International Water Management Institute paper on the need for and composition of a water research agenda from a water-food-livelihood nexus perspective.
Understanding the impact of climate change on water availability is of paramount importance for the food security of millions of people around the world. Many recent extremes fluctuating between water shortage and devastating floods reflect some of the climate change predictions, which are gradually becoming more certain and alarming. This paper lays out the need for a water research agenda, and what that agenda must consist of. The approach taken to determine the priorities of this future research agenda is to take a water-food-livelihood nexus perspective, to reflect the interconnected nature of water and climate change impacts.
The paper opens by introducing the context of the multiple threats to water availability ahead of us. Rising global temperatures, unpredictable changes in precipitation patterns, more intense monsoons, the continuing increase in aridity in already dry areas, increased river runoff, glacial melt, and a host of consequential impacts on livelihoods and food availability that come from these factors all point to a complex and interlinked challenge requiring significant research.
Other potential impacts discusses are rain-fed agricultural lands which are extremely vulnerable to shifting rainfall patterns, and the growing propensity of flood events which can utterly wipe-out crops large areas. Neither is irrigation farming safe; many utilise rivers and so are vulnerable to increased variability in river flows, both through a lack of water, and through flooding.
A series of questions are provided and expanded upon by the authors, which are deemed as necessary targets for future research. These include:
What are the most promising water management measures to minimise small farmers vulnerabilities, and what are the enabling conditions and implications of such measures?
What investments are needed, and where, to increase poor people’s resilience to climate shocks?
What likely impacts will occur at farm and river-basin scales, how will they affect local livelihoods?
What are the water implications of climate change strategies such as biofuels and reforestation?
The paper concludes that changes in water availability due to climate change presents a serious risk for the food security of millions of rural people worldwide, but that appropriate measures in agricultural water management can greatly reduce people’s vulnerability by mitigating risks and creating buffers against unforeseen changes. This challenge creates the need for increased pro-active research in the years to come, necessitating an appropriate water research agenda so as to ensure investment are aimed efficiently at improving the resilience of farming communities and food security.