Publications

Books

• Lankford, B.A., Bakker, K., Zeitoun, M., and Conway, D. (Eds) 2013. Water security: Principles, perspectives and practices. Earthscan Publications, London.
• Lankford B.A. 2013. Resource Efficiency Complexity and the Commons: The Paracommons and Paradoxes of Natural Resource Losses, Wastes and Wastages. Earthscan Publications, Abingdon. ISBN (978-0-415-82846-8)

Publications

• Lankford B. A. (2024). Irrigation is colonising and is being colonised; on research and teaching gaps in irrigation. https://brucelankford.org.uk/2024/10/22/irrigation-is-colonising-water-and-is-being-colonised/
• Nhamo, L., Mpandeli, S., Liphadzi, S., Dirwai, T. L., Mugiyo, H., Senzanje, A., Lankford, B. A., & Mabhaudhi, T. (2024). Why Do Farmers Not Irrigate All the Areas Equipped for Irrigation? Lessons from Southern Africa. Agriculture, 14(8), 1218.
• Lankford, B. A., & McCartney, M. (2024). Managing the irrigation efficiency paradox to “free” water for the environment. In J. W. Knox (Ed.), Improving water management in agriculture: Irrigation and food production (pp. 259-286). Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited. This link is to the pre-proof version, with permission from BDS.
• Lankford, B., & Mabhaudhi, T. (2024). A proposal for an academy to deliver capacity building in agricultural water management with particular reference to irrigation. Irrigation and Drainage.
• Dirwai, T. L., Taguta, C., Senzanje, A., Nhamo, L., Cofie, O., Lankford, B., Nyambe, H. N., & Mabhaudhi, T. (2024). Status of agricultural water management practices in Africa: a review for the prioritisation and operationalisation of the Africa Union’s irrigation development and agricultural water management (AU-IDAWM) strategy. Environmental Research Letters, 19(10), 103005.
• Puy, A., & Lankford, B. A. (2024). The water crisis by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water: A totalising narrative built on shaky numbers. Water Alternatives, 17.
• Lankford, B. A. (2023, 11 January 2024). Hydromodule numeracy unlocks the puzzles of irrigation. https://brucelankford.org.uk/2023/09/28/hydromodule-numeracy-unlocks-the-puzzles-of-irrigation/
• Lankford, B. A., & Scott, C. A. (2023). The paracommons of competition for resource savings: Irrigation water conservation redistributes water between irrigation, nature, and society. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 198, 107195.
• Lankford, B.A. 2023. Resolving the paradoxes of irrigation efficiency: Irrigated systems accounting analyses depletion-based water conservation for reallocation. Agricultural Water Management 287: 108437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108437
• Puy, A., Massimi, M., Lankford, B. and Saltelli, A. 2023. Irrigation modelling needs better epistemology. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 4(7): 427-428. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00459-0
• Hawkins, E. R., & Lankford, B. A. (2023). Strengthening the ‘bio’ in biome: Living river biomes as a concept to leverage public engagement for river health. River Research and Applications, 39(9), 1919-1924.
• Lankford, B., Pringle, C., McCosh, J., Shabalala, M., Hess, T., Knox, J.W. (2023). Irrigation area, efficiency and water storage mediate the drought resilience of irrigated agriculture in a semi-arid catchment. Science of the Total Environment 859, 160263.
• Lankford, B.A. (2022). Irrigated agriculture: more than ‘big water’ and ‘accountants will [not] save the world’. Water International 47, 1155-1164
• Lankford, B., & Orr, S. (2022). Exploring the Critical Role of Water in Regenerative Agriculture; Building Promises and Avoiding Pitfalls. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6.
• Puy, A., Sheikholeslami, R., Gupta, H. V., Hall, J. W., Lankford, B., Lo Piano, S., Meier, J., Pappenberger, F., Porporato, A., Vico, G., & Saltelli, A. (2022). The delusive accuracy of global irrigation water withdrawal estimates. Nature communications, 13(1), 3183.
• Lankford, B. A., & Heaton, M. (2022, 8 June 2024). Ask for sustainable irrigation, not irrigation. https://nisd.ac.uk/ask-for-sustainable-irrigation-not-irrigation/
• Puy, A., Lankford, B., Meier, J., van der Kooij, S., & Saltelli, A. (2022). Large variations in global irrigation withdrawals caused by uncertain irrigation efficiencies. Environmental Research Letters, 17(4), 044014.
