Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
incentives for all parties, and manage risk, to implement sustainable innovative
programs at scale (Nile). Moreover, enabling environments are a prerequisite to
widespread adoption of technologies (Limpopo).
Several basins used spatial analysis and modeling to guide scaling-out
strategies. The Ganges team found that spatial data management tools helped
in planning, policy analysis, technology targeting and consensus building. They
were able to increase effectiveness of planning, technology targeting, open
dialogues and consensus building among multiple stakeholders. They did this
by providing access to modeling and spatial analysis at different scales to allow
“scenario-based planning and target domain identification.”
The Volta team concluded that replicating successful agricultural water
management interventions in new locations requires consideration of eco-
nomic, biophysical, institutional and cultural data. The Targeting Agricultural
Water Management Interventions (TAGMI) tool is one way to consider these
factors when targeting agricultural water management interventions.
Innovations can have unexpected consequences when used at scale
Market-driven intensification of farm systems and other farm-level innovations
may benefit individual farmers in the near term but may not be equitable or
sustainable. Innovations may have broader-scale consequences for system
resilience, for other water users or for the environment. Research has a role
to study and quantify the broader consequences of change and introduce
relevant information into engagement strategies (decision support, negotiation
support) with decision-makers.
The Nile team noted that promoting single interventions at a mass scale can
lead to less than optimal outcomes, and possibly to implementing inappropriate
technologies. It is critical, therefore, to distinguish private on-site costs and
benefits from downstream or off-site costs and benefits. They suggested that
integrated planning and implementation at watershed and basin scales will
produce synergies. These can result in important positive impacts on both
people's livelihoods and natural resource conservation.
Sustainability of agroecosystems and their related sociological components
need to consider the trade-offs between intensifying agriculture and the health
of aquatic ecosystems (Volta). Downstream or off-site benefits and costs as well
as upstream or on-farm benefits and costs are important considerations. Private
investors may need appropriate incentives where the benefits of their invest-
ments accrue only as broad public goods. Examples are where the beneficiaries
are other stakeholders such as those downstream, or the benefits only accrue
after considerable time delay (Nile).
Some basin teams concluded that win-win strategies are possible: benefit-
sharing mechanisms (BSMs) help create a virtuous circle between the welfare
of people and the ecosystems they live in (Andes). Water, food and the
environment can be joined in meaningful ways but they need to be addressed
together (Limpopo).
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