Bruce Lankford | University of East Anglia (original) (raw)
Papers by Bruce Lankford
Water alternatives, Oct 1, 2009
In July 2009, in the closing moments of the G8 meeting in Italy, President Obama responded to a q... more In July 2009, in the closing moments of the G8 meeting in Italy, President Obama responded to a question from the floor regarding investments in Africa to tackle food security and poverty. His answer (quoted below) included the phrase "the right irrigation". This opinion piece reflects on the phrase, places it within a policy debate and suggests that the development community can respond to Obama's call for the 'right irrigation' in sub-Saharan Africa by taking a comprehensive approach that utilises a mixture of technologies, builds on local capabilities, brings sound engineering know-how, is supported by a range of other services, and acknowledges other water needs within catchments. Cost-effectiveness and community ownership will be important.
International Journal of Water Resources Development, Sep 1, 2001
Allocation of water in river basins not only requires the setting of targets of water supply to d... more Allocation of water in river basins not only requires the setting of targets of water supply to different users, but also the establishment of appropriate strategies to achieve those targets. As an example of this, "red routes" -an idea taken from a plan used in the city of London to ensure free-flowing traffic on key arterial routes -is proposed for the Ruaha basin in Tanzania. The paper argues that allocation of water is best achieved by managing key rivers (red routes), rather than all rivers, and by concentrating on part rather than the whole of the annual calendar. In this way, the principle of 'zoning' is employed to utilise comparative advantages found in some rivers and not in others. This strategic approach selects from the main theories of water management; command and control, technical, economic, and community-based activities. It also uses, in part, a rural-livelihoods justification for re-allocation. This strategic approach fits the hydrological situation of both use and supply of water and has clear objectives in mind, proposing the necessary management activities to deliver the objectives.
This paper argues that the dominance of estate sugarcane has caused, and is continuing to provide... more This paper argues that the dominance of estate sugarcane has caused, and is continuing to provide, an important 'political economy' to the development of smallholder irrigation in Swaziland; the lack of traditional, non-sugar smallholder irrigation in Swaziland is partly a product of the orientation of the lowveld towards irrigated sugar production. This relationship forms via a number of ways, explored in this paper. These factors, support services, and the agro-industrial farming environment combined with the high risks of successful development of small-scale irrigation in the middleveld, provide a momentum in capability that may considerably sustain new large-scale smallholder projects in the lowveld, which arguably may be the most sensible route for agriculture-related development. The key challenge is to ensure this confluence of endowments creates a wider spread of benefits than is currently being enjoyed by small farmers in Swaziland and at the same time, decisionmakers also recognise that expanding formal large-scale smallholder is not without risks.
Water alternatives, 2010
Two contemporary theories of river basin management are compared. One is centralised 'regulatory ... more Two contemporary theories of river basin management are compared. One is centralised 'regulatory river basin management' with an apex authority that seeks hydrometric data and nationally agreed standards and procedures in decisions over water quality and allocation. This model is commonplace and can be identified in many water training curricula and derivatives of basin management policy. The other, 'polycentric river basin management', is institutionally, organisationally and geographically more decentralised, emphasising local, collective ownership and reference to locally agreed standards. The polycentric model is constructed from the creation of appropriate managerial subunits within river basins. This model emphasises the deployment of hydrologists, scientists and other service providers as mediating agents of environmental and institutional transformation, tackling issues arising within and between the basin subunits such as water allocation and distribution, productivity improvement and conflict resolution. Significantly, it considers water allocation between subunits rather than between sectors and to do this promulgates an experimental, step-wise pragmatic approach, building on local ideas to make tangible progress in basins where data monitoring is limited, basin office resources are constrained and regulatory planning has stalled. To explore these issues, the paper employs the 'Cathedral and Bazaar' metaphor of Eric Raymond. The discussion is informed by observations from Tanzania, Nigeria and the UK.
