Drought Adaptation & Social Learning

Taking action to manage drought and adapt to changing conditions can sometimes have unintended impacts on the adaptive capacity of others in the same social and ecological system. Jen Henderson, an assistant professor of geography at Texas Tech University, shares two instances where social learning took place after actors experienced unanticipated impacts from others’ decisions. Her recent work highlighted in this episode focuses on two cases of drought decisions made along the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado. Image by David Nisley from Pixabay 

For further reading:

The Colorado Water Plan details many of the water issues faced by resource managers, municipalities, and other sectors in the state--as well as future plans to address issues, including lease-fallow and flows management programs. The Arkansas River Basin Roundtables also detail ongoing efforts by communities to co-manage water.

Devine, B. (2015). Moving Waters: The Legacy of Buy-and-Dry and the Challenge of Lease-Fallowing in Colorado's Arkansas River Basin (Doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder).

Upper Arkansas Voluntary Flows Management Program
#ArkansasRiver: Voluntary Flow Management Program helps rafting industry and Gold Medal fishing
Will the West figure out how to share #water?

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Affiliate links:
DOI Southwest CASC: https://www.swcasc.arizona.edu/
USDA Southwest Climate Hub: https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/southwest
Sustainable Southwest Beef Project (NIFA Grant #2019-69012-29853): https://southwestbeef.org/