scholarly journals Basin-wide water accounting using remote sensing data: the case of transboundary Indus Basin

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 12921-12958 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Karimi ◽  
W. G. M. Bastiaanssen ◽  
D. Molden ◽  
M. J. M. Cheema
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Information ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Soil Evaporation ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Total Consumption ◽  
Water Depletion ◽  
Water Accounting

Abstract. The paper describes the application of a new Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework to produce spatial information on water flows, sinks, uses, storages and assets, in the Indus Basin, South Asia. It demonstrates how satellite-derived estimates of land use, land cover, rainfall, evaporation (E), transpiration (T), interception (I) and biomass production can be used in the context of WA+. The results for one selected year showed that total annual water depletion in the basin (502 km3) plus outflows (21 km3) exceeded total precipitation (482 km3). The deficit in supply was augmented through abstractions beyond actual capacity, mainly from groundwater storage (30 km3). The "landscape ET" (depletion directly from rainfall) was 344 km3 (69% of total consumption). "Blue water" depletion ("utilized flow") was 158 km3 (31%). Agriculture was the biggest water consumer and accounted for 59% of the total depletion (297 km3), of which 85% (254 km3) was through irrigated agriculture and the remaining 15% (44 km3) through rainfed systems. While the estimated basin irrigation efficiency was 0.84, due to excessive evaporative losses in agricultural areas, half of all water consumption in the basin was non-beneficial. Average rainfed crop yields were 0.9 t ha−1 and 7.8 t ha−1 for two irrigated crop growing seasons combined. Water productivity was low due to a lack of proper agronomical practices and poor farm water management. The paper concludes that the opportunity for a food-secured and sustainable future for the Indus Basin lies in focusing on reducing soil evaporation. Results of future scenario analyses suggest that by implementing techniques to convert soil evaporation to crop transpiration will not only increase production but can also result in significant water savings that would ease the pressure on the fast declining storage.

scholarly journals Basin-wide water accounting based on remote sensing data: an application for the Indus Basin

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 2473-2486 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Karimi ◽  
W. G. M. Bastiaanssen ◽  
D. Molden ◽  
M. J. M. Cheema
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Water Depletion ◽  
Snow Storage ◽  
Water Accounting ◽  
Annual Water

Abstract. The paper demonstrates the application of a new water accounting plus (WA+) framework to produce information on depletion of water resources, storage change, and land and water productivity in the Indus basin. It shows how satellite-derived estimates of land use, rainfall, evaporation (E), transpiration (T), interception (I) and biomass production can be used in addition to measured basin outflow, for water accounting with WA+. It is demonstrated how the accounting results can be interpreted to identify existing issues and examine solutions for the future. The results for one selected year (2007) showed that total annual water depletion in the basin (501 km3) plus outflows (21 km3) exceeded total precipitation (482 km3). The water storage systems that were effected are groundwater storage (30 km3), surface water storage (9 km3), and glaciers and snow storage (2 km3). Evapotranspiration of rainfall or "landscape ET" was 344 km3 (69 % of total depletion). "Incremental ET" due to utilized flow was 157 km3 (31% of total depletion). Agriculture depleted 297 km3, or 59% of the total depletion, of which 85% (254 km3) was through irrigated agriculture and the remaining 15% (44 km3) through rainfed systems. Due to excessive soil evaporation in agricultural areas, half of all water depletion in the basin was non-beneficial. Based on the results of this accounting exercise loss of storage, low beneficial depletion, and low land and water productivity were identified as the main water resources management issues. Future scenarios to address these issues were chosen and their impacts on the Indus Basin water accounts were tested using the new WA+ framework.

scholarly journals Water Accounting Plus (WA+) – a water accounting procedure for complex river basins based on satellite measurements

