Institutional Analysis of the Colorado River Delta
Case details
- Resource system
- River ecosystem
- Resource units
- Colorado River
- Location
- Gulf of California
Location map
Description
The Colorado River delta is significantly degraded due to a history of infrastructure building resulting in changed water flows, the rise of agriculture in the semi-arid American west, increasing urbanization and over-allocation of limited reserves of water. These factors have been explored in details in this case.
Institutional analysis
Institutional analysis document
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Coded institutional data
No coded case data available.
System representation
Resource system
Colorado River
Resource users
Farmers, fishermen, water supply companies, power companies, cities and municipalities
Public infrastructure
Dams, storage reservoirs, canals and diversions, flood control structures
Public infrastructure providers
International Boundary & Water Commission (IBWC) refereeing between US and Mexico.
Bureau of Reclamation as owner, operator and manager of water infrastructure and water delivery.
State agencies that manage water transactions and water rights.
Irrigation districts and municipalities that regulate water delivery to users within their purview.
Relationship 1
Agriculture is heavily subsidized. Water conservation or efficiency of use is bizarrely penalized.
Relationship 2
(none specified)Relationship 3
(none specified)Relationship 4
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Numerous hard public infrastructure built to control water supply has resulted in decreased flow variation in short-term but increased system vulnerability in the long-term.
Exogenous drivers (7) - Resource
(none specified)Exogenous drivers (7) - Infrastructure
(none specified)Exogenous drivers (8) - Users
(none specified)Exogenous drivers (8) - Providers
(none specified)Human infrastructure (users)
(none specified)Human infrastructure (providers)
(none specified)Sources
Contributors
- Ute Brady, Arizona State University
- Jaishri Srinivasan, Arizona State University
Bibliography
- (2015). Colorado River Governance - An Analysis. SOS 591: Applied Robustness Analysis in Social-Ecological Systems.