The first case¹ I want to look at was accessed through the Colby College link. It is a case study investigating the water management in in Latin America, specifically Mendoza Argentina. The historical geography of the area behind its water use has been slightly turbulent, from the 15^th centuries Spanish colonizers to the point where independence was gained by the countries. It highlights a history where Europeans have introduced their own brand of agriculture and crops that contrasted the local needs of the indigenous plants. This made way for the people to adapt their water needs to make ways for arid environments with ill equipped irrigation methods to meet the new needs of the farmer. Grapes and specifically wine became a major asset and when countries gained independence and discovered ground water, attempts were made to regulate the near impossible to regulate ground water sources. This created a point where governance became necessary because of the lack of community action. The history here parallels the lessons in the video showing how technology were transferred as civilizations migrated like how the migration out of the fertile crescent allowed for the advancement of farming technologies throughout Egypt and Europe, but to a slight extreme because it did not share the longitude that allowed for the ease of transferring crops and technologies and required the countries to adapt methods and finally end up with governance over their water sources.

The second case study I wanted to visit was found on Science Direct and it highlights the European Union attempting to use its geographic history and water sources to dictate better methods for the implementation of irrigation water. The two cases shown are comparing the Sinistra Ofanto, case used in multi crop areas of Italy, versus the Portuguese Monte Novo case. This shows how two different methods of irrigation established by local government, the first Sinistra Ofanto is a routing of Ofanta River into irrigation channels and irrigation systems. The system uses extensive PVC piping and modern SCADA technologies to monitor usage, but, not being a perfect system, farmers have to rely on well water when it comes to the water shortages. The Monte Novo case was almost reverse engineered, it was a water system comprised of a reservoir and irrigation system that was created to incentivize farming vice boosting an existing market. This caused a problem because of the crops that came in due to a lack of dialog. The crops that were introduced were high water demand crops and ended up turning lower water prices into higher water prices than originally. These cases show a couple of parallels to the Mendoza Argentina case because of the increased need for increased irrigation services to enable or incentivize farming in environments that do not naturally lend to their respective crops, and then eventually led to governance injecting itself into the situation and regulation water prices and usage.

These cases hit similarly to the area I currently live in because they are direct parallels. The Central Coast of California has introduced many different crops in a specifically arid environment much like the Mendoza, Argentina case. The region, which is heavily involved in California’s drought, has become a region where the economy has become very dependent on farming even to the point it has turned into a point of tourism for the region. The Wine industry similarly to all the cases has become a point of contention with respect to water use, governance has come in conflict with the local industry and now similarly to all the previous cases ground water is coming to the point at which it will be regulated because ineffective methods or insufficient methods of irrigation and supplying water. The things we can learn more importantly from the Sinistra Ofanto case where innovation and expense was put forth into creating a more effective method of water irrigation where governance over ground water sources became a last resort. We can look at these case studies and see how a comparable environment and comparable necessity for similar crops required innovation and increased irrigation. Then take these methods as a way to change the local policies and how we get our water.

• “Water Management” accessed on 21 Feb 2016, http://personal.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/wat-arg.html
• “Improving water-efficient irrigation: Prospects and difficulties of innovative practices” Accessed on 21 Feb 2016, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037837741400211X