| Author | Tiwari, Dirgha Nidhi |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no. IR-94-15 |
| Subject(s) | Irrigation farming.
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| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. IR-94-15 |
| Abstract | Agricultural water supplies in many parts of the world are entering into the era of physical scarcity. The development of new water supply sources is severely limited due to increasing environmental problems and escalating costs. The focus of land and water management research in recent years thus, has shifted towards demand side management with emphasis on the need for a comprehensive framework to integrate environmentaleconomic criteria. The emerging concepts of sustainability are now widely discussed and the use of sustainability indicators/criteria are called for in addressing these environmentaleconomic concerns. This study has attempted to develop a comprehensive analytical framework for environmental-economic decision making in lowland irrigated agriculture with sustainability criteria as the governing principle. The three guiding principles outlined at the Dublin Conference on Water and the Environment (1992) have been incorporated in this work. First, the growing scarcity of irrigation water in the study area is recognized and research problems are focused towards addressing this problem. Second, water is recognized as an economic good and the economic value of water is determined. Third, the involvement of the local people at various decision making levels is emphasized and their opinions are sought in the decision making processes using a two-stage field survey. A multicriteria programming based decision support framework, combining both the environmental and economic sustainability criteria and subcriteria, has been developed and a case study of Phitsanulok irrigation project in Northern Thailand has been carried out. This study has made rigorous analyses of natural resource scarcity at the national level, farmers' willingness to pay for water, determination of the economic price of water and evaluation of environmental and economic sustainability criteria using secondary and grassroot level data. The natural resource scarcity analysis shows increasing unsustainability in resource use and productivity and their linkages to the project level resource management. The comparison of economic value of irrigation water obtained from different methods indicated that farmers are willing to pay at least the operation and maintenance costs and are able to pay the marginal value product of water. Environmental sustainability is measured in terms of land capability and suitability, energy output/input ratio, water demand and environmental costs. Economic sustainability is measured using extended costbenefit analysis from farmers, government and societal viewpoints. The results of multicriteria combining both the environmental and economic sustainability criteria indicate that shifting towards less water consuming no.n-rice crops during the dry season and allocation of water rights will lead more to environmental-economic sustainability than the continuation of present cropping patterns and the centralization of decision making processes. The framework developed for environmental-economic decision making can be used in other similar cases. A more comprehensive framework requires continuous improvement of the research methodology to cope with changing issues brought about by increasing environmental problems. The future efforts toward developing a more comprehensive framework should attempt to include a family of macro level sustainability indicators and several piecewise sustainability indicators/criteria at the project level. This study also recommends charging for irrigation water, taxing excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides above the recommended doses, and the transfer of water rights below the main canal level in order to address the water scarcity as well as growing environmental problems in the study area. |
| Year | 1994 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. IR-94-15 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Irrigation Engineering and Management (IR) |
| Chairperson(s) | Loof, Rainer.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Paudyal, Guna N.;Weber, Karl E.;Eiurnnoh, Apisit; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Deutsche Gesellschaf t ftir Technische Zu ms am me nar bei t (GTZ) GmbH, Germany, Scholarship donor; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology,1994 |