Efficient water conservation in agriculture for growing urban water demands in Jordan

Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Octavio A. Ramírez ◽  
Frank A. Ward ◽  
Raed Al-Tabini ◽  
Richard Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
High Price ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Economic Productivity ◽  
Water Demands ◽  
Irrigation Water Use ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scarce Water

A significant worldwide challenge is to increase the food supply to accommodate a population growing to 9,000,000,000 in the face of climate change. Per capita water supply in Jordan is among the world's lowest. Despite this scarcity, three-quarters of Jordan's water use is consumed by irrigated agriculture, while producing low economic values from additional water used compared to urban uses. However, irrigated agriculture supports Jordan's food security, so its policymakers continue to examine measures to produce more crop per drop in irrigated agriculture, to permit scarce water to meet growing urban demands. This paper examines economically efficient measures to conserve water in irrigated agriculture to sustain growing urban water demands. Using a sample of one-third of the farms in Jordan's Mafraq Basin, an econometric model is formulated to identify factors influencing irrigation water use and economic productivity. Findings show that the price of water is the overarching factor influencing both. A low water price discourages water conservation even if other institutions promote it. A high price of water encourages conservation even in the presence of other discouraging factors. Results suggest that water-conserving policies in Jordan's irrigated agriculture can be more effectively implemented where water institutions and programs are designed to be compatible with the underlying economic scarcity of water. Results carry significant implications for the design and implementation of development programs affecting the use of water in the world's dry areas.

scholarly journals Past, Present, and Future of Irrigation on the U.S. Great Plains

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven R. Evett ◽  
Paul D. Colaizzi ◽  
Freddie R. Lamm ◽  
Susan A. O’Shaughnessy ◽  
Derek M. Heeren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Crop Water ◽  
Irrigation Technology ◽  
Irrigated Area ◽  
Irrigation Water Use ◽  
The U.S

Highlights Irrigation is key to the productivity of Great Plains agriculture but is threatened by water scarcity. The irrigated area grew to >9 million ha since 1870, mostly since 1950, but is likely to decline. Changes in climate, water availability, irrigated area, and policy will affect productivity. Adaptation and innovation, hallmarks of Great Plains populations, will ensure future success. Abstract. Motivated by the need for sustainable water management and technology for next-generation crop production, the future of irrigation on the U.S. Great Plains was examined through the lenses of past changes in water supply, historical changes in irrigated area, and innovations in irrigation technology, management, and agronomy. We analyzed the history of irrigated agriculture through the 1900s to the present day. We focused particularly on the efficiency and water productivity of irrigation systems (application efficiency, crop water productivity, and irrigation water use productivity) as a connection between water resource management and agricultural production. Technology innovations have greatly increased the efficiency of water application, the productivity of water use, and the agricultural productivity of the Great Plains. We also examined the changes in water stored in the High Plains aquifer, which is the region’s principle supply for irrigation water. Relative to other states, the aquifer has been less impacted in Nebraska, despite large increases in irrigated area. Greatly increased irrigation efficiency has played a role in this, but so have regulations and the recharge to the aquifer from the Nebraska Sand Hills and from rivers crossing the state. The outlook for irrigation is less positive in western Kansas, eastern Colorado, and the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles. The aquifer in these regions is recharged at rates much less than current pumping, and the aquifer is declining as a result. Improvements in irrigation technology and management plus changes in crops grown have made irrigation ever more efficient and allowed irrigation to continue. There is good reason to expect that future research and development efforts by federal and state researchers, extension specialists, and industry, often in concert, will continue to improve the efficiency and productivity of irrigated agriculture. Public policy changes will also play a role in regulating consumption and motivating on-farm efficiency improvements. Water supplies, while finite, will be stretched much further than projected by some who look only at past rates of consumption. Thus, irrigation will continue to be important economically for an extended period. Sustaining irrigation is crucial to sustained productivity of the Great Plains “bread basket” because on average irrigation doubles the efficiency with which water is turned into crop yields compared with what can be attained in this region with precipitation alone. Lessons learned from the Great Plains are relevant to irrigation in semi-arid and subhumid areas worldwide. Keywords: Center pivot, Crop water productivity, History, Sprinkler irrigation, Subsurface drip irrigation, Water use efficiency.

scholarly journals Problems of introducing a system of paid water use in irrigated agriculture in water-deficient regions of Russia (on the example of the Rostov region)

