Incorporating Dryland Ecohydrology into a Social–Ecological Framework: The Problem of Woody Plant Encroachment

Abstract:

Grasslands and savannas across the globe have been transformed into woodlands, through a process often described as woody plant encroachment (WPE). This transformation has important implications for water, energy, and biogeochemical cycles—a topic that has been explored extensively, as reflected in the ecohydrological literature. The changes related to WPE have important societal implications as well. It is clear that human actions are strongly linked with both the causes and the consequences of WPE. At the same time, WPE has proved intractable in the face of attempts to slow or abate the phenomenon. Increasingly, it is being recognized that such complex environmental problems must be treated as social–ecological  systems, that is, coupled human and natural systems. In this presentation, I will discuss recent progress in understanding WPE as a social–ecohydrological system and explore potentially promising approaches that merge insights from multiple disciplines—including hydrology, ecology, remote sensing, economics, and social sciences—as a basis for agent-based models that can improve our understanding of this complex phenomenon.