Smart Infrastructure to Enhance Food Security

and Climate Resilience

What infrastructures do you see?

What infrastructures do you see?

SeawallFlood & Drought

Control

Water Reservoir &

Purification SystemLiving Shoreline /

Coastal Protection

“Living Landscapes and Shorelines”

- flood/drought control

- water storage

- water purification

- coastal protection

- multiple benefits, food security

- biodiversity

- productive fisheries

Use Natural Infrastructure/Assets as Building Blocks

Key Points

• Scale Matters! Plan at basin and landscape scale

• Integrate natural and human-built infrastructure

• Increase water efficiency!– Agriculture now uses 80-90% of water!

– Increase efficiency of existing systems first

– Reoperationalize dams and irrigation systems

– Expand use of “green water”/rain-fed agriculture

• Enhance resilience and food security by maintaining

environmental flows, goods and service– Restore and enhance natural productivity

– Integrate water and fisheries into food security programs

Case Study: Impacts of Dams in Nigeria

on Basin-wide Food Production

Irrigation dams decreased total food production in basin by half

Shifted benefits from downstream to upstream users

Re-optimize dam operations: water volume, timing, pulses

Nigeria Case Study: How to restore basin productivity?

• Reoptimize dam management for multiple purposes and restore

downstream flows and natural productivity

• Utilizing floodplain storage in conjunction with reservoirs to

reduce flood risks and restore aquatic habitats

• During rainy season, “capture” part of flow to recharge aquifer

for irrigation during dry season

• Allow rivers to function as dynamic biohydrologic systems rather

than as water delivery channels

• Increase water efficiency of irrigation systems

• Promote integrated water resources management in basin and

establish institutional framework

Challenge: Water for Food Security

Up to 90% is now used for agriculture! Where will more water come from?

Improve efficiency, watershed management, landscape planning

Challenge: Smart Water & Land Management to

Enhance Fisheries Productivity for Food Security

2.6 billion people depend on wild fish for protein, micronutrients, essential fatty acids

Poor water and land use practices create “dead zones” and reduce fisheries productivity

Challenge: Climate Change will increase droughts & floods

Change in water availability by 2050

Bay / Estuary

/ Ocean

Coastal /

Marine

Freshwater

A Connected System

Smart infrastructure & integrated systems approaches to

maintain environmental goods, services and productivity

Tools for Program Design?

Strive for Large-scale, Integrated and Long-term

• Strategic Environmental Assessments

• Water Accounting: Supply and Demand Analysis

• Cost/Benefit Analysis

• Social Soundness Analysis

• Managing Freshwater Inflows: Methods Guide

• Adapting to Climate Variability and Change: Guide

• Geospatial and Governance Planning Tools

• Scarcity: What is it ?

• Storage: Why and which ?

• Basin-wide approaches and Institutions: Why ?

Key Points

Water Scarcity

RWR/population

Open v. Closed Basins

<.3

.3-.4

.9-1

>1

No data

WSI = Withdrawal/(RWR-EFR)

Storage and Development ?

Storage and Development ?

Deal with negative impacts of water development

Ecosystem degradation

Negative health impacts

Inequitable benefits

Loss of biodiversity

Manage Externalities

Climate Change Impacts

Climate Variability and Climate Change

Adaptation Approaches

Basin management = transboundary management

Basin-level transboundary

coordination ….

• can help avert tragedy of

commons

• can improve water productivity

• Equitable benefit sharing,

sustainable solutions

….lead to other cooperation

Take-aways

• Design at watershed/basin and landscape scale

• Integrate natural and human-built infrastructure

• Consider different types of storage/infrastructure

• Increase water efficiency

• Increase resilience to climate impacts by

integrating water storage and management

• Maintain ecosystem goods, services and

productivity/fisheries for food security