**1. Introduction**

In the high-elevation Andes of Perú, agrarian communities, many of which are Indigenous, depend on local water resources for sustenance. Sustainable and lasting water managemen<sup>t</sup> in the Peruvian Andes requires a complete perspective of water resources that incorporates physical science, social context, and the production of knowledge. Although human impacts often are not fully quantified in watershed studies, there is a growing need to integrate the combined effects of humans and hydrology to focus on "land-change science" [1,2] that integrates society with nature by way of socio-hydrology [3] or analyses of "waterscapes" shaped by both hydrological and social flows [4,5]. Here, we present a framework for explicitly including the coproduction of knowledge from scientific experts, students, and local knowledge-holders in the rural Andean village of Zurite and argue that such a framework is critical for sustainable water development.

Water resources in the Peruvian Andes are impacted by humans at global, regional, and local scales. Global-scale climate forcing accelerates the melting of glaciers, impacting

**Citation:** Oshun, J.; Keating, K.; Lang, M.; Miraya Oscco, Y. Interdisciplinary Water Development in the Peruvian Highlands: The Case for Including the Coproduction of Knowledge in Socio-Hydrology. *Hydrology* **2021**, *8*, 112. https:// doi.org/10.3390/hydrology8030112

Academic Editors: Tamim Younos, Alaina J. Armel, Tammy Parece, Juneseok Lee and Jason Giovannettone

Received: 15 June 2021 Accepted: 23 July 2021 Published: 2 August 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

water supply (e.g., see [6,7]). Local and regional development projects, such as hydroelectric dams or mining operations, impact water use and drive laws affecting water accessibility (e.g., see [8,9]). Additionally, traditional Indigenous practices, dating to pre-Inca times, govern land managemen<sup>t</sup> and aquifer recharge, and inform local water use and community water allocations (e.g., see [10]). These activities result in complex spatiotemporal effects on the water supply and create challenges for the study of water resources and the implementation of sustainable water managemen<sup>t</sup> in the region. Carey et al. developed a socio-hydrology framework bridging natural and social sciences to model how downstream communities may adapt to changes in local water supply [11]. The focus of their study was the Santa River basin, a watershed in which communities, mining operations and hydroelectric dams compete for shrinking supplies of glacial meltwater. In addition to scientific data to understand water resources, Carey et al. incorporated five human variables—politics and economics, laws and institutions, technology, land and resource use, and societal response—into their framework. The framework provides a useful link between science and society, as these factors strongly influence communal water use and sustainable water management.

Here, we argue that, in order for socio-hydrology to not only link natural and social science but also to result in community-level adaptation to climate change, we must include a sixth factor: the collaborative coproduction of knowledge. Our approach to knowledge coproduction leverages community needs and knowledge with our scientific expertise, and trains a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multinational cohort of students in communityminded approaches to water resources research. Including knowledge coproduction in the socio-hydrology framework, particularly when using an interdisciplinary, applied, and community-minded approach, provides a platform for knowledge transfer and mutual learning between all stakeholders in the project, and is critical for achieving communitylevel resiliency to climate change such as local sustainable land and water management.

### **2. Combined Socio-Hydrology Hydro-Social and Integrated Local Environmental Knowledge Conceptual Model**

We used an integrated local environmental knowledge (ILEK) approach that focuses on the coproduction of knowledge to inform decision-making and action in Zurite (Figure 1). The ILEK approach was developed by Sato et al. [12–14] and is purported to increase a community's resiliency and ability to adopt environmentally sustainable changes. We used this approach to outline the knowledge actors who collectively produce the knowledge and inform sustainable environmental decision-making. All the knowledge actors in the ILEK approach contribute to three interconnected outcomes: knowledge coproduction, decisionmaking and action, and institutional change. In our framework, the knowledge actors were the local knowledge holders, i.e., the local stakeholders from the community of Zurite, the scientific experts (geologists, geophysicists, engineers, hydrologists, sociologists), and the U.S. and Peruvian students.

