The project in Jordan has the following objectives, expected outputs, and main activities:

Objective

Widespread integration and adoption by people in the badia, of suitable water harvesting techniques to capture and efficiently utilize rainwater runoff in more productive and sustainable systems.

Expected Outputs

      i.      Improved methodologies for the identification of water-harvesting sites and methods of high potential for various conditions.

    ii.      Techniques for providing sustainable supplies of water from rainfall run-off for economic production from rangeland, field crops and fruit trees and methodologies for designing and implementing such techniques at the field and watershed levels.

  iii.      Methodologies for the characterization of catchments potential and optimal use of harvested water in these catchments.

  iv.      Analysis of potential economic and institutional constraints and recommended policy measures to support the integration of water harvesting in agricultural systems.

Activities

      i.      Develop methods for the identification of potential sites and suitable techniques for water harvesting using remote sensing, GIS and ground data.

    ii.      Develop methodologies for the characterization of rainfall, catchment's potential and optimal water harvesting development, while minimizing soil losses through erosion, from these catchments.

  iii.      Develop guidelines for a socially acceptable and efficient collection, allocation and use of runoff water within an integrated watershed system.

  iv.      Analyze water harvesting costs and benefits (direct and indirect) and based on this analysis identify optimal production systems for maximizing benefits.

    v.      Identify potential institutional constraints to the management of large catchments (common property management) and assess the options for relieving these constraints, including the sustainable community resource management options, legislation, policy measures, etc.

  vi.      Conduct analysis of the existing policies regarding the badia areas and develop recommendations for policy measures that support better management of those areas.

To achieve these outputs, multidisciplinary and multi-institutional teams were established and discussed in a national worksop the project document and arrive to an agreement on the activities that will be implemented during the four years of the project. The workshop has around 40 researchers representing 10 institutions in Jordan with several researchers from ICARDA. The activities that will be implemented in Jordan benchmark site have the following components: