ASSESSING RISK FOR WATER HARVESTING SYSTEMS IN AVID ENVIRONMENTS

Climate variability is perhaps the most common and unpredictable probl em that farmers in dryland regions have to face year by year. This fac t has established the need for developing methodologies for roping wit h water scarcity. One of the most widely used strategies (among croppi ng patterns, soil management, new and improved varieties, etc.) has be en the implementation of water harvesting systems. The efficiency of t he system is strongly associated with its expensiveness ann therefore, risk assessment should be an integral part of any project involving w ater harvesting systems. This paper focuses on a review of methodologi es that have been used for assessing risk in small scale water harvest ing systems. A simulation-modeling stochastic approach is discussed hi ghlighting the concept of risk behavior.