Browse case studies header
There follows a list of case studies in the SES Library.
| Title | Type |
|---|---|
The irrigation system of the northwest Murcia Region (Spain): robustness of SES to the intrusion of new resource users | Case |
| Farmers in the northwest Murcia Region (Spain) have used for centuries the water from springs to irrigate their lands. They are organized in irrigation communities adapted to cope with rainfall variability. This system was robust in terms of its use of the water emerging from the springs to irrigate small patches of land. In recent decades, large agrarian companies have settled in this region and use groundwater to irrigate new lands. This intrusion had led the levels of this resource to drop... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Agricultural Water Use and the 1980 Groundwater Management Act: Institutional Change and Water Conservation in South-Central AZ | Case |
| The seminal 1980 Groundwater Management Act (GMA) in Arizona, USA is an institution designed to curb groundwater overdraft through a combination of conservation strategies, augmentation and supply development, and reduction in agricultural water use through strict prohibition of its expansion in designated areas called Active Management Areas (AMAs). With urbanization pressures and the halting of agricultural expansion, agriculture in the Phoenix and Pinal AMAs uses less water on the whole than... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Taos valley acequias community-based irrigation system, Taos, New Mexico, USA | Case |
| Key findings: The Taos valley acequias have survived for several hundred years as a community-based irrigation system due to a mix of social and biophysical features. These include: A low-cost decentralized monitoring system that is enabled by both water distribution institutions and the geographic location of users Multiple levels of governance built up by key actors within each acequia A system of shallow groundwater aquifers which are particularly important during droughts, and which are... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Does the U.S. Farm Bill Help Farmers' Markets Feed the Poor? | Case |
| Food justice advocates increasingly turn to farmers' markets to alleviate poor nutrition among underserved communities in the United States. In addition, farmers markets serve to create new farms and food businesses, create activity in downtowns and neighborhoods, and offer a local and distributed alternative to an increasingly concentrated and vulnerable food and grocery distribution system. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 2008 Farm Bill recognizes the importance of farmers' markets for the... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Historical forest common property regime, Slovakia, central Europe | Case |
| The forestry sector has traditionally been a strong resort in most of Central European countries, as the forest covers approximately 30 – 40 % of the their territories. The management of forest resources is characterized by existence of a long forestry tradition, and dynamic evolution of the forest ownership structure originated in 17th century. These systems have been experiencing a range of disturbances, including change of political regimes, economic conditions and environmental changes that... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Parwara Van Panchayat Forest: Social structure and exogenous drivers | Case |
| This paper is an extension of two prior case studies about the Parwara Van Panchayat (forest council):the 1988 Parwara Van Panchayat Forest which covered the status of this social-ecological system (SES) from approx. 1931 to 1985 (Case No. 34); andthe 2008 Parwara Van Panchayat Forest II which provided a SES update up to 2007 (Case No. 159).For purposes of this report, the SES study boundaries were extended beyond the Parwara village Van Panchayat to include an institutional analysis of various... | 09 Aug 2016 |
The Hohokam Cultural Sequence (Irrigation and Foraging), Sonoran Desert, greater Phoenix basin, Arizona, USA | Case |
| The Hohokam is a Native American cilivilization that emerged and occupied the present day Phoenix Basin area and its outer bounds for a thousand years. The archeological records indicate that the Hohokam society evolved into a complex irrigation society and reached its peak in levels of population, social institutions, and irrigation infrastructure by the 11th century.Perplexingly though, the Hohokam society subsequently declined and collapsed by the mid 14th century. As they declined, the... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Agave Cultivation in the Arid Pre-Hispanic, Villanueva Municipality, state of Zacatecas, northern Mexico | Case |
| Agave is a perennial plant that can be used for multiple purposes: as edible materials for yielding caloric values and as fiber materials for producing items like clothing, ropes, and baskets. Historical records indicate that the cultivation of agave was a common practice in pre-Hispanic Northern Mexico and the American Southwest. It is generally accepted among archeologists that the agave cultivation was linked to the strategy of ensuring food supply when maize cropping failed from droughts.... | 09 Aug 2016 |
The Alaskan Pollock Fishery, Bering Sea, USA | Case |
| The Alaskan Pollock fishery has been described as a management success, largery attributed to the adoption of ITQs, with allocations to catchers, processers, and to Alaskan communities. The processor-fisher relationship seems key to the current success at reducing effort in the fishery. Quota is split among catcher-vessels (45%), catcher processer vessels (36%), motherships (9%), and community development quota groups (10%). There is a much smaller number of boats fishing than before... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Gageo-do (Kagodo) myok grounds II, South Korea | Case |
| This case is an update on a prior case study about the Kagodo myok (seaweed) grounds (Case No. 86) analyzing Sang-Bok Han’s 1972 Ph.D. dissertation on field work conducted in three South Korean fishing communities from 1968 to 1972. For purposes of this report, the SES study boundaries were expanded to include the entire South Korean coastal area and the fishery resources surrounding the peninsula extending 200 nautical miles to the east, south, and west. Update prepared by Ute... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Tanowong Bwasao Irrigation II, Philippines | Case |
| This paper is an update on a prior case study about the Bwasao irrigation system (Case Nos. 38 and 39) analyzing Albert S. Bacdayan’s 1980 case study on the Tanowong people of three distinct villages in the northern Philippines. For purposes of this report, the SES study boundaries were expanded to include the entire Cordillera region in the northern Philippines. Case Summary: Since the Tanowong people built the Bwasao irrigation canal in 1954 to accommodate the villages’ growing... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Pumpa Irrigation System, Central region, Nepal | Case |
| The Pumpa Irrigation System draws water from the Pumpa river to serve approximately 120 households. It is a "north-south" system and is in an area with relatively steep terrain. This case was analyzed using a stylized dynamic model to assess its capacity to cope with new challenges from global change. The model suggested that the adaptive water allocation rules used by the community (sequential, 12 and 24 hour rotations) could significanty enhance the robustness of the system to increased... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Grazing, Fire, and Australian Rangeland Dynamics, New South Wales, Australia | Case |
| The ecology of savanna rangelands is the product of a dynamic interaction between grass, shrubs, fire and livestock, and a high variability in rainfall. Humans play an important role in these dynamics by raising livestock who graze, and by suppressing fire. The authors of this case explore the implications of these human activities for the resilience of the Australian rangelands, characterized by two main stable states. The first state is dominated by grasses with scattered trees and shrubs.... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Robustness and Resilience across Scales: Migration and Resource Degradation in the Prehistoric U.S. Southwest | Case |
| Migration is arguably one of the most important processes that link ecological and social systems across scales. Humans (and other organisms) tend to move in pursuit of better resources (both social and environmental). Such mobility may serve as a coping mechanism for short-term local-scale dilemmas and as a means of distributing organisms in relation to resources. Movement also may be viewed as a shift to a larger scale; that is, while it may solve short-term local problems, it may... | 09 Aug 2016 |
Regime shifts in a socio-ecological model of farmland abandonment | Case |
| Figueiredo & Pereira (2011) developed a mathematical model with two-way linked socio-ecological dynamics to study farmland abandonment and to understand the regimes shifts of this socio-ecological system. The model considers that migration is a collective behavior socio-economically driven and that the ecosystem is dynamic. The model identifies equilibria that vary from mass migration, farmland abandonment, and forest regeneration, to no migration and forest eradication; partial migration... | 09 Aug 2016 |