2021 ◽  
Vol 273 ◽  
pp. 05014
Author(s):  
Grigory Kharitonov
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
River Mouth ◽  
Anthropogenic Load ◽  
Small Rivers ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Rostov Region ◽  
Quality Of Water ◽  
The Face

In the face of climate change, regulation of water use is essential. On the example of the Rostov region, the necessity of introducing paid water for agricultural lands was considered. Rostov region is one of the largest producers of agricultural products, including wheat and sunflower. At the same time, this territory belongs to arid territories and needs irrigation of agricultural land. The Lower Don basin on the territory of the Rostov region includes the territory from the Tsimlyansk reservoir to the river mouth. The quality of water resources and river runoff of large waterways in the Don region is largely determined by small rivers, whose environmental problems are also associated with a high anthropogenic load, indicating intense economic activity. The article discusses the possibilities of using the system of payment for water use for agriculture. It is shown that the introduction of a system of tariffs for irrigation water, as well as the modernization of existing legal norms, will reduce the anthropogenic load on the ecosystem. The systemic regulation of water use should ultimately lead to the modernization of the system of irrigation canals and the cleaning of small rivers in the region.

scholarly journals Effective and rational use of irrigation water in the conditions of the republic of Karakalpakstan

2021 ◽  
Vol 264 ◽  
pp. 04023
Author(s):  
S Kurbanbaev ◽  
O Karimova ◽  
Zakir Turlibaev ◽  
Rashid Baymuratov
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Water Losses ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Irrigation Technologies ◽  
Effective Use

The lack of water that has been repeated in recent years dictates the requirements of a strict regime of water conservation and economical use of water. Understanding the need for strict water conservation and the fight against unproductive water losses must be started with the producers of agricultural products, i.e., from farms, as rational water use and water conservation at the field level could save a significant amount of irrigation water. The article reflects the current state of water use in irrigated agriculture in the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The main, inter-farm, and intra-farm canals have been studied in detail, and the mode and efficiency of their work have been assessed. The obtained results of the conducted field research works on irrigation technologies are presented. Suggestions on the choice of water-saving irrigation technologies are given, as well as recommendations on the effective use of irrigation water in the non-growing season.

scholarly journals Global scenarios of irrigation water use for bioenergy production: a systematic review

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Stenzel ◽  
Dieter Gerten ◽  
Naota Hanasaki
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
High Water ◽  
Domestic Water ◽  
Crop Species ◽  
Bioenergy Production ◽  
Final Energy ◽  
Water Demands ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Irrigation Water Use ◽  
Climate Evolution

Abstract. Many scenarios of future climate evolution and its anthropogenic drivers include considerable amounts of bioenergy as fuel source, negative emission technology, or for final energy production. The associated freshwater requirements for irrigation of dedicated biomass plantations might be substantial and therefore potentially increase water limitation and stress in affected regions; however, assumptions and quantities of water use provided in the literature vary strongly. This paper reviews existing global assessments of freshwater requirements for such bioenergy production and puts these estimates into the context of scenarios for other water use sectors. We scanned the available literature and (out of 430 initial hits) found 16 publications (partly including several scenarios) with reported values on global water demand for irrigation of biomass plantations, suggesting a range of 125–11,350 km3 yr−1 water use (consumption), compared to about 1,100–11,600 km3 yr−1 for other (agricultural, industrial, and domestic) water withdrawals. To provide an understanding of the origins of this large range, we present the diverse underlying assumptions, discuss major study differences, and make the freshwater amounts involved comparable by estimating the original biomass harvests from reported final energy or negative emissions. We conclude that due to the potentially high water demands and the trade-offs that might go along with them, bioenergy should be an integral part of global assessments of freshwater demand and use. For interpreting and comparing reported estimates of possible future bioenergy water demands, full disclosure of parameters and assumptions is crucial. A minimum set should include annual blue water consumption and withdrawal, bioenergy crop species, rainfed as well as irrigated bioenergy plantation locations (including total area), and total bioenergy harvest amounts.

