Equitable Water Allocation Research Articles

Enhancing Streamflow Prediction Physically Consistently Using Process-Based Modeling and Domain Knowledge: A Review

Streamflow prediction (SFP) constitutes a fundamental basis for reliable drought and flood forecasting, optimal reservoir management, and equitable water allocation. Despite significant advancements in the field, accurately predicting extreme events continues to be a persistent challenge due to complex surface and subsurface watershed processes. Therefore, in addition to the fundamental framework, numerous techniques have been used to enhance prediction accuracy and physical consistency. This work provides a well-organized review of more than two decades of efforts to enhance SFP in a physically consistent way using process modeling and flow domain knowledge. This review covers hydrograph analysis, baseflow separation, and process-based modeling (PBM) approaches. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of each technique and a discussion of their applications. Additionally, the existing techniques are categorized, revealing research gaps and promising avenues for future research. Overall, this review paper offers valuable insights into the current state of enhanced SFP within a physically consistent, domain knowledge-informed data-driven modeling framework.

Complexities and Opportunities of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: A Case Study of Water Resource Management in Afghanistan

Water governance is a sensitive and contentious issue that requires multi-stakeholder participation and judicious use of technology. The new water law in Afghanistan focuses on the participation of stakeholders in water management, equitable water allocation, task division, and decision-making at the sub-basin, basin, and national levels. This paper looks at a multi-stakeholder partnership approach aligned with technological solutions designed by ICIMOD to facilitate collaboration for the purpose of addressing the key challenges and exploring opportunities for river basin management in Afghanistan. ICIMOD helped to broker a context-specific partnering approach to strengthen collaboration for water resource management by embedding the principles and frameworks of collaborating in cooperation and strategic partnership with the Partnership Brokers Association, which entails a shift from commitments to engage with stakeholders to codesigning and implementing activities based on partnering principles to achieve the goal of water resource management in Afghanistan. The paper highlights and discusses the various cases of the project that offer reflections on the participatory approach adopted and the value addition that each partner, on the basis of their strengths, brings to the partnership. The paper highlights the positive impacts that multi-stakeholder partnerships can have on overcoming the complex challenges faced in strengthening water resource management in Afghanistan.

Equitable Allocation of Surface Water and Groundwater Resources in Foumanat Irrigation Area with Optimization Approach

Equitable Allocation of Surface Water and Groundwater Resources in Foumanat Irrigation Area with Optimization Approach

A comprehensive assessment of water storage dynamics and hydroclimatic extremes in the Chao Phraya River Basin during 2002–2020

A holistic assessment of the hydroclimatic extremes, which have caused tremendous environmental, societal, and economic losses globally, is imperative for the highly vulnerable Chao Phraya River Basin. In this study, the water storage dynamics and extremes in the basin during 2002–2020 were quantified, for the first time, using GRACE (Follow-On) based terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) with the help of a novel artificial neural network-based model for the data gap filling. TWSA showed a linear trend of −1.12 ± 0.05 cm yr−1 (equivalent to a volumetric trend of −1.79 ± 0.08 km3 yr−1) in the basin, and segregation of the constituent components of TWS revealed that the groundwater storage is a significant contributor (45%) to TWS with a linear trend of −0.51 ± 0.06 cm yr−1 (-0.82 ± 0.10 km3 yr−1) followed by surface water storage (i,e., cumulative of the water storage in the reservoirs, flood inundation, and rivers) (36%) and soil moisture storage (19%). The hydroclimatic extremes detected in TWSA are primarily triggered by the variations in precipitation during the monsoon season (May to October) and further amplified by the subsequent water storage and abstraction. TWSA attained a maximum of 42.86 cm in October 2011 during severe floods of 2011 (~95% increase in net precipitation during 2010 and 2011) and a minimum of −31.81 cm during the drought of May 2020 (~82% decrease in net precipitation during 2019 and 2020). All other flood and drought events in some years, e.g., 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016, are also well recorded in TWSA, albeit with a lag time of up to a maximum of two months from precipitation. Further, the basin’s increasing potential of severe drought, as assessed by the effective water-storage-based novel drought potential index (DPI), underscored the need for multifaceted water management essentially focused on the demand side rather than the supply side in the basin. The proposed framework can be utilized for policymaking for adequate and equitable water allocation, developing the early warning systems for the droughts and floods, and employing the optimal adaptation measures in the Chao Phraya River Basin and other data-scarce river basins globally.

