**3. Methodology**

This study is a qualitative analysis of both the text of the GWMPA, as well as local decision-maker and stakeholder perspectives, based on an in-depth case study of one NRD in the Upper Platte River Basin. The location of the NRD and the identities of the interviewees are held confidential. The questionaries (Table 1) were part of the proposal Cross-scale Common Pool Resources Linkages in Integrated Water Management Plan reviewed by the Institutional Review Board under the IRB#745-14-EX. The authors worked independently to code provisions of the GWMPA using Ostrom's design principles as an organizing framework, and ATLAS.ti as their analysis software. In addition, there were field interviews with nine decision-makers and stakeholders to ask how implementation was proceeding in the NRD. Interviewees were selected to represent the NeDNR, the NRD in question, and the stakeholders (i.e., users and societal sector representants) who participated in the NRD's IMP development and implementation.

**Table 1.** Sections of the Ground Water Management Protection Act (GWMPA) reflecting common pool resource (CPR) design principles.


Interview questions also followed the design principles framework, in order to prompt responses about the overall operational characteristics of the IMP, such as how IMP boundaries were delineated, how monitoring and compliance mechanisms worked "on the ground," and the nature and extent of interactions between decision-makers and stakeholders. The authors also probed for interviewees' perceptions of the IMP process overall, their criticisms, and suggestions for improvements. The interview questions asked about their experiences with the full range of CPR design principles, but responses varied depending on the roles played by the interviewees. Time limitations affected the extent to which the interviews captured experiences incorporating all of the CPR design principles; the field guide allowed the interviewers some discretion on allocating time to the various questions.

Finally, changes in ground water levels and recharge were estimated as evidence of the complexity of a coupled hydrological and human system. Such monitoring integrates the potential ground water recovery in response of addressing large-scale collective action dilemmas, while building on the strengths of local control and participation in a changing environment. Ground water level changes were obtained from [24] following [7] criteria for station selection. Measurements of precipitation were obtained from the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS [25]). The consumptive use of water was estimated from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [26]). Recharge was determined as the difference between precipitation and evapotranspiration assuming a constrained runoff generation at the location of the well. The recharge is normalized using statistics of dispersion (standard deviation) and central tendency (mean) obtained from data spanning between 2002 and 2010 (due to the availability of MODIS-ET).
