Spatial Modeling of Social-ecological Systems of Hydrological Environmental Services in Las Conchas Creek Basin, Argentina

Analyzing social-ecological systems should include both temporal and spatial dimensions as components of their complexity. Four conditionalities integrate the response of the territory to external and internal impacts: biophysical determinants, social structures, economic forces, and political reconfigurations. The causality behind the dynamics of systemic elements represents multiple relationships causing transformations in the structure and identity of the system. In this chapter, we describe a spatial model to understand the processes that support the hydric regulation as an environmental service in the Arroyo Las Conchas watershed in Entre Rios (Argentina). We build the contextual conditions of biological diversity and ecosystem structures in the watershed, followed by the identification of the social structures which interacts with the agricultural production and the political reconfiguration focused on the capitalization of nature. Finally, we generate a waterlogging probability model in two scenarios (current state and reforestation scenario) using remote sensing and GIS data for integrating the interdependence of these conditioners and establishing the state of this environmental service of hydrological regulation in the basin.