Stakeholder-based water allocation modelling and ecosystem services trade-off analysis: the case of El Carracillo region (Spain)

ABSTRACT Equitable water allocation in the context of local-scale water conflicts can be challenging. We present a holistic framework for the analysis of small-scale water disputes, contributing an integrated approach to the analysis of water conflicts by providing technical solutions combined with an in-depth analysis of social dynamics. The analysis focuses on an ongoing water conflict in El Carracillo region (Spain) related to an artificial aquifer recharge project. This case study involves two competing water users: horticultural farmers and ecosystem services provided by Cega River, from which water is diverted in order to recharge the aquifer. Based on a stakeholder analysis, a tool was developed to support participatory processes by facilitating mediation procedures. Preliminary results show solutions exist that account for ecosystem needs without causing major negative impacts on El Carracillo agriculture, and suggest the need for a re-negotiation of the existing rules governing water diversion from Cega River.

Water as a transnational element: a reflection on governance and global environmental management

Considering water as an essential good for life on earth, reflecting on management and governance will be timely relevant. Governance for equitable water allocation is closely linked to a decentralized regime without strengthening competence at the subnational level. Having made such observations, the present study through the inductive method and the literature review through the thought of classical and contemporary authors, by the succinct writing format, does not wish to propose or hope to present solutions for water management, but rather to offer some contribution for a transnational look, as a possibility of a civilizing governance of an indispensable resource to life in all its senses, water. Considering that the causal elements of inequalities are territorial, there is a lack of coordination that seeks solutions to water, sometimes too much, sometimes in scarcity, sometimes polluted. From a demographic perspective, they reflect the intrinsic characteristics of local dynamics, diversity in access, including basic sanitation and the concentration of the deficit in certain population groups, whose priority is to make management decisions at mutually compatible and effective administrative levels. Thus, with the goal of identifying long-term trends, important factors and actors for defining issues on a global scale seek to understand variables that may influence the international scenario of sustainability and transnational water governance.

Optimal allocation of regional water resources based on multi-objective dynamic equilibrium strategy

Raising water demand, insufficient freshwater resources and uneven precipitation are the main causes of water conflicts in the river basin. The main challenges in water resources allocation are the following: first, the uncertainty of water supply caused by climate change; second, the dynamic allocation of water resources is not considered; third, there is a lack of equitable water allocation, which may lead to intensified conflicts among the water user sectors. Based on the above challenges, a multi-objective dynamic programming optimal water resources allocation model under uncertainties is established in this paper, which could be a resolution for water disputes as it addresses simultaneously economic, social and environmental benefits. The proposed model considers maximizing the minimum satisfaction degree of each water sector, maximizing the utilization efficiency of water resources in the basin, and maximizing economic benefits. Satisfaction degree function is introduced to optimize water allocation equality in water use sectors (agricultural, domestic, and industrial sectors), and economic efficiency loss acceptance is integrated into the model constraints to control the economic loss corresponding to variations in water availability. In addition, a case study demonstrated the practicality and rationality of the proposed model, and the model results proposed herein show significantly help for a single river basin. Most importantly, the results show that model with dynamic constraint ensures a greater overall economic return for the entire basin, and a larger variation in water resources of sub-area leads to a larger maximum economic efficiency loss. Moreover, the proposed model herein is flexible and can be used in other developing countries/regions only by modifying the parameters according to the actual situation.

