Sustainable irrigation through local collaborative governance: Evidence for a structural fix in Kansas

Abstract

Sustainable water management is increasingly essential on local to global scales, especially in regions where water scarcity is causing immediate environmental, social, and economic harm. While academics and politicians agree on the need to reduce pressure on critical water resources, the path toward that goal is not clear. Here, we present an interdisciplinary evaluation of two distinct policy approaches toward water conservation to determine whether they reduced the depletion rate of the High Plains Aquifer in the Central United States. Several studies have demonstrated, and our findings support, that subsidizing the purchase of more efficient irrigation technology failed to reduce water consumption. However, a structural approach in which state-facilitated, but locally-derived, limits were placed on water consumption did successfully reduce groundwater extraction with the support of local agricultural producers. We analyze these results using a political, sociological, and economic theoretical framework and conclude that to build upon the success of this collaborative governance model, states should seek to replicate localized groups rather than expanding management boundaries to incorporate larger geographic areas.