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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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STRENGTHENING SCIENCE-BASED DECISION MAKING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Agricultural Water Management

Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia

Laura Holliday, Editor

Science and Technology for Sustainability Program

Policy and Global Affairs

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This workshop was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the U.S. Department of State, and the American Chemistry Council. This summary is funded in part by the EPA via contract number X-83086001and by the Department of State under grant number S-LMAQM-05-GR-047. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

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Additional copies of this report are available from the

National Academies Press,

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Copyright 2007 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine


The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.


The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.


The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.


The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.


www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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STEERING COMMITTEE ON STRENGTHENING SCIENCE-BASED DECISION-MAKING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Michael Clegg (Chair) Distinguished Professor of Genetics,

Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside

Thomas Lovejoy President,

H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment

Whitney MacMillan Director Emeritus,

Cargill, Inc.

Perry McCarty Silas H. Palmer Professor Emeritus,

Stanford University

Roger McClellan President Emeritus,

Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology

F. Sherwood Rowland Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science,

University of California, Irvine

Staff:

John Boright Deputy Executive Director,

Policy and Global Affairs

Pat Koshel Senior Staff Officer,

Science and Technology for Sustainability Program

Laura Holliday Senior Program Associate,

Science and Technology for Sustainability Program (through 4/28/2006)

Derek Vollmer Program Associate,

Policy and Global Affairs Division

Kathleen McAllister Program Assistant,

Policy and Global Affairs Division

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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PREFACE

During the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the U.S. National Academies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the American Chemistry Council announced a new initiative to facilitate better communication among scientists, policymakers, and other decision-makers so that scientific knowledge more effectively informs public policy and private sector decisions relating to sustainability in developing countries. More specifically, the goals of the initiative are:

  • Foster improved understanding of the science and decision-making process, including national and local policy, industrial design and planning, and public choices;

  • Establish dialogue in which decision-makers use science to inform their decisions and scientists consider the needs of decision-makers in their choice of research;

  • Identify gaps between the needs of decision-makers and scientific research priorities and strategies for bridging these gaps, including ways to increase the professional connection between scientists and decision-makers, and;

  • Share workshop results, via summaries and briefings, with a broader audience of scientists and decision-makers in the host country and internationally.

To achieve these objectives, the organizations involved (see list below) provided support for a series of "science in decision-making workshops" in developing countries on key issues of particular concern to the host country such as water and sanitation, persistent organic pollutants, and biodiversity. The workshops convene representatives from host country and U.S. scientific institutions, government, industry, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and other relevant organizations. Crosscutting themes addressed in the workshops include monitoring and data evaluation; elements of good science advice; facilitating the flow of scientific information; and the roles of institutions that link scientists and decision-makers.


Workshop topics are proposed by science organizations in developing countries. A steering committee established by the U.S. National Academies reviewed proposals and provided general oversight for the series. The workshop co-chairs– one from the respective developing country and one from the United States – designed each workshop, which were organized in a collaborative process involving the U.S. National Academies and one or more science organization from the partnering country.


The initiative involved the following organizations:

  • U.S. National Academies

  • Mexican Academy of Sciences

  • Chinese Academy of Sciences

  • TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World

  • InterAcademy Panel

  • American Chemistry Council

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

  • Scientific Committee on Programs of the Environment, China

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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  • H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment

  • National Council for Science and the Environment

  • State Environmental Protection Administration of China

The initiative’s first workshop, “Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making for Sustainable Management of Ground Water in Mexico,” was a joint workshop between the U.S. National Academies and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. It was held February 8-10, 2004, in Mérida, Mexico. The second workshop, “Strengthening Science-Based Decision Making –Implementing the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants” was held June 8-10, 2004, in Beijing, China. The third workshop titled “Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making for Agricultural Water Management.” took place June 4-9, 2005, in Tunisia and is featured in this report.


