Matching Items (2)
Description
Global transitioning towards battery-based clean energy and green technologies has rapidly accelerated demands for Lithium (Li) as one of the most important minerals. However, the social and ecological implications of the anticipated growth in mineral extractions have not been acknowledged or adequately studied. Therefore, using the telecoupling framework, this dissertation aims to systematically understand the linkages between globally increasing adoption of green technologies and the social-ecological impacts in Li-extracted places, in order to help identify potential mechanisms or solutions to address such consequences. This dissertation selects the Salar de Atacama in Chile as the study area to firstly provide a socio-environmental assessment to synthesize the interdependent relationship between Li-mining companies and host communities. Then, an agent-based model was developed to demonstrate future social-ecological implications in the mining area for various mining projections. Lastly, the perceptions of end-users of green-tech products (e.g., electric cars) were collected and studied as to the awareness of embodied mining impacts and how these impacts should be addressed. Results found that Li-mining operations and local communities are closely linked at both local and regional scales through the shared resource space, economic opportunities, and resource governance. The excessive groundwater consumption from mining drives the most sustainability concerns. Material uncertainties of groundwater were found to play a vital role in causing the mismatched evolution of environmental and social dynamics, thereby highlighting some governance challenges stemming from resource uncertainties. Meanwhile, among sampled end-users, tensions and conflicts are widely found between the imperative of energy transitions and the reality of adversity mining impacts, along with a general lack of awareness. Fortunately, most respondents recognized the complexity in the supply chain of EVs and the role of consumers in influencing its governance. Overall, this dissertation provides a benchmark of the social-environmental impacts of Li-mining in Salar de Atacama, along with suggestions for decision-makers and mining managers on improved mineral governance. It also highlights the need and urgency for a telecoupling view in sustainable mineral governance and suggests a shift in green-tech supply chain to include broader sustainable development goals and a global community of consumers, affected communities, and the general public.
ContributorsLiu, Wenjuan (Author) / Agusdinata, Datu Buyung DA (Thesis advisor) / Romero, Hugo HR (Committee member) / Eakin, Hallie HE (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems (FMIS) are community managed and operated irrigation systems, celebrated for their successful governance of water resources for many decades and in several countries. Nevertheless, in the face of climatic, political, and social change, their future is uncertain. This dissertation utilizes household adaptive capacity, socio-ecological system (SES) robustness, and the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to structure a multi-scalar and multi-stressor analysis of changes experienced in Nepal’s FMIS. The dissertation documents irrigators’ perception of environmental change, impacts, and response; diagnoses the multiple disturbances impacting the robustness of the FMIS; and analyzes changes in the FMIS as an institution over time, in an effort to understand the major drivers of SES change. Fifteen FMIS from five districts of Nepal were selected for the study. Data were collected through field observations, household surveys, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. The status of the existing rules was compared with the data collected three decades ago in the Nepal Irrigation Institutions and Systems database. This study finds that FMIS’s robustness is threatened by uncertain water supply, inefficient infrastructure, scarcity of farm labor, weakening collective action, and natural disasters. Farm households, whose actions are necessary to sustain the management of FMIS, perceive environmental change differently according to their ecological region and position along the irrigation canal, leading to different adaptation strategies. Despite livelihood diversification, irrigators rely primarily on irrigation infrastructure management to respond to the impacts of environmental change. Institutional analysis demonstrates the evolution of FMIS in terms of working rules in the face of multiple stressors. In this study, payoff, information, and position rules have exhibited the most substantive change. However, boundary, choice, aggregation, and scope rules are less likely to change. The findings of this work point to the need for geographically differentiated adaptation support policies, and a need for closer attention to the dynamics of labor, environmental change, and institutional persistence in agriculture and irrigation sectors. FMIS being an exemplary institutional arrangement for the study of a SES, the research findings benefit similar institutions globally facing challenges to the sustainable governance of common pool resources.
ContributorsParajuli, Jagadish (Author) / Eakin, Hallie (Thesis advisor) / Chhetri, Netra (Thesis advisor) / Anderies, Marty (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021