"Evaluating United States Air Force Installation Water Security" by Michael L. Berg

Date of Award

3-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering Management

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Daniel J. Weeks, PhD

Abstract

Water shortage at Mountain Home Air Force Base in the last decade ignited the need for an assessment of relative water security risk across United States Air Force installations. Current evaluation methods often differ from actual conditions suggesting a need to categorize security across the enterprise for multiple discrete locations. Indicator-based approaches for characterizing water security are common in academic literature but have little methodological consensus and have rarely been applied to discrete areas spread across geographically separated locations with diverse climates. Using a two-stage analytical hierarchy process and normalized utility functions, water security at 30 installations across the continental United States was calculated using 14 indicators spanning climate, demand, and infrastructure categories obtained from the Air Force Civil Engineering Water Dashboard and external sources. Findings of this research suggest bases in the western half of the United States have lower relative water security and should be prioritized for future climate resilience investment. This thesis supports National Defense Authorization Act Section 2827 and climate-informed decision making under the Defense Climate Adaptation Plan, while demonstrating one way to leverage available data for strategic asset management and resilience planning.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENV-MS-24-M-106

Comments

A 12-month embargo was observed for posting this work on AFIT Scholar.

Distribution Statement A, Approved for Public Release. PA case number on file.

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