A Social Exchange Analysis of Adaptive Governance in Water Allocation Processes, the Kafue Flats, Zambia

Adaptive governance is an emergent approach to water allocation that alludes to the social conditions that enable the range of interactions among actors as they agree and pursue mutually desired water allocation outcomes. Limited successful efforts aimed at implementing adaptive governance suggest a dearth in understanding and implementing adaptive governance. Using the analytic lens of social exchange theory, we draw attention to relations of dependence by examining efforts aimed at establishing an equitable water allocation regime on the Kafue Flats of Zambia. Relations of dependence are as a result of differential access and control of hydromentality. In the context of this research, hydromentality includes discourse on water allocation, institutional arrangements and techniques for control of hydraulic infrastructure. The research used in-depth interviews, stakeholder workshops and document analysis. The research illustrates the case in which hydropower and commercial irrigation farmers, access and control hydromentality. In this way, these few key actors are able to either facilitate or constrain adaptive governance processes thereby influecing water allocation outcomes on the Kafue Flats. We conclude by asserting that adaptive governance does not occur in a vacuum and as such require greater attention to relations of dependence as social actors pursue desired water allocation outcomes.

A basin-wide approach for water allocation and dams location-allocation

Construction of new dams in undeveloped transboundary basins causes two serious disputes between the stakeholders: conflicts over more water interest and over the new dams’ locations. Hence, water development planning of these basins needs to be done in conjunction with the examination of stakeholders’ new water shares. This study extends the model presented in Roozbahani et al. (Water Resour Manag 31:4539–4556, 2017) to be multi-objective and applies the methodology outlined in Roozbahni et al. (Ann Oper Res 229:657–676, 2015a) to solve the model. The proposed three steps approach determines the equitable allocation of the surface water of an undeveloped transboundary basin while determining optimal number, locations and capacities of new dams. The first step utilizes a mixed-integer-multi-objective model to outline the water shares of stakeholders, as well as optimal dam locations for a given number of dams. Using a sensitivity analysis, the second step pinpoints the required number of dams. The role of third step is the exploration of the dams’ lowest possible capacities. Environmentally, our approach takes the entire watershed’s water requirements into account. We have applied the proposed approach to the Sefidrud Basin, a transboundary basin located in Iran. The results of the approach show that, to significantly improve the security of the Sefidrud Basin’s water supply, three new dams would be optimal.

Scarcity as a means of governing: Challenging neoliberal hydromentality in the context of the South African drought

This article investigates the role of scarcity in water governance with a particular focus on South Africa. It applies a (green) governmentality perspective and argues that in neoliberal hydromentality scarcity is used as a regulatory device that governs people's water access. In South Africa, water governance and water scarcity have for a long time been central to the construction of a particular state with particular social purposes. While scarcity in the post-apartheid period has mainly been used as a means of governing the poor, the role of scarcity has in the recent water crisis been transformed; scarcity has increasingly become a material concern for all of society. Notwithstanding that the crisis is due not only to the lack of rain but also to political and institutional factors, it has, in media and policy circles, involved a preoccupation with scarcity as a physical phenomenon. Such a preoccupation risks obscuring the reasons why poorer populations have long suffered from the lack of water. At the same time, the article contends, the current crisis presents South Africa with an opportunity for revisiting water scarcity as a technology of governing in creating a more sustainable and equitable water allocation.

State of future water regimes in the world’s river basins: balancing the water between society and nature

Global freshwater resources have faced critical water security challenges during the 21st century in the world’s river basins. Shortages of water have impaired economic development by disrupting regimes of river flows, ecosystem functioning and food security. Excessive surface and groundwater withdrawals have almost reached the threshold. The current withdrawals of total water (4700 km3·y−1) suggest the imbalance of water use and renewal rates in the world’s river basins. The water security issues are further intensified by phosphate and nitrate pollution from land use and climate change. Today, about 400 million people worldwide experience extreme shortages of water for daily use. Limited availability of water which needs to meet the basic needs of hygiene and sanitation for consumption and other uses has increased competition among users. While the society demands more water-intensive goods and services, the ecosystems are however left behind, consequently leading to increased conflicts and insecurity. Equitable water allocation for people and nature is becoming increasingly urgent. However, understanding the complex interactions between the society and nature in the world’s river basins is limited. This paper aims to unravel some key strategies that enhance future water security through the advancement of science, knowledge and technologies in the world’s river basins.

