The Land–Water–Food Nexus: Expanding the Social–Ecological System Framework to Link Land and Water Governance

Abstract

Abstract:To date, the land-water-food nexus has been primarily addressed from an ecological, hydrological or agronomic angle, with limited response to the governance interface between the input resources. Likewise, in widely used heuristic frameworks, such as the social-ecological system (SES) framework, governance interactions between resources are not sufficiently addressed. We address this gap empirically, using the case of Tajikistan, based on a farm household survey analysis of 306 farmers. The results indicate that land system variables contribute to the willingness to cooperate in irrigation management. Specifically, formal land tenure has a positive effect on farmers paying for water as well as on the likelihood of their investing time and effort in irrigation infrastructure, which is decisive for Tajikistan's food and fiber production. Irrigation system variables show that, e.g., being an upstream user increases the likelihood to contribute to labor maintenance efforts. We further discuss how decisions with respect to the land sector could be designed in the future to facilitate cooperation in other resource sectors. Further, we conclude from a conceptual perspective that the SES framework integrating a nexus perspective can be adapted: either (1) by adding a second-tier "governance nexus" variable inside the governance variable of an irrigation system; or (2) by adding a land resource unit and system outside the irrigation system.

Drivers of innovation in groundwater governance. The links between the social and the ecological systems

“…The changes in cropping patterns and land use (I5) affected the water availability and made evident the need for new regulations for water use (Klümper and Theesfeld, 2017). A feature of our case study that is different from those of other aquifers is that the groundwater depletion became visible due to the decrease in the spring discharge.…”

“…For each period, the main variables and drivers characterising the aquifer management and the governance system were identified using the social-ecological system (SES) framework proposed by Ostrom (2009). This framework has been applied by several authors to analyse the governance of common-pool resources and, more specifically, to analyse water and groundwater governance (Azizi et al, 2017;Klümper and Theesfeld, 2017;McCord et al, 2017). It is an appealing framework because it permits the identification of the internal and external variables affecting an SES and an understanding of the complexity of the different interactions between the human and environmental systems by conceptualising not only the specific attributes of both systems but also the interactions and the resulting outcomes.…”

Impact of Agricultural Cooperatives on Farmers’ Collective Action: A Study Based on the Socio-Ecological System Framework

“…For example, Su et al [13] constructed a rural socio-ecological system based on the SES framework and analyzed the impact of land transfer on rural residents' collective action. Researchers do not need to use all of the variables in the SES framework, but they should select relevant variables from the SES framework according to the specific research situation for model construction and analysis [14].…”

Forage Supply–Demand Assessment and Influencing Factor Analysis from the Perspective of Socio-Ecological System: A Case Study of Altay Prefecture, China

“…SESs also affect and are affected by external social, economic, and political settings and related ecosystems. The SESF is flexible and open, allowing modifications to the original framework to select the most relevant variables or adding more variables for analyzing the specific SESs of interest [63,64].…”