4th World Irrigation Forum

The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) proudly announces the convening of the Fourth World Irrigation Forum (WIF4) in Beijing, China, and invites the irrigation and drainage professionals from the world over to contribute and showcase their work through the presentation of papers.

ICID was established on 24 June 1950 in New Delhi, India. ICID is a leading scientific, technical, and professional international not-for-profit network of experts from the fields of irrigation, drainage, and flood management working together with the mission ‘Sustainable agriculture water management’. 

ICID is a knowledge-sharing platform dedicated to issues related to the entire spectrum of agricultural water management practices ranging from rain-fed agriculture to supplemental irrigation, land drainage, deficit irrigation to full irrigation, etc. In addition, the drainage of agricultural lands forms the core theme of our activities. Floods and drought; the two extremes of increasingly variable climate as a result of potential climate change, also form the focus of activities. [For more details log on to https://www.icid.org/] 

The triennial World Irrigation Forum (WIF) aims to bring together all the stakeholders relevant to the field of irrigation, drainage, and other aspects of water management. WIF is a multi-sectoral platform creating avenues for discussions and engagement for everyone, the governments of relevant countries, policymakers, the multi-lateral and bi-lateral organizations, civil society institutions, the grass-root farmers as well as corporate leaders. Every WIF attracts veterans, experts, and acclaimed researchers and academicians from various sectors to bring all possible issues and forthcoming solutions to the forum concerning the sector. In fact, in its third-year only, WIF3 held in Bali, Indonesia in September 2019 witnessed a footfall of over fifteen hundred participants.

The  Fourth World Irrigation Forum (WIF4 ) together with the 74th International Executive Council (IEC) Meeting, jointly hosted by ICID, the Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China, and the Chinese National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (CNCID), and organized by China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, will be held during 16-22 April 2023 in Beijing, China.

A. Theme: Modernization of Irrigation Systems

For decades now, pursuing and achieving water security has become one of the top most agendas of global development. Increasing population and subsequent development demand an increasing amount of freshwater for consumption. Historically, irrigated agriculture has been the biggest freshwater consumer, but its share is reducing due to its limited availability as well as competition from other sectors. However, in the current scenario of increasing water scarcity, agriculture and subsequently food security will bear the brunt of this reduced supply. Thus, improving the irrigation water management and propagating modernization of irrigation systems is of utmost importance in current times.

Modernization of irrigation systems entails holistic improvement of resource mobilization, delivery to the farm gates, water saving techniques, management practices, policies, institutional and financing mechanisms that ultimately result in agricultural, social, environmental and economic benefits. The topic of modernization and revitalization of irrigation systems is relevant to the vision and mission of ICID and of interest to its members. Thus, the flagship event of ICID, World Irrigation Forum 4, WIF4 aims to highlight the importance of modernization of irrigation systems and discuss, in detail, different aspects of it, outlined in the sub-themes (ST):

Given the above, papers are invited and discussed under the following Sub-themes:

B. Sub-Themes

• Sub-Theme 1: Policy and strategy for modernization of irrigation systems
• Sub-Theme 2: Technology for modernization of irrigation systems
• Sub-Theme 3: Financing for modernization of irrigation systems
• Sub-Theme 4: Performance assessment of Irrigation systems

B1. Sub-Theme 1: Policy and Strategy for Modernization of Irrigation Systems

• Development planning for modernization including the overall vision, development lay-out, roadmap of implementation, safeguard measures, etc.
• Supporting policies for modernization adopted by all levels of government on matters such as investment, construction material, facilities and equipment, operation and maintenance, management system and mechanisms
• Laws and regulations supporting and safeguarding modernization and preparing a conducive social and economic environment for ensuring longevity of the measures
• WEFE (Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems) nexus approaches for managing trade-offs and enhancing synergies

B2. Sub-Theme 2: Technology for Modernization of Irrigation Systems

• Engineering technologies for modernization: water consumption monitoring technologies, coordinated multi-water-source allocation technologies, handling of aging infrastructure for water resources storage and conveyance, responsive canal network/pipeline water delivery and distribution technologies, scheduling and control technologies of water use, on-farm irrigation technologies, etc.
• Management technologies for modernization: Smart-water management technologies including information sensing and transmission technologies, data governance and integration, establishment of a knowledge base, decision support system, drone applications in improving precision irrigation management and scheduling, etc.
• Technical standards system for modernization: the dimensions modernization, the expected results of modernization, comparative studies of technical standards of different countries, etc.
• Innovative approaches for irrigation performance appraisal including landscape-based approaches

B3. Sub-Theme 3: Financing for Modernization of Irrigation Systems

• Investment by all levels of government
• Investment by the private sector and the banking sector
• Investment by the beneficiaries, such as farmers, WUAs, etc.
• Investments and revenue models for sustained asset management of irrigation systems for its operation and maintenance
• Investments for Asset Management of Irrigation Systems for improved services delivery

B4. Sub-Theme 4: Performance Assessment of Irrigation Systems

• Assessment of physical infrastructures such as storage and diversion work, canal networks, pumping stations, water gates, etc.
• Assessment of management and water service delivery
• Assessment of socio-economic, eco-environment and natural resources benefits for improved productivity

A brief ‘Concept Note’ of the above sub-themes is given in the accompanying tabs and is also available as a download document on the contributions management portal at https://wif.icidevents.org/about.aspx

Information

• Website: https://icid-ciid.org/event/event_details/7
• Location: Beijing, China
• Starts April 16, 2023 10:00 , ends April 22, 2023 17:00

Taxonomy

• Basin Irrigation
• Drip Irrigation
• Irrigation
• Irrigation and Drainage
• Irrigation Management
• Irrigation Agronomy
• Irrigation Scheduling
• Irrigation Projects
• Irrigation Design
• Irrigation Systems
• Micro Irrigation
• Irrigation Department
• Precision irrigation
• Irrigation & Water Management
• Irrigation and Drainage
• Irrigation Engineer
• الري Irrigation