Social enquiry and the measurement of natural phenomena: the degradation of irrigation water in the Argolid Plain,Greece

Attempts to formulate appropriate policies for the management of agricultural systems are constrained by the limitations of acquiring information about changes in the natural system across space and through time. The adoption of natural science techniques to measure the transformation of natural phenomena requires considerable investment in time and expertise and may not always be capable of providing information about change in a way that meets the adaptive requirements of planning and policy. A more flexible approach to data collection will require the acceptance of less precise and more general physical data as the basis for understanding changes in complex agricultural systems. This raises interesting questions about the adoption of social enquiry techniques to provide information about changing natural phenomena. The progressive deterioration of water resources, as a result of intensive agricultural activity in the Argolid Plain of Greece, will be considered and the problems of measuring the extent of that degradation, and the processes leading to it, will be discussed.