Water, Land and Ecosystems - Honduras

A GIS-based methodological framework to identify superficial water sources and their corresponding conduction paths for gravity-driven irrigation systems in developing countries

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 11:37:41 +0000

TypeJournal Article

Languageen

Authors

Valencia, Jefferson
Monserrate, Fredy
Casteleyn, Sven
Bax, Vincent
Francesconi, Wendy
Quintero, Marcela

The limited availability of fresh water is a major constraint to agricultural productivity and livelihood security in many developing countries. Within the coming decades, smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas are expected to be increasingly confronted with local water scarcity problems, but their access to technological knowledge and financial resources to cope with these problems is often limited. In this article, we present a methodological framework that allows for identifying, in a short period of time, suitable and superficial water sources, and cost-effective water transportation routes for the provisioning of gravity-driven irrigation systems. As an implementation of the framework, we present the automated and extensible geospatial toolset named “AGRI’’, and elaborate a case study in Western Honduras, where the methodology and toolset were applied to provide assistance to field technicians in the process of identifying water intake sites and transportation routes. The case study results show that 28 % of the water intake sites previously identified by technicians (without the support of AGRI) were found to be not feasible for gravity-driven irrigation. On the other hand, for the feasible water intake sites, AGRI was able to provide viable and shorter water transportation routes to farms in 70 % of the cases. Furthermore, AGRI was able to provide alternative feasible water intake sites for all considered farms, with correspondingly viable water transportation routes for 74 % of them. These results demonstrate AGRI’s potential to reduce time, costs and risk of failure associated with the development of low-cost irrigation systems, which becomes increasingly needed to support the livelihoods of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

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Citation

Valencia, J.; Moserrate, F.; Casteleyn, S.; Bax, V.; Francesconi, W.; Quintero, M. (2020) A GIS-based methodological framework to identify superficial water sources and their corresponding conduction paths for gravity-driven irrigation systems in developing countries. Agricultural Water Management 232:106048 9 p. ISSN: 1873-2283

Accessibility

Open Access

Research Themes

Restoring Degraded Landscapes

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/106975

Landscape approaches to achieving food production, natural resource conservation, and the Millennium Development Goals.

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 22:02:41 +0000

Regions

Latin America

TypeBook Chapter

Subjects

Agricultural production
Landscape management
Ecosystems
Poverty/food security/livelihoods

Languageen

Authors

Milder, Jeffrey C.
Buck, Louise E.
DeClerck, Fabrice A.J.
Scherr, Sara J.

The Rio Copan watershed in western Honduras is not unlike many agricultural landscapes throughout the developing world. A journey through this 800 km2 watershed reveals a mixture of small and mid-sized farms producing cattle, coffee, and subsistence crops. Residents here face many challenges: recent population growth has led to deforestation and water pollution, while agricultural productivity is generally low and poverty levels remain high, especially among the indigenous Mayan population.

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Citation

Milder, J.C.; Buck, L.E.; DeClerck, F.; Scherr, S.J. (2012). Landscape approaches to achieving food production, natural resource conservation, and the Millennium Development Goals. In Integrating ecology and poverty reduction. The application of ecology in development solutions. (Ingram, J.C.; De Clerck, F.; Rumbaitis del Rio, C. (eds.)). Springer, New York. p. 77-108

Accessibility

Limited Access

Research Themes

Restoring Degraded Landscapes

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/34615

Solutions

Productivity

Water planning system in rural-urban contiuum in western Honduras

Amanda — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 10:38:00 +0000

Water demands estimation for three watersheds in Western Honduras with a rural-urban continuum, analysing how current agricultural systems (as part of a CRFS ) are affecting the overall water balance under changes in land use and climate. Outcome targeted: better and informed water management decisions in rural-urban landscapes in western Honduras (part of water planning system of the Ministry of Environment).

Contact Person

Quintero, Marcela <m.quintero@cgiar.org>

Lead Center

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Partners

CIAT (Alliance) - Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT - Regional Hub (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical)

Completed

Start/End dateJanuary 01, 2017 — December 31, 2017

Research ThemeRural-Urban Linkages

Cluster

3.1 City-Region Food Systems and Urban Food Security

Regions

Latin America

Countries

Honduras

Fine-scale spatial and temporal variation in earth worm surface casting activity in agroforestry fields, western Honduras

wle_admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 04:00:01 +0000

Authors

Pauli, N
Oberthur, T
Barrios, E
Conacher, A

Accessibility

Limited Access

Date Available

September 24, 2014

Last Updated

September 24, 2014

Quantification of the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of soil fauna is a relatively new area of research, and has been proposed as the key to understanding the high diversity typical of soil fauna communities. Field research on the relationships among the spatial distribution patterns of trees, litter and earthworm surface casting was carried out in two agroforestry fields in a rugged area of western Honduras. Grid-based sampling at a scale of 2–20 m was employed to determine whether any spatial relationships existed among these variables at this fine scale. Each field was sampled twice at either 2 or 3 week intervals, to determine the short-term stability of spatial relationships. The spatial distribution of litter showed a strong pattern of aggregation, whereas earthworm cast distribution did not exhibit strong spatial autocorrelation. However, the spatial distribution patterns of each of these variables were well explained by the spatial arrangement of trees in both sites. Fitted model cross-semivariograms explained between 70% and 90% of the total variation in cross-semivariance between tree density and litter cover, and between tree density and earthworm cast weight. The results of the study suggest that farmers may be able to manipulate populations of earthworms indirectly by managing the spatial arrangement of trees within their crop fields. Planning the distribution of trees could allow farmers to create ‘patches’ of organic resources within fields, while minimising the negative effects of trees on crop growth due to competition for light, water and nutrients. Over the short time scale of the study, unusually heavy rainfall led to substantial changes in spatial distribution patterns of earthworm cast activity and litter cover, which may otherwise not have occurred. This result emphasises the need to take into account short-term temporal change during ecological studies at fine spatial scales.

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/43462

Regions

Latin America
Central America

TypeJournal Article

Languageen

Landscape approaches to achieving food production, natural resource conservation, and the Millennium Development Goals.

wle_admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 00:55:12 +0000

Authors

Milder, J.C.
Buck, L.E.
DeClerck, F.
Scherr, S.J.

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Accessibility

Limited Access

Date Available

February 02, 2014

Last Updated

February 02, 2014

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/34615

Citation

Regions

Latin America

TypeBook Chapter

Languageen