Scholars@Duke
David L. Katz

David L. Katz

Adjunct Associate Professor in the Division of Environmental Social Systems
Environmental Social Systems

Selected Publications

Survival of the largest: Why regulators fail to develop a heterogeneous wind energy sector

Journal Article Energy Policy · December 1, 2025 A diverse wind market with large and small wind offers benefits relative to one that is dominated by large projects. However, the adoption of small wind lags behind large in many locations. We ask what factors might account for small wind's relative lack o ... Full text Cite

In Search of the River Jordan—A Story of Palestine, Israel and the Struggle for Water

Journal Article Bustan The Middle East Book Review · August 19, 2024 Full text Cite

Desalination and transboundary water governance in conflict settings.

Journal Article Journal of environmental management · March 2024 Desalination can reduce both water scarcity and variability in supplies, two factors identified as drivers of transboundary water conflict. As such, some have predicted that increasing development of desalination capacity may reduce conflict over shared wa ... Full text Open Access Cite

Water-energy nexus in a desalination-based water sector: the impact of electricity load shedding programs

Journal Article Npj Clean Water · December 1, 2023 Reliance on water production by desalination as a solution to water scarcity is growing worldwide. High energy demands of seawater desalination raise new challenges for both water and energy management and highlight the importance of understanding the oper ... Full text Open Access Cite

Initiating data-as-a-service adoption in water utilities: A service design approach

Journal Article Utilities Policy · October 1, 2023 Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) can help facilitate the successful adoption of innovative digital solutions by water utilities. However, little is known about the processes used to adopt this model, including the initial challenges and required utility maturity f ... Full text Open Access Cite

Policy dissonance when wearing the “employer hat”: The practice of governmental vehicle reimbursement among public sector employees

Journal Article Case Studies on Transport Policy · June 1, 2023 Transport-related benefits can have a significant impact on employees’ vehicle ownership and use. Policy implemented by governments, which are often both large-scale employers and models for the private sector, are especially important in determining trave ... Full text Open Access Cite

Adoption of data-as-a-service by water and wastewater utilities

Journal Article Utilities Policy · April 1, 2023 While technologies in the water sector have been advancing over the past few decades, complementary innovation in business models is needed to support the adoption of these technologies. One emerging opportunity is an outsourced approach to data collection ... Full text Cite

Institutional acceptance of wildlife mitigation technologies for wind energy: The case of Israel

Journal Article Energy Policy · February 1, 2023 While the existing literature on the acceptability of renewable energy focuses primarily on stated preferences of individual acceptance, this study focuses on a socio-political dimension of acceptance by examining revealed preferences as evidenced by stake ... Full text Cite

Desalination and Transboundary Water Conflict and Cooperation: A Mixed-Method Empirical Approach

Journal Article Water Switzerland · June 1, 2022 The impact of the adoption of desalination on relations between parties in transboundary settings is unclear. The previous literature has indicated that the effect of desalination on conflict and cooperation is an empirical matter. By reducing scarcity and ... Full text Cite

Basin Management under Conditions of Scarcity: The Transformation of the Jordan River Basin from Regional Water Supplier to Regional Water Importer

Journal Article Water Switzerland · May 1, 2022 The Jordan River system is one of the most iconic and most contested river systems in the world. The once “mighty Jordan”, which has served as the primary source of water for populations in several countries, is currently a severely denuded river system, w ... Full text Cite

Desalination and hydrodiplomacy: Refreshening transboundary water negotiations or adding salt to the wounds?

Journal Article Environmental Science and Policy · February 1, 2021 Much of the literature on the political ramifications of desalination has emphasized its potential to mitigate transboundary water conflicts by increasing the quantity of available water (thereby alleviating scarcity), and also by reducing variability and ... Full text Cite

Energizing Mid–East water diplomacy: The potential for regional water–energy exchanges

Journal Article Water International · May 18, 2020 This article presents a nongovernmental initiative to address asymmetric hydropolitical relations in the Jordan River basin through issue linkage. The initiative would develop desalination capacity along the Mediterranean to supply water to Jordan, with Jo ... Full text Cite

Analyzing Water Customer Preferences for Online Feedback Technologies in Israel: A Prototype Study

Journal Article Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management · April 1, 2020 Over the last decade, utilities, governments, and businesses have increasingly come to realize that financial considerations are not the only factors driving consumer behavior; rather, social and psychological factors play a significant role as well. For e ... Full text Cite

Transboundary exchanges of renewable energy and desalinatedwater in the Middle East

Journal Article Energies · April 17, 2019 The Levant area of the Middle East suffers from both chronic water scarcity and high population growth. It is also a region highly dependent of fossil fuels. In order to address current and expected water demands, several countries in the region, including ... Full text Cite

Do treaties matter? Climate change, water variability, and cooperation along transboundary river basins

Journal Article Political Geography · March 1, 2019 Annual and seasonal water variability is predicted to intensify due to climate change. River basins lacking institutional capacity, such as treaties, to deal with environmental change may experience political tensions. Using the 1948–2008 country dyads eve ... Full text Cite

StillWaters run deep: Comparing assertive and suggestive language in water conservation campaigns

Journal Article Water Switzerland · March 5, 2018 The current work focuses on non-price policies to achieve residential water conservation, specifically on water conservation campaigns. The authors report the results of a large-scale longitudinal field experiment encouraging residential water conservation ... Full text Cite

Identifying synergies and trade-offs in the sustainability–security nexus: The case of the israeli–palestinian wastewater treatment regime

