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An Integrated Analysis of Water
Scarcity, Food Security and Environmental Sustainability for Policy
Development |
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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.
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