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If there is one certainty for the sustainable management of water resources is that facing uncertainty is an unavoidable matter. A concern that, in addition to the best available scientific knowledge and models, requires deep insights about the socio relational processes that underlie decision-making. Our objective here is to better understand if and how the socio relational environment in which decisions are made shapes decision-making under uncertainty in common pool water resource management. Our goal is twofold: methodological and analytical. It consists in designing experiments for carrying out uncertainty analysis to explore the influence that the relationships established among decision actors have in making decision choices under uncertainty in management processes. To this end, we developed one experimental game protocol, representing a typical water management scenario: irrigation, which we use to test two different conjectures about the combined effects of uncertainty and relationships. In doing so, we play close attention to the quality of relationships developed among players (acting as water managers), and how these relationships are structured and organized. Initial tests confirmed the importance that the relationships established among players have for coping with uncertainty in managing water resources.

Estimating flood damage, although crucial for assessing flood risk and for designing mitigation policies, continues to face numerous challenges, notably the assessment of indirect damage. It is widely accepted that damage other than direct damage can account for a significant proportion of total damage. Yet due to more scarce data sources and lack of knowledge on links within and between economic activities, indirect impacts have received less attention than direct impacts. Furthermore, attempts to grasp indirect damage through economic models have not gone below regional levels. Even though local communities can be devastated by flood events without this being reflected in regional accounts, few studies have been conducted from a microeconomic perspective at local level. What is more, the standard practices applied at this level of analysis tackle entities but ignore how they may be linked. This paper addresses these two challenges by building a novel agent-based model of a local agricultural production chain (a cooperative winemaking system), which is then used as a virtual laboratory for the ex-ante estimation of flood impacts. We show how overlooking existing interactions between economic entities in production chains can result in either overestimation (double counting) or underestimation (wrong estimation of the consequences for the activity) of flood damage. Our results also reveal that considering interactions requires thorough characterization of their spatial configuration.Based on both the application of our method and the results obtained, we propose balanced recommendations for flood damage estimation at local level.

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]GEUSI [ADD1_IRSTEA]Gestion intégrée de la ressource et des infrastructures; International audience; In order to better manage complex situations of natural resource management, models are built in a participative way, involving the stakeholders of these situations in participatory modelling activities. The impact that this activity of participatory modelling has on the stakeholders is at the heart of the Companion Modelling approach but this impact is hardly possible to evaluate on the field. In this paper we propose a general framework to study in vitro the impact of participatory modelling on natural resources management. We illustrate our framework by proposing an experimental setting that looks at participatory modelling in the context of water management. We realized a pilot experiment and show that this experimental setting can be used to test, in the laboratory, the hypothesis that participatory modelling of a common pool resource situation has an impact on the way the resource is managed and increases the cooperative behaviour of stakeholders.

Financing of multiple use (i.e. domestic and productive) water services was identified as an important ingredient to ensure improved water access for rural poor and broaden livelihood options in South Africa. Following the principles of integrated water resource management (IWRM), efficient, equitable and sustainable investments in improved water services should be based on a thorough understanding of actual demand by consumers. Comprehensive studies looking at multiple use water services are not common in South African rural areas, where most of the economic analyses focus on either domestic or irrigation water demand. This study aims at filling this gap by assessing the household demand for multiple use water services in Sekororo-Letsoalo area in the Limpopo Province. Choice modelling is the approach used to identify the attributes determining demand for water services and quantify their relative importance. Results show that households in rural areas are willing to pay for improvements in water services. Due to the current poor level of water services in the area, users are primarily concerned with basic domestic uses and, consequently, demand for productive uses is low. Only households already relatively well served are interested in engaging in multiple water uses.Keywords: choice modelling, multiple water uses, domestic water demand, water services, willingness to pay

Since 2007, the world has seen a rush towards natural resources, particularly land as well as water. It resulted from a convergence of the 2007- 2008 food price crisis in a context of growing populations and changing diets, and the search for alternatives to financial investment products. Although data is scarce, recent estimates show that about 42 million hectares have been acquired (Nolte, Chamberlain and Giger, 2016). Contrary to what is often highlighted, these lands are not the most marginal, underused and unowned, but are close to other resources, especially water, as well as infrastructure (roads and transport) and services. This means the resource acquisition phenomenon is embedded in a complex matrix of resources and processes which is increasingly under pressure. That said, attention has so far mainly been sectoral, focused on land issues and neglecting this interconnectedness. However, the water implications of these land deals are starting to surface.