This article is a case study about competition over water resources in Tanzania. It shows that su... more This article is a case study about competition over water resources in Tanzania. It shows that such disputes about resources are politically as well as scientifically driven and therefore require responses drawn from both physical and human geography. It is useful for A-level topics on resource issues and water conflict in particular.
Taylor & Francis eBooks, 1996
This paper argues that six approaches to water management in river basins in Sub-Sahara Africa he... more This paper argues that six approaches to water management in river basins in Sub-Sahara Africa help ensure the sustainability of water resources utilisation. These are; threshold contingency planning, sectoral demand management, an integrated approach, proportional water sharing, core water provision and capping of the maximum abstraction volume. The latter three of these six are specific to the non-equilibrium hydrological conditions found in such river basins. These conditions arise because groundwater resources are absent due to basement parent rock, and because a highly dynamic climate, which exogenously supplies the river basin, opens and closes the river basin in wet and dry years respectively. For both proportional and core water allocation, steps can be identified that promote these in ways which are cost efficient, transparent and less resilient to subversion.
Sustainability, Sep 3, 2020
Initiated by a research project examining agricultural and water resilience in South Africa and t... more Initiated by a research project examining agricultural and water resilience in South Africa and tested in workshops on a range of topics, we reflect on our application of a half-to-one day "games designing" format for constructing dynamic metaphors for complex systems and related concepts (e.g., the resilience or sustainability of a catchment/agricultural marketing system). While this short format gives rich and detailed games that potentially could be played in an extended version of the workshop, we did not go ahead with this step. Instead, we devoted the limited time available to supporting participants in designing, comparing and discussing their games and to exploring the concepts and meanings of a given complex system, even if the latter was initially deemed by participants to be abstract and "academic". Our abridged term for short-format games designing is "rapid games designing" (RGD). Key benefits to participating individuals, the whole group and workshop organizers include (a) the highly productive and creative use of limited time; (b) an inclusive group exercise that draws everyone into the process; (c) rich discussion of pluralist viewpoints through the comparison of the remarkable variety of games generated, including their differences in purpose, players and rules; and (d) observations on how the games construct a dynamic metaphor for the system and its properties, leading to deeper insights and knowledge building regarding system concepts and components. Here, we use two case studies in South Africa to explore what value RGD provides and how it does so, and then we briefly compare it to other similar methods. We also provide practical guidance for facilitating RGD workshops. In conclusion, we argue this format offers an option for the ongoing evolution of games about complex human, natural and socio-ecological systems and that it generates considerable creativity, learning, discussion and insights amongst all participants.
The gain moves to the proprietor's immediate neighbours, raising their production The salvaged ga... more The gain moves to the proprietor's immediate neighbours, raising their production The salvaged gain stays with the proprietor to raise its production The salvaged gain moves to the common pool for environmental conservation Salvaged 'freed up' resources The salvaged efficiency gain moves to the wider economy to meet government, urban, and industrial demands Order Your Copy Today www.routledge.com/9780415828468 Resource Efficiency Complexity and the Commons The Paracommons and Paradoxes of Natural Resource Losses, Wastes and Wastages By Bruce Lankford About the book The efficient use of natural resources is key to a sustainable economy, and yet the complexities of the physical aspects of resource efficiency are poorly understood. In this challenging book, the author proposes a major advance in our understanding of this topic by analysing resource efficiency and efficiency gains from the perspective of common pool resources, applying this idea particularly to water resources and its use in irrigated agriculture.
Water Policy, Apr 1, 2004
Observations in Tanzania indicate that the improvement of traditional smallholder irrigation does... more Observations in Tanzania indicate that the improvement of traditional smallholder irrigation does not necessarily result in improved water performance, greater equity and reduced conflict. The usual outcomes of such projects is a gain in water for the system being upgraded, especially if located upstream, accompanied by less ability to share water at the river basin scale. This paper concludes that these projects do not commonly understand, match and respond to the complexities of well-developed and evolving smallholder irrigation found in multiuser river basins. Without re-appraisal, the risk is that donors will be unsuccessful with smallholder irrigation and turn away from this sector, as they did with large-scale irrigation.