The knowledge coproduced by this set of actors applies the hydro-social framework [11], including "upstream" and "downstream" knowledge, to develop an ILEK linking upstream water resources to downstream water use and decision-making that, in turn, guides land use/management, resulting in potential changes to upstream water resources. Here, upstream knowledge focused on water resources originating in the Upper Ramuschaka Watershed (URW), the primary water source for the village of Zurite, and included the disciplines of hydrology, geology, geomorphology, and geophysics. Downstream knowledge focused on water use, local knowledge, and decision-making in Zurite, and includes the disciplines of engineering, sociology, history, and community studies, with a focus on canal reconstruction and the potential for adaptations to water use. Two major goals of the project were sustainable water managemen<sup>t</sup> within the village of Zurite and developing a trained cohort of socio-hydrologists. By including knowledge coproduction and the training of an interdisciplinary and multinational cohort of students, the ILEK produced will benefit from the diversity of knowledge actors (in terms of age, subject area expertise, ethnic and cultural background, etc.) who, together, will be better at

solving complex environmental problems [15,16]. All knowledge actors will benefit from a platform facilitating knowledge exchange and mutual learning. Additionally, students will benefit when trained to understand the complexities of upstream and downstream disciplines affecting sustainable water managemen<sup>t</sup> and are empowered through their contributions to the project's success.

**Figure 1.** The conceptual model of knowledge coproduction, applied to a hydro-social framework [11]. scientific experts, local knowledge-holders, and U.S. and Peruvian students combine their forces, to learn from one another and coproduce upstream and downstream knowledge. The result is local environmental knowledge (ILEK) [12–14] that integrates upstream and downstream disciplines, and western and traditional science, to inform decision-making and promote institutional change, such as sustainable water management.

We applied this combined hydro-social/ILEK framework to a two-year water development project that took place in Zurite (population 3600), Peru, named Bonanza en los Andes (referred to as Bonanza). The structure of this paper closely follows the three interconnected themes of our project: science, society, and knowledge coproduction. First, we summarize the upstream knowledge relating to water resources in the Vilcanota Watershed, which includes Zurite, and the URW. Next, we summarize the downstream knowledge and discuss water and society in the Peruvian highlands. Third, we describe our approach to knowledge coproduction, which blends upstream and downstream disciplines and

focuses on training cohorts of students who contribute to an ILEK. Finally, we report the knowledge produced, as well as the short-term and anticipated long-term impacts of our project on the community of Zurite and on participating students.

### **3. Upstream and Downstream Knowledge: Water Resources and Use in Andean Per ú** *3.1. Upstream Water Resources throughout the Vilcanota Watershed*

Per ú holds more freshwater resources per capita than any other South American country; however, the longitudinal barrier of the Andes forms a barrier between the moist eastern flanks, draining to the Amazon Basin, and the rain shadow desert along the populous Pacific coast [17]. High elevation peaks trap moisture and high-elevation, headwater streams coalesce to form large eastward-flowing rivers, such as the Vilcanota-Urubamba (Vilcanota) River.

The Vilcanota River originates in the Altiplano near Ausangate (6372 m.a.s.l.) and flows northwest through the Sacred Valley, north of Cusco (Figure 2). The Vilcanota Watershed totals 11048 km<sup>2</sup> at the confluence of the Urubamba and Lucumayo Rivers in Santa Maria (elevation 1200 m.a.s.l., [8]), and is the second most glaciated tropical watershed in the world. However, by 2016, only 1.28% of the watershed was glaciated, reflecting a 30% reduction since 1985 [18–21]. The high elevation portions of the watershed, including the village of Zurite, have a present-day Köppen–Geiger climate classification of CwB [22].

The hydrograph of the Vilcanota River is driven primarily by precipitation, which is concentrated between November and April (less than 4% of annual precipitation falls between May and August) [8]. Glacier meltwater contributions to the Vilcanota River are estimated to be less than 3% annually [23]. The vast majority of the Vilcanota Watershed (~78%) is part of the puna biome: a seasonally dry grass and shrubland environment existing above the tree line and below the permanent snow line, along the spine of the Andes from central Per ú to central Chile and Argentina [24–27]. Groundwater contributions from the puna sustain perennial headwater streams and account for nearly all the annual discharge in the Vilcanota River [8,23]. The city of Cusco, the regional capital and home to over 420,000 people [28], draws approximately 90% of its water from the combined sources of Laguna Piuray—a lake fed by an approximately 26 km<sup>2</sup> catchment area draining the puna—and the Vilcanota River, which is primarily groundwater-fed [29]. Within the Department of Cusco, over 20% of its inhabitants are without access to a permanent water supply [30]. The percentage without access to safe water resources rises to 42% in the rural province of Anta (55,000 inhabitants), of which Zurite is one of 9 districts [31].

