Modeling Acequia Irrigation Systems Using System Dynamics: Model Development, Evaluation, and Sensitivity Analyses to Investigate Effects of Socio-Economic and Biophysical Feedbacks

Abstract

Agriculture-based irrigation communities of northern New Mexico have survived for centuries despite the arid environment in which they reside. These irrigation communities are threatened by regional population growth, urbanization, a changing demographic profile, economic development, climate change, and other factors. Within this context, we investigated the extent to which community resource management practices centering on shared resources (e.g., water for agricultural in the floodplains and grazing resources in the uplands) and mutualism (i.e., shared responsibility of local residents to maintaining traditional irrigation policies and upholding cultural and spiritual observances) embedded within the community structure influence acequia function. We used a system dynamics modeling approach as an interdisciplinary platform to integrate these systems, specifically the relationship between community structure and resource management. In this paper we describe the background and context of acequia communities in northern New Mexico and the challenges they face. We formulate a Dynamic Hypothesis capturing the endogenous feedbacks driving acequia community vitality. Development of the model centered on major stock-and-flow components, including linkages for hydrology, ecology, community, and economics. Calibration metrics were used for model evaluation, including statistical correlation of observed and predicted values and Theil inequality statistics. Results indicated that the model reproduced trends exhibited by the observed system. Sensitivity analyses of socio-cultural processes identified absentee decisions, cumulative income effect on time in agriculture, and land use preference due to time allocation, community demographic effect, effect of employment on participation, and farm size effect as key determinants of system behavior and response. Sensitivity analyses of biophysical parameters revealed that several key parameters (e.g., acres per animal unit or percentage of normal acequia ditch seepage) which created less variable system responses but which utilized similar pathways to that of the socio-cultural processes (e.g., socio-cultural or physical parameter change → agricultural profit → time in spent in agriculture → effect on socio-cultural or physical processes). These processes also linked through acequia mutualism to create the greatest variability in system outputs compared to the remainder of tests. Results also point to the important role of community mutualism in sustaining linkages between natural and human systems that increase resilience to stressors. Future work will explore scenario development and testing, integration with upland and downstream models, and comparative analyses between acequia communities with distinct social and landscape characteristics.

System Dynamics Modeling for Agricultural and Natural Resource Management Issues: Review of Some Past Cases and Forecasting Future Roles

“…Sensitivity analyses revealed that agricultural profitability, community make-up (i.e., percentage of residents with historical familial ties), and land use (residential vs. cultivated) were key determinants of irrigation system response. This was due to their influence on feedback processes responding to input parameter perturbations [75]. Their results correspond well with other types of system analysis efforts in the field of socio-hydrology [82].…”

“…Similar to SD applications in water resource planning, water resource problem analyses (i.e., testing changing conditions or alternative policies) have had widespread application in the literature [55,[66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75] as well as in the System Dynamics Society [76][77][78][79][80][81] across a broad range of issues from energy production to agriculture to municipal water management. We highlight two cases, one dealing with sensitivity analyses of uncertain socioeconomic parameters in a traditional irrigation community in northern New Mexico, USA [75], and another on scenario analyses of alternative water transfer policies in the Zayandeh-Rud River Basin of Iran [72].…”

“…We highlight two cases, one dealing with sensitivity analyses of uncertain socioeconomic parameters in a traditional irrigation community in northern New Mexico, USA [75], and another on scenario analyses of alternative water transfer policies in the Zayandeh-Rud River Basin of Iran [72].…”

“…An SD model was developed to integrate information regarding community leadership, local hydrology, and agricultural economics. The researchers then tested (via scenario and sensitivity analyses) the extent to which community resource management practices centering on shared resources (e.g., water for floodplain irrigation) and community mutualism (i.e., shared responsibility of residents to maintain irrigation policies and cultural traditions) influenced the irrigation system function and ecosystem goods and services [75]. Similar to [63], the model revealed uncertainty in numerous system components, which the researchers explored through comprehensive sensitivity analyses.…”

Understanding the decline and resilience loss of a long-lived social-ecological system: insights from system dynamics

“…His success in analyzing industrial business cycles extended the use of system dynamics to other fields, like urban problems (Forrester 1969) and global problems (Meadows et al 1972, 1974, Forrester 1973. System dynamic modeling has proved particularly useful for studying complex systems like SESs (Roberts et al 1983, Costanza and Ruth 1998, Martínez-Fernández et al 2000, Pérez et al 2012, Banos-Gonzalez et al 2015, Turner et al 2016.…”