Where a River Takes You: Climate Change Effects on the Social Values of Aquatic Systems

A systems approach for watershed management provides the opportunity to understand the complexities, resources and interactions involved for effective decision making and management. A valuable framework for a systems approach is to view watershed management being comprised of two linked and interactive ‘landscapes’ - the natural landscape which encompass elements and processes that can be associated with the biosphere, geosphere, pedosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and other earth system spheres; and, the human landscape comprised of various elements and processes that exist in human society which I categorize under the element themes of basic needs, sociopolitical, health, lifestyle, demographics, economics, and individual/group behavior.  This framework of the natural and human landscapes allows for the identification of drivers, stressors, and pertinent feedback loops that exist both within and across the natural and human landscapes’ elements and processes.  It is not expected that people involved with watershed management need to evaluate every element across the landscapes; the value of this natural and human landscapes framework is that it can guide people to systematically acknowledge the full realm of elements in order to then identify and focus on the important links and interactions occurring between elements.

Planners and decision makers have often emphasized the elements and processes of the natural landscape which can influence or be influenced by watershed management. This is, in part, likely due to being more familiar with natural landscape elements and being comfortable (to some degree) with identifying, quantifying and analyzing these elements.  There is increasing incorporation of human landscape elements in watershed management which can be further encouraged through examples and case studies that highlight and discuss the value of understanding the various links and interactions between the natural and human landscapes elements and processes.

Using this landscapes framework, we attempt to understand the concerns and issues surrounding climate change effects on the Yakima River Basin from the perspective of Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation tribal members. Preliminary results discussing the importance of the natural resources provided by the Basin, tribal member views on how these resources may be affected by climate change and how these resources contribute to the cultural, spiritual, physical, and economic elements of their society will be discussed.