Water for agriculture and the environment: the ultimate trade-off

Water Policy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (S1) ◽  
pp. 136-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Vaux
Keyword(s):  
Water Allocation ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Environmental Services ◽  
Environmental Amenities ◽  
Global Commons ◽  
Year 2000 ◽  
Sufficient Food ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Allocation Decisions ◽  
Growing Population

Global population is projected to increase over year 2000 levels by 30% in 2025 and by 50% in 2050. Producing sufficient food to feed a more populous Earth will be a challenge requiring additional developed water supplies. Existing supplies are unevenly distributed around the planet. Some developing countries lack sufficient water to grow the food necessary to feed the growing population. With time, more countries will join that group. The strategies available to produce more food depend upon which sources are available. Two options open to all countries are improving the productivity of water in agriculture and importing virtual water in food. For some, the additional options of bringing more land into production or harvesting rainwater may also be available. All these measures reallocate water to agricultural uses from environmental uses. Such reallocations may impose potentially large losses in the form of environmental services and environmental amenities. Difficult water allocation decisions with enormous values at stake confront humanity. These decisions are confounded because they entail the protection of the global commons for which there is no successful experience to draw on.

scholarly journals Production choices with water markets and risk aversion: the role of initial allocations and forward trading

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Bontems ◽  
Céline Nauges
Keyword(s):  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Water Markets ◽  
Initial Water ◽  
Production Risk ◽  
Net Returns ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Forward Trading ◽  
Allocation Decisions

Abstract We develop a theoretical model that describes risk-averse farmers’ decisions when facing production risk due to uncertain weather conditions and when irrigation water can be traded on a market. We focus on the role of initial water allocations granted to irrigated farms at the start of the season. The presence of water markets makes the future water price uncertain and hence the value of initial water allocations uncertain. We analyse the properties of this background risk and study how initial water allocations impact farmers’ land allocation decisions between an irrigated crop and a non-irrigated crop, both characterised by random expected net returns. We then extend the model by permitting irrigation water to be traded ex-ante at a known price (forward market). Finally, we illustrate our main theoretical findings using simulations. We calibrate distributions of the random variables based on observed data from the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia where a water market has been in place for several decades.

scholarly journals Water+shed: A 20-year survey of artwork on the Murray Darling Basin, Australia

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 150 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-159
Author(s):  
Neil Fettling
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Water Allocation ◽  
Economic Base ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Aesthetic Response ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Australian Continent ◽  
National Imaginary ◽  
Visual Artist ◽  
Multiple Media

The Murray Darling Basin is the primary watershed of the Australian continent. It is central to the national imaginary as both major food bowl and natural resource. Two hundred years of unsustainable pastoral and farming practices are threatening its ecological future and with it the nation-state’s industrial agricultural economic base. I am a visual artist who works in multiple media. For most of my career I have been living and working in this region. A major component of my intellectual and artistic expression has been expended in a critical and aesthetic response to this watershed. The artworks documented in this essay were part of a 20-year (1989–2009) survey exhibition of my mediations and responses to the crisis of water allocation in the Murray Darling Basin.

Water allocation reform to meet environmental uses while sustaining irrigation: a case study of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Bark ◽  
Mac Kirby ◽  
Jeffery D. Connor ◽  
Neville D. Crossman
Keyword(s):  
Water Allocation ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Irrigation District ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Major River ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Rapid Adjustment ◽  
Considerable Pressure

Governments are developing policy to reallocate water to environmental uses in many of the world's major river basins developed for irrigation. These policies can place considerable pressure on the irrigation sector to adjust, and may be perceived to conflict with food security and rural development goals. This paper reviews the literature examining opportunities to reduce irrigation district and third party externalities associated with rapid adjustment to water reallocation, with emphasis on recent water reform in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), Australia. We focus on opportunities to improve joint environmental and regional economic outcomes, by targeting and sequencing policy instruments operating at different scales.

scholarly journals The benefit of using an ensemble of seasonal streamflow forecasts in water allocation decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kaune ◽  
Faysal Chowdhury ◽  
Micha Werner ◽  
James Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Water Allocation ◽  
Irrigation Season ◽  
Streamflow Forecasting ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Initial Allocation ◽  
Available Water ◽  
Streamflow Forecasts ◽  
Forecasting System ◽  
Reservoir Inflow ◽  
Allocation Decisions

Abstract. The area to be cropped in irrigation districts needs to be planned according to the allocated water, which in turn is a function of the available water resource. Initially conservative estimates of future (in) flows in rivers and reservoirs may lead to unnecessary reduction of the water allocated. Though water allocations may be revised as the season progresses, inconsistency in allocation is undesirable to farmers as they may then not be able to use that water, leading to an opportunity cost in agricultural production. We assess the benefit of using reservoir inflow estimates derived from seasonal forecast datasets to improve water allocation decisions. A decision model is developed to emulate the feedback loop between simulated reservoir storage and water allocations to irrigated crops, and is evaluated using inflow forecasts generated with the Forecast Guided Stochastic Scenarios (FoGSS) model, a 12-month ensemble streamflow forecasting system. Two forcings are used to generate the forecasts: ESP (historical rainfall) and POAMA (calibrated rainfall forecasts from the POAMA climate prediction system). We evaluate the approach in the Murrumbidgee basin in Australia, comparing water allocations obtained with an expected reservoir inflow from FoGSS against the allocations obtained with the currently used conservative estimate based on climatology, as well as against allocations obtained using observed inflows (perfect information). The inconsistency in allocated water is evaluated by determining the total changes in allocated water made every 15 days from the initial allocation at the start of the water year to the end of the irrigation season, including both downward and upward revisions of allocations. Results show that the inconsistency due to upward revisions in allocated water is lower when using the forecast datasets (POAMA and ESP) compared to the conservative inflow estimates (reference) which is beneficial to the planning of cropping areas by farmers. Overconfidence can, however, lead to an increase in undesirable downward revisions. This is more evident for dry years than for wet years. Over the 28 years for which allocation decisions are evaluated, we find that the accuracy of the available water estimates using the forecast ensemble improves progressively during the water year; especially one and a half months before the start of the cropping season in November. This is significant as it provides farmers additional time to make key decision on planting.

Water allocation in Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin: Managing change under heightened uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 345-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thilak Mallawaarachchi ◽  
Christopher Auricht ◽  
Adam Loch ◽  
David Adamson ◽  
John Quiggin
Keyword(s):  
Water Allocation ◽  
Managing Change ◽  
Murray Darling Basin
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