Matthew McCartney

Freely-available satellite data can help assess water management interventions in sub-Saharan Africa’s smallholder irrigation schemes.

By “blending” grey and green infrastructure it is possible to build systems that facilitate sustainable development and conserve ecosystem services.

Two seminars convened by WorldFish, IWMI and IRRI at World Water Week focused on the importance of integrating fisheries in rice-dominated landscapes and reconsidering irrigation schemes in Asia.

Dams are central to Africa's climate adaptation plans, but the associated risk of malaria, particularly with small dams, requires careful planning to avert a public health crisis.

A new policy paper proposes a more integrated alternative to conventional water storage strategies. This approach could translate into more reliable water supplies and enhanced resilience against a backdrop of climate change and increasing pressure on dwindling water resources.

As humanity looks to nature for answers to climate and development woes, wetlands are often heralded as a green panacea. What is needed is not uncritical adulation, but much greater scientific understanding.

Southeast Asia's ancient practice of fish and rice 'co-culture' can play an important role in greening economies, expanding nutrition security and building community resilience.

Rainforests grab the headlines, but with 87% of wetlands lost globally, it is time to nurture these immensely productive and diverse ecosystems.

A new study shows how integrating fisheries into irrigation modernization can help meet the various needs of communities and nations, and help achieve the SDGs.

There are benefits and downsides to damming rivers. How can we strike a balance between the two?

Severe flooding and drought caused by extreme weather patterns lead to about 10,000 deaths and US$40 billion in damage a year, with the number and extremity of the events is slated to increase in the future. The agricultural sector is particularly vulnerable.

Originally posted on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs blog, this piece discusses the importance of monitoring and understanding river health.

We need natural infrastructure - like forests, swamps, aquifers and grasslands - to overcome droughts and floods that have a high economic cost.

In an era of rampant land development and increasing climate unpredictability, the world is growing used to alarming images of flooded city streets. But cities can combat these floods by turning themselves into "sponge cities". 

Investing in nature is just as important as the concrete and steel needed to build dams and reservoirs and contributes to the long-term resilience and sustainability of this infrastructure.

There is certainly evidence to suggest that wetlands can help reduce the negative impact of some natural disasters. However, wetlands cannot be treated as a disaster mitigation cure-all: they should be considered as one piece of a context-specific puzzle.

To maximise downstream water quantity, you remove vegetation—all of it, including the trees. To counter rising carbon dioxide levels, you plant trees—lots of them. How should we do both? Reblogged from the Global Water Forum.

Ecosystem services and manmade "grey" infrastructure need not be in conflict: in fact, sustainable development requires them to work together. This story from the Xe Bang Fai river in Laos demonstrates potential opportunities for synergy between built and "green" infrastructure.

Agriculture has changed significantly in the last few decades, making farmers' lives easier and allowing massive increases in production. However, these changes have come at environmental and social costs: collaborating directly with farmers must be a prerequisite for sustainable intensification.

Manythong Siharath is worried. The wetland she depends on for her livelihood is changing and changing fast! In recent years, fishing has become a lot harder and her income has dropped significantly. She like many others around the world faces a shrinking wetland while her problems only continue to grow.

In the face of climate change managing water resources is becoming more difficult. In an effort to manage increased water variability, there is a competing discourse on the need for more built infrastructure (e.g. dams, canals and levees) to store and regulate water in order to support social and economic development and facilitate adaptation to climate change.

Just one week before World Wetlands Day, at a meeting in Myanmar, Environment Ministers of the Greater Mekong Subregion reaffirmed their commitment to “green” economic growth. The challenge they recognized is ensuring not only sustainable growth but also inclusive and shared growth.

It seems obvious: if it’s called the Dry Zone it must be dry. Right? Located in a central plain, sandwiched by highlands to the east and west, the Dry Zone of Myanmar is the driest part of the country. But is lack of water really the problem?

In southern Laos, rice fields are not only important for rice; they also harbour fish, frogs, insects, snails and plants, that are caught to supplement the diets of the farmers and their families. Government policy to increase rice production threatens the survival of these unrecorded food sources.

Wetlands and agriculture: for many this may seem a strange juxtaposition because wetlands and agriculture are often perceived to be conflicting. Today, a widespread perception is that agriculture simply destroys wetlands, undermining biodiversity and degrading all the beneficial ecosystem services that they provide.

Defined simply as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems”, ecosystem services have become a hot topic in recent years. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment demonstrated the many ways that ecosystem services contribute to human well-being.