CNH-EX: Monsoon Harvests: Assessing the Impact of Distributed Storage Tanks on the Vulnerability of Subsistence-Level Agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India

该项目的总体目标是更好地理解雨水收集罐（池塘）在印度南部泰米尔纳德邦缺水农业区加强储水和增加地下水补给的方式。目的还在于提高我们对这些水箱灌溉系统在依赖它们的村庄社区中所起作用的认识，特别是在尽量减少社会、经济和环境脆弱性方面。为了实现这些目标，项目团队将访问各种数据源，获取有关气候、土地利用、蓄水池数量及其位置、水治理系统、地下水枯竭、蓄水池贡献的水量以及劳动力市场的信息。在泰米尔纳德邦，多年来水箱灌溉系统减少的地区将被确定并与持续使用水箱的地区进行比较。为了了解与储罐相关的储水动态，项目团队将在一系列确定的储罐中放置水位传感器，这些传感器将在整个季风和干旱季节提供有关储水的连续数据。据推测，这些蓄水池提供的生态和经济效益，如果得到充分维护并具有有效的社区治理结构，可以使这些自给自足的农业社区不那么容易受到该地区每年季风变化的影响，特别是在面对气候变化和地下水迅速枯竭的情况下。印度南部泰米尔纳德邦的马杜赖地区面临着严重的水资源短缺问题，这使得广泛的灌溉系统成为必要。随着泰米尔纳德邦耕地面积近几十年来的增长，对灌溉用水的需求也在增长。随着这种增长，地下水供应日益枯竭。因此，现在人们认识到需要一种更可持续的方式来提供灌溉用水。水管理的一个有希望的趋势是重新评估和恢复使用旧的、利用水箱系统的地方规模灌溉做法。这些水箱，本质上是用来收集当地雨水的小水库，收集地表水灌溉和地下水补给的水，几千年来一直是印度灌溉和饮用水的来源。目前的项目将侧重于提高我们对与这些小型灌溉系统相关的水储存和地下水补给动态的理解，以及这些系统对相关村庄的重要性。该项目将使人们更好地了解传统的雨水收集方法如何在严重缺水地区增加饮用水和灌溉用水的获取。由于全球有8亿人生活在水资源短缺问题持续存在的地区，印度在雨水收集和地下水补给方面获得的更多理解将不可避免地具有跨文化价值，并可能应用于从撒哈拉以南非洲到美国西南部的一系列地区。在这个项目中进行的研究将为在各种文化背景下进一步探索地方一级的水管理系统和机构奠定基础。

The overall objective of this project is to better our understanding of the ways in which rainwater harvesting tanks (ponds) are able to enhance water storage and increase groundwater recharge in water-scarce agricultural areas of Tamil Nadu in southern India. The intent is also to enhance our knowledge of the role that these tank irrigation systems play within the village communities that depend on them, especially with respect to minimizing social, economic and environmental vulnerability. To achieve these goals the project team will access a variety of data sources, obtaining information about climate, land-use, the number of tanks and their locations, water governance systems, groundwater depletion, the amount of water contributed by the tanks, and labor markets. Areas in Tamil Nadu in which tank irrigation systems have declined over the years will be identified and compared with areas where use of the tanks has persisted. To understand the water-storage dynamics associated with the tanks, the project team will place water level sensors in an identified series of tanks that will provide continuous data regarding water storage throughout the monsoon and dry seasons. It is hypothesized that the ecological and economic benefits provided by these tanks, when adequately maintained and with effective community governance structures, can make these subsistence-level farming communities less vulnerable to variations in the region's yearly monsoons, especially in the face of climate change and rapid groundwater depletion. The Madurai region of southern Tamil Nadu, India, faces issues of acute water scarcity, making extensive irrigation systems necessary. As the areas under cultivation in Tamil Nadu have grown in recent decades, so has the demand for irrigation water. With this growth, groundwater supplies have become increasingly depleted. As such, the need for a more sustainable means of providing irrigation water is now being acknowledged. A promising trend in water management has been to reassess and revive the use of older, local-scale irrigation practices that utilize tank systems. These tanks, which are, essentially, small reservoirs used for local rainwater harvesting, collect water for both surface water irrigation and groundwater recharge, and have been a source of irrigation and drinking water in India for thousands of years. The current project will focus on improving our understanding of the dynamics of water storage and groundwater recharge associated with these small irrigation systems, and the importance of the systems to the associated villages. This project will lead to a better understanding of the ways in which traditional rainwater harvesting practices can increase access to both drinking and irrigation water in regions of acute water scarcity. As 800 million people worldwide live in regions where water scarcity issues are an ongoing problem, the greater understanding that is gained in India with regard to rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge will inevitably have cross-cultural value and potential application to a range of regions, from sub-Saharan Africa to the southwestern United States. The research carried out in this project will lay the groundwork for additional explorations of local-level water management systems and institutions in a variety of cultural contexts.