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 2459-2472 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Karimi ◽  
W. G. M. Bastiaanssen ◽  
D. Molden
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Water Depletion ◽  
Water Accounting ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Coping with water scarcity and growing competition for water among different sectors requires proper water management strategies and decision processes. A pre-requisite is a clear understanding of the basin hydrological processes, manageable and unmanageable water flows, the interaction with land use and opportunities to mitigate the negative effects and increase the benefits of water depletion on society. Currently, water professionals do not have a common framework that links depletion to user groups of water and their benefits. The absence of a standard hydrological and water management summary is causing confusion and wrong decisions. The non-availability of water flow data is one of the underpinning reasons for not having operational water accounting systems for river basins in place. In this paper, we introduce Water Accounting Plus (WA+), which is a new framework designed to provide explicit spatial information on water depletion and net withdrawal processes in complex river basins. The influence of land use and landscape evapotranspiration on the water cycle is described explicitly by defining land use groups with common characteristics. WA+ presents four sheets including (i) a resource base sheet, (ii) an evapotranspiration sheet, (iii) a productivity sheet, and (iv) a withdrawal sheet. Every sheet encompasses a set of indicators that summarise the overall water resources situation. The impact of external (e.g., climate change) and internal influences (e.g., infrastructure building) can be estimated by studying the changes in these WA+ indicators. Satellite measurements can be used to acquire a vast amount of required data but is not a precondition for implementing WA+ framework. Data from hydrological models and water allocation models can also be used as inputs to WA+.

scholarly journals Water savings potentials of irrigation systems: global simulation of processes and linkages

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 3073-3091 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jägermeyr ◽  
D. Gerten ◽  
J. Heinke ◽  
S. Schaphoff ◽  
M. Kummu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Irrigation Efficiency ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Regional Patterns

Abstract. Global agricultural production is heavily sustained by irrigation, but irrigation system efficiencies are often surprisingly low. However, our knowledge of irrigation efficiencies is mostly confined to rough indicative estimates for countries or regions that do not account for spatiotemporal heterogeneity due to climate and other biophysical dependencies. To allow for refined estimates of global agricultural water use, and of water saving and water productivity potentials constrained by biophysical processes and also non-trivial downstream effects, we incorporated a process-based representation of the three major irrigation systems (surface, sprinkler, and drip) into a bio- and agrosphere model, LPJmL. Based on this enhanced model we provide a gridded world map of irrigation efficiencies that are calculated in direct linkage to differences in system types, crop types, climatic and hydrologic conditions, and overall crop management. We find pronounced regional patterns in beneficial irrigation efficiency (a refined irrigation efficiency indicator accounting for crop-productive water consumption only), due to differences in these features, with the lowest values (< 30 %) in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and the highest values (> 60 %) in Europe and North America. We arrive at an estimate of global irrigation water withdrawal of 2469 km3 (2004–2009 average); irrigation water consumption is calculated to be 1257 km3, of which 608 km3 are non-beneficially consumed, i.e., lost through evaporation, interception, and conveyance. Replacing surface systems by sprinkler or drip systems could, on average across the world's river basins, reduce the non-beneficial consumption at river basin level by 54 and 76 %, respectively, while maintaining the current level of crop yields. Accordingly, crop water productivity would increase by 9 and 15 %, respectively, and by much more in specific regions such as in the Indus basin. This study significantly advances the global quantification of irrigation systems while providing a framework for assessing potential future transitions in these systems. In this paper, presented opportunities associated with irrigation improvements are significant and suggest that they should be considered an important means on the way to sustainable food security.

Sustaining crop production in saline groundwater areas: A case study from Pakistani Punjab

2004 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asad S. Qureshi ◽  
M. N. Asghar ◽  
S. Ahmad ◽  
I. Masih
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Discharge Rate ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Saline Groundwater ◽  
Irrigation Methods ◽  
Skimming Wells

