Murray-Darling basin

Murray-Darling challenges

• Covers 14 percent of Australia’s area; contains > 40% of farms, produces $10 billion worth of crops and livestock annually.

• Nearly 2 million people live in basin; another 1.25 million depend on basin for public supply.

• 1985 – Murray-Darling Basin Agreement (NSW, Victoria, S. Australia) provides integrated management of water, related land resources. Goals:

– Reduce salinity levels caused by irrigation. – Employ comprehensive watershed restoration approach to manage drought,

control runoff, regulate in-stream flow, avert flooding.– Regulate uses, cap diversions, allocate water to control/dilute pollution.

Collaboration and adaptation

• Most significant innovation is MDBA’s sustainable management program:– Environmental resource assessment process evaluates institutional factors

adversely affecting water problems. – Employs frequently updated environmental monitoring. – Community advisory effort mandates local, state, federal officials to work

with stakeholders in developing “integrated” plans.

• Successes:– In-stream flow has improved.– Endangered fish species recovering. – Elevated public attention to impacts of diversion and salinity.

• Floodplain management remains contentious because some of the choicest agricultural lands in the basin are subject to floods.

Practical adaptation – thinking globally, acting locally

– International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (1990): Comprised of 1070 local governments worldwide.

– Water program focuses on promoting local practices for managing water resources in a sustainable manner. Goals?

• Develop bottom-up practical policies: demonstrate strategies locally.• Disseminate experiences to other cities and sub-national regions. • Provide means of co-producing climate knowledge by bringing scientists,

policymakers, NGOs together.

• ICLEI’s East Asian sustainability training center established in Kaohsiung – 4/2012.

KNOWLEDGE CO-PRODUCTION

• USA – RISAs• Brazil – Ceara state• Africa – Nile basin

• NOAA supports university-based teams across U.S. to analyze how climate change impacts key sectors within a region.

• Teams comprised of federal, state, local government agencies within a region – as well as NGOs.

• Research questions are posed by users who ask: how can climate information help with resource management and planning?

• Topics of investigation include: agriculture, wild-land fire, drought planning, fisheries, public health, energy use, coastal restoration.

USA – Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments

Do they co-produce knowledge?

• RISAs do promote interaction between scientists and policy-makers/NGOs.• Have succeeded in packaging & communicating information in useable form.• Have been less effective in integrating social science knowledge of climate impacts and responses. • Evaluations suggest need for sustained funding, leadership, more frequent discussion to promote research priorities.

Brazil – water reform in Ceara state

• 1990s – Interdisciplinary group within state water agency was established to institute legal reforms in response to drought, competing water claims – and foster

collaboration between scientists, local farmers.

• Developed participatory management councils in river basins (Lower Jaguaribe-Banabmuiú River), negotiated water allocation agreements among users.

Does it co-produce knowledge?

– In departure from traditional top-down decision-making, técnicos (staff scientists) work with farmers to:

• Combine local knowledge of drought/flooding with expert weather predictions.• Help farmers, local governments better manage reservoirs, flood, drought.

• Results?

– More participatory approach to river basin management.– Farmers are more willing to share risks of drought, avoid depleting local supplies.– State agency permits locals to monitor and manage water; local users more trusting of state-

level information.

Nile River basin – sharing science for policy

Lake Nasser/Aswan high dam – looking downstream

Impediments to knowledge co-production

• Since 1998 – 10 countries (Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Uganda, Congo) negotiating Nile Basin Initiative.

• Unable to establish a compact to equitably re-allocate basin to benefit upstream countries (with fastest-growing populations). Why?

– Up- and downstream states have competing interests, limited capacity for basin wide adaptive responses.

– Egypt and Sudan (countries with largest populations) refuse to relinquish power to upstream countries over withdrawals.

– Ethiopia is fiercely opposed to continuing this practice and is building hydroelectric projects without Egypt’s permission, creating additional friction.

• MEANWHILE: Lake Victoria, a major source of the Nile, is falling 2.5 meters every three years – likely due to climate change.

Is knowledge co-production occurring?

Support is growing for management of problems particular to sub-basins.

Strong support for improvements to irrigation, groundwater management, rural electrification.

Local communities, NGOs, Initiative scientists working together to design solutions, identify funding sources, share information.

Conclusions

• Climate change will force adapting to alternations in freshwater – basins, cities well-suited for adaptation with international efforts to share experiences (e.g., ICLEI & selected cities).

• Adaptation requires better communication between scientists and end-users – thus, reform of water institutions to facilitate dialogue among them (e.g., Brazil, Nigeria, Australia).

• Impediments to adaptation include approaches which predicate that scientists generate data without consulting users or incorporating local knowledge (e.g., Nigeria, US-RISAs).

• Adaptive management –emphasizing social learning, incremental and reversible remedies (if they fail) – may overcome these obstacles (e.g., Australia, Bangladesh, Nile Basin).

• Sound knowledge/effective collaboration go together – experts must reach-out to local water users and embrace cultural, social, ethical concerns: we can all learn from one another’s experiences.