International audience; We describe a classroom experimental game focusing on some key economic concepts surrounding water management. The game shows the case of an asymmetric common-pool resource: an irrigation system where players represent irrigating farmers. Dilemmas between individual and collective interests arise, and asymmetry of access to the resource renders it more difficult to reach a cooperative equilibrium. The game is used to test hypotheses about the influence of communication and of water availability on players’ cooperation, hence on the group’s ability to reach equilibrium. The game was used in multiple postgraduate teaching contexts. We show the example of a session played in Tunisia, where communication had a strong and positive impact on cooperation, and compare the results of that session with those of another played in South Africa, where different outcomes emerged from the game. We then discuss the advantages and the limitations of such an experimental game for teaching purposes.

We analyse the threats of global environmental change, as they relate to food security. First, we review three discourses: (i) ‘sustainable intensification’, or the increase of food supplies without compromising food producing inputs, such as soils and water; (ii) the ‘nexus’ that seeks to understand links across food, energy, environment and water systems; and (iii) ‘resilience thinking’ that focuses on how to ensure the critical capacities of food, energy and water systems are maintained in the presence of uncertainties and threats. Second, we build on these discourses to present the causal, risks and options assessment for decision-making process to improve decision-making in the presence of risks. The process provides a structured, but flexible, approach that moves from problem diagnosis to better risk-based decision-making and outcomes by responding to causal risks within and across food, energy, environment and water systems.

International audience; The paper emphasizes key lessons learnt about a research intervention implemented from 2006 to 2009 to solve water access conflicts in the Klaten irrigated rice production area (Central Java, Indonesia). To make stakeholders' involvement easier, to empower them and build their capacity, action research was carried out according to a flexible and iterative approach. Each step involved a cycle of diagnosis, action planning, implementation, evaluation and learning. The paper shows the need to facilitate the functioning of a multi-stakeholder platform through the creation of a monitoring mechanism in order to ensure, on the one hand, stakeholders' involvement within the action-research process and on the other hand, foster brainstorming and mutual learning among participants. The paper brings to the fore the usefulness of assessing findings of multidisciplinary and participatory appraisals through modeling and geo-referenced mapping tools in order to facilitate collective learning, negotiation and technical and institutional innovation. Finally, through the assessment of the evolution of the farmers' association, whose creation was a project outcome, the paper reflects about key issues and key steps that have contributed to carry on successfully the developed methodology. Keywords: conflict / water access / irrigation / participatory approach / multi-stakeholders / Indonesia Résumé-Approche et impacts d'un processus participatif pour la réorganisation de la gestion d'un périmètre irrigué : étude de cas en Indonésie. L'article illustre les enseignements tirés d'une recherche-intervention conduite entre 2006 et 2009 dans le bassin rizicole irrigué de Klaten (Java, Indonésie) pour résoudre les conflits d'accès à l'eau et mettre en oeuvre un plan d'action. Afin de faciliter l'implication des différents acteurs et, parallèlement, de renforcer leur autonomie et capacité d'intervention, des actions de recherche ont été réalisées sur la base d'une approche itérative et flexible. Ainsi, chaque étape a été développée selon un cycle : diagnostic, plan d'action, mise en oeuvre et évaluation des actions, et enseignements retenus. L'article insiste sur la nécessité de créer et de faciliter le fonctionnement d'une plate-forme multi-acteurs et d'un comité de suivi afin de garantir l'implication des acteurs dans la démarche et d'initier un groupe de réflexion parmi les participants. En fonction de la question de recherche posée et de son échelle physique et organisationnelle, il met en avant l'utilité d'analyser les résultats des diagnostics participatifs et multidisciplinaires via les outils de modélisation et de représentation cartographique géo-référencée, afin de faciliter l'apprentissage collectif, la négociation et l'innovation technique et institutionnelle. Enfin, en se référant à l'évaluation de l'évolution de l'association d'irrigants dont la création a été un résultat du projet, il discute les étapes clés qui ont contribué au succès de la méthodologie développée.

