Doctoral Dissertation Research: Institutional Responses to a Changing Environment: Flooding and Natural Resource Access in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

这个博士论文研究项目探讨了如何调解获得自然资源的社会机构应对不断变化的环境，以及这些反应对依赖于自然资源的生计的人的影响。 随着气候变化的后果越来越多地影响到地球仪各地的社区，调解获得自然资源的地方机构在形成有效的适应做法方面将至关重要。 该项目将通过整合政治生态学和社会生态系统理论来分析制度，环境变化和资源获取之间的关系，从而为社会和生态变化的学术研究提供信息。 博士生将专注于对博茨瓦纳奥卡万戈三角洲全球重要生态系统环境变化的机构反应。 季节性洪水是奥卡万戈三角洲居民生活中不可或缺的一部分，那里的农村生计依赖洪水提供重要的自然资源。 然而，近年来，洪水水位上升，使居民流离失所，生计系统中断。 学生将研究如何影响使用规则，确定获得自然资源的社会机构正在应对这些洪水的增加。 她还将评估这些机构的反应如何促进和限制居民的生计系统。 她的定性研究将使用家庭层面的半结构化访谈和结构化调查，以解决三个具体和相互关联的问题：（1）是什么机构，管理奥卡万戈三角洲湿地资源的访问？ (2)这些机构如何应对日益严重的洪水？ (3)这些应对措施如何影响居民获得资源和维持生计的能力？该项目将加强对社会机构如何塑造水生态系统中的资源获取的理解，这是一种以前在政治生态学的地理子领域中探索的系统。 它将通过在动态水生生态系统中应用该框架来加强埃莉诺·奥斯特罗姆开发的社会生态系统框架。 该项目将增加目前的奖学金，致力于提供经验细节的SES框架，并将增加新的变量，包括：性别，种族，非正式规则和季节性访问模式。 更广泛地说，该项目将强调了解撒哈拉以南非洲和发展中国家环境变化、社会机构和资源获取之间关系的重要性。 该项目将有助于奥卡万戈三角洲的环境和气候变化适应政策，指出机构目前如何应对环境变化，并将评估它们在帮助居民应对未来洪水变化预测增加方面的能力。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation research project examines how social institutions that mediate access to natural resources respond to changing environments and the implications such responses have for people dependent on natural resource-based livelihoods. As the consequences of climate change increasingly impact communities across the globe, the local institutions that mediate access to natural resources will be critical in shaping effective adaptation practices. This project will inform scholarship on social and ecological change by integrating political ecology and social-ecological systems theory to analyze the relationships between institutions, environmental change, and resource access. The doctoral student will focus on institutional responses to environmental changes in the globally significant ecosystem of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Seasonal floods are an integral part of life for the residents of the Okavango Delta, where rural livelihoods depend on the floodwaters for important natural resources. In recent years, however, increased flooding levels have displaced residents from their homes and disrupted livelihood systems. The student will examine how social institutions that affect the rules of use that determine access to natural resources are responding to these increases in flooding. She also will evaluate the ways in which these institutional responses enable and constrain residents' livelihood systems. Her qualitative study will use household-level semi-structured interviews and a structured survey to address three specific and interlinked questions: (1) What are the institutions that govern access to wetland resources in the Okavango Delta? (2) How are these institutions responding to increasing levels of flooding? (3) How do these responses impact the ability of residents to access resources and sustain livelihoods?This project will enhance understanding of how social institutions shape resource access in an aquatic ecosystem, a type of system previously under explored in the geographic subfield of political ecology. It will strengthen the social-ecological systems (SES) framework developed by Elinor Ostrom by applying the framework within a dynamic aquatic ecosystem. This project will add to current scholarship that is working to provide empirical detail to the SES framework and will add new variables, including: gender, ethnicity, informal rules, and seasonal access patterns. More broadly, the project will highlight the importance of understanding the relationships among environmental changes, social institutions, and resource access across Africa south of the Sahara and in the developing world. The project will contribute to environmental and climate change adaptation policy in the Okavango Delta by indicating how institutions are currently responding to environmental changes and will assess how well positioned they are to help residents respond to predicted future increases in flooding variability. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.