• Venot, J.-P., Vos, J., Molle, F., Zwarteveen, M., Veldwisch, G. J., Kuper, M., Mdee, A., Ertsen, M., Boelens, R., Cleaver, F., Lankford, B., Swatuk, L., Linton, J., Harris, L. M., Kemerink-Seyoum, J., Kooy, M., & Schwartz, K. (2022). A bridge over troubled waters. Nature Sustainability, 5(2), 92-92.
• Lankford, B. A. (2021). The atmospheric carbon commons in transition. In ‘Negotiating Climate Change in Crisis’ (Steffen Böhm and Sian Sullivan, eds), Open Book Publishers, 2021, Cambridge, 97-110
• Fallon, A, Lankford B., Weston, D (2021). Navigating Wicked Water Governance in the ‘Solutionscape’ of Science, Policy, Practice and Participation. Ecology and Society, 26(2), Article 37.
• Lankford, B. A., and C. F. Grasham. (2021). Agri-vector water: boosting rainfed agriculture with urban water allocation to support urban–rural linkages. Water International, 1-19.
• Lankford, B., Closas, A., Dalton, J., López Gunn, E., Hess, T., Knox, J.W., van der Kooij, S., Lautze, J., Molden, D., Orr, S., Pittock, J., Richter, B., Riddell, P.J., Scott, C.A., Venot, J.-p., Vos, J., Zwarteveen, M. (2020). A scale-based framework to understand the promises, pitfalls and paradoxes of irrigation efficiency to meet major water challenges. Global Environmental Change 65, 102182.
• Lankford, B.A.; Craven, J. Rapid Games Designing; Constructing a Dynamic Metaphor to Explore Complex Systems and Abstract Concepts. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7200.
• Wiggins, S and Lankford, B. 2019. Farmer-led irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa: synthesis of current understandings. ODI and DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme (DEGRP) Synthesis Report.
• Fallon, A.L., Villholth, K.G., Conway, D., Lankford, B.A. and Ebrahim, G.Y., 2018. Agricultural groundwater management strategies and seasonal climate forecasting: perceptions from Mogwadi (Dendron), Limpopo, South Africa. Journal of Water and Climate Change, 10(1), pp.142-157.
• McCartney, M.P., Whiting, L., Makin, I., Lankford, B.A. and Ringler, C., 2019. Rethinking irrigation modernisation: realising multiple objectives through the integration of fisheries. Marine and Freshwater Research 70, 1201-1210.
• Hooper, V and Lankford B.A. 2017. Unintended water allocation; Gaining share from the ungoverned spaces of land and water transformations in Ken Conca and Erika Weinthal, eds., Oxford Handbook of Water Politics and Policy. Pp 248-266. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Zeitoun, M, Bruce Lankford, Tobias Krueger, Tim Forsyth, Richard Carter, Arjen Y Hoekstra, Richard Taylor, Olli Varis, Frances Cleaver, Richard Boelens, Larry A Swatuk, David Tickner, Christopher A. Scott, Naho Mirumachi and Nathanial Matthews (2016). Reductionist and integrative research approaches to complex water security policy challenges. Global Environmental Change. Vol 39, 143-154.
• Grafton, R. Q., M. Mclindin, K. Hussey, P. Wyrwoll, D. Wichelns, C. Ringler, D. Garrick, J. Pittock, S. Wheeler, S. Orr, N. Matthews, E. Ansink, A. Aureli, D. Connell, L. De Stefano, K. Dowsley, S. Farolfi, J. Hall, P. Katic, B. Lankford, H. Leckie, M. Mccartney, H. Pohlner, N. Ratna, M. H. Rubarenzya, S. N. Sai Raman, K. Wheeler, and J. Williams. 2016. Responding to Global Challenges in Food, Energy, Environment and Water: Risks and Options Assessment for Decision-Making. Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 3, 275-299.
