Some Evidence of Landscape Change, Water Usage, Management System and Governance Co-Dynamics in South-Eastern Europe

Abstract

The identification and characterization of co-dynamic processes between landscape, resource usage, management system and governance is crucial to determine the causes of structural change in socio-natural systems. A clearer understanding of the co-dynamic processes that can occur in socio-natural systems could help to illuminate further the rapid and unforeseen changes that are inheren t to the environmental, socio-economic and governance contexts within which water supply and demand patterns develop. The processionallogic here infers that if co-dynamic processes cause structural change in socio-natural systems, then structural change could offer the key through which to identify the characteristics of both the type of resilience and the adaptive capacity that maintains the long-term sustainability of a socionatural system. The literature pertaining to the concepts of resilience and adaptive capacity recognizes that resilience refers to the potential of a natural or social system to reorganize or restructure (Walker et aI., 2002; see also Gunderson and Holling, 2002). Adaptive potential is understood to be the capacity of an ecological system to transform itself, and in a social system to promote innovation; such change facilitating a reconfiguration of the system without a significant decline in its crucial functions. The study reported here takes as its frame of reference the Marina Baixa catchment area in Spain (Figure 9.1). The catchment covers 671 km2 and is located on the border between a semi-arid rainshadow climate and a dry climate. It comprises a complex and varied topography characterized by