A narrative review of social infrastructure for agricultural groundwater nature-based solutions

Abstract

Non-technical summary. Irrigation relies on groundwater, but depletion threatens food supply, rural livelihoods, and ecosystems. Nature-based Solutions can potentially combat groundwater depletion, typically combining physical and natural infrastructure to benefit both people and nature. However, social infrastructure (e.g., rules and norms) is also needed but is under-studied for NbS used in agricultural groundwater management. Through a narrative review, we find that social infrastructure is infrequently described with an emphasis on using Nature-based Solutions to augment supply rather than manage demand. Technical summary. Groundwater faces depletion worldwide, threatening irrigators who rely on it. Supply-side interventions to drill deeper or import water greater distances have not reduced this threat. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly promoted as leveraging natural infrastructure to reduce depletion. However, there is growing evidence that without social infrastructure (e.g., social norms, capacities and knowledge), NbS will reproduce the problems of technical approaches. How can social infrastructure be implemented within agricultural groundwater NbS to overcome groundwater depletion? Through a narrative review of the literature on agricultural groundwater NbS, we evaluate how social infrastructure has been implemented to (1) enable coordination, (2) monitor and manage change over time, and (3) achieve social fit. Our analysis covers diverse cases from around the world and various points in time, ranging from ancient civilizations to present-day. We conclude that social infrastructure is essential to effective agricultural groundwater NbS but understudied. We also propose further research on NbS designs that rely only on social and natural infrastructure by focusing on ecological fit between agricultural practices and their local environments. Social media summary. A review of nature-based solutions for agricultural groundwater management finds that social infrastructure is key.