Room for improvement: Hydroclimatic challenges to poverty-reducing development of the Brahmaputra River basin. Issue 54 (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ray, Patrick A.; Yang, Yi-Chen E.; Wi, Sungwook; Khalil, Abedalrazq; Chatikavanij, Vansa; Brown, Casey
• Is Part Of: Environmental science & policy. Issue 54(2015:Dec.)
• Page Start: 64
• Page End: 80
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: Brahmaputra river -- Water resources -- Hydro-economic modeling -- Climate change -- Risk assessment -- River basin planning -- Tibet -- Northeast India -- Bhutan -- Bangladesh -- Hydropower -- Irrigation; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Environnement -- Politique gouvernementale -- Périodiques; Sciences de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Environmental policy; Environmental sciences; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.70561
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2015.06.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-9011

Abstract

Highlights: Not enough is known about the Brahmaputra basin given its geopolitical and environmental significance. We summarize previous research on basin-wide environmental and socio-economic conditions. We present important supplements to the literature in climate, hydrology, and irrigation demand. We identify opportunities for development, as well as hazards posed. We argue for a basin-wide knowledge framework supported by system-level models and better data. Abstract: The Brahmaputra river is the largest (by annual discharge) of the three in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) system, and by itself carries more flow than all but 4 rivers in the world. It is the primary water source for over 130 million people, many of whom are mired in chronic poverty. The potential in the Brahmaputra River basin for poverty-reducing development of agriculture and hydropower is great. However, progress in these sectors and others has been hindered by significant natural and anthropogenic challenges. As they attempt to develop their water resources in a manner that reduces water-related vulnerabilities, the people of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, Bhutan, Northeast India, and Bangladesh face a number of challenges, including: endemic poverty; floods; droughts; groundwater over-abstraction; political unrest; and the broader development ambitions of the member nations (leading to net import or export of resources from the basin). To those challenges have recently been added climate change and difficult decisions regarding hydropower development. A critical compounding factor in the Brahmaputra basin is the lack of an authoritative, reliable, and comprehensive network of basin-wide information on climate, streamflow, natural hazards, and economic factors, such as agricultural production, prices, and trade. Anthropocentric development in the Brahmaputra basin must balance the goal of immediate poverty reduction with the preservation of the vulnerable, rich natural heritage of the basin, in the interest both of intergenerational human equity, and biocentric egalitarianism. In the space allotted here, we provide a snapshot of the demographic and hydroclimatic characteristics of the basin of greatest concern to water system planners aiming at poverty reduction through sustainable development. We propose that the basin's hydro-climatological, economic, and political complexities are such that a basin-wide water system knowledge platform is needed to organize quantitative thinking on potential water-related investments in the basin.