CHNS Modeling for Study and Management of Human–Water Interactions at Multiple Scales

Structural and Contentual Complexity in Water Governance

Social-ecological systems and governance are complex systems and crises that affect those systems are likely to be complex as well. Environmental topics are multi-faceted with respect to both structure and content. Structural complexity is about societal and institutional organization and management, whereas contentual complexity deals with environmental (or societal) analyses, knowledge, and problem-solving. Interactions between both are manifold, and it is essential they are included in decision-making. Describing these interactions results in a series of nineteen units, arranged in a matrix according to their prevailing mutual dependencies. These units show dominant processes and concepts, representative of environmental analysis. This approach, called ACCU (aggregation of concepts and complex adapted systems units), is provided with evidence through practices of, in particular, water governance.

Worldwide Research on Socio-Hydrology: A Bibliometric Analysis

The technical and scientific analysis regarding studies of the water surface or groundwater has increasingly taken on a great social impact, which has led to the creation of the term socio-hydrology. Since decision making has a greater weight, considering the social perspective, its study has become more important in the past 20 years. This article aims to carry out a bibliometric analysis related to socio-hydrology using the Scopus database and the application of VOSviewer software for the evaluation of the intellectual structure of socio-hydrology, its conceptual evolution, and its tendencies. The methodology considers (i) search criteria of the research field, (ii) search and document selection, (iii) software and data extraction, and (iv) analysis of results and trends. The results show us the term socio-hydrology as a new scientific discipline that has traces in the Scopus database in the past two decades. However, its application stems from recognising ancestral knowledge alongside other forms of knowledge. Socio-hydrology practice requires participatory models, where the community has a great influence, and for the most part, it guarantees results for the common good. The trend of this topic is growing and open to the criteria of sustainability.

Application of the Systems Approach to the Management of Complex Water Systems

This paper provides an introduction to, and an overview of, the Special Issue on the application of systems approach to the management of complex water systems. The main motivation in proposing this Special Issue was that today, more than ever, we need a systems approach to assist in dealing with the difficulties introduced by the increase in the complexity of water resource problems, consideration of environmental impacts, and the introduction of the principles of sustainability. This issue offers an opportunity to review applications of the systems approach to water resource management and draw lessons from worldwide experience relevant to future water problems. The Special Issue includes 15 contributions that offer an interesting view into contemporary problems, approaches, and issues related to management of complex water resources systems. It will be presumptuous to say that these 15 contributions characterize the success or failure of the systems approach to support water resources decision-making. However, these contributions offer some interesting lessons from the current experience and trace possible future work directions.