Choosing Wise Investments in Natural and Built Water Infrastructure

水安全对可持续经济增长和减贫至关重要，因此水基础设施是发展的基石之一。建成的水利基础设施保障了供水和水质，有助于减少和避免与水有关的灾害。与水电和灌溉发展相结合，其好处包括水、粮食和能源安全、工业发展和财富创造。气候变化正在增加对水利基础设施的需求，特别是在高度脆弱的发展中国家。生态系统服务是包括气候适应能力在内的水利基础设施发展成果的组成部分，但在投资决策中往往被忽视。供水基础设施本身的功能、贫困人口的生计和关键工业部门都依赖于生态系统服务。然而，当生态系统被水坝、水库、灌溉系统和运河的建设破坏或破坏时，服务就会丧失，因为例如湿地可能被排干，河流和地下水的季节性模式可能被破坏。因此，为减轻贫困而发展水基础设施不是扩大已建成水基础设施的简单问题，而是涉及到与生态系统的权衡和协同作用。这些都影响到穷人和减贫的成功。发展水安全以减少贫困的一个关键挑战是提供所需的建成水基础设施，同时寻找维持生态系统服务的方法。一种方法是将河流流域本身视为基础设施：它们是“自然基础设施”，提供供应、调节、支持和文化生态系统服务，如储水、运输、防洪、安全供水和粮食用水。基础设施规划和投资可以根据自然基础设施和人工基础设施交替组合的经济、社会和环境成本和收益，考虑基础设施的组合。拟议的项目将为支持和设计一个研究方案制定一个案例，以提供所需的知识和工具，从而实现将人造基础设施和自然基础设施结合起来的水基础设施开发的组合方法。这将基于：-生态系统服务及其价值的核算；-使用数学优化技术，确定自然和人工基础设施的组合，优先考虑穷人和有利于穷人的增长目标。然而，优化工具本身是不够的，因为现实被未知、不确定性、有争议的事实和复杂的系统所复杂化。决策与科学知识一样多或更多地受到政治和制度约束的影响。因此，对生态系统服务、经济评估和优化的研究将得到以下方面的补充：-分析水治理、制度安排和政策，使未知和不确定性能够得到有效管理；-与政策制定者和多方利益相关者对话进行行动研究，以测试优化知识和工具是否能够支持共识的建立和基础设施选择的谈判。该研究方案将在南亚、撒哈拉以南非洲和可能的亚马孙河流域采用个案研究方法来实施。与研究人员和关键利益攸关方的能力建设将补充研究活动。这里提出的伙伴关系和项目发展阶段将遵循三个阶段的过程。第一阶段将专注于案例研究的确定和完整提案的联盟映射，第二阶段将专注于跨学科学习和研究设计，第三阶段将专注于准备最终产出。除了ESPA财团拨款提案之外，这一阶段的产出将包括为支持能力建设的人造和自然基础设施研究的影响路径分析。

Water security is vital for sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction, and hence water infrastructure is one cornerstone of development. Built water infrastructure safeguards water supplies and water quality and helps to reduce and avoid water-related disaster. Combined with hydropower and irrigation development, benefits include water, food and energy security, industrial development and wealth generation. Climate change is increasing demand for water infrastructure, especially in developing countries with high vulnerability. Ecosystem services are integral to outcomes from water infrastructure development, including climate resilience, but are often overlooked in investment decisions. The functioning of built water infrastructure itself and the livelihoods of poor people and key industry sectors rely on ecosystem services. However, services are lost when ecosystems are destroyed or damaged by the construction of dams, reservoirs, irrigation systems and canals, because for example wetlands may be drained or seasonal patterns of river flow and groundwater disrupted. Water infrastructure development for poverty alleviation is thus not a simple question of expanding the endowment of built water infrastructure, but involves trade-offs and synergies with ecosystems. These affect poor people and the success of poverty reduction. A critical challenge in developing water security for poverty reduction is to provide needed built water infrastructure while finding ways of sustaining ecosystem services. One approach is to recognise river basins themselves as infrastructure: they are 'natural infrastructure', providing provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem services, such as water storage, conveyance, flood regulation, safe water supply and water for food. Infrastructure planning and investment can then consider portfolios of infrastructure, based on the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of alternate mixes of natural and built infrastructure. The proposed project will develop a case for support and design a research programme to provide knowledge and tools needed to enable a portfolio approach to water infrastructure development combining built and natural infrastructure. This will be based on: - accounting of ecosystem services and their values; - use of mathematical optimisation techniques to identify mixes of natural and built infrastructure that prioritise the objectives of poor people and pro-poor growth. However, optimisation tools are not sufficient by themselves, as reality is complicated by unknowns, uncertainties, contested facts and complex systems. Decisions are shaped as much or more by politics and institutional constraints as scientific knowledge. Therefore research on ecosystem services, economic valuation and optimisation will be complemented by: - analysis of water governance, institutional arrangements and policies that enable unknowns and uncertainties to be managed effectively; - action research with policy makers and multi-stakeholder dialogues to test whether optimisation knowledge and tools can support consensus building and negotiation of infrastructure choices. The research programme will be implemented using a case study approach in river basins that will be selected in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and, potentially, Amazonia. Research activities will be complemented by capacity building with researchers and key stakeholders. The Partnerships and Project Development phase proposed here will follow a three stage process. Stage 1 will focus on case study identification and consortium mapping for the full proposal, Stage 2 on inter-disciplinary learning and research design, and Stage 3 on preparation of final outputs. In addition to the ESPA Consortium Grant proposal, output from this phase will include an impact pathways analysis for research on built and natural infrastructure to support capacity building.