@article{bcbe5afc12cc4708976440b557cf17c6,
title = "Changing Flows: Sociotechnical Tinkering for Adaptive Water Management",
abstract = "The Western United States is experiencing historic drought, increasing pressure on water management systems. Agricultural production that relies on surface water flows is therefore imperiled, requiring new innovations and partnerships in order to adapt and survive. In Arizona, some agriculture continues to rely on historic, low-tech irrigation infrastructure such as hand-dug open ditches that divert river water to flood fields. These ditch systems are managed through both formal ditch companies and informal associations. To address changing water availability and needs, ditch users regularly “tinker” with water infrastructure, experimenting and making changes beyond the original infrastructure plans. Such changes are informed and driven by local social relationships and realities of the physical infrastructure. These dynamics are critical to understanding the adaptive capacity and flexibility of the water system; however, they are challenging to recognize and record. In this paper, we apply the emerging conceptualization of sociotechnical tinkering to examine the adaptive management of irrigation ditches in the Verde Valley of Arizona. We find evidence that water users frequently tinker with their water delivery and monitoring infrastructure to respond to and anticipate changes in water availability. Viewed through the lens of sociotechnical tinkering, these interactions are understood as the material manifestations of situated practice and actor agency within a water management system. This case study contributes to literature on adaptive environmental management and the hydrosocial cycle.",
keywords = "Adaptive capacity, Agriculture, Ditch irrigation, Hydrosocial, Water infrastructure",
author = "Barbara Quimby and Nichols, {Claire M.} and {du Bray}, {Margaret V.} and Alida Cantor and Bausch, {Julia C.} and Amber Wutich and Clinton Williams and Sarah Porter and Eaton, {Weston M.} and Kathryn Brasier",
note = "Funding Information: We employed a novel approach to identify examples of sociotechnical tinkering from interview data, which allowed us to connect patterns of situated practice with practitioners{\textquoteright} perceptions of the social and political context. Interviews were conducted with agricultural producers, conservationists, municipal leaders, and other stakeholders from the Verde Valley area as part of the Water for Agriculture project funded by the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (Beresford et al. ; du Bray et al. ; Eaton et al. ). The study received ethical approval under IRB# STUDY00007549 at the Institutional Review Board Office of Arizona State University. Interviewees were informed about the study purpose prior to the interview, and all participants gave their verbal informed consent. Our sampling targeted the estimated 70–80 individuals who were recognized experts and leaders in water management of a ditch system that serves hundreds of users. Interviewees were selected for their engagement in water governance, conservation, and/or agricultural production, and were identified through chain-referral sampling, whereby interviewees suggested important contacts to be included in the study (Bernard ). Previous research established the efficacy of this approach in identifying and representing all major stakeholder groups in this system (Wutich et al. ). Fifty individuals participated in open-ended interviews, which we estimate represents 66% of the experts and leaders in this ditch system. Interviews were conducted by the paper{\textquoteright}s authors between 2018 and 2019, lasting from 45 min to 3.5 h. Interview questions addressed stakeholder perceptions of key water issues and infrastructure operations, but also provided room for the participants to include additional information outside of interview questions. Some interviewees were invited to continue participating in collaborative workshops for the Water for Agriculture project. We also collected data from secondary sources, such as ditch company by-laws and historical documents, that provided additional context for water management in the Verde Valley. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Water for Agriculture grant no. 2017- 68007-26584/project accession no. 1013079 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. We wish to thank the Verde Valley community and our Water for Agriculture collaborators for their contributions to this study. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.",
year = "2022",
doi = "10.1007/s00267-022-01744-2",
language = "English (US)",
journal = "Environmental Management",
issn = "0364-152X",
publisher = "Springer New York",
}