The conventional approach of policy interventions in water management that focus on the portions of the system that directly relate to water often lead to unintended consequences that potentially exacerbate water scarcity issues and present challenges to the future viability of many rural agricultural communities. This paper deploys a system dynamics model to illustrate how expanding the policy space of hydrology models to include socioeconomic feedbacks could address these challenges. In this regard, policies that can potentially mitigate general water scarcity in a region of the American Southwest in southern New Mexico are examined. We selected and tested policies with the potential to diminish water scarcity without compromising the system’s economic performance. These policies included supporting choices that reduce or limit the expansion of water-intensive crops, promoting workforce participation, encouraging investment in capital, and regulating land use change processes. The simulation results, after the proposed boundary expansion, unveiled intervention options not commonly exercised by water decision-makers, bolstering the argument that integrated approaches to water research that include socioeconomic feedbacks are crucial for the study of agricultural community resilience.

中文翻译：

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美国西南部农业社区缺水的综合政策解决方案

传统的水管理政策干预方法着眼于系统中与水直接相关的部分，通常会导致意想不到的后果，有可能加剧缺水问题，并给许多农村农业社区的未来生存能力带来挑战。本文部署了一个系统动力学模型来说明如何扩展水文学模型的政策空间以包括社会经济反馈来应对这些挑战。在这方面，研究了可以缓解新墨西哥州南部美国西南部地区普遍缺水的政策。我们选择并测试了有可能在不损害系统经济性能的情况下减少水资源短缺的政策。这些政策包括支持减少或限制耗水量大的作物扩大的选择，促进劳动力参与，鼓励对资本的投资以及规范土地用途的变化过程。在拟议的边界扩展之后，模拟结果揭示了水决策者通常不采用的干预方案，从而支持了这样的论点，即包括社会经济反馈在内的水研究综合方法对于农业社区的抗灾力研究至关重要。