TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable groundwater management
T2 - How long and what will it take?
AU - Castilla-Rho, J. C.
AU - Rojas, R.
AU - Andersen, M. S.
AU - Holley, C.
AU - Mariethoz, G.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge CSIRO Land and Water and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) for providing funding which led to the completion and dissemination of this study. The Australian Research Council and the National Water Commission (through the NCGRT) funded part of this research through an ARC Linkage Grant with DPI Water ( LP130100967 ) and an ARC Discovery ( DP190101584 ). DPI Water provided institutional support, provision of mailing databases, testing of research questions with relevant DPI Water divisions (monitoring, regulation, education), and assistance with consultation with Members of the NSW Irrigators’ Council and other industry associations (for example, NSW farmers) who were also consulted in the development of the survey questions that were used to validate the Groundwater Commons Game.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - Groundwater depletion is arguably one of humanity's greatest sustainability challenges of the 21st century. With Sustainable Development Goals only a decade away, water authorities around the world are in the urgent need for concrete and targeted measures to ensure that communities adhere to groundwater management policies as rapidly and as effectively as possible. In this paper, we combine computational social science, groundwater modelling and empirical data from the World Values Survey to generate future ensembles of hydro-social trajectories under alternative courses of management and social action or inaction. Our simulations shed new light on the role that cultural values can play in shaping the societal trajectories and norms that emerge when resources are either allocated or not sufficiently allocated to monitor compliance, issue fines, engage community leaders, and deter rule-breakers. This study presents a new approach to explore and evaluate the capacity of existing and future management actions to steer groundwater systems towards sustainable trajectories, to forecast the celerity and timing of social transformations at the inter-decadal scale, and to help nations identify the most pertinent management options under institutional, political, social, and/or cultural constraints. The methods presented here are broadly applicable to support strategic decisions that rely on the monitoring, enforcement, and compliance of environmental regulations.
AB - Groundwater depletion is arguably one of humanity's greatest sustainability challenges of the 21st century. With Sustainable Development Goals only a decade away, water authorities around the world are in the urgent need for concrete and targeted measures to ensure that communities adhere to groundwater management policies as rapidly and as effectively as possible. In this paper, we combine computational social science, groundwater modelling and empirical data from the World Values Survey to generate future ensembles of hydro-social trajectories under alternative courses of management and social action or inaction. Our simulations shed new light on the role that cultural values can play in shaping the societal trajectories and norms that emerge when resources are either allocated or not sufficiently allocated to monitor compliance, issue fines, engage community leaders, and deter rule-breakers. This study presents a new approach to explore and evaluate the capacity of existing and future management actions to steer groundwater systems towards sustainable trajectories, to forecast the celerity and timing of social transformations at the inter-decadal scale, and to help nations identify the most pertinent management options under institutional, political, social, and/or cultural constraints. The methods presented here are broadly applicable to support strategic decisions that rely on the monitoring, enforcement, and compliance of environmental regulations.
KW - Agent-based modelling
KW - Compliance
KW - Cultural values
KW - Enforcement
KW - Regulation
KW - Social norms
KW - Socio-hydrology
KW - World values survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071267010&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101972
DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101972
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85071267010
SN - 0959-3780
VL - 58
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - Global Environmental Change
JF - Global Environmental Change
M1 - 101972
ER -