The Tunisia workshop was co-chaired by Dr. Henry Vaux, Jr. of the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Sihem Benabdallah, of the Institut National de Recherche Scientifique et Technique in Tunisia. The meeting involved approximately 30 attendees from Tunisia, other Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) countries, and the United States, including decision-makers from both the public and private sectors, and scientists from relevant disciplines, such as agronomy, economics, and natural resource management. The overarching question considered at the workshop was: How can Tunisia and other countries in the region marshal their considerable bodies of scientific talent to address the problem of insufficient agricultural production caused by water scarcity? The workshop also addressed two major sub-issues related to food production. First, how can existing water supplies, including recycled waste water, be managed so as to optimize the domestic production of food and fiber? Second, what can the public and private sectors do to optimize production of high value agricultural products? Discussions of these issues included: information about scientific advances in irrigation; suggestions regarding communicating this information to the appropriate decision-makers; consideration of additional information that decision-makers need; and comments regarding what organizations are or should be involved in facilitating the flow of such information.


The workshop began in Tozeur with a field trip to observe Tunisian agriculture and agricultural management practices. The field trip participants, including almost all of the international and U.S. participants and several Tunisians, observed groundwater mining to produce dates, mangos, and other high-value crops; wastewater reuse experiments; oasis agriculture practices; erosion prevention systems; hothouse agriculture; and other agriculture and water management systems. Discussions at various sites revealed concerns about salinity, sustainability of the system (with groundwater levels declining rapidly), security implications of drawing down a shared aquifer, and the vulnerability to drought of the populations in the region.


The papers included in this volume were submitted by the participants to help frame these discussions. As such, many of the papers do not include the technical detail or exhaustive citations found in a scientific journal. The opinions expressed in the papers do not necessarily reflect the views of all workshop participants, their affiliated organizations, or the National Academies. The report does not contain consensus findings or recommendations from the workshop participants as a whole.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
×

More information about the program “Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making in Developing Countries” and about the Science and Technology for Sustainability Program is available online at www.nationalacademies.org/sustainability. This workshop proceedings is available online at www.nap.edu.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to express sincere thanks to the many individuals who played significant roles in guiding the initiative “Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making in Developing Countries.” The steering committee provided guidance on the initiative’s goals; identified appropriate modes of operation; and reviewed all workshop proposals. Steering committee members include: Chairman Michael Clegg, University of California, Riverside; Thomas Lovejoy, H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment; Whitney MacMillan, Cargill, Inc.; Perry McCarty, Stanford University; Roger McClellan, Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology; and F. Sherwood Rowland, University of California, Irvine.


For the workshop featured in this proceedings “Strengthening Science-Based Decision Making for Agricultural Water Management” workshop co-chairs Dr. Sihem Benabdallah, Professor of Geochemistry Physics and Chemistry of Water at the National Institute of Scientific and Technical Research and Dr. Henry Vaux, Professor of Resource Economics and Associate Vice President Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley were instrumental in designing the workshop agenda and ensuring productive discussions.


This publication was made possible by grants from the U.S. Department of State (State Department) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the positions of the State Department, the US EPA, the U.S. National Academies, the National Institute of Scientific and Technical Research, or other organizations where the authors are employed.


This volume has been reviewed in draft form by several individuals chosen for their technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies’ Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in ensuring that the report is as sound as possible and meets institutional standards for quality. The review comments and original draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.


We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this volume: Randa Aboul-Hosn, United Nations Development Programme; Bernard Engel, Purdue University; Rita Maguire, ThinkAZ; Ayman Rabi, Palestinian Hydrology Group; and Moneef Zou'bi, Islamic-World Academy of Sciences.


Although the reviewers listed above have provided constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the individual papers. Responsibility for the final content of the papers rests with the individual authors.


Special thanks are extended in recognition of the important contributions of the following National Academies staff: John Boright, Executive Director of the Office of International Affairs, who provided oversight for the initiative, and Derek Vollmer, who contributed to planning the workshop, as well as Kathleen McAllister and Laila Parker, who assisted in editing the report.

