Suchergebnisse

International audience ; Millions of small reservoirs built across semi-arid areas present a potential to support agricultural livelihoods of rural smallholders. The scale and geographical dispersion of these multiple lakes restrict the understanding of these coupled human-water systems and the identification of adequate strategies to support riparian farmers. This research developed a multi-scalar interdisciplinary approach to characterise the hydrological and wider drivers of agricultural water use around multiple small reservoirs in semi-arid central Tunisia. The combination of field surveys, quantitative questionnaires and qualitative, semi-structured interviews confirmed minimal withdrawals, but highlighted the diversification of practices, the rise in fruit farming and peripheral benefits generated here by the development of 56 lakes. 48% of lakes provide residual benefits for the occasional watering of on average 300 fruit trees and support to downstream wells exploited for irrigation. A further 13 lakes (23%) provide high levels of benefits (900 fruit trees each), albeit with low equity, supporting essentially established farmers. The analysis of surface water assessments every 8 days from Landsat 5-8 imagery over 1999-2014, provides unprecedented insights into the significant water scarcity and unreliability that impedes agricultural intensification on 86% of small lakes. Limited storage capacities and prolonged droughts highlight the need for small reservoirs in this climatic context to retain a supplementary irrigation objective and not strive to support widespread intensification of irrigated practices. Many farmers lack the capabilities to increase their withdrawals and suffer physical and economic water access difficulties, mismanagement, compounded through limited and short-term government assistance. Individual successes resulted from farmers' economic resilience and means to secure alternate water supplies during dry spells.

International audience ; Millions of small reservoirs built across semi-arid areas present a potential to support agricultural livelihoods of rural smallholders. The scale and geographical dispersion of these multiple lakes restrict the understanding of these coupled human-water systems and the identification of adequate strategies to support riparian farmers. This research developed a multi-scalar interdisciplinary approach to characterise the hydrological and wider drivers of agricultural water use around multiple small reservoirs in semi-arid central Tunisia. The combination of field surveys, quantitative questionnaires and qualitative, semi-structured interviews confirmed minimal withdrawals, but highlighted the diversification of practices, the rise in fruit farming and peripheral benefits generated here by the development of 56 lakes. 48% of lakes provide residual benefits for the occasional watering of on average 300 fruit trees and support to downstream wells exploited for irrigation. A further 13 lakes (23%) provide high levels of benefits (900 fruit trees each), albeit with low equity, supporting essentially established farmers. The analysis of surface water assessments every 8 days from Landsat 5-8 imagery over 1999-2014, provides unprecedented insights into the significant water scarcity and unreliability that impedes agricultural intensification on 86% of small lakes. Limited storage capacities and prolonged droughts highlight the need for small reservoirs in this climatic context to retain a supplementary irrigation objective and not strive to support widespread intensification of irrigated practices. Many farmers lack the capabilities to increase their withdrawals and suffer physical and economic water access difficulties, mismanagement, compounded through limited and short-term government assistance. Individual successes resulted from farmers' economic resilience and means to secure alternate water supplies during dry spells.

International audience ; Millions of small reservoirs built across semi-arid areas present a potential to support agricultural livelihoods of rural smallholders. The scale and geographical dispersion of these multiple lakes restrict the understanding of these coupled human-water systems and the identification of adequate strategies to support riparian farmers. This research developed a multi-scalar interdisciplinary approach to characterise the hydrological and wider drivers of agricultural water use around multiple small reservoirs in semi-arid central Tunisia. The combination of field surveys, quantitative questionnaires and qualitative, semi-structured interviews confirmed minimal withdrawals, but highlighted the diversification of practices, the rise in fruit farming and peripheral benefits generated here by the development of 56 lakes. 48% of lakes provide residual benefits for the occasional watering of on average 300 fruit trees and support to downstream wells exploited for irrigation. A further 13 lakes (23%) provide high levels of benefits (900 fruit trees each), albeit with low equity, supporting essentially established farmers. The analysis of surface water assessments every 8 days from Landsat 5-8 imagery over 1999-2014, provides unprecedented insights into the significant water scarcity and unreliability that impedes agricultural intensification on 86% of small lakes. Limited storage capacities and prolonged droughts highlight the need for small reservoirs in this climatic context to retain a supplementary irrigation objective and not strive to support widespread intensification of irrigated practices. Many farmers lack the capabilities to increase their withdrawals and suffer physical and economic water access difficulties, mismanagement, compounded through limited and short-term government assistance. Individual successes resulted from farmers' economic resilience and means to secure alternate water supplies during dry spells.

