Mathematical Programming for Addressing Land and Water Allocation Problems

According to the FAO's 2009 population projection report, the world's population is expected to surpass 9 billion by 2050. As a result, food production demand is expected to increase by 50%, and energy requirements will rise due to economic growth, especially in fast-growing developing countries like Africa and Latin America. Currently, there is increasing competition over limited land use for food, fiber, fuel (energy), and other resource requirements. The Omo-Turkana river basin is one such area where conflicting interests among various stakeholders are causing problems. In the past decade, the Ethiopian government has constructed various water resources development projects on the Omo-Gibe river basin to increase energy and food production, such as the Omo-Gibe cascade hydropower and Kuraz-sugar development projects under the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP). Therefore, there is a need to optimize land and water resources on the Omo-Gibe river basin using a climate-smart landscape approach, which involves integrating different factors, offsite-services (benefits), and offsite-disservices (costs) in the land use planning process. This approach minimizes trade-offs and maximizes synergies among various objectives (WEF nexus) for sustainable natural resource management, including production, regulation, conservation of ecosystems, and the protection of indigenous cultural identity and values. In this study, an extensive literature review was conducted to develop guidelines for selecting appropriate multi-criteria decision-making tools for specific land and water allocation problems. Furthermore, a multi-objective mathematical programming decision model was developed to optimize combined land and water allocation problems. The model was implemented on the Omo-Gibe River basin, Ethiopia, to address multiple ecosystem demands and promote sustainable natural resource management and planning. The results of this study can be used as an optional tool to address multifunctional resource allocation problems, particularly in a competitive river basin.

Jaar van publicatie:2023

Toegankelijkheid:Embargoed