Reallocation is often promoted as a response to water security dilemmas in the western United States. Water banking is a form of reallocation utilized in several states to facilitate temporary water rights transfers. This article frames and examines water banking’s potential influences on water security from a hydro-social perspective through a case analysis of water banking policy in Utah. It analyzes the challenges of integrating the market-based economic incentives of water banks with the legal precedents of the prior appropriation doctrine to reallocate water in overappropriated basins with hydrologically interdependent uses. Key-informant interviews and focus groups were used to examine water security’s meaning to stakeholders and analyze how water banking could affect the water security of disparate users and uses at multiple scales. Stakeholders predominately saw water security as assurance in water quantity, but water security was further equated by participants with the legal protections afforded by water rights. Multiple complexities in water bank implementation are to be expected when multiscalar contexts are considered, including societal and hydrologic tradeoffs in settings with diverse and interconnected interests. Our research shows that examining the potential ramifications of water banking policy through stakeholder perspectives can reveal nuanced insights on individual and collective water security issues not only within Utah but other arid regions in general.

中文翻译：

---

对水银行的兴趣不断增加：评估它们在缓解水不安全方面的作用

重新分配经常被宣传为对美国西部水安全困境的回应。水银行是一种重新分配的形式，在几个州使用，以促进临时水权转让。本文通过犹他州水银行政策的案例分析，从水利社会的角度构建并研究了水银行对水安全的潜在影响。它分析了将水库的基于市场的经济激励与优先占用原则的法律先例相结合以在具有水文相互依存用途的过度占用流域中重新分配水的挑战。主要知情人访谈和焦点小组被用来检查水安全对利益相关者的意义，并分析水银行如何在多个尺度上影响不同用户和用途的水安全。利益相关者主要将水安全视为水量的保证，但参与者进一步将水安全等同于水权提供的法律保护。当考虑多尺度环境时，预计水银行实施会存在多​​种复杂性，包括在具有不同和相互关联利益的环境中的社会和水文权衡。我们的研究表明，通过利益相关者的视角检查水银行政策的潜在影响可以揭示对个人和集体水安全问题的细微见解，不仅在犹他州，而且在其他干旱地区。当考虑多尺度环境时，预计水银行实施会存在多​​种复杂性，包括在具有不同和相互关联利益的环境中的社会和水文权衡。我们的研究表明，通过利益相关者的视角检查水银行政策的潜在影响可以揭示对个人和集体水安全问题的细微见解，不仅在犹他州，而且在其他干旱地区。当考虑多尺度环境时，预计水银行实施会存在多​​种复杂性，包括在具有不同和相互关联利益的环境中的社会和水文权衡。我们的研究表明，通过利益相关者的视角检查水银行政策的潜在影响可以揭示对个人和集体水安全问题的细微见解，不仅在犹他州，而且在其他干旱地区。