Much of the puna exists in landscapes that are sculpted by glaciers with distinctly glacial morphology, such as steep cirque walls, hanging valleys, moraine deposits, and, importantly, gently sloping valley floors in which peat-forming, seasonally saturated wetlands—known as bofedales—are often found [24,26,32]. Bofedales act as shallow aquifers, filling in the wet season, due primarily to groundwater contributions from upslope, and draining to streams throughout the dry season [33]. As temperatures warm and glaciers melt, the puna biome is predicted to expand to higher elevations [34], suggesting even greater proportions of puna-derived runoff from these watersheds. Seasonal variability in precipitation in the Vilcanota Watershed is projected to increase [35], which, importantly, could lead to a delay in the onset of precipitation in September through December, a time critical for planting the most widely grown crop in the Department of Cusco, corn [36]. The effect of changes in the timing and quantity of precipitation and the impacts on water resources, particularly in the dry season, are poorly understood.

### *3.2. Downstream Knowledge: Water and Society in Andean Peru*

### 3.2.1. Water Rights in Per ú

To understand the societal impacts on water use in Zurite, it is helpful to understand the historical context of water rights in Per ú. Both the General Water Law of 1969 and agrarian reform in the 1970s had a positive impact on the ability of local communities

to regulate their water use. These changes placed water managemen<sup>t</sup> decisions in the hands of local entities, known as Comisiónes de Regantes (Water Users' Commissions), and redistributed land from large haciendas to indigenous families (see, e.g., [37]). The decentralization of power allowed for increased local autonomy over water and land managemen<sup>t</sup> (see, e.g., [31]). However, in the 1990s, a wave of neoliberal economic policies resulted in expanded mining operations and hydroelectric dams, which increased water demand [38]. To support these operations, decision-making power was concentrated in the hands of companies, despite their small numbers compared to stakeholders within the watersheds [39,40]. More recently, there has been additional pressure on the limited water supplies, due to an increase in the amount of water exported, carried in the form of vegetables [6]. The increased demand for water has disproportionately affected small, rural, and predominantly indigenous communities and, in some cases, led to conflict over water resources between mining companies and local stakeholders (see, e.g., [5,6,41]).

**Figure 2.** Zurite is located approximately 40 km to the northwest of Cusco, within the 11,048 km<sup>2</sup> Vilcanota Watershed [8]. The Vilcanota flows to the NW and is entirely within the Department of Cusco, outlined in red on the inset map. Red shading indicates the extent of the puna biome in Perú and within the Vilcanota Watershed [25]. The Sacred Valley is the gray region (lower elevation than the puna) directly north of Cusco and Zurite.

Over the final decades of the 20th century, water resources in Andean Per ú were targeted for privatization by the World Bank, to (1) decentralize decision making, (2) create and protect private property rights for water, and (3) establish a market for water to improve water use efficiency [37,42]. In actuality, aging infrastructure and flood irrigation practices result in poor water-use efficiency and 86% of national freshwater use by the agricultural sector [17] and market forces resulting from the privatization of water are not likely to incentivize water conservation [37]. Alternative approaches for water management, in which decision-making power lies with the community, have been shown to increase efficiency and protect Indigenous communities' access to water by leveraging traditional water managemen<sup>t</sup> practices (see, e.g., [37]). As presented in our conceptual model above (Figure 1), we argue that decision-making is best informed by the coproduction of knowledge from a diverse body, including scientific experts, local knowledge-holders, and students.

### 3.2.2. Indigenous Andean Communities and Allin Kawsay

A core principle of Allin Kawsay, the Indigenous Andean cosmovision, is to live in harmony with the environment and the community [43,44]; this principle guides the communal laws and customs of water allocation within Indigenous Andean communities [45]. Allin Kawsay exemplifies traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and refers to the principles of "good living" in Quechua. Similar to the TEK of the Indigenous peoples of North America, in Allin Kawsay, all aspects of a physical space—mountains and other landforms, plants, animals—are interconnected and deserving of the same respect and treatment [46]. Furthermore, the health of the mountains, other landforms, plants and animals serve as a reflection of the health of the community. [47,48]. Mountains, in particular large peaks, are homes to powerful spirits, or apus (see, e.g., [45,49]). The apus provide water, but, when dissatisfied, can also cause lake outburst floods that are interpreted as ominous signs [50]. Allin Kawsay forms a holistic world view that emphasizes a collaborative relationship between humans and the physical space, rather than an extractive one.

