scholarly journals Linked hydrologic and social systems that support resilience of traditional irrigation communities

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fernald ◽  
S. Guldan ◽  
K. Boykin ◽  
A. Cibils ◽  
M. Gonzales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Hydrologic Processes ◽  
Traditional Local Knowledge ◽  
The Face ◽  
Traditional Irrigation

Abstract. Southwestern US irrigated landscapes are facing upheaval due to water scarcity and land use conversion associated with climate change, population growth, and changing economics. In the traditionally irrigated valleys of northern New Mexico, these stresses, as well as instances of community longevity in the face of these stresses, are apparent. Human systems have interacted with hydrologic processes over the last 400 years in river-fed irrigated valleys to create linked systems. In this study, we ask if concurrent data from multiple disciplines could show that human-adapted hydrologic and socioeconomic systems have created conditions for resilience. Various types of resiliencies are evident in the communities. Traditional local knowledge about the hydrosocial cycle of community water management and ability to adopt new water management practices is a key response to disturbances such as low water supply from drought. Livestock producers have retained their irrigated land by adapting: changing from sheep to cattle and securing income from outside their livestock operations. Labor-intensive crops decreased as off-farm employment opportunities became available. Hydrologic resilience of the system can be affected by both human and natural elements. We find, for example, that there are multiple hydrologic benefits of traditional irrigation system water seepage: it recharges the groundwater that recharges rivers, supports threatened biodiversity by maintaining riparian vegetation, and ameliorates impacts of climate change by prolonging streamflow hydrographs. Human decisions to transfer water out of agriculture or change irrigation management, as well as natural changes such as long-term drought or climate change, can result in reduced seepage and the benefits it provides. We have worked with the communities to translate the multidisciplinary dimensions of these systems into a common language of causal loop diagrams, which form the basis for modeling future scenarios to identify thresholds and tipping points of sustainability. Early indications are that these systems, though not immune to upheaval, have astonishing resilience.

Improved Irrigation Management for Sustainable Agriculture

2015 ◽  
pp. 357-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna Popović ◽  
Vladan Ugrenović
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Sustainable Intensification ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Irrigation Development ◽  
The Republic

Studying the future of food and farming, scientists have called for sustainable intensification to simultaneously raise yields and increase efficiency in the use of inputs and reduce the negative environmental effects of food production. Sustainable intensification requires sustainable agricultural techniques such as improved water management practices that result in higher, stabilized, and diversified agricultural production, and greater resilience to climate change without the deterioration of natural resources and the environment. This chapter is devoted to the role of irrigation development in Serbian agriculture and its contribution to the development of the green economy in the Republic of Serbia.

scholarly journals Hydrological, ecological, land use, economic, and sociocultural evidence for resilience of traditional irrigation communities in New Mexico, USA

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1821-1869 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fernald ◽  
S. Guldan ◽  
K. Boykin ◽  
A. Cibils ◽  
M. Gonzales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Hydrologic Processes ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Traditional Local Knowledge ◽  
Traditional Irrigation ◽  
Irrigation Infrastructure ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract. Southwestern US irrigated landscapes are facing upheaval due to climate change-induced water scarcity and economic change-induced land use conversion. Clues to community longevity are found in the traditionally irrigated valleys of northern New Mexico. Human systems have interacted with hydrologic processes over the last 400 yr in river fed irrigated valleys to create linked systems. In this study, we asked if concurrent data from multiple disciplines show that human adapted hydrologic and socioeconomic systems have created conditions for resilience. We identify and describe several areas of resilience: hydrological, ecological, land use, economic, and sociocultural. We found that there are multiple hydrologic benefits of the water seepage from the traditional irrigation systems; it recharges groundwater that recharges rivers, supports threatened biodiversity by maintaining riparian vegetation, and ameliorates impacts of climate change by prolonging streamflow hydrographs. In terms of land use and economics, place-based adaptability manifests itself in transformations of irrigation infrastructure and specific animal and crop systems; as grazing has diminished over time on public land watersheds, it has increased on irrigated valley pastures while outside income allows irrigators to retain their land. Sociocultural evidence shows that traditional local knowledge about the hydrosocial cycle of acequia operations is a key factor in acequia resilience. When irrigators are confronted with unexpected disturbances or changing climate that affect water supply, they adapt specific practices while maintaining community cohesion. Our ongoing work will quantify the multiple disciplinary components of these systems, translate them into a common language of causal loop diagrams, and model future scenarios to identify thresholds and tipping points of sustainability. Early indications are that these systems are not immune to upheaval, but have astonishing resilience.

scholarly journals Impacts of Legal and Institutional Changes on Irrigation Management Performance: A Case of the Gezira Irrigation Scheme, Sudan

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Elshaikh ◽  
Shi-hong Yang ◽  
Xiyun Jiao ◽  
Mohammed Elbashier
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Management Performance ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Water Surplus ◽  
The Right

This study aims to offer a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of policies and institutional arrangements on irrigation management performance. The case study, the Gezira Scheme, has witnessed a significant decrease in water management performance during recent decades. This situation led to several institutional changes in order to put the system on the right path. The main organizations involved in water management at the scheme are the Ministry of Irrigation & Water Resources (MOIWR), the Sudan Gezira Board (SGB), and the Water Users Associations (WUAs). Different combinations from these organizations were founded to manage the irrigation system. The evaluation of these organizations is based on the data of water supply and cultivated areas from 1970 to 2015. The measured data were compared with two methods: the empirical water order method (Indent) that considers the design criteria of the scheme, and the Crop Water Requirement (CWR) method. Results show that the MOIWR period was the most efficient era, with an average water surplus of 12% compared with the Indent value, while the most critical period (SGB & WUAs) occurred when the water supply increased by 80%. The other periods of the Irrigation Water Corporation (IWC), (SGB & MOIWR), and (WUAs & MOIWR) had witnessed an increase in water supply by 29%, 63%, and 67% respectively. Through these institutional changes, the percentage of excessive water supply jumped from 12% to 80%. Finally, the study provides general recommendations associated with institutional arrangements and policy adoption to improve irrigation system performance.

