- Resource System
- Watershed and associated topography
- Resource Units
- Irrigation water
- Location
- Sidi Lahcen village, Morocco
The Ain Sultan irrigation system is located northwest from the town of Sefrou in Morroco. It encompasses an unknown geographical area which is characterized by very little precipitation and a lower elevation level than the Ait Sidi Musa irrigation system. The case study involves an undetermined snapshot in time and catalogues an action situation involving 400 households in the village of Sidi Lahcen with each household relying on approximately 2 ha of dry and 1 ha of irrigated land to grow their crops. The water is diverted 6 km from Sultan’s spring via a ditch, and water rights are held separately from land and can be transferred. Water is the primary fugitive resource.
The original case study authors focused on water scarcity and its influence on institutional performance. The case study has subsequently been used in comparative analyses regarding Ostrom's Design Principles (see bibliography).
Ratajczyk E, Arizona State University.
Brady U, Arizona State University.
. 1996. The Dry and the Drier: Cooperation and Conflict in Moroccan Irrigation. Canals and Communities: Small scale irrigation systems. :69-87.
. 2010. A Review of Design Principles for Community-based Natural Resource Management. Ecology and Society. 15(4):38.
. 2016. Explaining success and failure in the commons: the configural nature of Ostrom’s institutional design principles. International Journal of the Commons. 10(2):417–439.