Resource Intruders and Robustness of Social-ecological Systems: An Irrigation System of Southeast Spain, A Case Study
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Date
2011
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Abstract
"Globalization increases the vulnerability of traditional socialecological systems (SES) to the incursion of new resource appropriators, i.e. intruders. New external disturbances that increase the physical and sociopolitical accessibility of SES (e.g. construction of a new road) and weak points
in institutional SES of valuable common-pool resources are some of the main
factors that enhance the encroachment of intruders. The irrigation system of the
northwest Murcia Region (Spain) is an example used in this article of the changes
in the structure and robustness of a traditional SES as a result of intruders. In this
case study, farmers have traditionally used water from springs to irrigate their
lands but, in recent decades, large agrarian companies have settled in this region,
using groundwater to irrigate new lands. This intrusion had caused the levels
of this resource to drop sharply. In an attempt to adapt, local communities are
intensifying the use of resources and are constructing new physical infrastructures;
consequently, new vulnerabilities are emerging. This situation seems to be heading
toward the inevitably collapse of this traditional SES. From an institutional
viewpoint, some recommendations are offered to enhance the robustness of SES
in order to mitigate the consequences of intruders."
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Keywords
adaptation, common pool resources, globalization, groundwater, institutions, resilience, water management