Coupling Socioeconomic and Hydrologic Models to Improve Understanding of Human-Natural Systems Linkages in a Water-Rich Environment

In many areas of the world, humans have altered the water cycle through a variety of actions including land cover change, pollution and water abstraction. Through these alterations, they have fundamentally changed the character of the water cycle, often leading to unintended economic and social costs. Understanding the consequences of human actions on the water cycle and the impacts of those actions on the human system requires an examination of the dynamic feedbacks and interdependencies between human and hydrologic systems. Using a dynamic systems model, we present a framework for understanding hydrologic-human interactions in the Northeastern United States over time from socioeconomic, ecological and hydrological perspectives. Quantifying the historical dynamics between human processes such as urbanization, industrialization and technological change, and land use and hydrologic change to inform future water resource planning through forecasting and scenario planning tools is discussed.