scholarly journals Climate change, water rights, and water supply: The case of irrigated agriculture in Idaho

2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 9675-9695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenchao Xu ◽  
Scott E. Lowe ◽  
Richard M. Adams
2015 ◽  
Vol 01 (03) ◽  
pp. 1550016
Author(s):  
Tiho Ancev

The possibility of climate change and the effects it will have on global and regional hydrology opens up serious questions about how the affected sectors of the economy and the water-dependent environmental assets can best adapt to the new, harsher climatic conditions. One of the possible approaches toward securing environmental water flows is to hold water rights on behalf of the public, and manage those rights for environmental purposes. This type of policy has been in effect in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, where the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) now has some 20% of all water rights in the basin. Thus far, the use of these water rights has been almost exclusively for environmental purposes, besides the calls for some of the allocations on these water rights to be sold to irrigators. This paper examines whether a change in policy that will allow a more flexible trading behavior of the CEWH so that it can be an active participant in the market for water allocations can help with adaptation to climate change from environmental management perspective, as well as from the perspective of irrigated agriculture industry. This objective is pursued by analyzing the effects of likely hydrological variations under climate change. Key parameters that are taken into account are expected water availability, and the variability in water availability. The discourse is framed within the concept of optimal allocation of water resources so as to maximize overall social benefit from water use. The results indicate that active participation of the CEWH in the water market leads to superior outcomes in terms of both greater overall social benefit, and greater quantity of water being available for environmental purposes under climate change. The key policy implication is that trading rules for CEWH should be relaxed, especially under the projected climate change scenarios.


Author(s):  
Denise Fort

The world faces enormous challenges in responding to looming crises in food and water. Responding to this challenge will require flexibility; such flexibility may be impeded by legal institutions. This paper looks at the western United States and discusses the role of irrigated agriculture in that region. Because of climate change, a growing population, declining groundwater, the need to protect ecosystems and other conflicts, the author suggests that all water uses, including long-standing agricultural water rights, need to be examined in light of these changes. Legal systems have tended to serve the status quo, but perhaps the law can help facilitate this re-examination.


2012 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 149-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffery D. Connor ◽  
Kurt Schwabe ◽  
Darran King ◽  
Keith Knapp

Author(s):  
Sejabaledi Agnes Rankoana

Purpose The study explored the impacts of climate change on water resources, and the community-based adaptation practices adopted to ensure water security in a rural community in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The participatory approach was used to allow community members to share their challenges of water scarcity, and the measures they have developed to cope with inconsistent water supply. Findings The study results show that the community obtains water for household consumption from the reticulation system supplied by Mutale River and the community borehole. These resources are negatively impacted by drought, change in the frequency and distribution of rainfall, and increased temperature patterns. The water levels in the river and borehole have declined, resulting in unsustainable water supply. The community-based adaptation practices facilitated by the water committee include observance of restrictions and regulations on the water resources use. Others involve securing water from neighbouring resources. Originality/value This type of community-based action in response to climate change could be used as part of rural water management strategies under climate change.


2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 622-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edoardo Borgomeo ◽  
Mohammad Mortazavi-Naeini ◽  
Jim W. Hall ◽  
Michael J. O'Sullivan ◽  
Tim Watson

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Tewodros R. Godebo ◽  
Marc A. Jeuland ◽  
Christopher J. Paul ◽  
Dagnachew L. Belachew ◽  
Peter G. McCornick

This work aims to assess water quality for irrigated agriculture, alongside perceptions and adaptations of farmers to climate change in the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). Climate change is expected to cause a rise in temperature and variability in rainfall in the region, reducing surface water availability and raising dependence on groundwater. The study data come from surveys with 147 farmers living in the Ziway–Shala basin and water quality assessments of 162 samples from groundwater wells and surface water. Most groundwater samples were found to be unsuitable for long term agricultural use due to their high salinity and sodium adsorption ratio, which has implications for soil permeability, as well as elevated bicarbonate, boron and residual sodium carbonate concentrations. The survey data indicate that water sufficiency is a major concern for farmers that leads to frequent crop failures, especially due to erratic and insufficient rainfall. An important adaptation mechanism for farmers is the use of improved crop varieties, but major barriers to adaptation include a lack of access to irrigation water, credit or savings, appropriate seeds, and knowledge or information on weather and climate conditions. Local (development) agents are identified as vital to enhancing farmers’ knowledge of risks and solutions, and extension programs must therefore continue to promote resilience and adaptation in the area. Unfortunately, much of the MER groundwater that could be used to cope with declining viability of rainfed agriculture and surface water availability, is poor in quality. The use of saline groundwater could jeopardize the agricultural sector, and most notably commercial horticulture and floriculture activities. This study highlights the complex nexus of water quality and sufficiency challenges facing the agriculture sector in the region, and should help decision-makers to design feasible strategies for enhancing adaptation and food security.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Roberto Benso ◽  
Gabriela Chiquito Gesualdo ◽  
Eduardo Mario Mendiondo ◽  
Lars Ribbe ◽  
Alexandra Nauditt

<p>In the last decades, we have witnessed increasing losses on crop yield due to an increase in magnitude and frequency of hydrological extremes such as droughts and floods. These hazards promote systematic and regressive impacts on the economy and human behavior. Risk transfer mechanisms are key to cope with the economic impacts of these events, therefore safeguarding income to farmers and building resilience to the overall sector. The index-based insurance establishes an index that can be monitored in real or near-real-time, which is associated with losses to a specific agent. While the manifestation of the causality hazard to exposure and exposure to damage and its mathematical representation in cash flow equations is a hard task, incorporating an objective and transparent index adds up a new challenge to this modeling framework. Moreover, past events that have been used as the main guide to evaluating expected losses given risk can no longer offer an accurate risk estimation due to environmental changes. This work aims to tackle the hydrologic extremes risk transfer modeling in irrigated agriculture to obtain optimized premium values and parameters of an insurance fund for irrigated agriculture in Southeastern Brazil. This study will be developed in the Piracicaba, Jundiaí, and Capivari river basin, also known as PCJ catchment in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, Brazil. The region, with approximately 5 million inhabitants, is considered one of the most important in Brazil due to its economic development, which represents about 7% of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Hydrologic Risk Transfer Model of the Hydraulic and Sanitation department of the University of São Paulo (MTRH-SHS) will be used to obtain optimized premium values. The main index variable is streamflow fitted to extreme value theory distribution for low and high flows. To evaluate climate change and land-use change scenarios, Regional Climate Models (RCMs) and land use projections will be related to streamflow in a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Synthetic data will be then simulated according to scenarios previously defined in a Monte Carlo approach. The hazard-damage function will be obtained by total crop yield and revenue per municipality, then the relationship between the index and expected losses is determined in an empirical equation. Finally, a cash flow computation is run with synthetic data obtaining optimized premiums in a way to minimize fund storage values. We expect to provide further evidence of the feasibility of actuarially fair premium values for the agents in the sector considering global phenomena of climate change and land-use change. Results will support climate change adaptation plans and policy as well as contribute to methods for estimating risk in a changing environment.</p>


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