Balancing water productivty and environmental performance

This book discussed changing seasonality of flows to improve water productivity and river evironmental performance. It also presents a methodology to measure and quantify the economic and environmental performance and impacts of various supply and demand options under different climatic conditions. Three options were investigated and analysed after identifed by stakeholders. These options are irrigation demand management by changing crop mix, conjunctive water use management and surface water substitution by ground water. Water banking, together with conjunctive water use management. An integrated modelling framework (NSM) were devloped to assess and evaluate the economic outcomes and environmental performance at catchment scale using several indicators representing land and water resource use, economic indicators, environmental indicator and efficiency indicators. The results show clear tradeoffs between agricultural income, environmental performance and water use. The conclusion, reserach has shown that options do exist which have the potential to improve seasonal flows, restore environmental flow and enhance water security.