Integrated Water Resources Management for Sustainable Irrigation at the Basin Scale

• Published in: Chilean journal of agricultural research 2009-12, Vol.69 (suppl 1), p.69-80
• Main Authors: Billib, Max(Leibniz Universität Hannover Institute of Water Resources Management, Hydrology and Agricultural Hydraulic Engineering), Bardowicks, Karin(Leibniz Universität Hannover Institute of Water Resources Management, Hydrology and Agricultural Hydraulic Engineering), Arumí, José Luis(Universidad de Concepción Facultad de Ingeniería Agrícola)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY; AGRONOMY; basin; cuenca; irrigation; manejo recursos hídricos; riego; sustainability; sustentabilidad; water resources management
• ISSN: 0718-5839; 0718-5839
• DOI: 10.4067/s0718-58392009000500007

The objective of this paper is to review the state of art on integrated water resources management (IWRM) approaches for sustainable irrigation at the basin scale under semi-arid and arid climatic conditions, with main emphasis on Latin America, but including case studies of other semi-arid and arid regions in the world. In Latin America the general concept of IWRM has proved to be hard to implement. Case studies recommend to develop the approach from lower to upper scale and oriented at the end-user. As IWRM is an interdisciplinary approach and used for very different objectives, the main emphasis is given to IWRM approaches for sustainable irrigation and their environmental aspects. The review shows that in Latin America the environmental impact is mostly analysed at the field level, the impact on the whole basin is less considered. Many publications present the development of models, advisory services and tools for decision support systems at a high technical level. Some papers present studies of environmental aspects of sustainable irrigation, especially for salt affected areas. Multi-criteria decision making models are developed for irrigation planning and irrigation scenarios are used to show the impact of different irrigation management decision. In general integrated approaches in Latin America are scarce. El objetivo de esta publicación es revisar el estado del arte de los diferentes enfoques que se han usado para lograr un manejo integrado de los recursos hídricos (MIRH) asociados a una agricultura de riego sustentable a nivel de cuenca en condiciones áridas y semiáridas, con énfasis en Latinoamérica, pero incluyen casos de estudio de otras regiones similares del mundo. En Latinoamérica el concepto general de MIRH ha resultado difícil de implementar. De los estudios de casos, se recomienda desarrollar este enfoque desde una escala menor a una mayor orientándose al usuario final. MIRH es un enfoque interdisciplinario usado para diferentes objetivos, siendo el mayor énfasis el lograr una agricultura de riego sustentable. Esta revisión demuestra que en Latinoamérica los impactos ambientales son principalmente analizados a escala predial y muy poco considerados a escala de cuenca. Muchas publicaciones presentan el desarrollo de modelos, criterios de apoyo y herramientas para el soporte de decisión a un alto nivel técnico. Algunos artículos presentan estudios de los aspectos ambientales de una agricultura de riego sostenible, especialmente en las zona