There are several components that contribute to a community’s ability to cope with changes in fresh water resources. For example, the space in which it resides may exhibit plentiful or scarce water supplies. If water resources are perceived as scarce, the community may implement “water saving” measures such as technology, incentives and/or social norms thus changing the feedbacks to local scale hydrology. Understanding and predicting future scenarios relies on both the physical resource (+/- water) as well as an understanding of how perceptions are actualized into behaviors using means or social controls. The variation of biophysical conditions combined with the values, understanding and perceptions of community members linked to a specific space comprise a potentially powerful way to model responses to changes in water supplies.

Perceptions as drivers of behaviors are poorly understood in the context of the resilience of coupled social environmental systems such as humans and freshwater. In this discussion we will examine data from resource dependent communities in Alaska which show that specific age groups value and perceive water resources differently. The oldest age group (>50 yrs) holds high cultural and subsistence values and these are absent in the youngest age group (<30 yrs) which express high “convenience” values toward water. The oldest age group perceives the greatest change in water resources while both the middle and youngest age groups perceive considerably less change to be occurring. We will discuss these findings in the context of the transmission of traditional knowledge, landscape memory (legacy) and the “Easter Island Effect”.