The driver of the ICBA Strategic Plan 2008-2012 is the research mandate:
ICBA will help water-scarce countries improve the producitivy, social equity and
environmental sustainability of water use through an integrated water resource
system approach, with special emphasis on the effective use of marginal quality
water.
The comprehensive ways in which ICBA is realizing this mandate is through its
three research and development programs: Integrated Water Resource Systems,
Marginal Quality Water Resources, and Capacity Building and Knowledge-Sharing.
ICBA's research for the formulation of policies such as the Abu Dhabi Water
Master Plan, the Strategy for Conserving Water Resources in the UAE, Recycled
Water Strategic Plan for Abu Dhabi Emirate, amongst others, has shown clearly
that irrigated agriculture is the largest user of water in the United Arab
Emirates as it is in many countries in the Middle East and outside the region.
Weather data that is accurate, reliable, easily and frequently available, and
correctly processed is thus very important to ICBA's research mandate to improve
the productivity and sustainability of water resources under the constraints of
both salinity and aridity. |
 |
|
See some of ICBA's weather data here:
Open weather data file |
|
The goal of irrigation is to supply the amount of water
required and no more, and so ETo is a very useful quantity for managing
irrigation correctly. It is usually expressed in units of depth (such as
millimeters) in the same way that rainfall is, although ETo and rainfall are
opposites. The graph opposite shows an example of daily ETo during 2000 measured
in the UAE using an automatic weather station. Daily ETo in this example ranges
from approximately 2 to 3 mm per day in winter to 8 to 10 mm per day in summer.
The annual total is 2175 mm, and providing this would require almost 22,000 m3
of water per hectare. To this should be added any leaching requirement. Poor
irrigation management and maintenance can drastically increase the water
requirement over and above this minimum amount; a critical waste of a valuable
resource in a land where water is so scarce. |
 |
|
|