semiarid northern China: drivers and environmental impact. Environ Sci & Technol<\/em>, 47: 12107\u221212114<\/p>\n State of California Water Resources Control Board (1994). Mono Lake Basin Water Right Decision 1631, https:\/\/waterboards.ca.gov\/publications_forms\/publications\/general\/docs\/monolake_wr_dec1631_a.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My project proposal is granting water rights to terminal lakes in arid environments experiencing climate change driven drought. A terminal lake is defined as a lake with no natural outlet. As climate change increases global temperatures, the precipitation is expected to come as more rainfall and less snow (Hall et al., 2023). I would likeContinue reading “Granting Natural Entities Legal Rights: Terminal Lakes in the Western United States”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[273],"tags":[276],"class_list":["post-4539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poster-topic-proposal-2026","tag-posterproposal2026"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4566,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions\/4566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}