Journal
SUSTAINABILITY
Volume 4, Issue 11, Pages 2998-3022Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/su4112998
Keywords
interdisciplinary model; sustainability; natural and human system dynamics; hydrology; ecology; economics; culture
Funding
- New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station
- National Science Foundation [814449]
- New Mexico EPSCoR
- Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems [1010516]
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci [1010516] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- EPSCoR
- Office Of The Director [0814449] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Water scarcity, land use conversion and cultural and ecosystem changes threaten the way of life for traditional irrigation communities of the semi-arid southwestern United States. Traditions are strong, yet potential upheaval is great in these communities that rely on acequia irrigation systems. Acequias are ancient ditch systems brought from the Iberian Peninsula to the New World over 400 years ago; they are simultaneously gravity flow water delivery systems and shared water governance institutions. Acequias have survived periods of drought and external shocks from changing economics, demographics, and resource uses. Now, climate change and urbanization threaten water availability, ecosystem functions, and the acequia communities themselves. Do past adaptive practices hold the key to future sustainability, or are new strategies required? To explore this issue we translated disciplinary understanding into a uniform format of causal loop diagrams to conceptualize the subsystems of the entire acequia-based human-natural system. Four subsystems are identified in this study: hydrology, ecosystem, land use/economics, and sociocultural. Important linkages between subsystems were revealed as well as variables indicating community cohesion (e.g., total irrigated land, intensity of upland grazing, mutualism). Ongoing work will test the conceptualizations with field data and modeling exercises to capture tipping points for non-sustainability and thresholds for sustainable water use and community longevity.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available