scholarly journals Study on Physiological Parameters and Economics of Rice Cultivation under Different Establishment Methods and Water Management Practices

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-131
Author(s):  
S. Selvakumar ◽  
S. Sakthivel ◽  
Akihiko Kamoshita ◽  
R. Babu ◽  
S. Thiyageshwari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Physiological Parameters

A field experiment was conducted at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, during summer 2019 to study about the changes in physiological parameters of rice under various establishment and water management strategies and to find out the suitable method of rice establishment and irrigation management practices for tank irrigated command areas during water scarcity situation. Field experiment comprised of four establishment methods in combination with four irrigation management strategies. Medium duration fine grain rice variety TKM 13 was used for the study. Results of the study revealed that machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation after formation of hairline crack recorded improved physiological parameters and yield. It was on par with machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation when water level reaches 5 cm below soil surface. Higher gross return, net return and B:C ratio were observed with machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation after formation of hairline crack. This was followed by machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation when water level reaches 5 cm below soil. Hence, the result of study concluded that machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation when water level reaches 5 cm below soil surface can be recommended as the suitable technology for the farmers of tank irrigated command area to get higher return with minimum use of resources under water scarcity situation.

Traditional Water Management System for Climate Change Adaptation in Mountain Ecosystems

2017 ◽  
pp. 9-32
Author(s):  
Bhaskar Shrinivasulu Padigala
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Agricultural Fields ◽  
Water Management System ◽  
Mountain Ecosystems ◽  
Local Water ◽  
Participation Process

The physical characteristics and geographical isolation of mountain ecosystems in Himachal Pradesh has contributed towards a practice of cooperation and development of traditional knowledge among local communities. Over the centuries these traditional knowledge has been used to manage resource scarcities and adapt to vulnerabilities by the local population for over many generations. This paper describes one of such traditional ‘Farmers Managed Irrigation System' (FMIS) practice, Kuhl, it's an open channel irrigation system to capture and transfer fresh snowmelt water from the glaciers to the agricultural fields in the valley. The characteristic of the local water management institution (structure, participation, process and governance) has been studied to understand their performance and success in managing water rights over the centuries. Lastly, the paper discusses the relevance of traditional water management against the backdrop of climate change, present status and issues related to the continuance of the Kuhl system and recommendations thereof.

scholarly journals Inter-model agreement on projected shifts in California hydroclimate characteristics critical to water management

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geeta G. Persad ◽  
Daniel L. Swain ◽  
Claire Kouba ◽  
J. Pablo Ortiz-Partida
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
The State ◽  
Change Scenario ◽  
Projection Data ◽  
Emissions Scenarios ◽  
Model Agreement

Abstract Shifts away from the historical hydroclimate in populated regions can have dire consequences for water management. Regions like the state of California—where highly engineered, geographically interconnected, and inflexible water management systems are predicated on particular spatiotemporal patterns of water availability—are particularly vulnerable to hydroclimate shifts. However, much of the analysis of hydroclimate sensitivity to anthropogenic climate change has focused on gross metrics like annual mean precipitation, which is highly uncertain at the regional scale. This perceived uncertainty has deterred adaptation investments and quantitative integration of climate projection data into regional water management. Here, we assess projected future shifts in the state of California in a range of hydroclimate metrics critical to water management, using data from 10 statistically downscaled global climate model and two emissions scenarios currently used by the state. We find substantial inter-model agreement under both emissions scenarios—and > 80% inter-model agreement under the more severe climate change scenario—across metrics that collectively point toward an increasingly volatile, temporally concentrated, and extreme precipitation future for the state. We show, via hydrologic and operations modeling, that accounting for shifts in these more nuanced metrics reduces the projected reliability and sustainability of current water management practices to a greater degree than would be inferred from changes in total annual precipitation alone. These results highlight both the viability and critical importance of incorporating climate change projections quantitatively into water management decisions in California and other regions vulnerable to hydroclimate shifts, and underscore the need to develop integrated climate-hydrologic-operations models and decision-making protocols capable of accounting for all projected hydroclimate shifts.

Effects of Irrigation Management Practices on Water Allocation Among Farmers in Kiladeda Sub-Catchment, Tanzania

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
Mwadini Khatib ◽  
Joy Obando ◽  
Shadrack Murimi
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Weap Model ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Water Abstraction ◽  
Irrigation Water Management ◽  
Irrigation Water Demand

Kiladeda River in Pangani Basin, Tanzania plays a vital role of providing water for agricultural activities of the sub-catchment. However, it is experiencing a problem of inequitable distribution of irrigation water among farmers. Cross-sectional data was collected from farmers both in upstream and downstream using questionnaires, while river discharge measurements were conducted in referenced spot gauging stations. WEAP model was used to analyze water demand and allocation among farmers. Furrow irrigation (94%) and plastic buckets (6%) were the main irrigation water management practices. The model results revealed a water shortage of 46.4% of the total irrigation water required. The annual irrigation water demand and unmet demand were 13.93mm3 and 7.47mm3, respectively, and are both expected to increase twice in 2020. This high water demand for irrigation could be the main cause of excessive water abstraction. A partnering approach is recommended to improve irrigation water management, reviewing of laws, regulations, and water rights.

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