External disturbances and robustness of irrigation systems: Diversity and commonalities in Asian context

Ram C Bastakoti, Muhammad Asif Kamran and Ganesh P Shivakoti,

Abstract

Irrigation management is most important concern for many Asian countries where agriculture still contributes significantly on their national economy. However, performance of irrigation sector is not satisfactory despite of efforts on irrigation development and management. Irrigation systems operate under the environment of pressure from several external and contextual factors. As a social-ecological system, an irrigations system faces ever-increasing scale of influence of the human activity. It has been observed that irrigation systems are directly affected by a variety of disturbances like policy changes, market pressures and the changes in the biophysical context where it operates. The social-ecological systems are more complex and can exhibit unexpected and catastrophic changes in behavior as a result of human actions. The robustness of social-ecological systems has been a major concern of inquiry among researchers working in the area.

In this context this paper aims to understand; how irrigation systems adapt to the particular disturbances and how it affects the long-term robustness of the system? We explore the robustness of these systems to various external disturbances such as: natural events, infrastructural changes, market pressures and policy challenges. Taking the case of irrigation systems from Thailand, Nepal and Pakistan we analyze the five entities of the social-ecological systems [irrigation systems] and interaction between them. We bring diversity and commonalities in Asian context, specifically focusing on to answer how irrigation systems reflect varying degree of robustness through institutional responses to external disturbances, the emerging vulnerabilities, in the form of flexible rules formation and adopting various coping strategies at different level.

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