International Water Management Institute

The integration of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems with agricultural activities, known as rooftop agro-voltaic system (RTAVS), offers a promising approach to simultaneously meet energy and food production demands in urban and peri-urban areas. The study evaluates the energy performance and shading effect of a 76.8 kWp rooftop PV system installed at the CAET, DBSKKV, Dapoli, MH, India. The system comprises 240 mono-crystalline modules arranged in 12 strings and was monitored over two experimental periods (October 2022–May 2023 and October 2023–May 2024), covering winter and summer seasons. Energy performance was analyzed and shadow trajectory analysis was conducted using a 3D SketchUp model to simulate seasonal and daily shading patterns, quantifying shadow coverage over the cultivable area. Results demonstrated a strong correlation between solar irradiance and energy generation (R² = 0.984), indicating stable PV system performance under rooftop agro-voltaic conditions, with an estimated annual energy yield of 81,896 kWh. Seasonal shadow coverage ranged from 42.9% in winter to 18.9% in summer, with an overall mean of 30.9%. Moderate shading under RTAVS provided favorable conditions for shade-tolerant crops without compromising PV performance, confirming the technical feasibility of dual land use in urban renewable energy applications. This study presents a combined evaluation of PV performance and shadow trajectory in a rooftop agro-voltaic system, which has received limited attention in previous studies.

Accurate estimation of irrigation water use and supply is essential for effective irrigation management, yet most withdrawals remain unmetered and unreported in many irrigation schemes. This study applied a remote sensing–based approach to quantify irrigation water use and supply in the Amibara Irrigation Scheme, Ethiopia. The irrigation component of crop evapotranspiration (Blue ET) was isolated using the Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework and integrated with irrigation efficiency parameters to derive remote sensing–based irrigation supply (RbIS) estimates across multiple spatial scales. Moreover, we developed crop type maps for 2010 and 2024 and a digitized irrigation layout to evaluate irrigation performance using relative evapotranspiration (RET) and relative irrigation supply (RIS) and to compare changes between the two years.Crop type mapping revealed a substantial decline in irrigated area, from 9,941 ha in 2010 to 4,532 ha in 2024. RbIS showed reasonable agreement with reported supply in 2010 (R² = 0.6) and measured supply in 2024 (R² = 0.8), though it consistently underestimated observed supply in both years. Irrigation distribution was relatively better in 2010, with 46% of blocks experiencing deficits compared to 70% in 2024, while excess irrigation decreased from 50% of blocks in 2010 to 26% in 2024. RET and RIS estimates were generally consistent across most irrigation blocks, reinforcing the robustness of these performance indicators. However, irrigation performance varied substantially across blocks and canals, with irrigation deficits evident in both years. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions further corroborated these irrigation water deficits, supporting the remote sensing–based assessment. Overall, the methodology of this study is scalable for data-scarce regions and offers strong potential for operational irrigation monitoring to support targeted interventions.

Nepal’s 2015 Constitution, federal governance system, and commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer important opportunities for bottom-up, participatory, and rights-based development of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector. However, the effects of these reforms on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in local WASH planning and decision-making remain poorly understood. This study examined six dimensions of change under federalism—policy frameworks; division of powers; actors, roles, and financing; WASH services; coordination and data; and GESI in governance—to assess how rights and inclusion are translated into practice. The research covered six rural municipalities in Madhesh, Bagmati, Lumbini, and Karnali provinces, using household surveys of 486 households, key informant interviews, and reviews of national and subnational policies and WASH literature. Findings show that constitutional guarantees and recent policies, including the National WASH Policy (2023) and the draft WASH Sector Development Plan (2024), create space for GESI-responsive WASH. However, they do not adequately address systemic barriers that limit the meaningful participation and benefits of women, people with disabilities, and marginalized groups. At the local level, WASH plans, budgets, coordination mechanisms, and gender-disaggregated data systems remain weak, while service delivery is dominated by technical approaches. Access to safe, piped water is still low, placing a disproportionate burden on women, and affordability remains a barrier for poorer households. Achieving the SDGs will require stronger gender-responsive local planning, improved financing, empowered user groups, and enhanced local government capacity to deliver inclusive, rights-based WASH services.

Abstract Climate change profoundly affects well‐being in complex and interconnected ways. However, the relationship between climate change and well‐being has been explored in only a handful of settings, most of which are industrialized. Here, we investigate the association between perceived climate change impacts, their severity and subjective well‐being (measured as life satisfaction) using cross‐culturally comparable first‐hand reports from 2488 participants across 14 nature‐dependent communities. We find a negative association between site‐aggregated life satisfaction and different metrics of climate change: perceptions of local impacts, reported severity and instrumental measurements. Within sites, individual‐level associations between perceived severity of climate change impacts and life satisfaction are weak or absent. Further analysis suggests that site‐level characteristics play a crucial role in shaping these patterns. This could indicate that it is the overall vulnerability and exposure of a community to climate change impacts, rather than individual experiences that matters most. Our findings offer a nuanced understanding of how climate change impacts relate to well‐being, emphasizing the multidimensional character of climate change impacts and underscoring the importance of local context in shaping these relationships. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.