In the Indus Basin of Pakistan, multi-strainer shallow tubewells often called 'skimming wells' are used to extract groundwater from thin fresh lenses underlain by saline groundwater. Most of these wells face problems such as deteriorating water quality and reduction in discharge due to inadequate design and poor operational and management strategies. This paper evaluates the current practices of farmers in the Chaj doab area of Pakistani Punjab and suggests improvements in design and operation of skimming wells to ensure long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the area. The effect of existing design and operation of skimming wells on pumped groundwater quality was evaluated using MODFLOW. To study the long-term effects of skimmed groundwater use on crop production and soil salinity development, the soil water flow and solute transport model SWAP was applied. The results revealed that farmers could reduce the number of strainers from 16 to 6 without reducing the anticipated discharges. For the conditions considered, the maximum discharge of skimming wells should be 4–8 L/s and they should not be operated for more than 2–4 h per day. Increasing discharge rate or daily operational hours can disturb the interface between fresh and saline groundwater resulting in reduced quality pumped groundwater. Weekly operational schedules together with recommended discharge rate and operational hours will be the best strategy to use skimmed groundwater for achieving optimal crop yields while maintaining root-zone salinity within acceptable limits. To avoid aquifer degradation, skimming wells should be used for supplemental irrigation rather than full irrigation of crops. Due to low discharge rates, skimming wells cannot be used to irrigate crops through surface irrigation methods. Therefore, pressurised irrigation methods should be used. The results also suggest that continuation of present irrigation practices could lead to serious problems of land and aquifer degradation. Therefore, farmers need to adjust their irrigation and leaching requirements annually considering crop evapotranspiration, precipitation, and salinity status of soils.

scholarly journals Managing Water and Salt for Sustainable Agriculture in the Indus Basin of Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5303
Author(s):  
Asad Sarwar Qureshi ◽  
Chris Perry
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Allocation ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Soil Reclamation ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Fresh Groundwater

The Indus basin of Pakistan occupies about 16 million ha (Mha) of land. The Indus River and its tributaries are the primary sources of surface water. An estimated 122 km3 of surface water is diverted annually through an extensive canal system to irrigate this land. These surface water supplies are insufficient to meet the crop water requirements for the intensive cropping system practiced in the Indus basin. The shortfall in surface water is met by exploiting groundwater. Currently, about 62 km3 of groundwater is pumped annually by 1.36 million private and public tube wells. About 1.0 million tubewells are working only in the Punjab province. Small private tubewells account for about 80% of the pumped volume. Inadequate water allocation along the irrigation canals allows excessive water use by head-end farmers, resulting in waterlogging. In contrast, the less productive use of erratic supplies by tail-end farmers often results in soil salinity. The major issues faced by irrigated agriculture in Pakistan are low crop yields and water use efficiency, increasing soil salinization, water quality deterioration, and inefficient drainage effluent disposal. Currently, 4.5 Mha (about 30% of the total irrigated area) suffers from adverse salinity levels. Critical governance issues include inequitable water distribution, minimizing the extent to which salt is mobilized, controlling excessive groundwater pumping, and immediate repair and maintenance of the infrastructure. This paper suggests several options to improve governance, water and salt management to support sustainable irrigated agriculture in Pakistan. In saline groundwater areas, the rotational priorities should be reorganized to match the delivery schedules as closely as possible to crop demand, while emphasizing the reliability of irrigation schedules. Wherever possible, public tubewells should pump fresh groundwater into distributaries to increase water availability at the tail ends. Any substantial reform to make water delivery more flexible and responsive would require an amendment to the existing law and reconfiguration of the entire infrastructure, including thousands of kilometers of channels and almost 60,000 outlets to farmer groups. Within the existing political economy of Pakistan, changing the current water allocation and distribution laws without modernizing the infrastructure would be complicated. A realistic reform program should prioritize interventions that do not require amendment of the Acts or reconstruction of the entire system and are relatively inexpensive. If successful, such interventions may provide the basis for further, more substantial reforms. The present rotational water supply system should continue, with investments focusing on lining channels to ensure equitable water distribution and reduce waterlogging at the head ends. Besides that, the reuse of drainage water should be encouraged to minimize disposal volumes. The timely availability of farm inputs can improve individual farmers’ productivity. Farmers will need to have access to new information on improved irrigation management and soil reclamation approaches. Simultaneously, the government should focus more on the management of drainage and salinity.

