Does Socioeconomic Feedback Matter for Water Models?

Abstract

While integrated systems approaches have been recognized as critical for management of the ecology, water resources management models typically ignore a defining feature — feedback mechanisms between socioeconomic and hydrologic variables. They treat essential variables such as population, economic growth, and sometimes even irrigated land, as exogenous drivers. In this paper, a minimalistic “closed-loop” social hydrology model is developed for a southern region in New Mexico and compared to an “open-loop” (partially exogenously driven) model. Results reveal that the integration of the social feedback links into a hydrology system may change the implications of water-related policy analysis. The introduced closed-loop model can serve as a generic structure for any social hydrology system.