Laura Holliday, Editor

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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Contents

 

 

Chairman’s Overview
Henry Vaux, Jr., University of California, Berkeley

 

1

 

 

Science and Decision-Making

 

 

 

 

Reaching out to Decision-Makers on Science Matters: Islamic World Academy of Sciences as an Example
Moneef R. Zou’bi, Director General, Islamic World Academy of Sciences

 

3

 

 

The Elements of Scientific Advice
Henry Vaux, Jr., University of California, Berkeley

 

20

 

 

How can scientific research be more effectively integrated into public policy making?
Rita P. Maguire, President and CEO, Think AZ, Former Director, Arizona Department of Water Resources

 

27

 

 

The Academy of Science and Technology of Senegal : an instrument of action and advice to decison-makers for the progress of the Nation
Oumar Sock, Professor, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Founding Member, the Academy of Science and Technology of Senegal

 

33

 

 

Science and Agricultural Water Management

 

 

 

 

The Role of Science in Agricultural Water Management
Thomas L. Huntzinger, Water Appropriations Program, Kansas Department of Agriculture

 

40

 

 

Optimizing Irrigation for Agricultural Water Management: Scientific Principles
John Letey, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Riverside

 

51

 

 

Linking Agricultural Water Management and Scientifically-Based Decision Making
Sayed-Farhad Mousavi, Professor, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran

 

66

 

 

Regulated Deficit Irrigation in Trees and Vines
David A. Goldhamer, Kearney Agricultural Center, University of California, Davis

 

70

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Agricultural Water Management: Proceedings of a Workshop in Tunisia. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11880.
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Water in Tunisia

 

 

 

 

The Water Resources and Water Management Regimes in Tunisia
Sihem Benabdallah, Professor, Laboratory of Geochemistry, Physics, and Chemistry of Water, INRST

 

81

 

 

Water in Tunisia: A National Perspective
Ameur Horchani, Former Secretary, State of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Tunisia

 

88

 

 

Case Studies

 

 

 

 

Participatory Irrigation Management: A Case Study from Turkey
M. Fatih Yildiz, Agricultural Engineer-Contract Manager, EU Central Finance and Contracts Unit

 

97

 

 

Putting Science Into Action: From Washington State Community-based Outreach To National Programming In Washington DC
James Dobrowolski, Associate Professor, Washington State University

 

103

 

 

Protecting the Dead Sea Basin: Perspective of Friends of the Earth Middle East on the Red Dead Conduit and the protection of River Jordan
Abdel Rahman Sultan, Friends of the Earth, Middle East

 

114

 

 

Training and Research Ideas for Water Management in the West Bank and Gaza
Abdelrahim Al-Asad, Director, Palestinian Engineers Association and Ayman Rabi, Palestinian Hydrology Group

 

120

 

 

Specific Projects

 

 

 

 

Web-Based Ecological Decision Support System
Rabi Mohtar, Professor, and Tong Zhai, Research Associate, Purdue University

 

122

 

 

Regional Initiative for Dryland Management in Tunisia
Amel Jrad, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas And Ms. Hela Gueliss

 

132

Appendix A:

 

Workshop Agenda

 

138

Appendix B:

 

List of Workshop Participants

 

142

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This report contains a collection of papers from a workshop—Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making for Sustainable Management of Scarce Water Resources for Agricultural Production, held in Tunisia. Participants, including scientists, decision makers, representatives of non-profit organizations, and a farmer, came from the United States and several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The papers examined constraints to agricultural production as it relates to water scarcity; focusing on 1) the state of the science regarding water management for agricultural purposes in the Middle East and North Africa 2) how science can be applied to better manage existing water supplies to optimize the domestic production of food and fiber. The cross-cutting themes of the workshop were the elements or principles of science-based decision making, the role of the scientific community in ensuring that science is an integral part of the decision making process, and ways to improve communications between scientists and decision makers.

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