Policies Drain the North China Plain

Policies Drain the North China Plain
Author: Eloise Kendy
Publisher: IWMI
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2003
Genre: Agriculture
ISBN: 9290905174

The report examines the relationships between agricultural policies in the North China Plain, the approaches to water management that evolved from them, the quantity of water that was actually used, and the consequent groundwater depletion beneath Luancheng County, Hebei Province, from 1949 to 2000. To systematically address these relationships, we use a comprehensive water-balance approach. Our results indicate that a single, longstanding policy-that of using groundwater to meet the crop-water requirements not supplied by precipitation-is responsible for the steady rate of groundwater decline.

Small dams and social capital in Yemen: How assistance strategies affect local investment and institutions

Small dams and social capital in Yemen: How assistance strategies affect local investment and institutions
Author: Vermillion, Douglas Lynn, Al-Shaybani, S.
Publisher: IWMI
Total Pages: 38
Release: 2004
Genre: Dams
ISBN: 9290905379

This report examines the development of eight small dam projects in the mountainous province of Al-Mahweet in north-central Yemen. The report also investigates how external assistance affects incentives for local people to invest in dam development and water delivery systems and also to create rules, property rights and institutional arrangements to manage the dam and water.

Irrigation Water Pricing

Irrigation Water Pricing
Author: François Molle
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2007
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1845932935

This book contains 14 separately authored chapters on the pricing of irrigation water. The chapters are entitled: (1) Water pricing in irrigation: the lifetime of an idea; (2) Water pricing in irrigation: mapping the debate in the light of experience; (3) Why is agricultural water demand unresponsive at low price ranges; (4) Get the prices right: a model of water prices and irrigation efficiency in Maharashtra, India; (5) Thailand's free water: rationale for a water charge and policy shifts; (6) Water rights and water fees in rural Tanzania; (7) Who will pay for water? The Vietnamese State's dilemma of decentralization of water management in the Red River Delta; (8) Water pricing in Haryana, India; (9) The energy-irrigation nexus in South Asia: groundwater conservation and power sector viability; (10) Wells and canals in Jordan: can pricing policies regulate irrigation water use; (11) Water pricing in Tadla, Morocco; (12) Water pricing policies and recent reforms in China: the conflict between conservation and other policy goals; (13) Water pricing and irrigation: a review of the European experience; and (14) Policy-driven determinants of irrigation development and environmental sustainability: a case study in Spain.

Sustainability of Engineered Rivers In Arid Lands

Sustainability of Engineered Rivers In Arid Lands
Author: Jurgen Schmandt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-09-16
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1108417035

Interdisciplinary volume considers how nine arid/semi-arid river basins with irrigated agriculture will survive future climate change, siltation, and decreased flow.

Groundwater Intensive Use

Groundwater Intensive Use
Author: Andrés Sahuquillo
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2005-06-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9780415364447

Intensive use of groundwater has resolved the demand for drinking water and, through irrigation, has contributed to the eradication of malnourishment in many developing countries. The spectacular worldwide increase in groundwater use in the last decades, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, has been a silent revolution carried out by millions of small farmers. In some instances, groundwater abstraction has caused problems of quality degradation, excessive drawdown of groundwater levels, land subsidence, reduction of spring and baseflows or degradation of groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Most of these problems could be anticipated, mitigated, or even avoided with more active water agencies, adequate regulations and users’ participation in management. Groundwater Intensive Use contains a selection of papers presented at a symposium held in December 2002 in Valencia, Spain. It constitutes a step forward in creating a greater worldwide awareness of the relevance of groundwater in water resources policy. The book presents new ideas and accounts of recent advances in technical, economic, legal, administrative and political issues. It addresses groundwater development to ecosystems sustainability, through different or complementary approaches. A wide series of case studies from North and South America, Europe, South Asia and North and Sub-Saharan Africa cover the various issues. These case studies represent countries with a wide diversity of social circumstances, from areas in which development is emerging, to communities with a long history of successful groundwater use.

