Case Studies of Social-Ecological Systems

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Type

The Amphoe Choke Chai Water User Association, Isan region, northeastern Thailand

Case
The resource appropriated from A Chaek in Amphoe Choke Chai is water for irrigation. The Lam Pra Plerng Irrigation Project was constructed by Thailand's Royal Irrigation Department, which organized four water user associations (WUAs) in the project area. Each WUA is divided into “chaeks” (a chaek is an area served by a common farm turn-out). One or two common irrigators serve each chaek. The common irrigator is paid by the RID and is responsible for arranging water distribution and maintenance...
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

Ten - Dakh Branch watercourse irrigation, Punjab province, Pakistan

Case
This case was part of the original CPR database developed in the 1980s by Edella Schlager and Shui Yan Tang at Indiana University. The resource appropriated from Watercourse Ten-Dakh Branch is water for irrigation. Based on an intensive survey of ten improved watercourses in Punjab, this study shows the inadequacy of present forms of social organization of watercourses for insuring their adequate maintenance. The study suggests the following sociological characteristics as conducive to good...
09 Aug 2016

Teleconnected vulnerabilities of Mexican and Vietnamese coffee systems

Case
The case study of smallholder coffee producers’ vulnerability in Mexico and Vietnam was published in the journal Environmental Science and Policy in 2008. The authors Hallie Eakin, Alexanda Winkels and Jan Sendzimir explore cross-scale linkages and teleconnectons in the Mexican and Vietnamese coffee systems. This case study is an addition to the SES library and was entered in 2013 by Ashwina Mahanti at Arizona State University. The original case study illustrates that vulnerability in a...
09 Aug 2016

Tasucu Bay Coastal Fishery, Turkey

Case
The coastal fishery in Tasucu Bay is located near the small port town of Tasucu in Mersin Province, Turkey. The original case, which spans from 1976-1978, catalogues 140 fishermen and 90 small inboard boats; the resource unit is demersal fish. It is a relatively simple CPR because there is only one user group of small boat fishermen. All of the fishermen belong to the local cooperative. The cooperative has successfully controlled access to the CPR by fighting off competing users. It provides...
09 Aug 2016

Tarahumara Gentiles agriculture, Sierra Madres, northwest Mexico

Case
The resource under consideration here is arable land. Arable land is a common pool resource in this case. On the dimensions of subtractability and excludability defined by Ostrom (2005), land is highly subtractble, but it is difficult to exclude resource users from land that is not continuously cultivated. In essence, cultivating a parcel of land means that there is less available land in the system; however, it is very difficult to exclude people from obtaining sufficient land for their...
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

Tanowong traditional irrigation system, Philippines

Case
The case study of Tanowong traditional irrigation is located in the mountain province of Philippines. The resource appropriated is water for irrigation from Tanowong Traditional Irrigation system. Prior to 1954, the Tanowong people relied on water from two streams to irrigate their rice fields. As the water supply became inadequate to meet their cultivation needs, they decided to dig a 25 kilometer ditch to divert water from a new source, the Bwasao Stream, to their fields. Since the project...
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

Tanowong Bwasao Irrigation

Case
The case study of Tanowong bwasao irrigation is located in the mountain province of Philippines. The resource appropriated is water for irrigation from Tanowong Traditional Irrigation system. Prior to 1954, the Tanowong people relied on water from two streams to irrigate their rice fields. As the water supply became inadequate to meet their cultivation needs, they decided to dig a 25 kilometer ditch to divert water from a new source, the Bwasao Stream, to their fields. Since the project was...
09 Aug 2016

Tallo Jhankri Ko Kulo, Dubachaur 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

Tallo Chapleti Kulo, Sikharpur 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

Takkapala communal irrigation system, Malino village, south Sulawesi, Indonesia

Case
The Takkapala communal irrigation system was studied in the Malino village in Indonesia. The resource harvested is water for irrigation. Although an extensive description of the institutions in the Takkapala Communal System was not presented in this case study on irrigation, the authors did highlight the impact of national subsidies on the rehabilitation of two small-scale river-diversion irrigation systems in Indonesia. Subsidies were substantial inducements to the mobilization of local...
09 Aug 2016

T Water User Association self-governance, Fujian province, southern China

Case
T water user association, also a farmer organization at village level, is located in Fujian province. It has been operating effectively since its creation in 2001 so this is a successful case of self-management. The main reasons are attributed to 3 aspects: the village’s own water resource of reservoir and river, the inter-nested structure of association, village committee and clan, and the low cost punishment environment of village norms. These promote the farmers to self organize and craft...
09 Aug 2016

System representation template

Case
The system representation template was created to provide the key verbs analysts should utilize when describing the strategic interactions between the elements in the robustness framework (RS, RU, PIP, PI). Verbs followed by (?) are suggested additions to the verb list.
09 Aug 2016