International audience; Irrigation water is a crucial resource for economic and social development in Tunisia. In a context of decentralization and State devolution, the local associations for agricultural development or 'Groupements de Développement Agricole (GDA)' manage today a large share of irrigation water in the country. However, these institutions are experiencing a lack of acknowledgment by water users, resulting in a low willingness to pay (WTP) for water. In this article, we study to what extent information provided to users on the functioning of the system (« institutional » information) and/or on the decisions taken by other users (« social » information) can affect their WTP. Our analysis is twofold. A field survey first revealed the farmers' demand for better information provision. A laboratory experiment allowed then to isolate the impact of the two types of information on subjects' decisions through a game with similar properties to those observed in the field. Data collected in the lab confirm the existence of a causality relation between information provided to users and their WTP for a common resource such as irrigation water.; L'eau d'irrigation est une ressource cruciale pour le développement économique et social en Tunisie. Dans un contexte de décentralisation et de délégation du rôle de l'État, une part importante de la gestion de cette eau d'irrigation a été confiée aux groupements de développement agricole (GDA). Ces groupements souffrent cependant d'un manque de reconnaissance de la part des usagers, qui se manifeste essentiellement par un faible consentement de leur part à payer les redevances. Dans cet article nous nous demandons dans quelle mesure l'information fournie aux usagers sur le fonctionnement du système (information « institutionnelle ») et/ou sur les décisions prises par les autres usagers (information « sociale ») peut influencer leur consentement à payer. Notre analyse s'est faite en deux temps. Nous avons commencé par une enquête sur le terrain, laquelle révèle effectivement une demande des irrigants en matière de diffusion d'informations. Nous avons ensuite élaboré une expérience permettant d'isoler l'impact de différents types d'information sur les décisions prises par les individus dans le cadre d'un jeu qui a des propriétés proches de la situation de terrain. Les données collectées en laboratoire confirment l'existence d'une relation de causalité entre l'information fournie aux usagers et leur consentement à payer pour une ressource commune comme l'eau d'irrigation.

This article identifies determinants of the decentralisation processes and performances of river basin management decentralisation in Sub-Saharan Africa, using an institutional analysis framework applied to primary data from twenty-seven river basins in the region. Main findings suggest that water scarcity is a major stimulus to the reform; that water user associations, if not well prepared and trained, may deter the decentralisation process and being part of an existing treaty over an international basin helps foster the process for domestic basins that are part of an international basin. Conditions improving decentralisation process performance include: scarcity of water resources, longer period of implementation, bottom-up creation and appropriate budgetary support of the river basin organisation. Due to the sample size our findings can be seen as suggestive for decentralisation policy in remaining river basins across the continent and elsewhere.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the quantitative analysis was performed using data collected in twenty-seven RBOs. This chapter presents the results of statistical analysis. They are split into two subsections: the descriptive statistics and inference of the hypotheses described in analytical and empirical frameworks. The results show that a grass root initiative without government support is not enough to implement sustainable decentralization process as the majority of the basin local institutions and basin stakeholders do not have financial resources and skills, respectively. Therefore, training water user associations revealed to be important for high efficacy of the decentralization process. Additionally, the results show that having water scarcity problems, experiencing longer periods of implementation and having appropriate budgetary support are important drivers of the decentralization process.

The decentralization of water resource management at appropriate level has been subject of debate. The concept gained acceptance in 1992 in Dublin after the international conference on water and environment. As a consequence of the acceptance, most African countries have been implemented decentralization of water resource management through using the integrated water resource management framework. However, the factors affecting the level of decentralization process and performance of water resource management are still unknown and not largely studied in African context. Therefore, this chapter highlights the driving factors yielding the conduction of the present studies, presents the objectives of the study, summarizes the approaches used to analyze the objectives and state how those approaches are different from those used in previous studies.

As noted in Chap. 1, most of African countries have adopted integrated water resource management after the international conference on water and environment, which took place in Dublin in 1992. The implementation of the integrated water resource management has been different within the continent and even within the same region or country. This scenario has produced different results existing within the continent some good experiences while other countries and region are lagging behind. In order to understand the different forms of implementation of integrated water resource management, this chapter describes the process followed in different countries. The description is centered in the policies and other legal instrument enacted by the respective governments, and highlights the key success and failure histories and finally discuss in critical point of view the results obtained from different experiences during the implementation of integrated water resource management in Africa.

