**Common Pool Resource Management: Assessing Water Resources Planning for Hydrologically Connected Surface and Groundwater Systems**

**Francisco Muñoz-Arriola 1,2,3,\*, Tarik Abdel-Monem 3 and Alessandro Amaranto 4**

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**Abstract:** Common pool resource (CPR) managemen<sup>t</sup> has the potential to overcome the collective action dilemma, defined as the tendency for individual users to exploit natural resources and contribute to a tragedy of the commons. Design principles associated with effective CPR managemen<sup>t</sup> help to ensure that arrangements work to the mutual benefit of water users. This study contributes to current research on CPR managemen<sup>t</sup> by examining the process of implementing integrated managemen<sup>t</sup> planning through the lens of CPR design principles. Integrated managemen<sup>t</sup> plans facilitate the managemen<sup>t</sup> of a complex common pool resource, ground and surface water resources having a hydrological connection. Water governance structures were evaluated through the use of participatory methods and observed records of interannual changes in rainfall, evapotranspiration, and ground water levels across the Northern High Plains. The findings, documented in statutes, field interviews and observed hydrologic variables, point to the potential for addressing large-scale collective action dilemmas, while building on the strengths of local control and participation. The feasibility of a "bottom up" system to foster groundwater resilience was evidenced by reductions in groundwater depths of 2 m in less than a decade.

**Keywords:** common pool resources; integrated water management; water governance; water resilience
