In arable valleys of water-limited regions worldwide, community water management systems have evolved to sustain communities in the face of unreliable precipitation. The acequias of the southwestern United States lie at the center of a set of complex self-maintaining interactions between culture and nature that appear to enable drought survival and maintain other sociocultural and ecosystem benefits. Local water management groups inherent in acequias ensure equitable distribution of water to each community, allocating less water for all users in dry years and more in wet years. Acequias help maintain community identity and cohesion, economic sustainability, enhanced floodplain hydrologic function, and wildlife habitat. Contemporary acequia-based communities face new socioeconomic and natural resource pressures that threaten their existence, however. Population growth is accelerating the change from agricultural to residential land and water uses, while climate change threatens to bring warmer winters with less precipitation and earlier spring snowmelt. Traditional acequias create and sustain intrinsic linkages between human and natural systems that increase community and ecosystem resilience to climatic and socioeconomic stresses. Greater knowledge about these interconnections and what can cause them to change or fail will be essential to determine how the communities relying on acequias can adapt to changing conditions. This interdisciplinary research project will explore socioeconomic and cultural linkages within and between acequia communities and associated landscapes; hydrologic linkages between surface water and groundwater in irrigated river valleys and contributing watersheds; and wildlife habitat and grazing distribution connections between valley riparian areas and upland forests and grasslands. The investigators will quantify the role of acequias in hydrologic function, community resilience, and ecosystem health, and they will identify potential tipping points for acequia community survival. Integrative tools informed by examinations of socioeconomic, cultural, and ecohydrological factors will indicate the resilience level of acequia-centered systems. A system dynamics model will simulate effects of climate and land-use stressors on relationships between economic, social, cultural, climatic, hydrologic, vegetation, and wildlife components. The model will quantify the magnitude of stressors needed to undermine community and ecosystem resilience. Mapping will capture spatial linkages and help communicate the findings to a larger audience. This project will provide new insights into the relationships between traditional water management systems, communities, and landscapes.

Field data collection:

Study sites:

Human

ACEQUIA

Natural

Climate

Regional basin

Community

Growth

Society

Economics

Identity Management

Hydrology Habitat

Environmental services Weather

Valley and upland

Culture

Reg

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l sca

le

Wat

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cale

• Acequia resilience model Socio-cultural and agro-economic characterizations and models of acequia community resilience • Multi-scale hydrology models Surface water-groundwater studies and models of acequia effects on hydrology at watershed and basin scales • Integrated mapping Spatial representations of land cover, wildlife habitat, and ecosystem services • System dynamics model System scale model that brings together project components to test acequia human and natural sustainability with

changing climate and land use • Interdisciplinary modeling workshop Multi-state effort to seamlessly integrate multiple disciplines with coordinated modeling of acequia hydrology and

communities • Comparative global perspectives workshop Gathering of international experts on community irrigation systems to explore new perspectives of science added to

previous cultural analyses • Educational programs Inclusion of K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students and the general public through research activities and

museum exhibits • Outreach Acequia community involvement • Peer-reviewed articles Dissemination of findings through published articles for scientific advancement and policy guidance

Acequia flow measurements being taken in Alcalde, NM

Project connections:

System Dynamics:

Funding sources: NSF Coupled Natural and Human Systems award #1010516 NSF NM EPSCoR RII award #0814449 New Mexico Agricultural Experimental Station

1New Mexico State University; 2University of Concepcion, Chile; 3Maxwell Museum; 4University of Idaho; 5New Mexico Acequia Association; 6New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; 7University of New Mexico; 8University of New Mexico ret.; 9University of Nevada-Reno; 10Sandia National Laboratories

Acequia Water Systems Linking Culture and Nature: Integrated Analysis of Community Resilience to Climate and Land Use Changes A. Fernald

1, J.L. Arumi

2, K. Boykin

1, A.Cibils

1, S. Guldan

1, B. Hurd

1, K.Klein

3, T. Link

4, C. Ochoa

1, M. Ortiz

5, J. Rivera

7, S. Rodriguez

8, L. Saito

9, C. Steele

1, V. Tidwell

10, and J. Wilson

6.

