Social-economic-environmental trade-offs in managing the Land-River-Interface

Rivers and the land that surrounds them are focal points of economic activity and development in most countries. They are essential to humans for water supply, agriculture, transport and energy; hold significant importance socially and culturally; and have critically important ecological habitats that sustain high biodiversity. However, they are rarely managed in a holistic manner. Institutional boundaries, socio-economic drivers and barriers, and complex interactions in environmental processes limit severely our ability to integrate policies across the Land-River-Interface (LRI). As a result, management decisions often have unintended social, economic, cultural and environmental consequences locally and further upstream/downstream in the catchment.

The ecosystem services delivered by a holistically-managed LRI would support the attainment of multiple, interdependent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 1) No poverty - supporting rural livelihoods by mitigating soil erosion and flooding; 2) Zero hunger - sustainable food production, agroforestry, soil erosion; 6) Clean water and sanitation - pollutant trapping and bioremediation; 7) Affordable and clean energy - modern biomass and hydropower energy generation; 11) Sustainable cities and communities -risk reduction; safeguarding cultural heritage; 13) Climate Action - land-based climate mitigation, afforestation; 15) Life on Land - maintaining habitats and biodiversity.

The aim of the proposed project is to support the design of integrated and sustainable policy and practice solutions for the LRI that enhance multiple SDGs through investigation and modelling of the spatially-explicit social, economic and environmental trade-offs to LRI management under different socio-economic pathways and climate scenarios. The research is co-designed with the full range of key stakeholders (local farmers, water management boards, regional and national government) within the case study catchment, the Beas-Sutlej, a transnational river in the Himalayan region whose land, river and water drive the economy of the region (hydropower, irrigated agriculture). First, a set of research activities will be undertaken to characterise the social, economic, and environmental interactions operating in the LRI of the case study catchment. An institutional analysis will investigate the top-down barriers and enablers on integrated LRI management (Azhoni & Peng), and social research (interviews and surveys) will explore the bottom-up controls (Bala & Shankar). Then, this improved understanding will be employed to develop a whole systems representation of the LRI by merging terrestrial ecosystem service (Peng & Meersmans), catchment hydrological and water resource modelling (Holman & Shankar). The modelling will provide improved, spatially-explicit estimates of the land- and river-based ecosystem services that support attainment of the target SDGs, which will be used in the final set of activities to test policy and practice solutions (Grabowski, Bala, & Azhoni) under different future socio-economic and climate scenarios (Holman, Peng & Grabowski).

The LRI will continue to be a key area for economic development and intensification in the future. By understanding and predicting the nature and location of social-economic-environmental trade-offs to management, integrated solutions can be co-designed with stakeholders for its land, water and river resources to ensure future resilience and minimise unintended consequences in the human-environment system.

Understanding the social, economic and environmental trade-offs in the management of the land that adjoins the river (i.e. riparian zone) and the river itself (i.e. Land-River-Interface, LRI) is essential for attaining elements of multiple, interdependent Sustainable Development Goals: 1) No poverty - supporting rural livelihoods by mitigating soil erosion and flooding; 2) Zero hunger - sustainable food production, agroforestry, soil erosion; 6) Clean water and sanitation - pollutant trapping and bioremediation; 7) Affordable and clean energy - modern biomass and hydropower energy generation; 11) Sustainable cities and communities -risk reduction; safeguarding cultural heritage; 13) Climate Action - land-based climate mitigation, afforestation; 15) Life on Land - maintaining habitats and biodiversity.

The LRI project will use an improved understanding of the spatially-explicit trade-offs in LRI management strategies in a strategically-importance transboundary river basin to inform the design of integrated and sustainable solutions that enhance multiple SDGs. As such the research will resonate with a broad range of beneficiaries and will build upon, but not replicate, the research and successful engagement activities within the SusHi-Wat project (part of the UK-India 'Sustaining Water Resources' programme).
At the strategic level, national organisations in India and China responsible for policy formulation and practice in relation to land and water management, rural development and food security will benefit from improved understanding of how policy planning can reduce the trade-offs within ecosystem services and SDGs associated with LRI management. These include the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, the Planning Commission (India), national and State Ministries of Agriculture, Rural Development, Environment and Forest, etc. At the State/Province level, the state Departments of Agriculture (provider of agricultural extension activities), Irrigation & Public Health and Urban Development will benefit from freely available tools for assessing social-economic-environmental trade-offs in LRI management, and fed into local planning in block development councils (Panchayat Samiti) via elected board members, which include parliamentary and state legislative assembly members (India). At the river-basin level, water and hydropower providers (SJVN, NHPN, Bkahra-Beas Management Board) will benefit from insights to support their environmental protection/ improvement and community service activities. Local rural farmers and landless workers will ultimately benefit through improved livelihoods resulting from increased availability of provisioning ecosystem services and improved welfare of women and families (Mahila Mandals).

A range of impact activities are scheduled, including:
(1) Stakeholder engagement through a project website and social media that will link the research team and key end users in India and China and act as a focal point for the outreach and networking activities. This will be supported through pre-existing relationships and those established through the WP1 engagement activities with national and state policymakers, agencies and farmers;
(2) Production of short non-technical summaries and policy briefs (in English, Hindi and Mandarin) will be disseminated to LRI-interviewees (from WP1); TASE programme participants and wider national/international initiatives/projects/commissions
(3) Workshops- we will carry out 3 workshops with farmer organizations, central and state government agencies and agricultural extension advisers at the start, mid-point and end of the project.
(4) Education and Extension Education - the research will feed into the taught undergraduate, postgraduate and CPD short courses, and extension education programmes.
Full details of activities provided in the pathways to impact