Enhancing social-ecological resilience in the Colorado River Basin

This research presents the Colorado River basin as a social-ecologicalsystem. Utilizing event data on cooperative and conflictive interactions over fresh water, the system is decomposed to look for evidence of outcomes of resilience enhancement. The Animas-La Plata Project in the upper San Juan basi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author Eidem, Nathan T
Format Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Published 08.03.2012
Subjects
Animas-La Plata Project
Colorado River Basin
Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
conflict
cooperation
social-ecological resilience
water resources
Water rights > Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
Water-supply > Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
Water-supply > Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico) > Management
Water-supply > Environmental aspects > Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
Water-supply > Social aspects > Colorado River Watershed (Colo.-Mexico)
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Summary:This research presents the Colorado River basin as a social-ecologicalsystem. Utilizing event data on cooperative and conflictive interactions over fresh water, the system is decomposed to look for evidence of outcomes of resilience enhancement. The Animas-La Plata Project in the upper San Juan basin is presented as a case study, and qualitative methods are used to analyze interactions that led to its construction in order to assess social-ecological outcomes.In the upper San Juan basin, cooperative interactions over fresh wateroutnumbered conflictive ones. Interactions over water rights andinfrastructure were most common, and the most cooperative interactionsfocused on these issue types. Many of these interactions focused on theAnimas-La Plata Project compromise, which ultimately enhances social-ecological resilience in the Colorado River basin.