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An Integrated Analysis of Water Scarcity, Food Security and Environmental Sustainability for Policy Development
 
Principal Investigators
ETH: A.Zehnder, H.Yang
UT: H.Furumai, H.Kawashima
Beijing Normal University: C.Liu
University of Newcastle (Aus): X.Zhang

Water, environment, and food security are interrelated at the local, regional and global level. The interdependency among these components is particularly important for water uses in irrigated agriculture. With increasing water demands, the competition among agriculture, environment, industry and domestic uses has been escalating in many areas of the world. On the supply side, the availability of useable water resources has been decreasing due to excessive exploitation of ground water and pollution. Massive withdrawal and diversion of surface water have led to environmental and economical degradation. Unsustainable pumping rates of groundwater has caused rapid decline in groundwater tables in much of the arid and semi-arid areas and the saltwater intrusion in coastal regions. Poor irrigation practices, accompanied by inadequate drainage, have often damaged soils through over-saturation and salt build-up. Inappropriate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has polluted water sources through return flows, further reducing the freshwater availability. The development of the water scarcity and the consequent environmental problems can threaten entire agricultural production systems, as well as human health and natural life systems. Solutions are urgently needed to accommodate these competing demands while improving both food security and environmental sustainability.

Goal/Objective
The goal of this research is to develop a framework for integrated analysis of water scarcity, food security, and environmental sustainability. Specifically, the project aims to address the following:

  • Identify the role and significance of integrated water, food and environmental policies in the process of agricultural and environmental protection, as well as economic growth
  • Develop a framework for integrated analysis for policy formulation
  • Explore suitable channels to incorporate an education program into the research project

Findings/Results
The Haihe River Basin in the North China Plain has been chosen as a test site for this study, where the team has also studied the outcomes and feedback from stakeholders. A paper on irrigation management in Northern China based on the field survey funded by the AGS seed money has been published. Meanwhile, over 30 postgraduate students from Beijing Normal University were engaged in the field survey as enumerators. Such an engagement is aimed to provide the students with an opportunity to conduct empirical field work relating to environmental and resources management. The framework from this seed project has been used as the basis for a full project on the modeling of the Haihe River Basin Water Management funded by EAWAG.