Global changes have to be taken into account to reach the objective of good water status, laid down by the European WaterFramework Directive (2000/60/CE). The 2016-2021 master plan for water development and management of theRhone-Mediterranean basin (SDAGE Rhône-Méditerranée) set the climate change adaptation as a new basic orientation of the water policy. For the local managers of water resources, this policy is difficult to implement because of a deficit of knowledge and methods. The Crau aquifer (550 km2) supplies water for 300,000 inhabitants, for major economic sectors and for agriculture. 70% of the aquifer recharge depend on irrigated grasslands (14,000 ha) with water derived from the Durance River. Located in coastal area, the south part of aquifer is sensitive to saltwater intrusions, which are mainly controlled by recharge conditions. But at medium term these recharge conditions could be affected by global changes, e.g. the decrease of water availability from the Durance River and the decrease of irrigated grassland surfaces due to urban sprawl.The local public manager of the Crau aquifer (SYMCRAU) has defined with the stakeholders an action plan ("contrat de nappe de la Crau") to anticipate global changes and propose adaptation solutions. Collaborations with research institutes have been developed to study global changes processes and better forecast their local impacts. A numerical model of surface drainages and groundwater flows allows quantifying the sensitivity of the resource to global changes. Special protection areas were identified to protect future of drinking water supply. Additional studies are scheduled to assess the impact of recharge decrease on saltwater intrusions and on wetland ecosystems. A project is planned to define the conditions for a sustainable adaption of irrigation practices to global changes. This program provides knowledge and methods to adjust policy to local challenges and to support stakeholders in its implementation.

Global changes have to be taken into account to reach the objective of good water status, laid down by the European WaterFramework Directive (2000/60/CE). The 2016-2021 master plan for water development and management of theRhone-Mediterranean basin (SDAGE Rhône-Méditerranée) set the climate change adaptation as a new basic orientation of the water policy. For the local managers of water resources, this policy is difficult to implement because of a deficit of knowledge and methods. The Crau aquifer (550 km2) supplies water for 300,000 inhabitants, for major economic sectors and for agriculture. 70% of the aquifer recharge depend on irrigated grasslands (14,000 ha) with water derived from the Durance River. Located in coastal area, the south part of aquifer is sensitive to saltwater intrusions, which are mainly controlled by recharge conditions. But at medium term these recharge conditions could be affected by global changes, e.g. the decrease of water availability from the Durance River and the decrease of irrigated grassland surfaces due to urban sprawl.The local public manager of the Crau aquifer (SYMCRAU) has defined with the stakeholders an action plan ("contrat de nappe de la Crau") to anticipate global changes and propose adaptation solutions. Collaborations with research institutes have been developed to study global changes processes and better forecast their local impacts. A numerical model of surface drainages and groundwater flows allows quantifying the sensitivity of the resource to global changes. Special protection areas were identified to protect future of drinking water supply. Additional studies are scheduled to assess the impact of recharge decrease on saltwater intrusions and on wetland ecosystems. A project is planned to define the conditions for a sustainable adaption of irrigation practices to global changes. This program provides knowledge and methods to adjust policy to local challenges and to support stakeholders in its implementation.

Global changes have to be taken into account to reach the objective of good water status, laid down by the European WaterFramework Directive (2000/60/CE). The 2016-2021 master plan for water development and management of theRhone-Mediterranean basin (SDAGE Rhône-Méditerranée) set the climate change adaptation as a new basic orientation of the water policy. For the local managers of water resources, this policy is difficult to implement because of a deficit of knowledge and methods. The Crau aquifer (550 km2) supplies water for 300,000 inhabitants, for major economic sectors and for agriculture. 70% of the aquifer recharge depend on irrigated grasslands (14,000 ha) with water derived from the Durance River. Located in coastal area, the south part of aquifer is sensitive to saltwater intrusions, which are mainly controlled by recharge conditions. But at medium term these recharge conditions could be affected by global changes, e.g. the decrease of water availability from the Durance River and the decrease of irrigated grassland surfaces due to urban sprawl.The local public manager of the Crau aquifer (SYMCRAU) has defined with the stakeholders an action plan ("contrat de nappe de la Crau") to anticipate global changes and propose adaptation solutions. Collaborations with research institutes have been developed to study global changes processes and better forecast their local impacts. A numerical model of surface drainages and groundwater flows allows quantifying the sensitivity of the resource to global changes. Special protection areas were identified to protect future of drinking water supply. Additional studies are scheduled to assess the impact of recharge decrease on saltwater intrusions and on wetland ecosystems. A project is planned to define the conditions for a sustainable adaption of irrigation practices to global changes. This program provides knowledge and methods to adjust policy to local challenges and to support stakeholders in its implementation.

