Sediment & Erosion Assessment

Title: Comprehensive Sedimentation, Soil Erosion, and Hotspot Prioritisation Assessment for King Talal Dam Watershed. Background Project Reference: P05304 About IUCN IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private, and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development, and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and around 15,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments, and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools, and international standards. IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders, including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples’ organisations, and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development. Working with many partners and supporters, IUCN implements a large and diverse portfolio of conservation projects worldwide. Combining the latest science with the traditional knowledge of local communities, these projects work to reverse habitat loss, restore ecosystems, and improve people’s well-being. www.iucn.org https://twitter.com/IUCN/ About the Project Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, with renewable freshwater resources far below internationally recognised water poverty thresholds. Climate change, population growth, increasing water demands, and the overexploitation of groundwater resources continue to place significant pressure on the country’s limited water supplies. Consequently, protecting and enhancing the efficiency of strategic surface water resources has become a national priority for strengthening long-term water security. King Talal Dam (KTD), located on the Zarqa River, is one of Jordan’s most important water infrastructures and serves as the principal storage reservoir supplying irrigation water to the Jordan Valley. The dam plays a critical role in supporting agricultural production, food security, and rural livelihoods. However, its long-term functionality is increasingly threatened by sediment accumulation within the reservoir. Over several decades, substantial volumes of sediment have been transported from the upstream watershed and deposited in the reservoir, progressively reducing its effective storage capacity and operational efficiency. Studies indicate that sediment accumulation has already resulted in a significant reduction in the reservoir’s storage capacity, posing a growing risk to the sustainability of irrigation water supplies and overall water security. The primary causes of sediment generation within the watershed include land degradation, unsustainable land-use practices, overgrazing, deterioration of natural vegetation cover, and disturbances associated with roads and other infrastructure. These challenges are further exacerbated by increasingly variable rainfall patterns, flash floods, and climate change impacts, which accelerate soil erosion and sediment transport towards the reservoir. To address these challenges, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in collaboration with the Jordan Valley Authority (JVA) and other relevant national stakeholders, is implementing the four-year P a g e 1 | 20 project “Siltation Reduction in the King Talal Dam Watershed for Enhancing Water Security”, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Amman. The project aims to reduce sediment inflows into King Talal Dam and safeguard its storage capacity through an integrated watershed management approach that addresses the root causes of sediment generation within the upstream catchment. The project combines structural soil erosion and sediment control measures with landscape restoration interventions in priority sediment hotspots. Planned interventions include check dams, retaining walls, agricultural terraces, reforestation, rangeland rehabilitation, and riparian restoration measures designed to stabilise soils, reduce runoff, and minimise sediment transport. In parallel, the project seeks to strengthen the technical and institutional capacities of national and local stakeholders through improved planning, coordination, knowledge management, monitoring, and long-term sediment management arrangements. The project seeks to protect the effective storage capacity of King Talal Dam, improve watershed resilience, enhance the reliability of irrigation water supplies to the Jordan Valley, and contribute to Jordan’s broader water security and climate resilience objectives. The project therefore requires a consistent source-to-reservoir evidence base linking watershed condition, climate, runoff, erosion, sediment delivery, reservoir sedimentation, and the expected performance of potential interventions. The King Talal Dam (KTD) watershed covers approximately 1,088 km² in north-central Jordan within the Amman–Zarqa Basin. See Figure 1. Figure 1 Background of the Assignment IUCN seeks to engage a qualified consulting firm or institution to undertake an integrated watershed assessment covering the geospatial, terrain, soil, land use/land cover, climate, hydrological, soil-erosion, sediment-delivery, reservoir-sedimentation, and hotspot-prioritization components of the upstream King Talal Dam (KTD) watershed. The assessment shall provide a consistent technical evidence base for the selection, prioritization, and subsequent concept development of project interventions. The assignment shall be implemented through a common spatial, data-management, field-survey, modelling, consultation, and quality-assurance framework. [...] Procurement details Reference: IUCN-26-10-Sediment & Erosion Assessment-1283 Procedure: SOP1 - Open Procedure Procurement type: Consulting IUCN office (lead): ROWA Jordan Requisitioning unit: West Asia - Water and climate change Project: P05304 Siltation reduction in the KTD watershed Country of performance: Jordan Expected contract duration: 5 Months Estimated contract value: 25,000-199,999 CHF Currency of proposals: JOD - Jordanian Dinar Language of documents: English Deadline for questions: 04 November 2026 20:59 UTC Deadline for technical and financial proposals: 11 November 2026 20:59 UTC Expected contract award date: 25 November 2026 20:59 UTC Documents - Terms of Reference: Consultancy_-_ToR_Comprehensive Sedimentation_Soil Erosion_ P05304 KTD _ 27 Oct 2027 (1).pdf - Conditions for Participating: Conditions for Participating ENG-SPA-FRA v23-09-26.pdf - Standard contract: Standard Agreement.docx The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a membership union of government and civil society organisations working on nature conservation and sustainable development. IUCN procures consulting services, goods and works for its projects worldwide through the IUCN Procurement Portal. For all contracts above CHF 25,000 IUCN selects contractors through a formal competitive tendering process under its Standard Operating Procedure 1 (Open Procedure). Interested bidders must register on the portal, review the Terms of Reference, the Conditions for Participating and the standard contract, and submit their technical and financial proposals through the portal before the stated deadline. Questions must be raised through the portal's Q&A function before the deadline for questions.