This working paper sets out the fieldwork manual that was utilised to conduct research in LADDER ... more This working paper sets out the fieldwork manual that was utilised to conduct research in LADDER villages in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya during 2001. The manual was applied in 38 villages and to roughly 1,200 households across the four countries. The manual seeks to combine qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate rural livelihoods, and to establish the social and institutional context within which livelihood strategies unfold. This is not the entire methodology for the LADDER research project, which also comprises work on micro-macro links and engagement with key policy processes in each country. It is perhaps unusual to make plain the field methods of a project in this way. More often the results of household or village level investigations are presented, but the process by which these results were obtained remains undocumented. It is hoped that this manual may prove useful to others undertaking similar work, since a lot of reinventing of the wheel tends to happen in devising fieldwork of this sort. Section A of the manual deals with the organisation of the research, including selection of villages and households. Section B is concerned with secondary data, key informants and group methods of enquiry, and especially with eliciting the contextual character of rural livelihoods. Section C provides the basic set of sample survey forms that were administered to households. This set excludes a few components that were investigated at household level in just a few of the case-study villages.
<p>Many people in low-income countries and fragile states struggle to access the fo... more <p>Many people in low-income countries and fragile states struggle to access the foundations of family and community health which we see as a three-way nexus of; access to safe water and sanitation, a sufficient and balanced diet and effective health services. These factors interact with each other to affect personal and community health in different ways mediated by environmental and social factors specific to local and national contexts. Our paper conceptually explores the hydrological foundations of safe water, food and health interactions that underpin individual, community and global health. In doing so we recognise the recursive dynamics of water and sanitation and health (WASH), food and diet systems, climate change, emergent diseases, conflict and freshwater ecosystems degradation, loss of biodiversity and migration.&#160; Outbreaks of Ebola and the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that localised community health problems, and the local freshwater needed to combat them, can emerge and quickly escalate to have global health, economic, social, and political consequences. Therefore, a focus on improving the foundations of health (improved water access, food and nutrition security and health services) in low-income communities (LIC) and fragile or conflict affected states (FCS) not only targets populations in greatest need and most likely to benefit but creates opportunities to strengthen and protect global health.</p>
Open Book Publishers, Sep 1, 2021
Originally conceived to discuss water in irrigation systems, this chapter adapts the concept of '... more Originally conceived to discuss water in irrigation systems, this chapter adapts the concept of 'paracommons' to CO 2 governance. The paracommons is 'a commons of material salvages', occurring within the context of multiple pathways for resources salvaged from wastage/waste and via reduced consumption. The carbon/atmospheric commons can be framed in three consecutive stages, with implications for how carbon dioxide is conceived, counted and managed to achieve reductions in global emissions and levels: a 'sink-type atmospheric commons' occurring prior to the 1980/90s, a 'husbandry-type carbon commons' lasting from the 1980/90s to the 2030s, and an emergency 'carbon paracommons' post-2030s. The first stage sees the atmosphere treated as a dump or sink for carbon dioxide (CO 2) 'waste' resulting in rising CO 2 levels. The second stage sees climate change mitigation (e.g. carbon sequestration in forests) as Ostromian-commons husbandry that attempts to reduce CO 2 emission rates but continues to result in levels remaining above 400 ppm. In the third stage, the paracommons treats CO 2 and its 'salvaging' as a matter of urgency leading to permanent sequestration, non-use and transformation. A 'Commons' Framing of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide This article frames carbon in the Earth's atmosphere as three sequential stages of commons, 1 as illustrated in Figure 4: a sink-type commons 1 An area or collection of resources for use by individuals and groups often held 'in common' but subject to varying pressures and ownership modalities.
Agricultural Water Management, May 1, 2012
Irrigation and Drainage Systems, Jun 1, 1992
Page 1. Irrigation and Drainage Systems 6: 113-128, 1992 © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Print... more Page 1. Irrigation and Drainage Systems 6: 113-128, 1992 © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands The use of measured water flows in furrow irrigation management - a case study in Swaziland BRUCE ...