• Bruns, A, Krüger, T., Lankford, B., Frick, F., Grasham, C. and Spitzbart-Glasl, C. 2016. A Water Perspective on Land Competition. In; Jörg Niewöhner, Antje Bruns, Patrick Hostert, Tobias Krueger, Jonas Ø. Nielsen, Helmut Haberl, Christian Lauk, Juliana Lutz, Daniel Müller, (Eds) Land Use Competition: Ecological, Economic and Social Perspectives. Springer. Chapter 19 313-332
• van der Kooij, S., M. Kuper, C. de Fraiture, B. Lankford and M. Zwarteveen. 2017 Re-allocating yet-to-be-saved water in irrigation modernization projects. The case of the Bittit Irrigation System, Morocco, in ‘Drip Irrigation for Agriculture. Untold Stories of efficiency, innovation and development’. Eds. J.P. Venot, M. Kuper and M. Zwarteveen. Earthscan Studies in Water Resource Management. Routledge, Oxon, UK. 68-84
• Lankford, B.A; Makin, I; Matthews, N; Noble, A; McCornick, P. G.; and Shah, T. 2016 A compact to revitalize large-scale irrigation systems using a leadership-partnership-ownership ‘theory of change’. Water Alternatives 9(1): 1-32.
• Lankford, B. A. 2016. The Liminal Paracommons of Future Natural Resource Efficiency Gains, In Amin, A. and Howell. P., Releasing the Commons. Routledge. pp 66-88.
• Conway, D., van Garderen, E. A., Deryng, D., Dorling, S., Krueger, T., Landman, W., Lankford, B, Lebek, K., Osborn, T., Ringler, C., Thurlow, J., Zhu T. and Dalin, C. (2015). Climate and southern Africa’s water-energy-food nexus. Nature Clim. Change, 5(9), 837-846.
• Lankford, B.A, 2013. A Synthesis Chapter: The Incodys Water Security Model. In, B.A. Lankford, K. Bakker, M. Zeitoun and D Conway (Eds) ‘Water security: Principles, perspectives and practices’. Earthscan Publications, London. Pp 336-351 (Proof PDF)
• Lankford B.A. 2013. Infrastructure hydromentalities; water sharing, water control and water (in)security. In, B.A. Lankford, K. Bakker, M. Zeitoun and D Conway (Eds) ‘Water security: Principles, perspectives and practices’. Earthscan Publications, London (Proof PDF).
• Lankford B.A. 2013. Does Article 6 (Factors Relevant to Equitable and Reasonable Utilization) in the UN Watercourses Convention misdirect riparian countries? Water International. Vol 38, Issue 2, 130-145.
• Lankford, B. A. 2012. Preface; Towards a political ecology of irrigation efficiency and productivity. Journal of Agricultural Water Management. 108 1-2.
• Lankford B.A. 2012 Fictions, fractions, factorials, fractures and fractals; on the framing of irrigation efficiency. Journal of Agricultural Water Management. 108, 27–38.
• Lankford, B.A., 2011. Responding to water scarcity – beyond the volumetric. In, Mehta, L. (ed) The Limits to Scarcity: Contesting the Politics of Allocation. Earthscan, London. Pp 195 -214.  (Pre-pub PDF here)
• Bunclark, L and Lankford B.A. 2011. Rainwater harvesting: A suitable poverty reduction strategy for small-scale farmers in developing countries? Waterlines Journal, 30 (4); 312 – 327.
• B. Lankford, C. Pringle, Dickens C, Lewis, F, Mander, M, Chhotray, V, Goulden, M, Nxele Z and. Quayle, L. 2011. Hydrological modelling of water allocation, ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in the Pongola Floodplain, South Africa. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. Volume 54, Issue 9: 1237-1260.
• Contributions to the publication: Oxfam, ICE, WaterAid, 2011, Managing water locally: An essential dimension of community water development
• Lankford, B.A. and Hepworth, N. 2010. The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Monocentric and polycentric river basin management. Water Alternatives 3(1): 82-101.
• Pittock, J. and Lankford, B.A. 2010. Environmental water requirements: demand management in an era of water scarcity. Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences, 7(1):1–19.
• Lankford, B.A. 2009. The right irrigation? Policy directions for agricultural water management in sub-Saharan Africa. Water Alternatives 2(3): 476-480.
• Lankford, B.A., Tumbo, S. and Rajabu, K. 2009. Water competition, variability and river basin governance: A critical analysis of the Great Ruaha River, Tanzania. In; F. Molle and P. Wester (Editors) River Basin Trajectories: Societies, Environments and Development. CABI. Pp 171-195.