Public Sector Reforms in Developing Countries

Public Sector Reforms in Developing Countries
Author: Charles Conteh
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2014-04-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135100594

The underpinning assumption of public management in the developing world as a process of planned change is increasingly being recognized as unrealistic. In reality, the practice of development management is characterized by processes of mutual adjustment among individuals, agencies, and interest groups that can constrain behaviour, as well as provide incentives for collaborative action. Paradoxes inevitably emerge in policy network practice and design. The ability to manage government departments and operations has become less important than the ability to navigate the complex world of interconnected policy implementation processes. Public sector reform policies and programmes, as a consequence, are a study in the complexities of the institutional and environmental context in which these reforms are pursued. Building on theory and practice, this book argues that advancing the theoretical frontlines of development management research and practice can benefit from developing models based on innovation, collaboration and governance. The themes addressed in Public Sector Reforms in Developing Countries will enable public managers in developing countries cope in uncertain and turbulent environments as they seek optimal fits between their institutional goals and environmental contingencies.

Farming with Nature

Farming with Nature
Author: Sara J. Scherr
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2012-09-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1597267570

A growing body of evidence shows that agricultural landscapes can be managed not only to produce crops but also to support biodiversity and promote ecosystem health. Innovative farmers and scientists, as well as indigenous land managers, are developing diverse types of “ecoagriculture” landscapes to generate cobenefits for production, biodiversity, and local people. Farming with Nature offers a synthesis of the state of knowledge of key topics in ecoagriculture. The book is a unique collaboration among renowned agricultural and ecological scientists, leading field conservationists, and farm and community leaders to synthesize knowledge and experience across sectors. The book examines: the knowledge base for ecoagriculture as well as barriers, gaps, and opportunities for developing improved ecoagriculture systems what we have learned about managing landscapes to achieve multiple objectives at a landscape scale existing incentives for farmers, other land managers, and investors to develop and invest in ecoagriculture systems pathways to develop, implement, manage, and scale up successful ecoagriculture Insights are drawn from around the world, in tropical, Mediterranean, and temperate environments, from farming systems that range from highly commercialized to semi-subsistence. Farming with Nature is an important new work that can serve as a foundation document for planners, farm organizations, researchers, project developers, and policy makers to develop strategies for promoting and sustaining ecoagriculture landscapes. Replete with valuable best practice guidelines, it is a critical resource for both practitioners and researchers in the field.

Assessing Global Water Megatrends

Assessing Global Water Megatrends
Author: Asit K. Biswas
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2018-01-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811066957

This book highlights what are likely to be the future megatrends in the water sector and why and how they should be incorporated to improve water governance in the coming decades. In this first ever book on megatrends for the water sector, 22 leading world experts from different disciplines representing academia, business, government, national and international organisations discuss what the major megatrends of the future are and how they will radically change water governance in the coming decades.

A Proposed Framework for Irrigation Management Transfer in Iran

A Proposed Framework for Irrigation Management Transfer in Iran
Author: Mehmood Ul Hassan
Publisher: IWMI
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Irrigation
ISBN: 929090660X

Iran is facing a serious water scarcity and the Government of Iran is trying to implement technical and institutional measures to meet the challenge. One of the key strategies being persuaded by the Iranian authorities is the devolution of management responsibility to users. Thus, irrigation management transfer (IMT) has been adopted as a key strategy to improve the operation and maintenance, and thereby reduce losses, and enhance the sustainability of irrigation infrastructure. However, IMT efforts are at an inception stage and are largely happening in areas where infrastructure is under rehabilitation. The key objective of this paper, thus, was to review the ongoing IMT efforts in the two provinces of Iran, as well as the lessons from the neighboring countries, and propose a viable framework for implementing IMT. To get the first hand information of the IMT activities in Iran, field visits were carried out in the provinces of Qazvin and Kermanshah where two big pilot projects are being carried out. For comparative analysis of the IMT situation in neighboring countries, a comprehensive review of experiences in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Turkey and Central Asia was carried out through literature survey. Based on the synthesis of lessons from this exercise, the paper proposes a framework for irrigation management transfer in Iran.