Water alternatives, Oct 1, 2009
In July 2009, in the closing moments of the G8 meeting in Italy, President Obama responded to a q... more In July 2009, in the closing moments of the G8 meeting in Italy, President Obama responded to a question from the floor regarding investments in Africa to tackle food security and poverty. His answer (quoted below) included the phrase "the right irrigation". This opinion piece reflects on the phrase, places it within a policy debate and suggests that the development community can respond to Obama's call for the 'right irrigation' in sub-Saharan Africa by taking a comprehensive approach that utilises a mixture of technologies, builds on local capabilities, brings sound engineering know-how, is supported by a range of other services, and acknowledges other water needs within catchments. Cost-effectiveness and community ownership will be important.
International Journal of Water Resources Development, Sep 1, 2001
Allocation of water in river basins not only requires the setting of targets of water supply to d... more Allocation of water in river basins not only requires the setting of targets of water supply to different users, but also the establishment of appropriate strategies to achieve those targets. As an example of this, "red routes" -an idea taken from a plan used in the city of London to ensure free-flowing traffic on key arterial routes -is proposed for the Ruaha basin in Tanzania. The paper argues that allocation of water is best achieved by managing key rivers (red routes), rather than all rivers, and by concentrating on part rather than the whole of the annual calendar. In this way, the principle of 'zoning' is employed to utilise comparative advantages found in some rivers and not in others. This strategic approach selects from the main theories of water management; command and control, technical, economic, and community-based activities. It also uses, in part, a rural-livelihoods justification for re-allocation. This strategic approach fits the hydrological situation of both use and supply of water and has clear objectives in mind, proposing the necessary management activities to deliver the objectives.
This paper argues that the dominance of estate sugarcane has caused, and is continuing to provide... more This paper argues that the dominance of estate sugarcane has caused, and is continuing to provide, an important 'political economy' to the development of smallholder irrigation in Swaziland; the lack of traditional, non-sugar smallholder irrigation in Swaziland is partly a product of the orientation of the lowveld towards irrigated sugar production. This relationship forms via a number of ways, explored in this paper. These factors, support services, and the agro-industrial farming environment combined with the high risks of successful development of small-scale irrigation in the middleveld, provide a momentum in capability that may considerably sustain new large-scale smallholder projects in the lowveld, which arguably may be the most sensible route for agriculture-related development. The key challenge is to ensure this confluence of endowments creates a wider spread of benefits than is currently being enjoyed by small farmers in Swaziland and at the same time, decisionmakers also recognise that expanding formal large-scale smallholder is not without risks.
Water alternatives, 2010
Two contemporary theories of river basin management are compared. One is centralised 'regulatory ... more Two contemporary theories of river basin management are compared. One is centralised 'regulatory river basin management' with an apex authority that seeks hydrometric data and nationally agreed standards and procedures in decisions over water quality and allocation. This model is commonplace and can be identified in many water training curricula and derivatives of basin management policy. The other, 'polycentric river basin management', is institutionally, organisationally and geographically more decentralised, emphasising local, collective ownership and reference to locally agreed standards. The polycentric model is constructed from the creation of appropriate managerial subunits within river basins. This model emphasises the deployment of hydrologists, scientists and other service providers as mediating agents of environmental and institutional transformation, tackling issues arising within and between the basin subunits such as water allocation and distribution, productivity improvement and conflict resolution. Significantly, it considers water allocation between subunits rather than between sectors and to do this promulgates an experimental, step-wise pragmatic approach, building on local ideas to make tangible progress in basins where data monitoring is limited, basin office resources are constrained and regulatory planning has stalled. To explore these issues, the paper employs the 'Cathedral and Bazaar' metaphor of Eric Raymond. The discussion is informed by observations from Tanzania, Nigeria and the UK.
This article is a case study about competition over water resources in Tanzania. It shows that su... more This article is a case study about competition over water resources in Tanzania. It shows that such disputes about resources are politically as well as scientifically driven and therefore require responses drawn from both physical and human geography. It is useful for A-level topics on resource issues and water conflict in particular.
