Hydrologic Interdependencies and Human Cooperation: The Process of Adapting to Droughts

Endter‐Wada, Joanna; Selfa, Theresa; Welsh, Lisa W.

doi:10.1175/2009wcas1009.1

Cited by 14 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A number of recent case studies that highlight local water managers' identified strategies and barriers in adapting to climate-induced water supply variability compare well with our case study findings [29,31,36,45,[88][89][90]. In the Wasatch Range of northern Utah, for example, water managers described challenges with enhancing water supply to meet growing population demand, obtaining funds to build and restore aging infrastructure, and coordinating diverse water use interests [31].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Mutual recognition of their interdependent water uses motivated adaptation to 2004 drought conditions among water users in the Bear River Basin of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. This recognition led to cooperative and innovative strategies involving water settlement agreements, science-based information sharing, and hydrologic and river operations modeling [89].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Faced with climate-induced water supply variability, managers in other river systems were reluctant to coordinate with one another to enhance institutional adaptive capacity to achieve mutually agreeable solutions [89], mobilize regional knowledge exchange to balance adaptive capacity [29], and institutionalize resilience and adaptive management in advance of a potential water management crisis [45]. Thus, collaborative research that facilitates increased communication and coordination should inform future climate planning so that it meets the needs of diverse water users [90].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Adapting to Variable Water Supply in the Truckee-Carson River System, Western USA

Sterle

Singletary

2017

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:In snow-fed inland river systems in the western United States, water supply depends upon timing, form, and amount of precipitation. In recent years, this region has experienced unprecedented drought conditions due to decreased snowpack, exacerbated by exceptionally warmer winter temperatures averaging 3-4 • C above normal. In the snow-fed Truckee-Carson River System, two sets of interviews were conducted as part of a larger collaborative modeling case study with local water managers to examine local adaptation to current drought conditions. A comparative analysis of these primary qualitative data, collected during the fourth and fifth consecutive years of continued warmer drought conditions, identifies shifts in adaptation strategies and emergent adaptation barriers. That is, under continuous exposure to climate stressors, managers shifted their adaptation focus from short-term efforts to manage water demand toward long-term efforts to enhance water supply. Managers described the need to: improve forecasts and scientific assessments of snowmelt timing, groundwater levels, and soil moisture content; increase flexibility of prior appropriation water allocation rules based on historical snowpack and streamflow timing; and foster collaboration and communication among water managers across the river system. While water scarcity and insufficient water delivery infrastructure remain significant impediments in this arid region, climate uncertainty emerged as a barrier surrounding adaptation to variable water supply. Existing prior appropriation based water institutions were also described as an adaptation barrier, meriting objective evaluation to assess how to best modify these historical institutions to support dynamic adaptation to climate-induced water supply variability. This study contributes to a growing body of research that assesses drought adaptation in snow-fed inland river systems, and contributes a unique report concerning how adaptation strategies and barriers encountered by local water managers change over time under continuous exposure to climate stressors. These locally identified adaptation strategies forward a larger collaborative modeling case study by informing alternative water management scenarios simulated through a suite of hydrologic and operations models tailored to this river system.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Adapting to Variable Water Supply in the Truckee-Carson River System, Western USA

Sterle

Singletary

2017

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Brooks and Adger (2004) explain that a society's adaptive capacity depends on the ability of its people to act collectively and resolve conflicts. Endter-Wada et al (2009) conducted an in-depth case study that described the unfolding history of how people in the Bear River Basin have learned to cooperate and increase their adaptive capacity in times of drought. They found that conflict and cooperation over water resources constantly evolves, based on people's ways of knowing water and each other.…”

Section: The Bear River Basin As a Social-ecological Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing Adaptive Capacity to Droughts: the Rationality of Locality

Welsh¹,

Endter‐Wada²,

Downard³

et al. 2013

E&S

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. The Bear River is driven by a highly variable, snow-driven montane ecosystem and flows through a droughtprone arid region of the western United States. It traverses three states, is diverted to store water in an ecologically unique natural lake, Bear Lake, and empties into the Great Salt Lake at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (BRMBR). People in the Bear River Basin have come to anticipate droughts, building a legal, institutional, and engineered infrastructure to adapt to the watershed's hydrologic realities and historical legacies. Their ways of understanding linked vulnerabilities has led to what might appear as paradoxical outcomes: farmers with the most legally secure water rights are the most vulnerable to severe drought; managers at the federal Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge engage in wetland farming and make unlikely political alliances; and, increased agricultural irrigation efficiency in the Bear River Basin actually threatens the water supply of some wetlands. The rationality of locality is the key to understanding how people in the Bear River Basin have increased their adaptive capacity to droughts by recognizing their interdependencies. As the effects of climate change unfold, understanding social-ecological system linkages will be important for guiding future adaptations and enhancing resilience in ways that appropriately integrate localized ecosystem capacity and human needs.

show abstract

“…Collaboration in AM, through knowledge sharing and collective action among users who are interdependent on common resources, increases learning by bringing multiple perspectives to bear on the same problem, thereby decreasing uncertainty and increasing adaptive capacity (Olsson et al 2004, Hahn et al 2006, Endter-Wada et al 2009). However, collaboration becomes more challenging as population growth increases the number of parties in collaborative processes and climate change tightens the linkages in SESs by shortening the response time between changes in ecological components and reactions in social components (and vice versa;Walker et al 2002, Folke 2006.…”

Section: Box 1 Prior Appropriation Water Law Terminologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive wetland management in an uncertain and changing arid environment

Downard¹,

Endter‐Wada²,

Kettenring³

2014

E&S

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. Wetlands in the arid western United States provide rare and critical migratory bird habitat and constitute a critical nexus within larger social-ecological systems (SES) where multiple changing land-use and water-use patterns meet. The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah, USA, presents a case study of the ways that wetland managers have created adaptive management strategies that are responsive to the social and hydrological conditions of the agriculture-dominated SES within which they are located. Managers have acquired water rights and constructed infrastructure while cultivating collaborative relationships with other water users to increase the adaptive capacity of the region and decrease conflict. Historically, water management involved diversion and impoundment of water within wetland units timed around patterns of agricultural water needs. In the last 20 years, managers have learned from flood and drought events and developed a long-term adaptive management plan that specifies alternative management actions managers can choose each year based on habitat needs and projected water supply. Each alternative includes habitat goals and target wetland water depth. However, wetland management adapted to agricultural return-flow availability may prove insufficient as population growth and climate change alter patterns of land and water use. Future management will likely depend more on negotiation, collaboration, and learning from social developments within the SES than strictly focusing on water management within refuge boundaries. To face this problem, managers have worked to be included in negotiations with regional water users, a strategy that may prove instructive for other wetland managers in agriculture-dominated watersheds.

show abstract

Hydrologic Interdependencies and Human Cooperation: The Process of Adapting to Droughts

Cited by 14 publications

References 44 publications

Adapting to Variable Water Supply in the Truckee-Carson River System, Western USA

Adapting to Variable Water Supply in the Truckee-Carson River System, Western USA

Developing Adaptive Capacity to Droughts: the Rationality of Locality

Adaptive wetland management in an uncertain and changing arid environment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About