The process of water management decentralization in African countries is seen as a means of implementing river basin management at the lowest appropriate level. However, very different stages of implementing decentralization have been observed in practice.

In this study, the analysis of factors explaining the level of decentralization process and performance of river basin management is run using two main approaches: (i) the case study approach and (ii) an econometric approach, of which the framework is described in Chap. 3. The case study approach was implemented in three countries (Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe) during the first phase of the project and it aimed to test the survey instrument used to collect data in the African countries (phase two) and understand the factors affecting the decentralization process and performance of water resource management in these countries. The results showed that problems like the poor or unequal access to water resources by local stakeholders or the lack of autonomy by the local water agencies seem to be generalized in the studied countries. On the other side, factors such as the presence of basin-level governance institutions and the level of information sharing are likely to be in favor of the decentralization process in the three studied catchments, while the composition of catchment boards were not in favor of decentralization process mainly in Mzingwane catchment in Zimbabwe.

As mentioned in previous chapters, the analysis of factors affecting decentralization process was done using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Chapter 3 established the theoretical foundations of the quantitative approach, the hypothesis to be tested and the model used to test the hypothesis in its three dimensions: (i) contextual factors and initial conditions, (ii) characteristics of decentralization process and (iii) characteristics of central government/basin-level relationships and capacities. However, it did not describe the empirical model used to analyze the factors affecting decentralization process and performance. This is the objective of this chapter, where the variables used in the three dimensions listed above and the procedures used to construct these variables are described. Furthermore, the present chapter highlights the process used to collect the data, the challenges faced during data collection and mechanisms used to mitigate these challenges and assure data quality.

In the context of increasing water scarcity, understanding is growing that irrigation water rights are important and that a lack of an effective water rights system constitutes a major reason for inefficient water management. This study carried out a contingent ranking experiment to study how smallholder irrigators in South Africa would value potential changes in water rights. Three specific dimensions of water rights, relevant for the South African case, are considered: duration, quality of title, and transferability. Results indicate that smallholder irrigators are prepared to pay considerably higher water prices if improvements are made in the water rights system. This implies that the proposed interventions in the water rights system would improve the efficiency and productivity of the small-scale irrigation sector. The increased willingness to pay could furthermore also assist the South African government to reach the objective of increased cost recovery. (Resume d'auteur)

Water rights are currently receiving increased attention from scholars and policymakers due to the growing understanding that ill-defined water rights impair efficient use. In South Africa, smallholder irrigation faces problems of low water use efficiency and cost recovery of government investments. This study uses contingent ranking to analyse the willingness to pay (WTP) of smallholder irrigators for changes in the water rights system. The results indicate that smallholders are prepared to pay considerably higher water prices if these are connected to improvements in the water rights system. By segmenting the population it was also shown that the importance attached to water rights dimensions varies in each segment. While lower institutional trust and lower income levels lead to a lower WTP for transferability, experiencing water shortage increases this WTP. Such information is valuable in guiding policy makers in the future design of water rights.

Insight into the value of water is essential to support policy decision making about investments in the water sector, efficient allocation of water and water pricing. However, information on irrigation water values at small-scale schemes is scarce and in general little attention is paid to the determinants of these values. In this study values are calculated for small-scale irrigation schemes in the North West Province of South Africa, using the residual imputation method. An average water value of US$0.188/m3, in line with expectations for vegetable crops, was found. Furthermore, the crop choice and the irrigation scheme design and institutional setting were shown to significantly influence the water value, whilst individual characteristics of farmers proved to be less important.

The paper applies the travel cost method (TCM) to estimate the value that rural households in the Steelpoort sub-basin of South Africa place on river and collective tap water. While the TCM calculations are based on the opportunity cost of the time household members spend on water collection, the resulting welfare values are close in magnitude to the estimates obtained using a contingent valuation method (CVM) on the same sample. The paper shows that in the absence of price data, the TCM provides satisfactory estimates of benefits where direct estimation of demand elasticity would otherwise be impossible. According to both methods, households consuming river water attribute higher value to the resource than collective tap users. The income elasticity of the trip generating function is much higher than that of the opportunity cost of time (price), implying that household's water use behaviour would be more responsive to factors affecting household income than to price incentives. Comparing the estimated values with actual operating and maintenance cost of water provision in the study area suggests that policies promoting cost-covering water tariffs have a potential to succeed. (Resume d'auteur)

