Water markets are increasingly being relied upon as an instrument to reallocate water between competing users under conditions of water scarcity, and within an environment of fully committed water ...resources. Without such a reallocation new irrigation developments cannot take place and economic developments will be forgone to the detriment of rural communities. There is therefore a need for continued development of a water market mechanism to ensure that this reallocation process can take place as efficiently as possible, and to alleviate the socio-economic impact of water scarcity. Since markets are still emerging around the world it is important to learn from operating markets. This paper discusses the operational mechanism of a water exchange in Victoria, Australia, and analyses the outcome of the first five years of operation.
Successful irrigated agriculture is underpinned by answering two critical questions: when and how much to irrigate. This article quantifies the role of the Chameleon and the Wetting Front Detector, ...monitoring tools facilitating decision-making and learning about soil-water-nutrient dynamics. Farmers retained nutrients in the root zone by reducing irrigation frequency, number of siphons, and event duration. Water productivity increased by more than 100% for farmers both with and without monitoring tools. Transitioning smallholder irrigation systems into profitable and sustainable schemes requires investment in technology, farmers and institutions. Importantly, technologies need embedding in a learning environment that fosters critical feedback mechanisms, such as market constraints.
Climate change will bring about significant changes to the capacity of, and the demand on, water resources. The resulting changes include increasing climate variability that is expected to affect ...hydrologic conditions. The effects of climate variability on various meteorological variables have been extensively observed in many regions around the world. Atmospheric circulation, topography, land use and other regional features modify global changes to produce unique patterns of change at the regional scale. As the future changes to these water resources cannot be measured in the present, hydrological models are critical in the planning required to adapt our water resource management strategies to future climate conditions. Such models include catchment runoff models, reservoir management models, flood prediction models, groundwater recharge and flow models, and crop water balance models. In water-scarce regions such as Australia, urban water systems are particularly vulnerable to rapid population growth and climate change. In the presence of climate change induced uncertainty, urban water systems need to be more resilient and multi-sourced. Decreasing volumetric rainfall trends have an effect on reservoir yield and operation practices. Severe intensity rainfall events can cause failure of drainage system capacity and subsequent urban flood inundation problems. Policy makers, end users and leading researchers need to work together to develop a consistent approach to interpreting the effects of climate variability and change on water resources. This Special Edition includes papers by international experts who have investigated climate change impacts on a variety of systems including irrigation and water markets, land use changes and vegetation growth, lake water levels and quality and sea level rises. These investigations have been conducted in many regions of the world including the USA, China, East Africa, Australia, Taiwan and the Sultanate of Oman.
This article explores the value of Ostrom's socio-ecological systems framework and Meadows's leverage point hierarchy, as structured diagnostics, to define systemic problems and avoid approaches ...based on linear thinking. These frameworks were applied as an ex post analysis of an irrigation scheme in Zimbabwe, drawing on the scheme's baseline condition and the intervention outcomes. Strong leverage points, particularly those driving feedback mechanisms and institutional design, interacted with other intervention points, initiating systemic change. This analysis suggests that dysfunctional schemes can be transitioned towards complex adaptive systems by using agricultural innovation platforms to identify systemic challenges and intervention points.
Many attempts to implement resource management initiatives in Canadian and international communities have been resisted by stakeholders despite inclusion of their representatives in the ...decision-making process. Managers' failure to understand stakeholders' perspectives when proposing initiatives is a potential cause of this resistance. Our study uses marketing thought to enhance stakeholder theory by bringing in an audience-centric perspective. We attempt to understand how stakeholders perceive their interests in an organization and consequently decide how to influence that organization. By doing so, we investigate whether a disconnect exists between the perceptions of managers and those of stakeholders. Natural resource managers can utilize this knowledge to garner stakeholder support for the organization and its activities. We support this claim with findings from a water transfer plebiscite held in the Canadian province of Alberta. Sixteen personal interviews employing narrative inquiry were conducted to document voters' (i.e., irrigators') interpretations.
•We explore how stakeholders respond to marketing of resource management initiatives.•We expand stakeholder theory by augmenting the stakeholder perspective.•Findings are based on a water transfer plebiscite held in Alberta, Canada.•One key stakeholder group was composed of four subgroups with differing interests.•Stakeholder perspective enhances management of stakeholder–management relationships.
Using thirteen years of market data from the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District in Victoria, Australia, cash-flow analyses are used to assess returns that investors could have achieved through an ...investment in water entitlements under different cash-flow management scenarios. Cycle factor analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which entitlement prices follow allocation prices. Returns from investments in water entitlements seem to be higher but more risky than investments in the share market. The movement in prices of water entitlements and allocations are reasonably synchronized, while price fluctuations of allocation prices are about twice that of water entitlements
Future water policy strategies to address low environmental flows in the River Murray in Australia may include the continued development of programmes for irrigators to donate water. We identify and ...control for the interdependence between irrigators' recognition of the need for increased flows and their stated intention to donate seasonal allocations over time. The increased uncertainty of seasonal water allocations played one of the largest roles in negatively influencing both recognition and intention. An increase in the opportunity cost of water donation over time was negatively associated with intention. The identification of significant willingness to donate allocations supports the movement towards a more adaptive water policy approach.
Crop diversification is one way of improving the profitability of small-scale irrigation schemes. The 25 de Setembro scheme is an ideal site to analyze diversification, as it is influenced by the ...markets in Maputo and South Africa. This study uses information gathered from observations, discussions with irrigators and an irrigator survey. Results identified seven irrigator types with different crop diversification strategies predominantly influenced by resource constraints. Most irrigators produce traditional crops, although there are opportunities for growing crops that are more profitable. Improved extension services, to identify cropping strategies that better align with market demand, would improve profitability.
This paper examines the changing profile of water traders (both allocation and entitlement traders) in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District in Australia, and examines the efficiency of the water ...allocation and entitlement markets from 1998–99 to 2003–06. The results suggest that the profile of traders in the early and mature stages of the water allocation market differ greatly. In addition, the profile of allocation traders is significantly dissimilar from that of water entitlement traders at all stages of water market development. The decision to buy or sell water allocations was more likely to be associated with a farmer's socioeconomic characteristics and the type of farm, while the decision to buy or sell water entitlements was more likely to be associated with the extent of existing farm infrastructure and farm productivity. Finally, there was strong evidence to suggest that trading in the water allocation market has become more efficient over time, though there is no evidence to suggest the same for the water entitlement market.
This paper analyses the case of Zimbabwe since independence to examine the extent to which the redistribution of land and water in developing countries results in economic growth and a reduction in ...poverty. In order to maximize water's contribution to poverty reduction and economic growth it is necessary to (1) distinguish between communal and commercial farmers; (2) ensure that institutions are in place to support the new communal farmers and enable them to make decisions about how best to use their new wealth; and (3) design irrigation systems with low operational costs and easy maintenance.
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