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

用于灌溉的地下水是许多美国农业社区生存的基础，也是它们所支持的国家和全球粮食供应的基础。然而，这种自然资源在许多地区被过度开发，威胁到依赖它的人的社会和经济生存能力。堪萨斯州西部和科罗拉多州中南部的灌溉者正在制定管理地下水使用和管理的社区一级规则，以努力保护含水层和他们的生计——这是一项地下水公地自治的新实验。这些自治制度的初步成功促使其迅速传播，这得益于经验和规则设计从一个社区转移到另一个社区，导致在各个社区采用相对相似的规则。然而，这些类似的自治制度在干旱或大宗商品市场波动等冲击下的长期有效性、弹性和适应性问题仍然存在。这项工作将探索这些问题，并帮助依赖地下水的农业社区制定更有效、更有弹性和适应性的地下水管理战略。项目团队将努力不仅为迫切的社会需求带来及时的发现，而且还将培养跨学科科学的本科生和研究生，使他们能够帮助解决社会面临的令人烦恼的可持续性问题。该项目将为解释个人和机构如何对社会环境系统的有效性、弹性和适应性做出贡献的新理论提供经验基础。具体来说，这项工作将回答与地下水自治制度的过程、动态和脆弱性有关的重要但尚未得到充分研究的问题。这项工作将紧密结合自然科学和社会科学的研究，以推进有关自治安排的传播及其与自然和社会因素的相互作用如何共同影响依赖地下水的社区的可持续性和复原力的理论。研究计划的基础是社会和环境数据的融合，这将支撑一个新的综合模型，代表社会（灌溉者和机构）和环境（含水层和土地）领域之间复杂、动态的相互作用和反馈。总体目标是发展新的理论，说明社会环境和制度多样性（或缺乏）如何决定当前条件下地下水自治制度的有效性、恢复力和适应性，并响应社会和环境变化。实现这一目标将促进对公共池资源管理的更广泛的理解和理论，并为依赖地下水的农业社区指明前进的道路。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.