Towards concerted sharing: development of a Regional Water Economy model for the Jordan River Basin

Partners Al-Quds University - Palestine American University of Beirut - Lebanon Amsterdam Centre for World Food Studies of the VU University - Netherlands Arab Center for Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD) Jordan University of Science and Technology – Jordan Sponsor: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

Basic features of regional model: relating water to economy Optimization program subject to stock and flow constraints that represent balances of water, salinity and nitrate ecological thresholds are imposed through bounds controlled flows through water infrastructure included The model has an explicit interconnected time-space-substance dimension with water as scarce good and salt, nitrate and BOD as polluting substances while allowing for innovative techniques desalination water storage water treatment It pays special attention to agriculture as largest water consumer secure and safe water delivery to rural and urban households and to industrial sector

Harmonization of basin wide inventories and national statistics Land use map of JRB Water Economy Model Two weekly potential evapotranspiration Districts Altitude (m) and river network interconnectedness

Schematic representation

Antropogenic surface flows

Well-being: farmer perspectives

Baseline highlights Extraction of groundwater Extraction of surface water: Rivers and Lake Tiberias Extraction of groundwater

Irrigation improvement Syria farmers convert from surface irrigation to more efficient irrigation techniques Reduction of losses of 75% of current leakage volumes (130 million m3). Half of this gain in efficiency is used to increase the irrigated area in Syria Reduction of the extraction by Syria from the Yarmouk river (65 million m3).

Prospects Capacity building within ministries Tailor model to policy demands Combining equity and sustainability Addressing gender-specific challenges Assessing potential of innovative technologies Further improve representation Consumer and farmer behavior Aquifer dynamics Link with water diplomacy Empirical support for post-conflict Syria

THANK YOU!!

Mathematical representation Extremely rich model! Yet, mathematical representation of previous slide is simple and transparent: Extraction output Return flow consumer rainfall Natural inflow Consumer demand Available for natural outflow Extraction demand