Taylor & Francis eBooks, 1996
This paper argues that six approaches to water management in river basins in Sub-Sahara Africa he... more This paper argues that six approaches to water management in river basins in Sub-Sahara Africa help ensure the sustainability of water resources utilisation. These are; threshold contingency planning, sectoral demand management, an integrated approach, proportional water sharing, core water provision and capping of the maximum abstraction volume. The latter three of these six are specific to the non-equilibrium hydrological conditions found in such river basins. These conditions arise because groundwater resources are absent due to basement parent rock, and because a highly dynamic climate, which exogenously supplies the river basin, opens and closes the river basin in wet and dry years respectively. For both proportional and core water allocation, steps can be identified that promote these in ways which are cost efficient, transparent and less resilient to subversion.
Sustainability, Sep 3, 2020
Initiated by a research project examining agricultural and water resilience in South Africa and t... more Initiated by a research project examining agricultural and water resilience in South Africa and tested in workshops on a range of topics, we reflect on our application of a half-to-one day "games designing" format for constructing dynamic metaphors for complex systems and related concepts (e.g., the resilience or sustainability of a catchment/agricultural marketing system). While this short format gives rich and detailed games that potentially could be played in an extended version of the workshop, we did not go ahead with this step. Instead, we devoted the limited time available to supporting participants in designing, comparing and discussing their games and to exploring the concepts and meanings of a given complex system, even if the latter was initially deemed by participants to be abstract and "academic". Our abridged term for short-format games designing is "rapid games designing" (RGD). Key benefits to participating individuals, the whole group and workshop organizers include (a) the highly productive and creative use of limited time; (b) an inclusive group exercise that draws everyone into the process; (c) rich discussion of pluralist viewpoints through the comparison of the remarkable variety of games generated, including their differences in purpose, players and rules; and (d) observations on how the games construct a dynamic metaphor for the system and its properties, leading to deeper insights and knowledge building regarding system concepts and components. Here, we use two case studies in South Africa to explore what value RGD provides and how it does so, and then we briefly compare it to other similar methods. We also provide practical guidance for facilitating RGD workshops. In conclusion, we argue this format offers an option for the ongoing evolution of games about complex human, natural and socio-ecological systems and that it generates considerable creativity, learning, discussion and insights amongst all participants.
The gain moves to the proprietor's immediate neighbours, raising their production The salvaged ga... more The gain moves to the proprietor's immediate neighbours, raising their production The salvaged gain stays with the proprietor to raise its production The salvaged gain moves to the common pool for environmental conservation Salvaged 'freed up' resources The salvaged efficiency gain moves to the wider economy to meet government, urban, and industrial demands Order Your Copy Today www.routledge.com/9780415828468 Resource Efficiency Complexity and the Commons The Paracommons and Paradoxes of Natural Resource Losses, Wastes and Wastages By Bruce Lankford About the book The efficient use of natural resources is key to a sustainable economy, and yet the complexities of the physical aspects of resource efficiency are poorly understood. In this challenging book, the author proposes a major advance in our understanding of this topic by analysing resource efficiency and efficiency gains from the perspective of common pool resources, applying this idea particularly to water resources and its use in irrigated agriculture.
Water Policy, Apr 1, 2004
Observations in Tanzania indicate that the improvement of traditional smallholder irrigation does... more Observations in Tanzania indicate that the improvement of traditional smallholder irrigation does not necessarily result in improved water performance, greater equity and reduced conflict. The usual outcomes of such projects is a gain in water for the system being upgraded, especially if located upstream, accompanied by less ability to share water at the river basin scale. This paper concludes that these projects do not commonly understand, match and respond to the complexities of well-developed and evolving smallholder irrigation found in multiuser river basins. Without re-appraisal, the risk is that donors will be unsuccessful with smallholder irrigation and turn away from this sector, as they did with large-scale irrigation.
