From Mesopotamia To The Third Millennium The Historical Trajectory Of Water Development And Use In The Karkheh River Basin Iran

The Karkheh River Basin is the third largest basin in Iran after Karoon and Dez, and occupies a strategic position on the western boundary of the country. The basin has seen remarkable ancient feats of engineering, and has a long history of wheat and barley production, complemented by horticulture. With the growth of the modern nation-state of Iran, water development has progressed steadily in tandem with rising populations and urbanization. The report aims to understand the historical setting and present situation of water development and allocation, in relation to rural development and agrarian policy. It provides the contextual backdrop for further research on the management of water to improve livelihoods in the basin through integrated and sustainable management of land and water resources. It provides further information on the changes in surface flows out of the component subbasins and looks at the development, use and consequences of groundwater abstraction.

Conventional wisdom says that the world is heading for a major water crisis. By 2050, global population will increase from 7 billion to a staggering 9.5 billion and the demands this will place on food and water systems will inevitably push river basins over the edge. The findings from this book present a different picture. While it is convenient to visualize an inevitable global water and food crisis in which increasing demands result in increasing poverty, food insecurity and conflict, the reality is far more nuanced and revolves around the politics of equitable and sustainable development of resources. The first part of this book provides detailed insight into conditions of water flows within nine river basins. In the second part, authors summarize and re-analyze the outcome of the nine basins, providing a coherent global picture of water, water productivity and development. They assess the impacts of variations of these attributes on development and approaches for poverty alleviation, and explore the institutional factors that support or obstruct change. How people will manage river systems while protecting vital ecosystem functions will make the difference between catastrophe and survival. As Prof Asit Biswas points out, "... the world is facing a water crisis not because of physical scarcity of water but because of poor management practices in nearly all countries of the world." The book is based on the four years (2006-2010) of extensive research into the state of ten of the world’s major river basins carried out under the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food’s Basin Focal Project. This book was published as a special issue of Water International.

This study provides a hydrology based assessment of (surface) water resources and its continuum of variability and change at different spatio-temporal scales in the semi‐arid Karkheh Basin, Iran, where water is scarce, competition among users is high and massive water resources development is under way. The study reveals that the ongoing allocation planning is not sustainable and essentially requires reformulation, with consideration of spatio‐temporal variability and observed trends in the streamflows regarding flood intensification and decline in low flows. The development of innovative methods for quantification of the hydrological fluxes (i.e., regionalization of model parameters based on similarity of the flow duration curve and the use of areal precipitation input in the hydrological modeling) helped better understanding and modeling the basin hydrology. The investigation of scenarios for upgrading rain-fed areas to irrigated agriculture, using SWAT, recommends the promotion of in-situ soil and water conservation techniques. Conversion of rain-fed areas to irrigation causes significant reduction in the downstream flows, and requires additional considerations such as less development in the upper catchments, practicing supplementary irrigation and developing water storage. The knowledge generated is instructive for hydrological assessment and its use in water resources planning and management in the river basin context.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Integrated Soil and Water Management: Selected Papers from 2016 International SWAT Conference" that was published in Water

As water availability, management and conservation become global challenges, there is now wide consensus that historical knowledge can provide crucial information to address present crises, offering unique opportunities to appreciate the solutions and mechanisms societies have developed over time to deal with water in all its forms, from rainfall to groundwater. This unique collection explores how ancient water systems relate to present ideas of resilience and sustainability and can inform future strategy. Through an investigation of historic water management systems, along with the responses to, and impact of, various water-driven catastrophes, contributors to this volume present tenable solutions for the long-term use of water resources in different parts of the world. The discussion is not limited to issues of the past, seeking instead to address the resonance and legacy of water histories in the present and future. Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present speaks to an archaeological and non-archaeological scholarly audience and will be a useful primary reference text for researchers and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including archaeology, anthropology, history, ecology, geography, geology, architecture and development studies.

The Niger River Basin covers 7.5% of the African continent and is shared between nine riparian countries. The human population of the basin is growing at an average annual rate of about 3%, which makes the Niger River Basin one of the areas with the highest fertility rates in the world. The desert margin is expanding; climate change is negatively impacting rainfall; and urbanization, industrialization, and the human and livestock population are threatening the quantity and quality of available water resources. The basin population already suffers from chronic poverty. Based on a literature review, this paper suggests some key water-related and other interventions that are capable of easing the basin’s development challenges.

This book reports the first systematic monitoring and modelling study on water availability, water quality and seawater intrusion of the Shatt al-Arab River (SAR) on the border of Iraq and Iran, where causes and concentration levels of salinity have not yet been fully understood, let alone addressed, leading to conflicting perceptions of its origin (external or internal), the natural conditions and the practices that can explain the current critical conditions. Current scientific knowledge on the SAR salinity problem is deficient, partially due to the complex and dynamic interaction between marine and terrestrial salinity sources, including return flows by water users of the different water sectors in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers upstream of the SAR. The development of a new series of monitoring stations and various modelling approaches helped to better understand the interactions between these different sources. The comprehensive and detailed dataset formed the basis for a validated analytical model that can predict the extent of seawater relative to other salinity sources in an estuary, and for a hydrodynamic model that can predict salinity changes. The adaptability of the models to changing conditions makes them directly applicable by water managers. The procedure can be applied to other comparable systems.

For agriculture there is a continuum of water storage options, ranging from groundwater aquifers, soil water, natural wetlands and small ponds and tanks to large reservoirs. In any situation each of these has its own niche in terms of technical feasibility, socioeconomic sustainability and impact on public health and the environment. Planning storage requires insight into impending needs and also a good understanding of what already exists and what was, and was not, successful, in the past. This report provides an inventory of existing and prospective water storage in the Ghanaian Volta and the Ethiopian Blue Nile basins. It provides as much quantitative data as possible, but highlights both the dearth of readily available information and the lack of integrated planning of storage in both basins. Recommendations are made for improved planning in the future.