Although Indigenous Andean communities have been resilient over generations and have historically adapted to changes in climate, in part due to the guidance of Allin Kawsay, the current accelerated rates of climate change, combined with a lack of governmen<sup>t</sup> resources, endangers access to local water supplies, resulting in local hardship [51,52]. Many Indigenous communities are reliant on agricultural production for subsistence and possess limited alternatives for producing a living, ye<sup>t</sup> they have typically been excluded from water resources allocation discussions (see, e.g., [8,53]). A 2009 law, which defined water as national property, sought to prevent the privatization of water and increase water use efficiency [54]. This law created a national administration for the use of water, as well as providing agency to local governments to manage local water resources [39]. Nevertheless, a frequent turnover in governmen<sup>t</sup> leadership, particularly at the national level, may result in changes with detrimental effects on Indigenous communities that are best countered by longer-term planning (exceeding 10 years) within these communities [21].

Much of the past research has focused on examining the impact of melting glaciers on Indigenous communities' access to water (see, e.g., [8,11,41,52,53]). However, Indigenous Andean communities that are dependent on non-glacial water sources, such as the puna, are also vulnerable to changes in climate and/or policies that affect access to local water resources. To develop sustainable water managemen<sup>t</sup> within the Indigenous community of Zurite, which depends on water originating from the puna for sustenance, we used an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge coproduction that integrates the perspective of Allin Kawsay with community needs, upstream and downstream disciplines, and student and local training to produce ILEK [13,55]. In addition to building local capacity and community resiliency within Zurite, this approach will train a culturally educated cohort of socio-hydrologists and provide a framework that can be adapted to other communities. Our approach focuses on issue-driven and solution-oriented science, and the critical role of the local community in transforming the relationship between the environment and society, to ultimately achieve sustainable futures [13].

### **4. Framework for the Coproduction of Knowledge**

### *4.1. Project Goals and Approach to Knowledge Coproduction*

We designed a year-long education program to support the project's objectives of water resources research spanning upstream water sources in the URW and downstream water uses in the community of Zurite. We leveraged Dr. Oshun's longstanding relationship with Zurite (he lived and volunteered in Zurite in 2003 and has since returned to support several development projects), such that we began our project with a collaborative spirit, uniting

U.S.-based scientists and students with Peruvian students and the leadership in Zurite. The municipal government, Farmer's Union, and Water Users' Commission expressed a need for canals, and we began our project with an agreemen<sup>t</sup> to collaborate on the design and construction of irrigation canals, which we incorporated into our upstream and downstream water resources research. Both the research and the irrigation canal collaboration would contribute to ILEK via a continuous exchange of ideas and knowledge coproduction among the diverse group of participants. A guiding principle of our approach was that all knowledge-holders (see Figure 1; local knowledge holders, U.S. students, Peruvian students, and scientific experts) are valuable assets and are thus critical to the overall project success.

We designed the curriculum of our project to guide the students through the application of research, to the benefit of the community of Zurite. The curriculum included topics in the upstream disciplines of hydrology, geology, geophysics, and ecology, and the downstream disciplines of engineering, sociology, history, and community studies. We leveraged our experiential and academic expertise to include TEK and Allin Kawsay within the curriculum, to provide context and a deeper and more holistic understanding of water resources, usage and the needs of the community.

As longer-term student participation in projects has been shown to maximize the positive and lasting impact on students [56,57], our education program was designed to span a full year, with three components each year: a preparatory course in the spring, an international immersive field experience in the summer, and an independent research project in the fall (summarized in Figure 3). U.S. students from the primary research institute (Humboldt State University, HSU) committed to the program for at least half the year, with the majority of students participating in all three components. Peruvian students and U.S. students who were not from HSU participated in the summer international research experience and, in some cases, also participated in the fall independent research. The project ran for two years (2018 and 2019). The students' backgrounds and each component of the program are summarized below.

**Figure 3.** The educational framework for our Bonanza project. We embedded the summer international research experience within coursework to maximize the impacts and foster sustained learning.