International audience; The paper reports on the use of the contingent valuation method to study the determinants of Swazi households' willingness to pay (WTP) for an improvement in their water quantity and quality. A sample of 374 households was surveyed and a Tobit model was applied to explain household preferences for quality and quantity of domestic water supply and derive estimates of WTP for such a service. The results confirm that household income had a positive and statistically significant impact on WTP for both quality and quantity. Distance to the water source is positively associated with WTP regardless of the location (rural or urban) and of the household head's age, education, and gender. Current water consumption was also statistically significant for WTP for improved quantity, but with a negative sign, implying that the more a household consumes water, the less that household is WTP to have improved water quantity. Conversely, the same household would be WTP for improved water quality. Rural households showed a much higher WTP for improved water provision services than urban households. There is therefore scope to improve water service levels in Swaziland even at a higher water price. More precisely, the estimates of WTP obtained in this study indicate the possibility of introducing a demand-driven program to expand the coverage of rural tap water schemes.

We introduce illustration identifying environmental degradation or improvement into a 2x2 coordination game with two pareto-ranked equilibria. Our contribution focuses on the environmental nature of the information provided through the illustrations, and its effects on possible pro-environmental behaviour. Our findings have some important consequences in terms of public policies. Incentives based on sensitization campaigns for environmental issues can be an alternative to economic instruments for environmental management.

International audience; L’approche de modélisation d’accompagnement a historiquement été conçue et expérimentée à un niveau local du fait d’une entrée privilégiée par l’usager de la ressource. Dès ses prémisses la démarche reconnait la diversité des territoires de référence et des échelles de temps mobilisés par les différents acteurs engagés dans la gestion des ressources, et met l’accent sur la représentation de cette diversité, dans les outils comme dans la forme des ateliers de concertation (d'Aquino et al., 2002b; Etienne et al., 2008c; Le Page et al., 2001). Comme de nombreuses démarches participatives développées au niveau local, cette approche a rapidement été confrontée aux questions que pose l’institutionnalisation des démarches participatives (Pimbert, 2004) : intégration institutionnelle des apprentissages collectifs développés au niveau local, prise en compte d’acteurs non présents localement et besoin d’interagir directement avec les régulateurs et décideurs des niveaux plus englobant. Un groupe interne de réflexion s’est constitué dans le réseau ComMod, en parallèle au projet ADD, pour partager les nouveaux défis que représente l’application d’une modélisation d’accompagnement à plusieurs niveaux d’organisation de l’action et de la décision et plus généralement le changement d’échelles dans une démarche de modélisation d’accompagnement. Une démarche de modélisation d’accompagnement, qui fait de la reconnaissance de la diversité des points de vue un élément central, doit s’attacher particulièrement à ce souci de préserver et d’intégrer dans sa démarche d’intervention la diversité des modes de penser et de structurer l’action, en particulier collective, en « niveaux ». Ainsi, sachant que l’organisation en multiples niveaux dans laquelle intervient une démarche ComMod est une représentation cognitive particulière parmi d’autres d’un mode de structuration de l’action au sein de la société, et que cette représentation n’est pas forcément partagée par tous les acteurs, la problématique du « multi-niveaux » appliquée à une démarche opérationnelle de modélisation d’accompagnement peut se décliner en trois questionnements : – Sur quelles représentations en multi-niveaux s’appuyer et comment les prendre en compte dans la démarche (quels outils et quelle méthodologie de participation) ? – Quels impacts ces choix de posture et de méthodologie ont sur le contexte ? – Comment organiser un positionnement sur ces questions qui soit le plus rigoureux possible et le plus en accord avec le principe de base de la modélisation d’accompagnement ? Ce chapitre commence par présenter les définitions clés et les processus tant biophysiques que sociaux sous-tendant les problématiques multi-échelles. Il précise ensuite les enjeux que ces problématiques posent aux démarches de modélisations d’accompagnement puis il analyse la façon dont le collectif a jusqu’à présent abordé le changement d’échelles et l’accompagnement multi-niveaux dans différentes études de cas. Enfin, il ouvre plus généralement sur les questions scientifiques que posent de tels exercices, et les principales pistes de recherche identifiées dans le domaine, avant de conclure sur le positionnement du collectif ComMod.