Peach response to water deficit in a semi-arid region

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Paltineanu ◽  
L. Septar ◽  
C. Moale ◽  
S. Nicolae ◽  
C. Nicola
Keyword(s):  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Deficit Irrigation ◽  
Irrigation Treatment ◽  
Fruit Yield ◽  
Dry Matter Content ◽  
Irrigation Water Use ◽  
Future Global Warming ◽  
Semi Arid

Abstract During three years a deficit irrigation experiment was performed on peach response under the semi-arid conditions of south-eastern Romania. Three sprinkler-irrigated treatments were investigated: fully irrigated, deficit irrigation treatment, and non-irrigated control treatment. Soil water content ranged between 60 and 76% of the plant available soil water capacity in fully irrigated, between 40 and 62% in deficit irrigation treatment, and between 30 and 45% in control. There were significant differences in fruit yield between the treatments. Irrigation water use efficiency was maximum in deficit irrigation treatment. Fruit yield correlated significantly with irrigation application. Total dry matter content, total solids content and titrable acidity of fruit were significantly different in the irrigated treatments vs. the control. Significant correlation coefficients were found between some fruit chemical components. For the possible future global warming conditions, when water use becomes increasingly restrictive, deficit irrigation will be a reasonable solution for water conservation in regions with similar soil and climate conditions.

Quantifying Irrigation Water Use over Regional Scales with Landsat and Climate Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bretreger ◽  
In-Young Yeo ◽  
Greg Hancock ◽  
Garry Willgoose
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Allocation ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Stress Index ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Validation Data ◽  
Irrigation Water Use ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Standardised Precipitation Index

<p>Irrigated agriculture has been identified as using approximately 72% of water globally. Australia, like many places in the world, is subject to water sharing plans that cross government boarders and are subject to a mixture of management policies. There is a pressing need to develop a method to monitor irrigation water use to aid in water resource assessments and monitoring. This paper aims to test a previously developed method which monitors irrigation water use using remotely sensed observations over the catchment scale, without the need for in-situ observations, ground data or in‑depth knowledge of crops and their planting dates. Using conservative assumptions about agricultural land management practice, irrigation is calculated as Irr=AET-P. The method tests three vegetation indices derived from Landsat 5/7/8 images to calculate crop coefficients (K<sub>c</sub>) based on multiple published relationships. These are combined through the FAO56 methodology using gridded rainfall and two reference evapotranspiration (ET<sub>0</sub>) products to find actual evapotranspiration as AET=ET<sub>0</sub>xK<sub>c</sub>, providing six ET<sub>0</sub>-K<sub>c</sub> combinations. Validation data is sourced from Irrigation Infrastructure Operators (IIO) from across the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia which are required to record irrigation water deliveries for billing purposes. The majority of these regions are in arid or semi-arid regions. Data periods used in this study range from 2003/04 to 2016/17. Results indicate this method can effectively assess irrigation water use over a range of catchment sizes from ~6,000 to ~600,000 ha. The best results returned a monthly irrigation RMSE ranging from 1.13 to 2.42 mm/month. Issues arise when regions have a designated low water allocation volume for that season (<40%). The allocation percentage is a function of water storage levels, demand and forecasts. Comparisons with the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) show that the proposed method is robust to the rapid onset and short-term droughts. However, its performance was poor during the long term droughts with low water allocation years. The study results during these years has been predominately attributed to water stress in certain crops being undetected, agricultural managers skipping annual crop commodities as well as stock and domestic water use making up larger portions of total water use. This is a limitation of this approach, although when only comparing results in years with greater than 40% allocations, the results improved significantly showing it can monitor water use effectively. When adequate water is available, this approach is able to accurately predict irrigation water use for the sites examined.</p>

Options for the future: balancing urban water supply and demand in Beijing

Water Policy ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Can Wang ◽  
Camilla Dunham Whitehead ◽  
Jining Chen ◽  
Xiaomin Liu ◽  
Junying Chu
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Current Effort ◽  
Current Water ◽  
Water Supply And Demand

Beijing is facing the considerable challenge of water shortage, as it is just able to meet current water demand in a year with average precipitation and a shortfall between water supply and demand is estimated to be around 1.8 billion[109] cubic meters (BCM) by 2010. Aiming to find the solution to such a severe challenge, this paper investigates Beijing's current and future water resources availability and water-use configurations, as well as past and current effort on both areas of water supply and demand. The analysis shows a continuously growing demand for water and an aggravating deficit of traditionally available water resources. The paper concludes that it is necessary to establish well-structured water-use data and employ more advanced forecasting methods if sound future decisions regarding water balance are expected to be made. In order to realize Beijing Municipality's full urban water conservation potential, it is suggested that a comprehensive and integrated long-term conservation program be implemented, which is technically feasible and economically justified, to conserve water consistently for many years.

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