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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Schematic representation

7. Antropogenic surface flows

8. Well-being: farmer perspectives

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

11. 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).

12. 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

13. THANK YOU!!

14. 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