Background. This article explores the causal effect of context on players’ behavior by using a game based on Cooperative Game Theory (CGT) modified into a coordination experiment. Aims. This article has two aims: first, to suggest an analytical framework focusing on four attributes (Repetition, Illustration, Communication, and Experience) representative of the game’s context; and, second, to use an experimental protocol based on this framework to test hypotheses on how context influences players’ choices. Results. A focal point, different from the expected outcome, emerged in the baseline treatment. In non-repeated treatments, the combination of Illustration and Communication modified the players’ choices observed in the absence of these attributes. However, when tested separately, only Communication proved able to guide players’ choices toward theoretical predictions. When Repetition was introduced, the learning effect was clear in all treatments and both Communication and Illustration produced a dispersion of results. Moreover, Illustration proved to be complementary to Communication in facilitating players’ choices in line with theoretical predictions. Conclusion. These results are preliminary outcomes of a pilot experimental assessment, but have a potential interest in terms of the priorities to be followed when choosing the contextual components constituting an experimental protocol or a game platform.

This article describes the investment behaviour of the wine producer in the Languedoc-Roussillon Region, as a result of pollution control legislation. It is based on an in-depth study of this sector, which has been conducted in close collaboration with the Water Agency of Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse. The analysis has been conducted by mobilising three different but complementary theoretical approaches. First we have considered the neo-classic framework, in which the producer/polluter is rational and informed. Secondly, we have applied the neo-institutional approach in order to highlight transaction costs and institutions. Finally, the evolutionary approach allows us to illustrate the problem of technological dynamics, innovation, and firm selection., Basée sur une étude approfondie du secteur en Languedoc Roussillon conduite en stricte collaboration avec l'Agence de l'eau Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse, cette communication présente la réaction, sous la forme d'investissements, de l'industrie vinicole languedocienne à la dynamique de la législation antipollution. L'analyse a été conduite en mobilisant trois référentiels théoriques différents mais complémentaires. Nous nous sommes d'abord placés dans le cadre néo-classique du comportement du producteur/pollueur rationnel et informé. Dans une seconde étape nous avons mobilisé l'approche néo-institutionnaliste en termes de coûts de transaction et d'institutions. Finalement l'approche évolutionniste éclaire la question de la dynamique technologique, de l'innovation et de la sélection des firmes., Farolfi Stefano, Montaigne Etienne. La politique environnementale dans l'industrie vinicole méridionale - le cas de la dépollution des eaux résiduaires. In: Revue d'économie industrielle, vol. 96, 3e trimestre 2001. pp. 81-104.

Participatory modeling and role-playing games have been successfully implemented for a few decades as tools for social learning and supporting water management and governance. However engaging the stakeholders and scientists in building a dedicated playable model is a repetitive, lengthy and costly process, furthermore not easily transferable. The Wat-A-Game (WAG) methodological toolkit provides generic components ("bricks"), methodological guidelines, training sessions and online support to managers, technicians or teachers who wish to become autonomous in developing and using such approach. With WAG, process managers and other stakeholders can easily assembly land plot cards, hydrographic units, actions and role cards, and let physical water drops (marbles), clean or dirty, flow, be captured and used. Many scales can be addressed and even interlinked. Policies can be tested. WAG is free. WAG has been extended in South Africa (2007-2010) for a process discussing the Catchment Management Strategy with several levels and types of stakeholders. Based on the evaluation made, this process appeared actually successful in bringing stakeholders to share views and understand better their catchment, while providing insights for research on such processes. Outside South-Africa, developments occur in Mozambique (1 executive course), in the Niger basin (2 executive courses, 9 countries), in Ethiopia (1 executive course), in Tunisia (1 operational workshop) and in France (3 projects). In these sessions, participants are guided in developing prototype WAG applications for their own case studies, resulting in new diverse issues and scales (e.g. sedimentation, hydro-electricity, urban expansion...) which at next stage bring new insights and developments for the generic toolkit. For further development and processes, WAG now proposes long term support and a web site including custom tailored design of games, a simulator and a community access.

