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A Model for Integrated Agrarian Urbanism:
Water Management in the Jordan River Basin
Fadi Masoud
The concepts of the urban and the agrarian have often been polarized in a way which has
consequences for issues of water resources. This polarity has existed for centuries across
various geographies, cultures, and disciplines. In contrast, contemporary design and planning
discourse has sought to redefine what constitutes the physical limit of the city, given that its
resources and infrastructure, including water, food, energy, waste management, and mobility,
extend far beyond city limits (Brenner, 2001; Corner, 1999; Soja, 2000; Guillart, 2008; Blanger,
2010). Existing legislative tools and administrative boundaries often disrupt socioeconomic and
ecological flows that would otherwise conjoin regional geographies in a globalized condition
(Brenner, 2008).
This essay advances a speculative proposal for agrarian urbanism, whereby agricultural
production would be integrated into the urban context through the realignment of hydrology and
water-sanitation infrastructure at the watershed and sub-watershed scales. Key to this proposal
is the idea that landscape and the agrarian condition are formative elements of city structure,
with profound influences on the shape and eventual distribution of resources at the regional
scale. The proposal focuses on the Jordan River valleyone of the worlds most contested and
symbolic border river regionsand suggests a transition from an ineffective, ancient agrarian
condition, which is subject to displacement by conventional urban or suburban models, to that of
an efficient and environmentally sustainable growth model.
It is fair to assume that continuing the current mode of agriculture and urban settlement along the
Jordan River, without adapting to social and environmental changes, may contribute to ongoing
geopolitical disputes.
DEAD SEA
35 MCM/YEAR
2010
EXISTING CONDITIONS
JORDAN VALLEY
unsustainable modes of land development and rates of resource consumption. Currently, only
6% of fresh water in the Jordan Valley is allocated for domestic use. The other 94% is diverted
for water-intensive subsidized agriculture (Shuval, 2007); a significant percentage of this is
exported, but nevertheless, it represents a low economic yield. A defining ethos of cultural claim
to the land often justifies this disproportionate allocation of fresh water towards agriculture, since
it is perceived to be connected to the agrarian identity of the regional landscape (Lipchin, 2003;
de Chtel, 2007; Tal and Rabbo, 2010; Tagar, 2007).
The Jordan Valleys 94% of fresh water dedicated to agriculture is among the highest
percentages in the world (the world average sits at 62%). Egypt, which has a single source
of water, dedicates 80% of its fresh water to agriculture; the Mediterranean average is 63%,
while the UKs is only 3% (Shuval, 2007). The amount of water exported from Israel alone in
agricultural products amounted to 257 million m3/year, yet agricultures contribution to the gross
domestic product (GDP) is only 2.77%, and the sector employs less than 2% of the population
(Tagar, 2007; Lipchin, 2007).
The Minimum Water Requirement (MWR) needed to maintain a reasonable level of social
and economic life and to meet vital human needs in the Middle East is about 125m3/person/year.
Based on estimates from the World Bank, the 2005 availability of water resources per person
in the watershed is 200m3/person/year for Jordan; 240m3/person/year for Israel; and 70m3/
person/year for Palestine. To dispel the myth of scarce availability of water in the Jordan Valley,
one need look no further than the amount available almost exclusively to agriculture in the Valley:
1,800m3/person/year. This figure is much higher when uncaptured seasonal rainwater, untreated
wastewater, agricultural runoff, and evapotranspiration are accounted (Shuval, 2007).
94% 65%
Figure 4: Shifting hydro-economics
from wasteful agriculture to productive
>1%
10%
CURRENT SHIFT
EXISTING FRESH WATER ALLOCATIONS PROPOSED FRESH WATER ALLOCATIONS
THE GHOR
agricultural
THE JABAL
urban
WADI HISBAN
mean rainfall: 350mcm/yr
average temp: 10-30oC
population: 25,000
100 year storm flood risk:
9.0m3/s
WADI YABIS
mean rainfall: 300mcm/yr
population: 51,000
100 year storm flood risk:
189.5m3/s
WADI kufranja
mean rainfall: 230mcm/yr
population: 25,000
100 year storm flood risk:
135.9m3/s
WADI MASHARE
mean rainfall: 160mcm/yr
population: 77,000
100 year storm flood risk:
105.8m3/s
WADI KARAMA
mean rainfall: 160mcm/yr
population: 44,000
100 year storm flood risk:
366m3/s
WADI SHUEIB
mean rainfall: 160mcm/yr
population: 46,000
100 year storm flood risk:
410m3/s
WADI MUJIB
mean rainfall: 50mcm/yr
population: 2,000
100 year storm flood risk:
508m3/s
topo-urban expansion
hotel/services
topo-agriculture
macro
hub crop: olives catchment
reservoirs
market
macro
waste water catchment
facility reservoirs
Conclusions
Lister (2007) states that the ecological systems upon which we ultimately depend for clean air,
water, and food are examples of resilient, flexible, and highly adaptive systems that operate on
many levels, in multiple contexts and scales, and with a lot of redundancy. In parallel, Pahl-Wostl
(2007) cautions us against relying solely on mono-functional, inflexible, large-scale technologies
or infrastructure. Across the fields of design, policy, science, and engineering, scholars and
practitioners have begun to acknowledge the need for multi-functional, decentralized, and diverse
sets of solutions concerning water management. The prevalent notion is that environmental and
ecological systems, which are conventionally perceived as peripheral to the city, should in fact be
seen as a continuum of inputs and outputs within interdependent systems.
In the field of landscape architecture, in particular, practitioners are trained to consider
both environmental and urban dynamics and conceive of their formal and functional synthesis.
While a few proposals and guides have outlined the integration of agricultural production with
the urban fabric, none have described or detailed the integration of hydrological and hydraulic
management. Although the speculative proposal discussed here is conceptual and schematic,
it calls for a continuation of such detailing which can begin to develop urban and architectural
codes, and expand the vocabulary of governing bodies, commercial developers, and design
professionals.
The Jordan Valleys wadis, hillside topography, and hydro-geological features serve as the
basis for an urban agrarian system conceived as a watershed-wide transformation. However,
each wadi zone and associated urban development is independent of the full implementation
at the watershed or river basin scale. The transformation of the Valley can occur incrementally,
under different authorities and in response to local circumstances. The proposed latitudinal
cross-section design approach facilitates decentralized management of resources, whereby
water harvesting, storage, recycling, and reuse in irrigation can partially occur independently
of the larger network. Arguably, due to the inherent flexibility of the proposed system, the
insurmountable challenges of uniting multi-sectorial and multi-national parties in this region would
not preclude the realization of a single sub-basin unit.
Finally, the agrarian urbanism model addresses Pahl-Wostls (2007) call to increase the
adaptive capacity of water systems. Accordingly, the proposal suggests introducing a new socio-
technical system, where social capital increases and its members are active in the management
of the integrated system, and in the overall restoration and maintenance of a multi-functional
landscape.