J. Rubiano

The Andes basins: biophysical and developmental diversity in a climate of change

To understand how agriculture and poverty interact, we analysed water availability, productivity and institutions for the Andes basins. Water limits agricultural productivity in the southern basins but is plentiful in the northern basins where steep slopes or poor land and water management limit productivity. The dominance of small, steep basins results in important upstream–downstream linkages. The greatest challenge to improving the productivity of water in the Andes basins is to regulate water quality better for multiple uses and to negotiate fair and transparent compensation for upstream providers of water-based ecosystem services for the benefits that they provide to downstream users.

Water, food and livelihoods in river basins

Conflicting demands for food and water, exacerbated by increasing population, increase the risks of food insecurity, poverty and environmental damage in major river systems. Agriculture remains the predominant water user, but the linkage between water, agriculture and livelihoods is more complex than “water scarcity increases poverty”. The response of both agricultural and non-agricultural systems to increased pressure will affect livelihoods. Development will be constrained in closed basins if increased demand for irrigation deprives other users or if existing agricultural use constrains non-agricultural activities and in open basins if agriculture cannot feed an expanding or changing population or if the river system loses capacity due to degradation or over-exploitation.

Multiscale Analysis for Promoting Integrated Watershed Management

Abstract Integrated Watershed Management involves many aspects of the biophysical and socio economic world operating at many different scales. It is a complex process since it involves a wide range of stakeholders that live, and compete for limited resources, at different temporal and spatial scales. In order to gain knowledge about appropriate approaches for integrating natural resources management with rural development strategies, this study details a framework designed to implement research and development activities in the Fúquene watershed of Colombia. The framework integrates key spatial information, available at different scales for the site, to facilitate envisioning different land-use scenarios and their impacts upon water resources. Subsequently, selected alternative scenarios of the impact on the identified externalities are analyzed using optimization models. Opportunities for, and constraints to, promoting cooperation among users are identified, using economic games in which more sustainable land-use or management alternatives are suggested. Strategic alliances and collective action are implemented to test the feasibility of environmental and economic alternatives. Their implementation is supported by co-funding schemes designed with private and public stakeholders in the study area. Research needs and limitations of the methodology are discussed. The approach described here shows that integration is accomplished only when different scales of decision-making are considered and if activities at plot detail are linked with effects at the watershed scale.

Building hydroliteracy among stakeholders for effective water benefit sharing in the Andes

ABSTRACT This article integrates social and biophysical analysis to identify water-sharing opportunities in three basins across the northern Andes: the Rio Santa in Peru; the system of source watersheds for the cities of La Paz–El Alto in Bolivia; and the Coello-Combeima watershed in Colombia. The work included building knowledge of hydrology (hydroliteracy) among stakeholders to enable them to develop more technically sophisticated analyses of alternative management strategies for their respective basins. The participatory processes, including the development of alternative scenarios for water benefit sharing, provided a valuable interface for negotiating arrangements that are both biophysically and socio-economically sustainable, with tangible results in all three watersheds. Empowered with new technical skills and knowledge of their watersheds, stakeholders were able to achieve outcomes that will benefit all.

Using Similarity Analyses to Scale Out Research Findings Across Andean Watershed Basins

Abstract Strategic research in agriculture and natural resources carried out by international research centers is deemed a public good and should, sooner or later, be put into the hands of development, governmental and non-governmental organizations. However, this research is usually done at specific pilot sites; there is a greater need to know how representative those sites are in relation to the diversity of contexts in other locations. Such is the case with the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), a global initiative in water research promoted by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is developing and implementing strategic research in nine basins located in the tropics of Africa, Asia and South America. Given that resources are not available to collect data from the whole of the region, pilot sites are needed. It is hoped that research outputs obtained in the selected pilot sites can be the basis for scaling out solutions to similar situations in neighbouring or adjacent areas in same or different basins. In order to contribute to the scaling-out process, different classification methodologies were applied to determine how specific watershed basins are representative of larger areas. The Andean eco-region served as a case study but the methods can easily be applied in other regions. The spatial diversity of biophysical and social conditions across the Andes requires careful site selection. Two methods, a combination of Weight of Evidence (WofE) and Logistic Regression (LR) methods and Fast Cluster analysis, were used to determine the similarity of selected sites with those excluded. A 1-km study resolution covering most of the Andes eco-region included annual rainfall, elevation, length of growing period, land cover, roads and population density as the key variables. Results showed complementarities between the two methods in presenting a probability surface of similarity across the Andes and a clustering of similar sites inside and outside the pilot basins. The output information forms a strong basis for devising plans to scale out research findings from the pilot basins to the whole region.

Guest Editorial: Why do scales matter in water resources management?

Research and development of natural resources face enormous challenges related to poverty alleviation, food security and environmental integrity. Around the world, competition across sectors for scarce water resources is intensifying. Agriculture is the principle user of water globally, and gains in water productivity in agriculture will be necessary to meet future global demands for food and environmental services (Molden et al., 2003). Some of these gains will come from improved technologies, however better management will also be necessary to ensure that water is allocated effi ciently and equitably. It is widely recognized that to achieving this goal will require analysis and interventions at multiple scales integrating biophysical and socioeconomic factors.

Stakeholder Landscapes and GIS

Writing over a generation ago in her celebrated work on the future of Britain’s landscapes Nan Fairbrother makes the following comment: “Landscape is the battleground where land use works out its own salvation. Economic, social, transport and other problems cannot be solved in isolation but must first be combined and related in a single situation, and landscape is the melting point where all uses — each self intent and often conflicting — meet and mould each other and reach a realistic balance. It is why total environment is most usefully approached as landscape, which translates this wide range of abstracts (land use, population densities, settlement patterns, traffic flow, local site conditions and so on) into physical reality (it is also, for humans beings who are naturally visual, a visual statement of a complicated situation)” (Fairbrother 1970: 291).