A flume used to measure surface water discharge automatically (Above Left/Inset). A Stage Discharge Recorder (SDR) and data logger are used to record data automatically (Above Top Right). Inside of the stilling well; SDR float and cable (Above Bottom Left)

Continuous monitoring of acequia water level and discharge.

There are important connections between valley irrigation communities and contributing upland watersheds which are explored from multiple perspectives

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Conceptual model of climate change and acequia effects on Rio Grande hydrograph

Rio Grande at Embudo mean daily flowClimate change scenario earlier runoffAcequia modulated later runoff

Climate

Acequias

Delayed hydrograph could mitigate predicted future earlier snowmelt runoff

Three different irrigated valleys Alcalde, El Rito, and Rio Hondo were selected for their extensive acequia systems. These systems provide important discharge to the Rio Grande - one of the most important river systems in the United States.

Runoff

Stream Flow

DownstreamDeliveries

IrrigationDiversion

DomesticPumping

Precipitation

GroundwaterRecharge

Upland SoilMoisture

Upland VegetationUptake

Temperature

RiparianUptake

GroundwaterStorage

Baseflow

Canal and CropSeepage

++

+

++

+ +-

++

+

+

+

+

+

--

-

+

+

-

-

+

Crop Type and

Acreage

Farm

Improvements

Crop Uptake+

++

-

-

Vegetation Type

and Structure

-

-

System Efficiency

-

+

-

VegetativeHabitat

FaunalDiversity

Erosion AquaticHabitat

AquaticDiversity

Runoff

Number and Typeof Livestock

Upland Vegetation

Type and Structure

+

+

+

+

-

Precipitation

Soil Moisture

VegetationUptake

+

+

Temperature

+

-

Riparian Vegetation

Type and Structure

--

Intense Fire -

--

-

+

Natural ResourceManagement

-

-

+

EnvironmentalCapital

+

+

Regulation

Community ResourceManagement Norms

-

-+

-

+

+

+

-

-

+

+

-

-

Crop Type and

Acreage

Groundwater

Storage

+

+

Stream Flow IrrigationDiversions

Water RightsAdministration

UrbanDevelopment

Natural ResourceManagement

Number and Typeof Livestock

Crop Type and

Acreage

SystemEfficiency

Coooperation Over

Resource Allocation

Infrastructure Operation

and Maintenance

Mutualism/SocialCapital

AcequiaGovernance

Change in Land

OwnershipLocal Knowledge

Transmission

+

-

-

+

+

+

+

-

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

-

+

+

+

DomesticPumping

+

-

Willingness to SellLand or Water

+

Acequia

Investment

Community

Investment

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

Community Resource

Managment Norms

+Environmental

Capital-

++Economic

Capital-

+

+

-Children Mobility

+

-

+

Farmer

Community Labor

Moral Capital

-

-+

+

+

+

EconomicCapital

UrbanDevelopment

Local ProductMarkets

Crop Price

Crop Yield

Farm Costs

FarmImprovements

IrrigationDiversion

LivestockFeed

Number and Typeof LivestockLivestock

Costs

LivestockPrice

Hunting/EcoTourism

Off Farm Jobs

ChildrenMobility

Willingness to SellLand or Water

Water RightValue

Land Value

Value Gap

+

++

-

+++

+

Crop Type and

Acreage

+

++

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

LivestockRevenue

++-

Crop Revenue-

++Non-Agricultural

Revenue

+

+

++

+

Farmer Decision onUtilization of Land

+

-

+

+

+

Mutualism/SocialCapital

++

Enviornmental

Capital-

Farmer On-Land

Labor Intensity+

-

+

+

Farmer

Community Labor+

HYDROLOGY ECOLOGY

SOCIO-CULTURAL ECONOMICS

Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter

Campaigns of field data collection of acequia and river streamflow.

Weather Station

Soil Moisture Station

Introduction:

Propeller Current Meter