Assessing risk for water harvesting systems in arid environments

I. Sanchez Cohen; Vicente L. Lopes; Donald C. Slack; Carlos H. Yañez

ABSTRACT:

Climate variability is perhaps the most common and unpredictable problem that farm ers in dryland regions have to face year by year. This fact has established the need for developing methodologies for coping with water scarcity. One of the most widely used strategies (among cropping patterns, soil management, new and improved varieties, etc.) has been the implementation of water harvesting systems. The efficiency of the system is strongly associated with its expensiveness and therefore, risk assessment should be an integral part of any project involving water harvesting systems. This paper focuses on a review of methodologies that have been used for assessing risk in small scale water harvesting systems. A simulation-modeling stochastic approach is discussed highlighting the concept of risk behavior.

Footnotes

I. Sanchez-Cohen and Carlos H. Yañez are scientist researchers, INIFAP, CENID-RASPA, Mexico, Lerdo Durango, Mexico; Vicente L. Lopes is an assistant professor, Renewable Natural Resources; and Donald C. Slack a professor, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721.
Copyright 1995 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

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