The Political Economy of Water Security, Ecosystem Services and Livelihoods in the Western Himalayas

喜马拉雅山西部水安全、生态系统服务和生计的政治经济学

• 批准号: NE/L001365/1
• 负责人: Bhaskar Vira
• 金额: $ 58.95万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FL001365%2F1
• 关键词: Political; Economy; Water; Security; Ecosystem

This project aims to study the ways in which small towns in hill and mountain regions of South Asia depend on springs, streams and rivers in their surrounding catchments for the supply of water. Current infrastructure planning processes for water supply in low income countries tend to focus on the needs of large urban settlements, or of rural areas, and the needs of small towns are often overlooked or neglected. Small towns (defined as those with populations below 100,000 people) are particularly important in hill and mountain regions of India and Nepal because they have grown very rapidly, with little planning for infrastructure needs more generally, and for water supply in particular. Across the region, almost half the urban population in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and in the hill regions of Nepal, live in small towns. These towns also tend to be relatively resource poor, lacking the revenue and resources available to larger settlements, and their populations and settlement patterns usually display peri-urban and semi-rural characteristics, making infastructure planning and provision particularly challenging.The project will work in a selected set of small towns in the two Indian states, and in the hill regions of Nepal. It will undertake an assessment of the hydrological dependence of these small towns on water flows from the surrounding landscape, and identify areas that are critical to securing these water flows ('critical water zones'). The project will study existing patterns of resource and land use in these critical water zones, and the range of ecosystem services that flow from these areas to meet the needs of local and non-local stakeholders. This will allow an understanding of the synergies and trade-offs associated with managing these areas to secure water supply for the towns, in relation to their potential use for other livelihood and resource use strategies.The project will work directly with local government officials, and local communities in both urban and rural areas in these towns and their surrounding catchments, to explore the possibility for negotiating agreements that protect these critical water zones, without adversely affecting livelihood options for upstream residents. The project will also explore, where appropriate, the possibility of compensation based mechanisms to offset costs associated with changes in resource and landuse patterns undertaken by upstream communities in order to secure water supplies in these catchments.The learning from this project is particularly important for understanding the ways in which urban and rural areas interact with each other in the context of flows of ecosystem services. The hydrological dependence of small towns on their surrounding ecosystems provides the potential for negotiated agreements that secure water supplies to these towns (especially the urban poor), while also ensuring secure livelihoods for upstream local communities, and protecting and enhancing a range of other ecosystem functions in the surrounding watersheds. This project will explore the conditions under which such synergies can be realized, while also exploring and highlighting the trade-offs and difficult choices that characterize decision making in such contexts.

该项目旨在研究南亚丘陵和山区的小镇如何依赖周围集水区的泉水、溪流和河流来供水。目前低收入国家的供水基础设施规划过程往往侧重于大城市住区或农村地区的需求，而小城镇的需求往往被忽视或忽略。小城镇（定义为人口低于 100,000 人的城镇）在印度和尼泊尔的丘陵和山区尤其重要，因为它们发展非常迅速，而对更广泛的基础设施需求（特别是供水）的规划很少。在整个地区，印度喜马偕尔邦和北阿坎德邦以及尼泊尔山区的近一半城市人口居住在小镇。这些城镇往往资源相对匮乏，缺乏大型定居点可利用的收入和资源，其人口和定居点模式通常表现出城郊和半农村特征，使得基础设施规划和供应特别具有挑战性。该项目将在印度两个邦和尼泊尔山区的选定小城镇开展工作。它将评估这些小镇对周围景观水流的水文依赖性，并确定对确保这些水流至关重要的区域（“关键水域”）。该项目将研究这些关键水域的现有资源和土地利用模式，以及从这些地区流出的生态系统服务范围，以满足当地和非当地利益相关者的需求。这将有助于了解与管理这些地区以确保城镇供水相关的协同效应和权衡，以及这些地区在其他生计和资源利用战略中的潜在用途。该项目将直接与当地政府官员以及这些城镇及其周边集水区城乡地区的当地社区合作，探讨谈判保护这些关键水域的协议的可能性，而不会对城镇的生计选择产生不利影响。 上游居民。该项目还将酌情探索基于补偿的机制的可能性，以抵消上游社区因资源和土地利用模式变化而产生的相关成本，以确保这些流域的供水。从该项目中获得的经验对于理解城市和农村地区在生态系统服务流动的背景下相互影响的方式特别重要。小城镇对其周围生态系统的水文依赖性提供了通过谈判达成协议的可能性，以确保这些城镇（特别是城市贫民）的供水，同时也确保上游当地社区的生计安全，并保护和增强周围流域的一系列其他生态系统功能。该项目将探讨实现这种协同效应的条件，同时探讨和强调在这种背景下决策的权衡和困难选择。

项目成果

Handbook of Research on Urban Governance and Management in the Developing World

发展中国家城市治理与管理研究手册

• 发表时间: 2018
• 作者: Devkota, K.

Water Conflicts in Urbanizaing Regions in the Himalaya: Case Studies from Dhulikhel and Bidur in Nepal

喜马拉雅城市化地区的水冲突：尼泊尔杜利克尔和比杜尔的案例研究

• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy
• 作者: Devkota K

Scarcity Amidst Plenty: Lower Himalayan Cities Struggling for Water Security

充足中的稀缺：喜马拉雅山下游城市为水安全而苦苦挣扎

• DOI: 10.3390/w12020567
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Water
• 影响因子: 3.4
• 作者: Ojha H

The politics of negotiation and implementation: a reciprocal water access agreement in the Himalayan foothills, India

谈判和实施的政治：印度喜马拉雅山麓的互惠取水协议

• DOI: 10.5751/es-08462-210237
• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: Ecology and Society
• 影响因子: 4.1
• 作者: Kovacs E

Managing Forests for Both Downstream and Downwind Water

• DOI: 10.3389/ffgc.2019.00064
• 发表时间: 2019-10-18
• 期刊: FRONTIERS IN FORESTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE
• 影响因子: 3.2
• 作者: Creed, Irena F.;Jones, Julia A.;Xu, Jianchu
• 通讯作者: Xu, Jianchu