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Two Practical Procedures Based on Loop Dominance Analysis for Assessing Sustainability Tipping Points of Irrigation Systems

Authors:
Newton Bueno

Keywords: irrigation systems, sustainability, resilience, system dynamics, loop polarity analysis.

Abstract:
Agricultural systems are complex systems, whose study requires approaches capable of recognizing the inherent feedbacks between people`s behavior, incentives, and environmental outcomes. Although several studies deal with agricultural systems from that perspective, there are comparatively few that study irrigation schemes based on the feedback effects that may threaten their sustainability. This paper uses feedback loop polarity analysis to build an algorithm to predict irrigation systems` resilience tipping points. It concludes by suggesting that the basic ideas presented might be useful to build operational early warning signals for critical transitions not only in irrigation systems, but also for a wider range of systems where tipping points are suspected to exist.

Pages: 1 to 7

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2013

Publication date: January 27, 2013

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4243

ISBN: 978-1-61208-246-2

Location: Seville, Spain

Dates: from January 27, 2013 to February 1, 2013