Global climate change has effected the snow covers and precipitation patterns leading to unreliable surface water availability for agricultural usage. Many studies suggest that demand based surface water management instead of supply based management may significantly mitigate the problem of supply-side fluctuations. Such management schemes have now been brought to the forefront due to the recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs). In the absence of a demand based water distribution mechanism in the Indus basin irrigation network, inequity and unreliability feature prominently. This research contributes to addressing these problems by proposing a demand-driven allocation scheme for surface water coupled with an auction-based pricing mechanism. We compare the proposed scheme with the currently practiced water distribution mechanism in IBIS (Indus Basin Irrigation system) by conducting a pilot study whose site is located in central Punjab, Pakistan. Our simulations suggest that under certain realistic assumptions, the proposed mechanism leads to a more efficient allocation of surface water, resulting in lower exploitation of groundwater resources and potentially higher agricultural yield due to improved water availability.

全球气候变化影响了积雪和降水模式，导致农业使用的地表水供应不可靠。许多研究表明，基于需求的地表水管理而不是基于供应的管理可以显着缓解供应侧波动的问题。由于信息和通信技术 (ICT) 的最新进展，此类管理方案现已成为最前沿。在印度河流域灌溉网络中缺乏基于需求的配水机制的情况下，不公平和不可靠性尤为突出。这项研究通过提出需求驱动的地表水分配方案以及基于拍卖的定价机制，有助于解决这些问题。我们通过在巴基斯坦旁遮普省中部进行试点研究，将提议的方案与 IBIS（印度河流域灌溉系统）中目前采用的配水机制进行比较。我们的模拟表明，在某些现实假设下，所提出的机制可以更有效地分配地表水，从而降低对地下水资源的开发，并由于提高可用水量而提高农业产量。