Le calcul de la valeur economique, relative a l'usage de l'eau, est une tâche essentielle pour les operations de design des incitations economiques et des arrangements institutionnels qui peuvent assurer la durabilite, l'efficience et l'equite de l'allocation de l'eau. Les informations concernant les valeurs de l'eau d'irrigation a l'echelle de petites exploitations irriguees sont parfois limitees. En plus, peu d'attention est accordee a leurs determinants de variabilite. En Afrique de Sud, l'appel a une allocation plus efficace de l'eau qui est due a sa rarete accrue, a l'application planifiee des tarifs d'irrigation, et au role de l'irrigation dans le developpement rural, accroit l'importance d'informations concernant la valeur de l'eau utilisee en agriculture et sa variabilite. Dans ce contexte, notre etude s'interesse a la determination de ces valeurs a l'echelle de petites exploitations irriguees en Afrique de Sud en utilisant la methode d'imputation residuelle. Les resultats montrent que, sans subventionnement de l'eau d'irrigation et des autres inputs, les petits exploitants auront des difficultes a generer un profit de certaines cultures. Ceci genere un doute concernant la capacite des agriculteurs a payer l'eau d'irrigation une fois des charges seront introduites. La valeur moyenne de l'eau d'irrigation estimee par notre etude est de US$0.188 m-3. Les valeurs de l'eau enregistrent, cependant, une large variabilite. Un modele lineaire generalise montre que cette variabilite est principalement due aux choix des cultures, au design du systeme d'irrigation, et au cadre institutionnel applique dans la zone irriguee. (Resume d'auteur)

International audience; In South Africa, with the advent of democracy, both land and water institutions have undergone, and are still undergoing reform measures, especially to address equity and promote rural development. However, despite the apparent inter-linkages of land and water in rural livelihoods and agricultural development, the implementation of such reforms has been done separately. Water reform advocates for the registration and licensing of all non-domestic water use. In terms of the National Water Act (1998), water should be governed in a decentralised manner where new institutions (Water User Associations - WUA, and Catchment Management Agencies - CMA) are established to encourage user participation in decision making, efficiency and equity in water use. On the other hand, in the framework of land reform, with the future implementation of the Communal Land Rights Act of 2004 (CLARA), communal land is to be restructured, probably privatised. Two major questions come to the fore: Does the separate implementation of the water and land reforms have implications for rural livelihoods and agricultural development, particularly regarding inconsistencies of water and land rights respectively? Would articulating the two reforms lead to improved opportunities to address equity and promote rural development? Field work conducted on the communal small scale irrigation schemes of Nzhelele and Thabina highlighted not only the lack of coherence between the land and water reform programmes, but it also showed the implementation constraints of the programmes individually. Although articulating land reform to water reform seems necessary - the lack of effective implementation of water reform remains an obstacle, constraining rural livelihoods and agricultural development. In addition, for it to effectively address equity and promote rural development, it seems necessary for the water or land reforms to be linked to broader agrarian reforms, taking into consideration support services, market access and the overall rural, often multiple, livelihoods and strategies.

Internationally there is growing understandingt hat water rights are important and that a lack of effectivew ater rights systemsc reatesm ajor problemsf or the management of increasingly scarce water supplies. In South Africa the smallll,otderi rrigation'sector faces two major challenges.F irstly water use is inefficient and secondly government, which in the past invested huge amounts of money in the sector, targets improved cost recovery. Improving the definition of the water rights system can have a positive effect with regard to these challenges. At one hand improvements in the definition of water rights can stimulate smallholders to use water more productively, encouraging cooperation and investment; at the other hand an improved watef- rights system increases willingness to pay for water,a llowing governmentto chargeh igher water prices and thus improve cost recovery. This study proposes contingent ranking to analyset he willingnesst o pay of smallholderir rigatorsf or changesin the water rights system.R esultsi ndicatet hat smallholdersa re preparedt o pay considerably higher water prices if thesep rices are connectedw ith advancementsin the water riatrts system. In a second step the sample population was stratified to evaluate th" imiact of smallholder characteristics on their willingness to pay. The importance attachedt o different dimensionso f water rights clearly differs among groops. For example farmers suffering water shortages attach more importance to secure water supply. Policy makers can use such results to guide reforms in the designo f waterrights andt o increasep ublic supportf or interventions. (Resume d'auteur)

