The Influential Role of Sociocultural Feedbacks on Community‐Managed Irrigation System Behaviors During Times of Water Stress

Abstract

Sociohydrological studies use interdisciplinary approaches to explore the complex interactions between physical and social water systems and increase our understanding of emergent and paradoxical system behaviors. The dynamics of community values and social cohesion, however, have received little attention in modeling studies due to quantification challenges. Social structures associated with community‐managed irrigation systems around the world, in particular, reflect these communities' experiences with a multitude of natural and social shocks. Using the Valdez acequia (a communally‐managed irrigation community in northern New Mexico) as a simulation case study, we evaluate the impact of that community's social structure in governing its responses to water availability stresses posed by climate change. Specifically, a system dynamics model (developed using insights from community stakeholders and multiple disciplines that captures biophysical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural dynamics of acequia systems) was used to generate counterfactual trajectories to explore how the community would behave with streamflow conditions expected under climate change. We found that earlier peak flows, combined with adaptive measures of shifting crop selection, allowed for greater production of higher value crops and fewer people leaving the acequia. The economic benefits were lost, however, if downstream water pressures increased. Even with significant reductions in agricultural profitability, feedbacks associated with community cohesion buffered the community's population and land parcel sizes from more detrimental impacts, indicating the community's resilience under natural and social stresses. Continued exploration of social structures is warranted to better understand these systems' responses to stress and identify possible leverage points for strengthening community resilience.

Expanding the Scope and Foundation of Sociohydrology as the Science of Coupled Human‐Water Systems

“…They find that adaptive measures such as shifting crop selection allows the community to adapt to reductions in streamflow but that downstream pressures to reduce water use lead to decreased agricultural profitability. Parallel to the articles in this issue on flood dynamics (Leong, ; Sung et al, ; Yu et al, ), Gunda et al () demonstrate the importance of community dynamics in influencing community drought response behavior. O'Keeffe et al () presents the development, in a bottom‐up manner, of a coupled sociohydrological model that captures observed farmer irrigation practices in the State of Uttar Pradesh, India, including two‐way feedbacks between environment and farmer behavior.…”

“…While Apurv et al () assess the climatic controls on drought propagation, Nelson and Burchfield (), Marston and Konar (), Gunda et al (), and O'Keeffe et al () evaluate the influence of social factors in agricultural systems during drought. Both Nelson and Burchfield () and Marston and Konar () investigate responses to the 2012–2014 drought in California's Central Valley.…”

“…Gunda et al () and O'Keeffe et al () also focus on agricultural systems, investigating water stress response dynamics of an acequia community in New Mexico and farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India. Gunda et al () couple an acequia model, developed by Turner et al (), to a hydrological model to assess the impact of upstream hydrological changes and downstream demand changes on crop production and migration. A unique feature of their study is that they evaluated the role of mutualism in sustaining the acequia during drought.…”

“…In this issue, the authors apply a range of statistical methods such as structural equation modeling (Breyer et al, ), hierarchical Bayesian modeling (Nelson & Burchfield, ), and regression with instrumental variables (Dang & Konar, ) to address these challenges. While Gunda et al (), Dadson et al (), Sung et al (), and others continue the tradition of applying system dynamics modeling to gain qualitative understanding of system behavior, they advance this approach through their application of human system dynamics. One critique of system dynamics approach in sociohydrology is that the diversity of actors is not accounted for.…”

“…Codevelopment of research aims and coproduction of research products can be an effective way to increase research salience but also introduce new challenges (Tidwell & Van Den Brink, ; MacKenzie et al, ). Multiple papers in this special issue solicit stakeholder input as data or use stakeholder feedback to refine analyses (e.g., Gunda et al, ; Leong, ; Treuer et al, ). While past sociohydrology work has addressed knowledge transfer (e.g., Gober et al, ), no papers in this issue focus on knowledge transfer or research codevelopment, and more work remains to ensure that research efforts in sociohydrology can be applied in practice.…”