• Mehari, A., Barbara Van Koppen, B., McCartney, M. and Lankford. BA. 2009. Unchartered innovation? Local reforms of national formal water management in the Mkoji sub-catchment, Tanzania. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C. 34, (4-5): 299-308.
• Magombeyi, M.S., Rollin, D., Lankford, B.A. (2008). The river basin game as a tool for collective water management at community level in South Africa, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C (33): 873-880.
• McCartney, M., Kashaigili, J.J., Lankford, B.A., Mahoo, H. F., 2008. Hydrological modelling to assist water management in the Usangu wetlands, Tanzania. Intl. J. River Basin Management, Vol. 6, No. 1 pp. 51–61
• Mahoo, H. F.; Mkoga, Z. J.; Kasele, S. S.; Igbadun, H. E.; Hatibu, N.; Rao, K. P. C.; Lankford, B. 2007. Productivity of water in agriculture: Farmers’ perceptions and practices. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute. 37p (Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Discussion Paper 5)
• Lankford, B.A., 2007. Integrated, adaptive and domanial water resources management. International Conference on Adaptive and Integrated Water Resources Management. CAIWA 12 – 15 November 2007. Basel, Switzerland.
• Lankford, B. A. and Dickinson, S. 2007. Water management issues and problems in Africa, CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources 2007 2, No. 032. (PDF)
• McCartney, M. P., Lankford, B. A. and Mahoo, H. F. 2007. Agricultural water management in a water stressed catchment: Lessons from the RIPARWIN project. Research Report 116. International Water Management Institute. Columbo, Sri Lanka.
• Lankford, B. A and Mwaruvanda, W. 2007. A legal-infrastructural framework for catchment apportionment. In ‘Community-based Water Law and Water Resource Management Reform in Developing Countries’. Barbara Van Koppen, Mark Giordano, and John Butterworth (eds). Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Series, CABI Publishing. 228-247. (PDF).
• Lankford, B.A. Merrey, D., Cour, J., and Hepworth, N. 2007. From Integrated to Expedient: An Adaptive Framework for River Basin Management in Developing Countries. Research Report 110. International Water Management Institute. Columbo, Sri Lanka.
• Lankford, B. A. and Watson, D. 2007. Metaphor in natural resource gaming; insights from the River Basin Game. Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 38 No. 3, 421-442 (PDF)
• Lankford B. A. and Beale, T. (2007). Equilibrium and non-equilibrium theories of sustainable water resources management: dynamic river basin and irrigation behaviour in Tanzania. Global Environmental Change 17, (2), 168–180. (PDF).
• Lankford, B.A. 2007. The Rise of Large Scale Formal Smallholder Irrigation Schemes in Swaziland; An Appropriate Solution for Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Production. DEV Working Paper No.1. School of International Development, University of East Anglia
• Kashaigili, J. J.; McCartney, M. P.; Mahoo, H. F.; Lankford, B. A.; Mbilinyi, B. P.; Yawson, D. K.; and Tumbo, S. D. 2006. Use of a hydrological model for environmental management of the Usangu wetlands, Tanzania. IWMI Research Report 104. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute. 48p.
• Lankford, B.A. (2006). Localising irrigation efficiency. Irrigation and Drainage Systems. 55: 345–362. (PDF)
• van Koppen, B. Sokile, C., Lankford, B.A., Mahoo, H., Hatibu, N., and Yanda P, 2007. Water rights and water fees in Tanzania. In; Irrigation Water Pricing: The Gap Between Theory and Practice edited by Francois Molle, and Jeremy Berkoff. Pp 143-164. Sponsored by the Comprehensive Assessment. IWMI/CABI. Wallingford.
• Lankford, BA (2005) Rural infrastructure to contribute to African agricultural development: the case of irrigation. Report for The Commission for Africa, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich (PDF).
• Kashaigili, J.J., Kadigi, R.M.J, Lankford, B.A, Mahoo, H.F. and Mashauri, D.A. (2005). Environmental flows allocation in river basins: Exploring allocation challenges and options in the Great Ruaha River catchment in Tanzania. Journal of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Volume 30, Issues 11-16: 689-697 (PDF).
• Palmer-Jones, R. and Lankford, B. A. 2005. Agricultural Development: Reflections on the study of the irrigation potential of the Usangu Plains of Tanzania. In: Development Economics and Social Justice. Essays in Honour of Ian Livingstone. (Eds M. Tribe, J. Thoburn, R. Palmer-Jones). 141-158. Ashgate. Aldershot.
