Case Studies of Social-Ecological Systems

Title
Type

The Irrigation System of La Mancha Oriental, La Mancha Region, Albacete and Cuenca provinces, Spain

Case
The Mancha Oriental Irrigation system is one aquifer of La Mancha Region, located in Albacete and Cuenca provinces in Spain. The case study involves an analysis of the evolution of the system from 1975 to 2000. The extension of the land is 8,500km2  but only 1,000Km2   is irrigated. The authors catalogue an action situation involving users that appropriates groundwater as resource units from the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation.The original case study authors focused on...
09 Aug 2016

The Irrigation System of Campo Montiel, La Mancha region, Spain

Case
Campo de Montiel Irrigation system is based on an aquifer of 2500 km2, but only that only 3% of it was used for agriculture. Campo de Montiel is located in La Mancha Region, in Spain. The case study involves an analysis of the evolution of the system from 1980 to 2000. The authors catalogue an action situation involving 29,000 total users that appropriate groundwater as the resource unit from the High Basin of Guadiana River, but only 101 farmers appropriate groundwater for irrigation...
09 Aug 2016

Open Access Publishing

Case
Open access publishing is located on the world wide web, accessible anywhere where there is both internet access and a capable computer. Open access publishing is directly related to the digital knowledge commons, which started with the advent of the Internet around the 1950s and spans into present day and catalogues an action situation of over 3 billion people who have active access to the internet. The resource unit is peer-reviewed scholarly information or “high quality” information. The...
09 Aug 2016

Analysis of Phoenix, AZ Heat as a Social Ecological System

Case
Cities have a finite capacity to dissipate heat into the environment; I consider this a resource that Phoenix residents use within a resource system. This resource can be amplified or attenuated by human-made public and private infrastructure, which can include, public green spaces and building codes, or private net-heat-generating air conditioning and automobiles. The common pool resource dilemma is the potential for under investment in public infrastructure and over appropriation of the...
09 Aug 2016

Heterogeneity in the Commons: Hard Infrastructure and Its Effects on Collective Action and Public Goods Provisioning

Case
We compare three artisanal fisheries (Lagoon fishery in Greece; Kembong fishery in Thailand; and the Green turtle fishery in Nicaragua) and tangentially draw on three small-scale irrigation systems (Tirunelveli and Kottapalle in South India, and Nabagram in Bangladesh) in order to understand the impact of hard infrastructure on the prospects of collective action with specific reference to the rules-in-use related to common pool resource (CPR) management.  Based on the small subset of cases...
09 Aug 2016

Synthetic Biology: The Registry of Standard Biological Parts

Case
The Registry of Standard Biological Parts is maintained by the International Genetic Engineering Machine (iGEM) Foundation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Registry contains genetic information in the form of synthetically created deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences, protein, promoters, and other parts with various biological functions. The shared resources relevant to the commons dilemma faced by the community include the parts in the registry and their accessibility (common-pool). The...
09 Aug 2016

Electromagnetic Spectrum Allocation: Wireless Networks

Case
Wireless network is a network set up by using radio signal frequency to communicate among computers and other network devices, due to its easy setup feature and no cabling involved, it have become an important tool in the construction of modern society. New emerging technologies allow users to perform more and more complex tasks, driving an increasing mean bandwidth consumption per user. However, a wireless network has limited capacity to provide information transactions, that is, finite...
09 Aug 2016

Water Scarcity, Flooding, and Public Infrastructure in Mexico City

Case
Mexico City, a megalopolis of 22 million, is located at the center of the Basin of Mexico. For over 600 years, catastrophic flooding and access to potable water have challenged the city’s residents, motivating extensive investments in hard infrastructure to supply the city with fresh water, or to protect the city from periodic flooding. The case study catalogues an action situation involving residents and their local, city, state, and federal governments that formally and informally govern land...
09 Aug 2016

New Kingdom Egyptian Agriculture

Case
Situated in the Nile Valley from Aswan to the Mediterranean, New Kingdom Egypt (c.1550-1050 B.C.) had an agrarian economy - almost entirely dependent on agriculture for subsistence. Because the climate was too dry for rain-fed farming, all agriculture was restricted to the narrow Nile Valley floodplain. However, due to spatio-temporal fluctuations in Nile flood levels, the amount of water (and thus arable land) in New Kingdom Egypt could also fluctuate greatly. In order to mitigate the risks...
09 Aug 2016

Besi Kulo, Kot village Panchayat, Sindhupalchok District, Nepal

Case
This case is part of the original Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems (NIIS) database developed in the 1980's by a team of researchers under the direction of Dr. Elinor Ostrom at Indiana University. In addition, this case is also part of a longitudinal study that has repeatedly investigated 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) in the Indrawati River Basin that participated in an innovative intervention designed to improve irrigation performance not only by improving physical...
09 Aug 2016

Subedar Ko Kulo, Dhap Village, Thamalangtar Dhap Village Panchayat, Sinhupalchok District, Nepal

Case
This case is part of the original Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems (NIIS) database developed in the 1980's by a team of researchers under the direction of Dr. Elinor Ostrom at Indiana University. In addition, this case is also part of a longitudinal study that has repeatedly investigated 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) in the Indrawati River Basin that participated in an innovative intervention designed to improve irrigation performance not only by improving physical...
09 Aug 2016

Dhap Kulo, Dhap Village, Thamalangtar Dhap Village Panchayat, Sindhupalchok District, Nepal

Case
This case is part of the original Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems (NIIS) database developed in the 1980's by a team of researchers under the direction of Dr. Elinor Ostrom at Indiana University. In addition, this case is also part of a longitudinal study that has repeatedly investigated 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) in the Indrawati River Basin that participated in an innovative intervention designed to improve irrigation performance not only by improving physical...
09 Aug 2016

Soti Bagar Ko Kulo, Thamalangtar Dhap Village Panchayat, Sindhupalchok District, Nepal

Case
This case is part of the original Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems (NIIS) database developed in the 1980's by a team of researchers under the direction of Dr. Elinor Ostrom at Indiana University. In addition, this case is also part of a longitudinal study that has repeatedly investigated 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) in the Indrawati River Basin that participated in an innovative intervention designed to improve irrigation performance not only by improving physical...
09 Aug 2016

Dovan Swar Ko Kulo (Dobhan Swar Kulo), Thamalangtar Dhap Village Panchayat, Sindhupalchok District, Nepal

Case
This case is part of the original Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems (NIIS) database developed in the 1980's by a team of researchers under the direction of Dr. Elinor Ostrom at Indiana University. In addition, this case is also part of a longitudinal study that has repeatedly investigated 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) in the Indrawati River Basin that participated in an innovative intervention designed to improve irrigation performance not only by improving physical...
09 Aug 2016

Magar Kulo, Bhote Namlang Village Panchayat, Sindhupalchok District, Nepal

Case
This case is part of the original Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems (NIIS) database developed in the 1980's by a team of researchers under the direction of Dr. Elinor Ostrom at Indiana University. In addition, this case is also part of a longitudinal study that has repeatedly investigated 19 farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) in the Indrawati River Basin that participated in an innovative intervention designed to improve irrigation performance not only by improving physical...
09 Aug 2016