Contested waterscapes: Irrigation and hydropower in the Great Ruaha River Basin, Tanzania

This interdisciplinary research examines contemporary discourses regarding causality of hydrological change within the Great Ruaha River Basin, Tanzania. Of particular significance is the allocation of water for upstream rice irrigation in the Usangu Plains, and downstream requirements of the Mtera-Kidatu hydropower system. Tension between these two users was initially brought into focus during the mid-1990s, when low river flows into the Mtera reservoir led to a decrease in hydropower generation. Increasing seasonal water scarcity has subsequently become a normality in the basin. Interviews with actors highlighted a number of causalities for hydrological change. The most commonly cited causalities are an increase in the area and water use inefficiency of traditional smallholder irrigation, which represents the contemporary sanctioned discourse. This is interpreted as an exertion of power by the government and other actors in blaming upstream farmers, setting the limits upon which policies and plans should be pursued. A number of marginal discourses offering alternative explanations are advocated by coalitions of actors. Causalities and management solutions are considered within the water governance arena, determined by institutional arrangements, technical issues, economic and socio-political dimensions governing water use and allocation. Water allocation represents a temporal and spatial hydro-political balancing act for the government. On the one hand, promoting upstream agriculture-based livelihoods and sustaining the farmer vote; whilst on the other hand, avoiding downstream hydropower generation failure with associated political ramifications and negative economic consequences. Midstream environmental flow requirements of the Ihefu wetland and Ruaha National Park have been demoted to secondary hydro-political significance. In order to understand actual causalities of hydrological change, studies should be conducted and considered without being subjected to quasi-science and actor appropriation to serve partisan and self-interests. A greater egalitarian approach would help to bring all actors together to promote common management solutions for the equitable allocation of water in the basin.

Development of a Water Allocation Model for Equitable Water Distribution at Doho Rice Irrigation Scheme, Uganda

The shortage of irrigation water at the tail reaches of Doho Rice Irrigation Scheme especially in the dry season has resulted in decreased rice production. At Doho Rice Irrigation Scheme, water distribution follows a predetermined rotation system where allocated supplies are unknown and the farmer decides how much water they divert to their plot. This has resulted in water inequalities between the tail end and head end blocks of the scheme. The main objective of the study was to develop a water allocation model for equitable distribution of irrigation water taking into account crop growth stages. This study developed an equitable water allocation model by ensuring that the crop water requirements per block are matched with the available supply in the main canal. A water delivery scheduling model was developed to help deliver the decadal irrigation water requirements by grouping different blocks together. The water allocation model gives required irrigation supplies and recommended supplies depending on the crop growth stage and acreage per block. The results from the water delivery scheduling model suggest a 2 days of irrigation per week for the land preparation, development and late seasons and 3 days of irrigation per decade during the high consumptive stages of initial and midseason stages of rice development.

Climate change and its impacts on hydro-politics in transboundary basins: a case study of the Orange-Senqu River basin

Abstract In any basin or basin country, water security is of critical importance. The increase in populations and water demand are placing stress on the available water resources. This is likely to become more complicated within shared water-courses. Issues of equitable water allocation and distribution are important for all countries involved. Fostering cooperation and managing conflict hence become fundamental in transboundary water management. Climate change is likely to add new challenges to pre-existing dynamics in transboundary systems. According to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Climate Change Strategy and the SADC Shared Watercourses Protocol, there is a need to integrate climate change impacts and associated adaptation measures into water management plans to ensure water security for all countries involved in the future. The Orange-Senqu basin, which spans over Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, will be used as a case study to closely examine and reflect on some hydro-political challenges that may be brought about by climate change-associated impacts within the basin states. Although uncertain, climate projections largely indicate decline in rainfall and increase in temperature, especially within the South Africa part of the basin. This inherently is bound to affect water quantity and, therefore, availability within the riparian states below South Africa.

