A framework for incorporating social processes in hydrological models

Abstract

Earth's surface has undergone dramatic changes due to the intensification of human activities. In turn, humans modify their behavior in response to environmental change. Conventional hydrological models do not represent such coupled human–water systems. This paper proposes a socio-hydrological water balance framework for analyzing the behavior of the sociohydrologic system in terms of water allocation between social system and ecological system. This proposed socio-hydrological framework will help develop a quantitative understanding of co-evolutionary processes in river basins from a social and ecological systems perspective