Supporting collaboration through innovative water sharing tool for high-value irrigated agriculture.

英国现有的取水许可制度导致水资源利用效率低下。这限制了高价值灌溉农业和园艺的作物生产力、业务增长和抗旱能力。个体种植者之间的合作水资源共享旨在解决这些限制，而不需要水交易的高交易成本，但缺乏农业企业支持工具。本研究的目的是开发一个概念验证的应用程序，连接和支持农业企业在水资源共享，使用灌溉业务在英国东部的百灵鸟集水区作为案例研究。该工具是通过与农业企业共同设计开发的，将整合多个数据源和环境署的决策规则，以确定近乎实时的水资源共享机会。该项目建立在克兰菲尔德大学与Lark Abstractor Group和环境局之前进行的水资源共享研究的基础上，并将实际展示赋予灌溉者识别和告知其水资源共享决策所需的解释数据的潜在好处。它还将促进更有效地分配和使用水，帮助降低抽水（能源）成本，从而支持该部门实现净零碳的目标。该项目将由一家农场商业咨询公司（林赛哈格里夫斯有限公司）领导，该公司位于Lark流域，并与当地许多农业企业建立了联系。他们将与克兰菲尔德大学的水科学研究所合作，后者将为该项目提供技术监督，帮助建立水共享原型。

The existing abstraction licensing system in England results in inefficiencies in the utilisation of water. This constrains crop productivity, business growth and resilience to drought in high-value irrigated agriculture and horticulture. Collaborative water sharing between individual growers seeks to address these limitations without the high transactional costs of water trading, but farm business support tools are lacking. This study aims to develop a proof-of-concept application that connects and supports farm businesses in water sharing, using irrigated businesses in the Lark catchment in Eastern England as a case study. The tool, developed through a process of co-design with farming business, will integrate multiple data sources and Environment Agency decision-making rules, to identify near real-time water sharing opportunities. The project builds on previous water sharing research conducted by Cranfield University with the Lark Abstractors Group and the Environment Agency and will practically demonstrate the potential benefits of empowering irrigators with the interpreted data needed to identify and inform their water sharing decisions. It will also promote more efficient allocation and use of water helping to reduce pumping (energy) costs and thereby support the sector's targets for moving towards net zero carbon. The project will be led by a farm business consultancy (Lindsay Hargreaves Ltd) who are based in the Lark catchment and have established links with many local farming businesses. They will partner with the Water Science Institute at Cranfield University who will provide technical oversight to the project helping to build the water sharing prototype.