Dealing with equality and benefit for water allocation in a lake watershed: A Gini-coefficient based stochastic optimization approach

A Gini-coefficient based stochastic optimization (GBSO) model was developed by integrating the hydrological model, water balance model, Gini coefficient and chance-constrained programming (CCP) into a general multi-objective optimization modeling framework for supporting water resources allocation at a watershed scale. The framework was advantageous in reflecting the conflicting equity and benefit objectives for water allocation, maintaining the water balance of watershed, and dealing with system uncertainties. GBSO was solved by the non-dominated sorting Genetic Algorithms-II (NSGA-II), after the parameter uncertainties of the hydrological model have been quantified into the probability distribution of runoff as the inputs of CCP model, and the chance constraints were converted to the corresponding deterministic versions. The proposed model was applied to identify the Pareto optimal water allocation schemes in the Lake Dianchi watershed, China. The optimal Pareto-front results reflected the tradeoff between system benefit (αSB) and Gini coefficient (αG) under different significance levels (i.e. q) and different drought scenarios, which reveals the conflicting nature of equity and efficiency in water allocation problems. A lower q generally implies a lower risk of violating the system constraints and a worse drought intensity scenario corresponds to less available water resources, both of which would lead to a decreased system benefit and a less equitable water allocation scheme. Thus, the proposed modeling framework could help obtain the Pareto optimal schemes under complexity and ensure that the proposed water allocation solutions are effective for coping with drought conditions, with a proper tradeoff between system benefit and water allocation equity.

A framework model for water-sharing among co-basin states of a river basin

A new framework model is presented in this study for sharing of water in a river basin using certain governing variables, in an effort to enhance the objectivity for a reasonable and equitable allocation of water among co-basin states. The governing variables were normalised to reduce the governing variables of different co-basin states of a river basin on same scale. In the absence of objective methods for evaluating the weights to be assigned to co-basin states for water allocation, a framework was conceptualised and formulated to determine the normalised weighting factors of different co-basin states as a function of the governing variables. The water allocation to any co-basin state had been assumed to be proportional to its struggle for equity, which in turn was assumed to be a function of the normalised discontent, satisfaction, and weighting factors of each co-basin state. System dynamics was used effectively to represent and solve the proposed model formulation. The proposed model was successfully applied to the Vamsadhara river basin located in the South–Eastern part of India, and a sensitivity analysis of the proposed model parameters was carried out to prove its robustness in terms of the proposed model convergence and validity over the broad spectrum values of the proposed model parameters. The solution converged quickly to a final allocation of 1444 million cubic metre (MCM) in the case of the Odisha co-basin state, and to 1067 MCM for the Andhra Pradesh co-basin state. The sensitivity analysis showed that the proposed model’s allocation varied from 1584 MCM to 1336 MCM for Odisha state and from 927 to 1175 MCM for Andhra, depending upon the importance weights given to the governing variables for the calculation of the weighting factors. Thus, the proposed model was found to be very flexible to explore various policy options to arrive at a decision in a water sharing problem. It can therefore be effectively applied to any trans-boundary problem where there is conflict about water-sharing among co-basin states.

Optimization of equitable irrigation water delivery for a large-scale rice irrigation scheme

Equitable water allocation is essential in an irrigation scheme for obtaining potential crop yields from the entire scheme, especially when water supply is inadequate. An optimization model achieved this goal by coupling an optimal water allocation model with available water supply and irrigation water demand for a river-fed rice irrigation system in Malaysia. This model consists of a paddy field water balance module and an optimization module. The outputs from the module are daily irrigation demand and surface runoff, if there is any. The optimization module consists of an objective function, which minimizes water shortage across the scheme area while maintaining equity in water allocation. This model performs optimization subject to several system constraints, and the decision variable of the model is daily releases or supply to the tertiary canals. Performance of this model remained unaffected under different water supply conditions, and the optimization model reliably examined the effects of alternate water allocation and management rules with field information. It improves efficiency and equity in water allocation with respect to crop growth stages and water shortages rather than simply cutting irrigation supply on a proportional basis to overcome water shortages. Keywords: irrigation, optimization, simulation, equitable deliveries, rice DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181105.3536 Citation: Rowshon M K, Iqbal M, Mojid M A, Amin M S M, Lai S H. Optimization of equitable irrigation water delivery for a large-scale rice irrigation scheme. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(5): 160–166.

