Hydrologic, Environmental and Socioeconomic Relevance of Small-Scale Water Harvesting Small Scale Versus Large Scale Water Harvesting the Case of Jordan

Small-scale water harvesting seems to be one of the earliest water technologies used by humans in semiarid countries, where water becomes in short supply during the dry season. With advancing technologies, dams started to be the common harvesting facilities. Nonetheless, small-scale water harvesting still has major advantages compared to large-scale water harvesting in dams. This study analyzes and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of small-scale versus large-scale water harvesting from the different aspects such as the quantity and quality of water, agricultural productivity, dams siltation, flooding risks, energy savings, biodiversity and socio-economics. The present status of water harvesting in Jordan, from the different aspects of advantages and disadvantages, is taken as examples to illustrate the findings. This study concludes that small-scale water harvesting in catchments’ upstream areas is very rewarding in social, economic, environmental as well as ecological aspects. It also concludes that many legal, administrative, managerial and planning issues have to be advanced for engineered watershed management and small-scale water harvesting projects.