Focus

Water availability and access are key constraints to poverty reduction and food security. Maintaining enough water for agriculture of reasonable quality will be increasingly difficult due to climate change; competition for water with industries, urban uses and the environment; and the need to produce biofuels. Thus, the theme's core focus is coping with water scarcity and adapting to drivers of change. It will focus on temporal and spatial water availability and access in river basins, how major drivers inuence these, and adaptive management strategies to cope with change and uncertainty. Furthermore, improved understanding of water availability is critical to integrated water resources management.

Much of the world is faced with a situation where water supplies for various uses are overallocated, with river flows much reduced, groundwater levels dropping, and important ecosystems threatened - a situation of physical water scarcity. Much of this is driven by agricultural water use. In other parts of the world, availability of water in rivers, wetlands, and aquifers is ample, but access is difficult because people have not found means to develop the water resource - a situation of economic water scarcity.

IWMI's positioning allows us to consider both cases, and to consider all sources of water and their interaction - rainfall, streamflow, groundwater, effluents and reuse of water - in an environment of increasing demands. The theme will give special attention to quantity and quality of groundwater resources which have the potential to provide water for livelihoods in economically scarce basins; and as a resource that needs more sustainable management, especially in physically scarce basins. Also implicit in this theme is the need to minimize externalities affecting human health and environmental services related to water infrastructure development.

Sub Themes

The theme has 3 subthemes:

• Drivers of change, water availability and access
• Adaptive management strategies and tradeoffs
• Climate change, water and agriculture

1.1 Drivers of change, water availability and access

The starting point for sustainable water resources management and all water use activities is to understand how much water will be available for various uses, including agricultural use, the source of this water (rivers, lakes, aquifers or soil moisture), its quality, and the variability in quality and quantity. Furthermore, drivers of change such as climate and hydropower exploitation may also fundamentally alter river regimes and thus availability for agriculture. The next key point is to understand water access, as creating and maintaining access is critical to poverty reduction and economic growth. Access to water is a function of availability, water rights/access policies, infrastructure and institutions.

Specific Goals:

• To improve definition and quantification of the impacts of drivers of change on water resource availability and access.
• To determine how changing water availability and access will affect food production, livelihoods and the environment.

1.2 Adaptive management strategies and tradeoffs

A number of adaptive management strategies are required to balance decreased availability with increased demand and to cope with uncertainties and change. These include water allocation strategies and the development of appropriate types of water storage considering a range of options from small and large reservoirs to artifical groundwater recharge, improved soil moisture storage; and adopting key policy instruments to provide incentives to use water differently. This component will focus on adaptive management strategies and policies at the basin, national, and international levels, to complement theme 2, which focuses on water and agriculture at the irrigation system, regional landscape and farm level. As new water infrastructure is a key strategy for improving secure access for agriculture, the theme will consider the benefits and costs of infrastructural development on agriculture, people's health, and ecosystem services.

The development of water resources at different scales from irrigation systems to reservoirs has potential risks to human health and ecosystem functionality. Changes in flow regimes associated with infrastructure development have significant implications on the integrity of ecosystems and the services they provide. Further, the construction of water storage structures often result in enhanced opportunities for water-related diseases that can have a significant impact on human health. The focus will be on developing analytical tools, management and policy options to address the numerous health, environment, and livelihood tradeoffs related to infrastructure development and change.

Specific Goal

• To maintain equity in water access, agricultural productivity, human health and environmental quality in the face of increasing water scarcity at local, basin and transboundary scales via development of adaptive management strategies, policy responses and tradeoffs

1.3 Climate change, water and agriculture

A major uncertainty will be the impacts of climate change on water availability, and consequently agricultural systems. Work in the theme will convert global climate projections into implications for particular river basins. Adaptive management strategies will be developed and analyzed based on research backed knowledge of change, variability and uncertainty. This sub-theme will provide an in-depth analysis of the impacts of climate change and climate change mitigation measures on landscape factors that control runoff and infiltration including wetlands and floodplains, water availability, food production, livelihoods and environment.

Specific Goals

• To assess the potential impacts of climate variability, climate change and climate change mitigation measures on water availability and access, agricultural production systems, and associated livelihoods and ecosystems
• To minimize impacts of climate change/variability in agricultural water management and to enhance preparedness for floods and droughts through identification of measures that mitigate their impact and facilitate adaptive management strategies