The Republican River Basin and Three Irrigation Districts: A Socio-Hydrology Profile

Abstract

Water’s social co-evolution with people has been marked upon the landscape by visible stream diversions to massive hydroelectric dams. Other more reclusive impacts are found beneath the earth’s surface. Both actions have reconfigured the hydrological ecosystem while creating spatial patterns and social relationships centered on water. Accessing water emerges as a dominant catalyst for economic development on the U.S. Great Plains. I examine the co-evolution of people and water on the U.S. Great Plains with a socio-hydrological profile that focuses on three irrigation districts in the Republican River basin. The socio-hydrological profile consists of several elements. One, historical and legal aspects of water detail how they impacted its use and management. Two, a policy implementation assessment dissects the challenges presented by the governing 1943 Republican River Compact and supporting 2002 Final Settlement Stipulation agreement. Three, streamflow scenarios for simulated and observational data illustrate the river’s changing character through time and space. Four, interviews with irrigators, managers, and other important stakeholders illuminate how they are keenly interested in water’s value and management. As the first socio-hydrological profile of the irrigation districts and the basin, my findings present a holistic representation of the co-evolution of people and water. The profile identifies four periods — droughts and floods, science and technology, litigation, and future adaptation and interpretation — that have and will shape the basin’s social and water relationship. I suggest that current socio-hydrological research add thematic categories to the values and norms component of the socio-hydrological organizational nexus.