This working paper sets out the fieldwork manual that was utilised to conduct research in LADDER ... more This working paper sets out the fieldwork manual that was utilised to conduct research in LADDER villages in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya during 2001. The manual was applied in 38 villages and to roughly 1,200 households across the four countries. The manual seeks to combine qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate rural livelihoods, and to establish the social and institutional context within which livelihood strategies unfold. This is not the entire methodology for the LADDER research project, which also comprises work on micro-macro links and engagement with key policy processes in each country. It is perhaps unusual to make plain the field methods of a project in this way. More often the results of household or village level investigations are presented, but the process by which these results were obtained remains undocumented. It is hoped that this manual may prove useful to others undertaking similar work, since a lot of reinventing of the wheel tends to happen in devising fieldwork of this sort. Section A of the manual deals with the organisation of the research, including selection of villages and households. Section B is concerned with secondary data, key informants and group methods of enquiry, and especially with eliciting the contextual character of rural livelihoods. Section C provides the basic set of sample survey forms that were administered to households. This set excludes a few components that were investigated at household level in just a few of the case-study villages.
<p>Many people in low-income countries and fragile states struggle to access the fo... more <p>Many people in low-income countries and fragile states struggle to access the foundations of family and community health which we see as a three-way nexus of; access to safe water and sanitation, a sufficient and balanced diet and effective health services. These factors interact with each other to affect personal and community health in different ways mediated by environmental and social factors specific to local and national contexts. Our paper conceptually explores the hydrological foundations of safe water, food and health interactions that underpin individual, community and global health. In doing so we recognise the recursive dynamics of water and sanitation and health (WASH), food and diet systems, climate change, emergent diseases, conflict and freshwater ecosystems degradation, loss of biodiversity and migration.&#160; Outbreaks of Ebola and the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that localised community health problems, and the local freshwater needed to combat them, can emerge and quickly escalate to have global health, economic, social, and political consequences. Therefore, a focus on improving the foundations of health (improved water access, food and nutrition security and health services) in low-income communities (LIC) and fragile or conflict affected states (FCS) not only targets populations in greatest need and most likely to benefit but creates opportunities to strengthen and protect global health.</p>
Open Book Publishers, Sep 1, 2021
Originally conceived to discuss water in irrigation systems, this chapter adapts the concept of '... more Originally conceived to discuss water in irrigation systems, this chapter adapts the concept of 'paracommons' to CO 2 governance. The paracommons is 'a commons of material salvages', occurring within the context of multiple pathways for resources salvaged from wastage/waste and via reduced consumption. The carbon/atmospheric commons can be framed in three consecutive stages, with implications for how carbon dioxide is conceived, counted and managed to achieve reductions in global emissions and levels: a 'sink-type atmospheric commons' occurring prior to the 1980/90s, a 'husbandry-type carbon commons' lasting from the 1980/90s to the 2030s, and an emergency 'carbon paracommons' post-2030s. The first stage sees the atmosphere treated as a dump or sink for carbon dioxide (CO 2) 'waste' resulting in rising CO 2 levels. The second stage sees climate change mitigation (e.g. carbon sequestration in forests) as Ostromian-commons husbandry that attempts to reduce CO 2 emission rates but continues to result in levels remaining above 400 ppm. In the third stage, the paracommons treats CO 2 and its 'salvaging' as a matter of urgency leading to permanent sequestration, non-use and transformation. A 'Commons' Framing of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide This article frames carbon in the Earth's atmosphere as three sequential stages of commons, 1 as illustrated in Figure 4: a sink-type commons 1 An area or collection of resources for use by individuals and groups often held 'in common' but subject to varying pressures and ownership modalities.
Agricultural Water Management, May 1, 2012
Irrigation and Drainage Systems, Jun 1, 1992
Page 1. Irrigation and Drainage Systems 6: 113-128, 1992 © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Print... more Page 1. Irrigation and Drainage Systems 6: 113-128, 1992 © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands The use of measured water flows in furrow irrigation management - a case study in Swaziland BRUCE ...