• van Koppen, B. Sokile, Hatibu, N., C., Lankford, B.A., Mahoo, H., and Yanda P, (2004) Formal Water Rights in Tanzania: Deepening the Dichotomy? . Working Paper 71. Columbo, Sri Lanka; International Water Management Institute.
• Lankford, B., Sokile, C., Yawson, D. and Lévite, L. 2004. The River Basin Game: A Water Dialogue Tool. Working Paper 75. Columbo, Sri Lanka; International Water Management Institute.
• Lankford, B.A. 2004. Irrigation, Livelihoods and River Basins. In Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction Policies (eds. F. Ellis, and H. A. Freeman) Routledge, London.
• Lankford, B. A. 2004. Irrigation improvement projects in Tanzania; scale impacts and policy implications. Water Policy 6(2), 89-102 (PDF).
• Franks, T., Lankford, B. and Mdemu M. 2004. Managing Water Amongst Competing Uses: The Usangu Wetland in Tanzania. Irrigation and Drainage (53): 1-10 (PDF).
• Mdemu M. V., Magayane M. D., Lankford B., Hatibu N. and Kadigi R. M. J. 2004. Conjoining Rainfall and Irrigation Seasonality to Enhance Productivity of Water in Large Rice Irrigated Farms in the Upper Ruaha River Basin, Tanzania. Journal title: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. Vol 29/15-18 pp 1119-1124 (PDF).
• Lankford, B.A. and Sokile, C. 2003. Reflections on the river basin game: Role-playing facilitation of surface water allocation in contested environments. ICID 20th European Regional Conference Water and Conflict, Montpellier, France, 17-19 September 2003 (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. 2003. Irrigation-based livelihood trends in river basins: theory and policy implications for irrigation development. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth (28): 817-825 (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. 2003. Environmental water requirements: A demand management perspective. CIWEM. Journal of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. Vol 17, No. 1: 19-22 (PDF).
• Lankford, B.A. 2002. Irrigation, Livelihoods and River Basins. LADDER working paper No. 14. University of East Anglia, UK (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. 2001, Red Routes On Blue Rivers: Strategic Water Management for the Ruaha River Basin, Tanzania. Water Resources Development, Vol 17, No.3: 427-444. (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A., Franks, T., 2000, The Sustainable Co-Existence Of Wetlands And Rice Irrigation – A Case Study From Tanzania. The Environment and Development Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 119-137. (PDF)
• Baur, P. Mandeville, N. Lankford, B and Boake, R. 2000, Upstream/downstream competition for water in the Usangu Basin, Tanzania. In, Proceedings of the British Hydrological Symposium, Seventh National Hydrology Symposium, University of Newcastle 6-8, September 2000. BHS National Hydrology Symposium Series (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. and Gowing, J. W. 1998. Participatory research of water control on surface irrigation systems: informing perceptions, in Water and the Environment: Innovative issues in irrigation and drainage, (eds. L. S. Pereira and J.W. Gowing), E & FN Spon, London, pp. 223-230 (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. 1998. Effective monitoring of canal irrigation with minimum or no flow measurement, in Water and the Environment: Innovative issues in irrigation and drainage, (eds. L. S. Pereira and J.W. Gowing), E & FN Spon, London, 265-273 (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. and Gowing, J. (1997). Providing a water delivery service through design management interactions and system management, in Water: Economics, Management and Demand, (eds M. Kay, Franks, T. and Smith, L.) E & FN Spon, London, pp 238-246 (PDF).
• Lankford, B.A. and Gowing, J. (1996). Understanding water supply control in canal irrigation systems, in Water Policy: Allocation and Management in Practice, (eds P. Howsan and R. Carter), E & FN Spon, London, pp 186-193 (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. and Gowing, J. (1996). The impact of design approximations on the operational performance of an irrigation scheme: a case study in Malaysia. Irrigation and Drainage Systems. Vol. 10: 193-205 (PDF).
• Lankford, B. A. (1992). The use of measured water flows in furrow irrigation management – a case study in Swaziland. Irrigation and Drainage Systems, 6: 113-128. (PDF).
• Ellis, R. D., & Lankford, B. A. (1990). The tolerance of sugarcane to water stress during its main development phases. Agricultural Water Management, 17(1), 117-128. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-3774(90)90059-8