Fig 5 - uploaded by Carlos G Ochoa
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Water table fluctuations in wells located along one transect; Alcalde, New Mexico. Well distances from the acequia were: dryland 476 m, near canal 3 m, irrigated land 379 m, and near river 749 m (Ochoa et al., 2013).
Source publication
. In New Mexico, USA, acequia-based agriculture is under threat as pressures rise to transfer water and land out of agriculture. The amount and cash value of agricultural production coming out of acequia-irrigated valleys is not great when compared to many production areas – yet, the overall value of acequia agricultural systems may go beyond food...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... the acequias. When diversion of river water into the acequias ends, groundwater levels continue to drop indicating drainage of groundwater into the river and thus continued groundwater return flow to the river during the fall and winter months. Aquifer recharge in the vicinity of Alcalde, NM, was found to extend beyond the irrigated floodplain (Fig. 5).For example, the dry land well in the transect that is located 476 m from the acequia and away from the irrigated floodplain still showed the same seasonal response as the other wells located near the acequia and in the irrigated floodplain. The well in irrigated land exhibited sharp peaks due to specific crop irrigation events. Peaks ...
Citations
... Ditch seepage has been shown to dilute groundwater ion concentrations (Helmus et al. 2009). Spring and summer shallow aquifer recharge from ditch and flood irrigation inputs return to the river in fall and winter as groundwater return flow (Fernald et al. 2010;Ochoa et al. 2013;Guldan et al. 2014). ...
Current and predicted drought and population growth challenge the longevity of irrigation systems of northern New Mexico. Irrigation ditches, also known as acequias, draw runoff directly from rivers without use of storage reservoirs, so it is important to understand the effects of changing river flow on irrigation flow. This study sought to examine river‐ditch relationships in an agricultural valley of the region. A first order linear model was used to fit the river‐ditch flow relationship on which daily river flow was the explanatory variable and daily ditch flow the response variable. A strong positive relationship between river and ditch flow was observed for all but one of the ditches. Using a statistical model approach that addressed serial autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, as well as outlier observations, statistical evidence at 5% significance level was found in all ditches but one. The ditch without a positive relationship was at a downstream location, subject to upstream flow diversion that may have influenced river‐ditch flow relationships. Results from this study can be used to evaluate the potential effects of changing socioeconomic dynamics and climate change projections in the operations of these irrigation systems to better understand and manage their water resources.
... This connectivity of hydrological and social processes has been repeatedly linked to the acequias' resilience as a water-sharing system (Rivera, 1996(Rivera, , 1998. Moreover, scholars have held up the acequia as a sustainable model of common pool resource management (Arellano, 1997;Garc ıa, 1998;Gunn, 2016;Peña, 1998bPeña, , 2005, with beneficial implications for riparian growth and the recharging of the aquifer (Guldan et al., 2014). ...
In New Mexico, the marketization of water rights, urbanization, and the legacies of colonialism divide neighbors and pit them against one another over water. New Mexico’s acequias (community irrigation ditches) are organized by water flow, and the physical and interpersonal connections that enable it and are enabled by it. I examine the way that the social and material reality of water flow troubles deeply embedded racial and socioeconomic divisions by creating what I call fluid kinship: a social space that flows like an acequia, according to a topography of human relationships. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with acequia users in New Mexico, I elucidate how fluid kinship can reshape the terms of water conflict into unexpected configurations. By drawing attention to fluid kinship, I seek to elucidate the potentiality of the acequia as a counter-geography of relatedness and possible reconciliation.