Journal Article Hydrological Sciences Journal · April 30, 2016 The literature on environmental security often stresses the complementarity between sustainability and broader security goals. Less emphasis has been placed on possible trade-offs between security objectives and aspects of sustainability. This study examin ... Full text Cite

Undermining demand management with supply management: Moral hazard in Israeli water policies

Journal Article Water Switzerland · January 1, 2016 Most water managers use a mixture of both supply-side and demand-side policies, seeking to capitalize on the relative advantages of each. However, supply augmentation undertaken to avoid overdrafts can reduce the effectiveness of demand management policies ... Full text Cite

Valuing instream and riparian aspects of stream restoration - A willingness to tax approach

Journal Article Land Use Policy · May 1, 2015 Streams provide a variety of ecosystem and recreational services. Several studies have documented that the public often has a strong willingness to pay for stream restoration, however, many do not distinguish between the values for different types of uses ... Full text Cite

Climate change, conflict, and cooperation: Global analysis of the effectiveness of international river treaties in addressing water variability

Journal Article Political Geography · March 1, 2015 Climate-driven water variability is a natural phenomenon that is observed across river basins, but one that is predicted to increase due to climate change. Environmental change of this kind may aggravate political tensions, especially in regions which are ... Full text Cite

Water use and economic growth: Reconsidering the Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship

Journal Article Journal of Cleaner Production · February 1, 2015 Predictions of national and global water use have been criticized for being inaccurate and for not taking into consideration economic development. Of the little research that does address water use as a function of economic development, results are inconsi ... Full text Cite

Desalination as a game-changer in transboundary hydro-politics

Journal Article Water Policy · January 1, 2014 This article demonstrates how the availability of seawater desalination is important, not just as an additional source of water supply on a national scale, but as a potential 'game changer' in transboundary hydro-political interactions. The advent of desal ... Full text Cite

Once there was a river: A benefit-cost analysis of rehabilitation of the Jordan River

Journal Article Regional Environmental Change · January 1, 2014 The Jordan River is among the world's most famous and culturally and historically significant waterways. The lower stretch of the river, however, has been a victim of development in a water scarce region, with current flows less than 5 % of historical leve ... Full text Cite

The impact of uncertainties on cooperation over transboundary water: The case of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

Journal Article Geoforum · December 1, 2013 The effect of uncertainty on cooperation between the partners sharing the natural resources remains unknown. Uncertainty may strengthen cooperation between partners, as it is necessary to implement cooperative mitigation policies, however, it may also serv ... Full text Cite

The use of "security" jargon in sustainable development discourse: Evidence from UN Commission on Sustainable Development

Journal Article International Environmental Agreements Politics Law and Economics · September 1, 2013 The premise of discourse theory in environmental policy is that realities are shaped by language. One discourse that is gaining popularity is the concept of environmental security, a discourse that presupposes environmental threats as urgent. The attempt t ... Full text Cite

Policies for Water Demand Management in Israel

Chapter · January 1, 2013 Facing chronic water scarcity, Israel has invested heavily in supply augmentation, including cloud seeding, reclamation and reuse of wastewater, and more recently large-scale seawater desalination. Given the physical and technological limitations as well a ... Full text Cite

Rehabilitating Israel’s Streams and Rivers

Chapter · January 1, 2013 For the first several decades of Israel’s existence, water left in streams was considered a waste of a precious resource. Streams themselves were seen as hazards to be managed, with little perceived value other than serving as convenient conduits for dispo ... Full text Cite

Rehabilitating israel's streams and rivers

Journal Article International Journal of River Basin Management · December 1, 2012 By the 1960s, the intermittent streams in Israel, emptying either into the Mediterranean or into the Dead Sea in the east, became perennial sewage conduits, with the local aquatic habitat decimated or changed beyond recognition. The natural flow of water t ... Full text Cite

Dividing the waters: An empirical analysis of interstate compact allocation of transboundary rivers

Journal Article Water Resources Research · June 27, 2011 Legal scholars and jurists have identified several criteria (e.g., hydrology, climate, population, and historical water use) to guide equitable allocation of transboundary rivers among riparian claimants. Are these criteria used in practice, such that a qu ... Full text Cite

The politics of unilateral environmentalism: Cooperation and conflict over water management along the Israeli-Palestinian border

Journal Article Global Environmental Politics · January 1, 2011 The establishment of international environmental institutions is often predicated on the assumption that cooperation is politically feasible and that regime formation is viable. However, the provision of many environmental services remains vulnerable to as ... Full text Cite

Hydro-political hyperbole: Examining incentives for overemphasizing the risks of water wars

Journal Article Global Environmental Politics · January 1, 2011 Predictions of inevitable and imminent wars over scarce water are routinely made by prominent political figures, academics, journalists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). These statements continue to occur despite both a questionable theoretical f ... Full text Cite

Spatial and temporal dynamics of linkage strategies in Arab-Israeli water negotiations

Journal Article Political Geography · January 1, 2011 Water issues are inherently multi-faceted and therefore water policy often involves linkages to other issues. By providing opportunities for bargaining, use of policy linkages in transboundary water negotiations can increase the possibilities of reaching a ... Full text Cite

Economic valuation of resuscitating the Dead Sea

Journal Article Water Policy · August 15, 2006 As a result of diversion of upstream waters and intensive mineral extraction along its shores, the level of the Dead Sea is dropping at a rate of almost one meter per year, causing the sea continuously to break its own record as the lowest place on earth. ... Full text Cite

The Mediterranean free trade zone: Duty-free environmental degradation

Journal Article Middle East Report · January 1, 1999 Full text Cite