The watershed of Lake Atitlán on the Highlands of Guatemala is presented as an example of the high level of complexity found in a system that involves natural, social, and economic forces interacting in a small but extremely diverse geographical area. This paper describes our efforts to use a multidisciplinary approach to study the two main forces of natural and social change in the area: coffee production and tourism, as well as to understand how these interact with a highly intertwined system of institutions. In spite of the large number of institutions present, little is achieved in terms of planning and managing the region in a sustainable way and the degradation of the environmental conditions is now evident in both the land and in the water. We have recently started an effort to link an additional set of data to this analysis integrating land use, social elements, and institutional aspects. We are examining the use of biophysical parameters of lake water quality: nutrient levels, presence of fecal bacteria, pesticide residue levels, and the like, as integrative indicators of changes in the different factors that affect the resources and the people in the watershed. (author's abstract)
Castellanos, E., de Mejía, M. and Knedel, W. 2001. Challenges of data integration in the study of a complex system: A case study of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. 2001 Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 6-8, 2001.