DISES: Toward resilient and adaptive community-driven management of groundwater dependent agricultural systems

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Groundwater for irrigation is foundational to the viability of numerous US farming communities, as well as the national and global food supplies they support. Yet, this natural resource is being overexploited in many areas, threatening the social and economic viability of those that depend on it. Irrigators in western Kansas and south-central Colorado are developing community-level rules regulating groundwater use and management in an effort to preserve the aquifer and their livelihoods – a novel experiment in self-governance of groundwater commons. The initial success of these self-governance regimes has prompted their rapid spread, facilitated by a transfer of experience and rule design from one community to another, resulting in the adoption of relatively similar rules across the communities. However, questions remain regarding the long-term effectiveness, resilience, and adaptability of these similar self-governance regimes under shocks, such as drought or volatile commodity markets. This work will explore these questions and help groundwater dependent agriculture communities create more effective, resilient, and adaptive groundwater management strategies. The project team will strive to not only bring timely findings to a pressing societal need but also to train undergraduate and graduate students in interdisciplinary science so they are positioned to help solve the vexing sustainability issues that confront society. The project will provide an empirical basis for new theory explaining how individuals and institutions contribute to socio-environmental system effectiveness, resilience, and adaptability. Specifically, the work will answer important, but understudied, questions related to the processes, dynamics, and vulnerabilities of groundwater self-governance regimes. The work will tightly integrate research in both natural and social sciences to advance theory on how the spread of self-governance arrangements, and their interplay with natural and social factors, collectively influence the sustainability and resilience of groundwater-dependent communities. Foundational to the research plan is the convergence of social and environmental data that will underpin a novel integrated model representing complex, dynamic interactions and feedback between social (irrigators and institutions) and environmental (aquifer and land) realms. The overall goal is to develop new theory of how socio-environmental and institutional diversity (or lack thereof) determines the effectiveness, resilience, and adaptability of groundwater self-governance regimes under current conditions and in response to social and environmental change. Achieving this goal will advance broader understanding and theory of common-pool resource management and chart paths forward for groundwater dependent agriculture communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.