Localisation : Centre de documentation P. Bartoli, UMR Lameta, Montpellier (S WPL 2009-24) 2009-24; A role-playing game (RPG), KatAware, was developed in the Kat River catchment of South Africa to support the negotiation process among water users on the allocation rules of the resource. Playing the RPG with local stakeholders exhibited some regularity in the behaviour of players, particularly on their attitude of defining binding agreements. These regularities were first formalized through a model of cooperative game theory (CGT), and then, to confirm the results of the model, tested by an experimental protocol. Both the model and the protocol were based and calibrated on the results of the RPG. The progressive simplification (decontextualization) required to bring the RPG into the laboratory suggested to explore the role of context (in our case water related issues) on players’ behaviour. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the process that conducted the research team from the experience in the Kat River to the first experiments to test the hypotheses exhibited in the experience and then to analyze the influence of context on players’ behaviour. Terms and concepts are clarified in order to provide a clear research framework in this new field at the border between experiences and experiments in social sciences for commons management.

International audience

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]GEUSI40th Annual Conference, Int. Simulation And Gaming Association, Singapour, SGP, 29-/06/2009 - 03/07/2009; International audience; After having designed and used various games for learning and supporting water management and governance, many similarities appear. However, the components, topologies, and social and political setting of the basins are different. Therefore we have started designing andvalidating a new generic game platform, WAT-A-GAME, alias AMANZI. This new game aims at facilitating exploration and transformation of water management and water use at the small catchment scale. It gives a simple but enlightening view of the various consequences of individual and collective choices, including regulation policies. After comparing it with some previous games, we discuss its main rationales and features. We show how it can be adapted to very different settings, how players can usefully contribute to designing an instance, and how it can especially address dialogue between multi-level stakeholders. We describe an application in South-Africa, in the Inkomati basin and the preliminary results of this instance.

Worldwide growing water scarcity has increased the call for economic instruments to stimulate rational water use in agriculture. Furthermore, cost-recovery is now widely accepted as a cornerstone of sustainable water management. In many developing countries, where agricultural water use is often still subsidised, water pricing policies are developed for allocating water efficiently and achieving sustainability of water systems. However, the impacts of water pricing policies on irrigation water use and on farm production systems is mostly unknown. We introduce an innovative two-stage methodology that allows estimating these effects at farm level. Applying the method to small-scale irrigators in South Africa, we show that water demand is quite responsive even to small changes in water price. In addition, the introduction of a water price significantly decreases farm profit. This appears to be a problem primarily for the poorer farmers.

National audience; Les démographes prévoient une population mondiale supérieure à huit milliards avant 2030 et à neuf milliards avant 2050. Devant la hausse de la consommation de l'eau doit on considérer ce bien comme un bien public ou une marchandise ?

This paper provides a synthesis of the main issues discussed at a conference (International Conference on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) entitled: Lessons from Implementation in Developing Countries which took place from 10 to 12 March 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre) which was coordinated to share experiences and lessons learned on the implementation of IWRM in developing countries. This paper discusses six themes that emerged from the conference. These themes provide a perspective on the current status of IWRM and assist in formulating the agenda for further research and implementation approaches based on lessons learned. Firstly, although there is considerable history and international acceptance of IWRM, there is still ongoing debate on how IWRM is defined. However, aside from these debates there is general agreement on the principles underlying IWRM and the potential it holds for managing complex systems that cannot be adequately achieved through the single-sector management approach of the past. To overcome past management paradigms, new capacity building approaches are required. Secondly, implementation of IWRM requires a balance between policy and institutional support and community level projects that have small-scale tangible results for the poor. Thirdly, IWRM involves integration across many spheres, specifically the integration of groundwater management into long-term water resource planning. Fourthly, although there is general endorsement of the importance of public engagement in supporting IWRM approaches, effective public engagement requires considerable strategic planning to ensure that efforts are both applicable and relevant to those involved. Fifthly, the conference highlighted the importance of developing appropriate economic methods and instruments to address the economic trade-offs and decisions that are apparent in water management. Finally, appropriate data, information systems and indicators are required to adequately monitor progress with IWRM implementation.Keywords: integrated water resource management, implementation, managing complex systems, poverty alleviation