South Africa’s water regulatory and policy framework: a new institutional economic review

The institutional dynamics , policies, and legislation that were prevalent during the apartheid era have left imprints that are difficult to ignore as they still dictate the interaction between different elements in the water sector to date. The existence of riparian water rights made the legislation excluding and racist as far as water access was concerned because of the indisputable link between land ownership and access to water. Post-apartheid, the National Water Act (NWA) of 1998 has transformed the water regulatory landscape from the riparian system to a system aimed at achieving equitable water allocation for the benefit of all. It has done away with a private right system of water allocation by detaching water rights from land ownership. However, the water sector in South Africa is still facing a number challenges, leading to a delay in achieving some of the goals of the post-apartheid water law. This paper provides a review of relevant water policies and/or statutes from a new institutional economics (NIE) perspective to assess the success, or lack thereof, of post-apartheid water policy in South Africa. This paper found that South Africa’s water policy is premised largely on neoclassical economics framework. It concludes that the failure of the NWA and other institutions to incorporate social norms and customs is more likely to the persistence of skewed distribution of water resources.

The Relationship between Effective and Equitable Water Allocation, Local Rice Farmer Participation and Economic Well-Being: Insights from Thailand’s Chiang Mai Province

This research investigates the relationship between equitable water allocation, participation in the local irrigation operation, and improved economic well-being. The study area consisted of the rice-growing districts of Doi Saket and Mae On in Thailand’s northern province Chiang Mai, where locals have adopted a participatory farmer-managed irrigation system. The samples were 150 small-scale rice farmers who were divided into four groups by their membership: community irrigation (CI); community irrigation and enterprise (CIE); and farmland location (head-end or tail-end of the irrigation canal). The findings revealed a strong relationship between the three variables. Specifically, despite less advantageous farmland locations, the tail-end CI farmers outperformed in the dry-season and annual paddy yields per household. The higher paddy yields translated into higher household earnings. The improved economic well-being of the tail-end CI farmers could be attributed to their active participation in the local irrigation operation. Another contributing factor was equitable water allocation, which is the product of the farmers’ active participation as their irrigation demands and concerns are constantly acknowledged and addressed. Importantly, the findings verified the effectiveness and usability of the participatory irrigation system in tackling the problem of inequitable water allocation between the head-end and tail-end farmers. Moreover, the participatory irrigation scheme was readily implementable since it required no additional investment, only active local participation.

English

Mechanism for water allocation in the irrigated agriculture has been subject of conflict and challenges in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) due to higher input in rice farming and increasing water shortage. How satisfactory is the allocation mechanism by the stakeholders (the providers, policy-makers and the farmers) and how do farmers perceive equity objective on the existing water allocation mechanism in Nigeria? This paper examines constraints confronting water distribution, farmers’ level of satisfaction and their perception on equity in the process of water distribution to farmlands in the Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority (UNRBDA) in Northern Nigeria. This study employs semi-structured interview and validated questionnaires survey approaches with stakeholders. Data collected were analysed using thematic approach based on themes generation and simple descriptive statistics. Findings show that weak institutions, legal framework incapacity and aging infrastructures majorly hinder equitable water allocation in the irrigated agriculture. Varied opinions were observed on the level of satisfaction among the stakeholders. While 77.7% of farmers reported that equity objective is observed, 22.2% declined that there is equity in the allocation policy. Institutional reform and adequate funding for maintenance of facilities is recommended for justice and equity in water allocation. Key words: Constraint, equity, irrigated agriculture, satisfaction, stakeholders, water allocation.