Ogallala Water

Dr. Sanderson’s research investigates how social relations inhibit or allow natural resource conservation. His projects examine how social structures influence groundwater management at multiple scales (from community to global); how social networks shape participation in group decision-making within common pool resource settings; how social factors affect adoption of irrigation technologies; and how culture influences perceptions of the science, knowledge, and information used to make decisions about agricultural adaptations.

On his participation with the Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project, Dr. Sanderson says: "Success for this project means that we have enhanced the tools available for producers and communities to self-direct the courses of their futures.

Groundwater consumption has been an important issue for over a generation in many parts of the region. I want to identify the key questions that have made this issue so difficult to address in order to: (a) sustain and enhance producer living standards well into the future; and (b) facilitate the development of more resilient, adaptable social and ecological communities."

Links

Kansas State University

Selected Publications

Sanderson, Matthew R., and Allan L. Curtis. 2016. Culture, Climate Change, and Farm-Level Groundwater Management: An Australian Case Study. Journal of Hydrology 536: 284-292.

Sanderson, Matthew R., and R. Scott Frey. 2015. Structural Impediments to Groundwater Sustainability in the High Plains Aquifer of Western Kansas. Agriculture and Human Values 32(3): 401-417.

Caldas, Marcellus, Matthew R. Sanderson, Martha Mather, Melinda Daniels, David Haukos, Jason Bergtold, Joseph Aistrup, Jessica Heier-Stamm, Kyle Mankin, Aleksey Sheshukov, and David Lopez-Carr. 2015. Endogenizing Culture in Sustainability Science Research and Policy.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 112 (27): 8157-8159.