Global changes have to be taken into account to reach the objective of good water status, laid down by the European WaterFramework Directive (2000/60/CE). The 2016-2021 master plan for water development and management of theRhone-Mediterranean basin (SDAGE Rhône-Méditerranée) set the climate change adaptation as a new basic orientation of the water policy. For the local managers of water resources, this policy is difficult to implement because of a deficit of knowledge and methods. The Crau aquifer (550 km2) supplies water for 300,000 inhabitants, for major economic sectors and for agriculture. 70% of the aquifer recharge depend on irrigated grasslands (14,000 ha) with water derived from the Durance River. Located in coastal area, the south part of aquifer is sensitive to saltwater intrusions, which are mainly controlled by recharge conditions. But at medium term these recharge conditions could be affected by global changes, e.g. the decrease of water availability from the Durance River and the decrease of irrigated grassland surfaces due to urban sprawl.The local public manager of the Crau aquifer (SYMCRAU) has defined with the stakeholders an action plan ("contrat de nappe de la Crau") to anticipate global changes and propose adaptation solutions. Collaborations with research institutes have been developed to study global changes processes and better forecast their local impacts. A numerical model of surface drainages and groundwater flows allows quantifying the sensitivity of the resource to global changes. Special protection areas were identified to protect future of drinking water supply. Additional studies are scheduled to assess the impact of recharge decrease on saltwater intrusions and on wetland ecosystems. A project is planned to define the conditions for a sustainable adaption of irrigation practices to global changes. This program provides knowledge and methods to adjust policy to local challenges and to support stakeholders in its implementation.

Global changes have to be taken into account to reach the objective of good water status, laid down by the European WaterFramework Directive (2000/60/CE). The 2016-2021 master plan for water development and management of theRhone-Mediterranean basin (SDAGE Rhône-Méditerranée) set the climate change adaptation as a new basic orientation of the water policy. For the local managers of water resources, this policy is difficult to implement because of a deficit of knowledge and methods. The Crau aquifer (550 km2) supplies water for 300,000 inhabitants, for major economic sectors and for agriculture. 70% of the aquifer recharge depend on irrigated grasslands (14,000 ha) with water derived from the Durance River. Located in coastal area, the south part of aquifer is sensitive to saltwater intrusions, which are mainly controlled by recharge conditions. But at medium term these recharge conditions could be affected by global changes, e.g. the decrease of water availability from the Durance River and the decrease of irrigated grassland surfaces due to urban sprawl.The local public manager of the Crau aquifer (SYMCRAU) has defined with the stakeholders an action plan ("contrat de nappe de la Crau") to anticipate global changes and propose adaptation solutions. Collaborations with research institutes have been developed to study global changes processes and better forecast their local impacts. A numerical model of surface drainages and groundwater flows allows quantifying the sensitivity of the resource to global changes. Special protection areas were identified to protect future of drinking water supply. Additional studies are scheduled to assess the impact of recharge decrease on saltwater intrusions and on wetland ecosystems. A project is planned to define the conditions for a sustainable adaption of irrigation practices to global changes. This program provides knowledge and methods to adjust policy to local challenges and to support stakeholders in its implementation.

Global changes have to be taken into account to reach the objective of good water status, laid down by the European Water Framework Directive (2000/60/CE). The 2016-2021 master plan for water development and management of the Rhone-Mediterranean basin (SDAGE Rhône-Méditerranée) set the climate change adaptation as a new basic orientation of the water policy. For the local managers of water resources, this policy is difficult to implement because of a deficit of knowledge and methods. The Crau aquifer (550 km2) supplies water for 300,000 inhabitants, for major economic sectors and for agriculture. 70% of the aquifer recharge depend on irrigated grasslands (14,000 ha) with water derived from the Durance River. Located in coastal area, the south part of aquifer is sensitive to saltwater intrusions, which are mainly controlled by recharge conditions. But at medium term these recharge conditions could be affected by global changes, e.g. the decrease of water availability from the Durance River and the decrease of irrigated grassland surfaces due to urban sprawl. The local public manager of the Crau aquifer (SYMCRAU) has defined with the stakeholders an action plan ("contrat de nappe de la Crau") to anticipate global changes and propose adaptation solutions. Collaborations with research institutes have been developed to study global changes processes and better forecast their local impacts. A numerical model of surface drainages and groundwater flows allows quantifying the sensitivity of the resource to global changes. Special protection areas were identified to protect future of drinking water supply. Additional studies are scheduled to assess the impact of recharge decrease on saltwater intrusions and on wetland ecosystems. A project is planned to define the conditions for a sustainable adaption of irrigation practices to global changes. This program provides knowledge and methods to adjust policy to local challenges and to support stakeholders in its implementation.