Research

Research Approach

The research consists of two strands: action or fellow research conducted by the fellows enrolled in the training program and supportive and synthesis research carried out as ongoing research in the project.

Research Questions

Trying to unveil some of the intricacies of how groundwater is being developed and used in the South Asian and Chinese context, and how it impacts their socio-economies, is not a straightforward task. This is because groundwater development often occurs in the private sector, by individual farmers and entrepreneurs harvesting the benefits of this, generally speaking, user-friendly resource. This incremental and often un-registered increase in abstraction potentially leads to gradual problems, over decades, of exhaustion and degradation of the resource or the increasingly unequal access to the resource.

Not withstanding, the research questions addressed by this project should be relevant, context-specific and responsive to requirements of the policy and decision makers involved in water, and particularly groundwater development and management in the targeted regions.

Overall research questions identified in an early stage of the project include the following. They are indicative of some of the topics that are developed into specific research segments of the project.

1. What are the prerequisites/constraints for groundwater development (land access, energy access, market access, technology access, credit, policies, groundwater quality)? And how can this info be used to facilitate groundwater development in potential areas and cut down groundwater use in over-exploited areas?
2. Is groundwater development on the rise/fall/stagnant in the areas of interest?
3. Does groundwater decline increase (temporary) migration out of irrigated farming? And does this lead to a relaxation of the stress on the aquifers?
4. What is the effect of WH/AR (water harvesting/artificial recharge)? Is the water used more efficiently and does it help the local people, or does it merely shift water use from downstream to upstream users?
5. When does groundwater stop to be poverty alleviating? I.e., what is the limit of poor farmers to access and benefit from groundwater for irrigation, and when do they look for alternative livelihoods?
6. What are the alternative livelihoods to groundwater-irrigated farming and how can that be supported?
7. How does little access to groundwater and inferior groundwater quality pose implications for health of local people and their livelihoods? How can this be offset?
8. What are the dynamics and practices involved in conjunctive use of surface and groundwater? Is there scope for improving the approaches?
9. Is there a scope for groundwater savings through micro irrigation techniques?

Based on the dialogue with the project partners, a research agenda focusing on some of these questions within certain identified research areas within the two river basins are developed.

Cross Cutting Research (CCR)

The Cross Cutting Research (CCR) is an integral part of the International Training and Research Program on Groundwater Governance in Asia (GGA). The CCR phase will commence right after the completion of the training school. During the CCR phase of the project, the Young Professional Research Fellows (YPRFs) and Media Fellows (MFs) will acquire field work experience in various parts of South Asia and China. In the process, they will directly apply the knowledge gained during the Training Course in understanding realities of groundwater governance in Asia.   For more on Cros Cutting Research.

Publications

Groundwater Research and Management: Integrating Science into Management Decisions

The Agricultural Groundwater Revolution: Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture

Agriculture and groundwater development in northern China: trends, institutional responses, and policy options

Jinxia Wang, Jikun Huang, Scott Rozelle, Qiuqiong Huang and Amelia Blanke