scholarly journals Water Accounting Plus (WA+) – a water accounting procedure for complex river basins based on satellite measurements

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 12879-12919 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Karimi ◽  
W. G. M. Bastiaanssen ◽  
D. Molden
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Water Depletion ◽  
Water Accounting ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Coping with the issue of water scarcity and growing competition for water among different sectors requires proper water management strategies and decision processes. A pre-requisite is a clear understanding of the basin hydrological processes, manageable and unmanageable water flows, the interaction with land use and opportunities to mitigate the negative effects and increase the benefits of water depletion on society. Currently, water professionals do not have a common framework that links hydrological flows to user groups of water and their benefits. The absence of a standard hydrological and water management summary is causing confusion and wrong decisions. The non-availability of water flow data is one of the underpinning reasons for not having operational water accounting systems for river basins in place. In this paper we introduce Water Accounting Plus (WA+), which is a new framework designed to provide explicit spatial information on water depletion and net withdrawal processes in complex river basins. The influence of land use on the water cycle is described explicitly by defining land use groups with common characteristics. Analogous to financial accounting, WA+ presents four sheets including (i) a resource base sheet, (ii) a consumption sheet, (iii) a productivity sheet, and (iv) a withdrawal sheet. Every sheet encompasses a set of indicators that summarize the overall water resources situation. The impact of external (e.g. climate change) and internal influences (e.g. infrastructure building) can be estimated by studying the changes in these WA+ indicators. Satellite measurements can be used for 3 out of the 4 sheets, but is not a precondition for implementing WA+ framework. Data from hydrological models and water allocation models can also be used as inputs to WA+.

scholarly journals PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF IRRIGATION SCHEMES IN RUGERAMIGOZI MARSHLAND, RWANDA

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Janvier Hakuzimana ◽  
Blessing Masasi
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Irrigation Scheme ◽  
International Water Management Institute ◽  
Increase Productivity ◽  
Returns On Investment

Evaluating irrigation schemes contributes to the identification of performance gaps and this may lead to implementation of necessary improvements for enhancing agricultural productivity. In Rwanda, despite significant investments in irrigated agriculture, most of the irrigation schemes are performing far below their planned capacity. This study aimed at benchmarking the performance of Rugeramigozi 1 and Rugeramigozi 2 irrigation schemes located in Rugeramigozi marshland, Rwanda using irrigation indicators developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The study showed that land productivity for both the two irrigation schemes was generally low. Rugeramigozi 2 irrigation scheme had superior performance than Rugeramigozi 1 in terms of water productivity due to adoption of deficit irrigation strategies that promoted water conservation. The performance indicators for water service delivery showed that water use was more sufficient in Rugeramigozi 1 compared to Rugeramigozi 2 irrigation scheme. The water delivery capacity performance for both schemes revealed that the existing irrigation canals were sufficient to meet the irrigation water requirements at peak demand. The analysis of financial performance in both schemes indicated that the collected irrigation fees were inadequate to cover the operation and maintenance costs. Similarly, the gross returns on investment were low in both irrigation schemes due to low crop yields that generated low revenue for farmers. Overall, the performance indicators showed that both Rugeramigozi 1 and Rugeramigozi 2 irrigation schemes were in need of intensive management and infrastructural improvements in order to increase productivity and enhance sustainability of the schemes.

scholarly journals Model based irrigation water application of maize (zeamays l.) to improve water productivity in irrigated agriculture

2020 ◽  
pp. 37918-37925
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Yields ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Irrigation Schedule ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Water Requirement ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Accurate Estimation ◽  
Crop Water ◽  
Maize Crop ◽  
Irrigation Requirements

Under the semiarid and arid climate of Eastern Europe, accurate estimation of crop water requirement and irrigation scheduling is important for water management and planning. The objectives of this study were to estimate maize water requirement and irrigation scheduling in variable climatic conditions. CROPWAT model is decision support system developed by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and it is used as a practical tool to carry out standard calculations for reference evapotranspiration, crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling, and also allows helps in planning and decision making in the areas where water resource availability is varying and scarce. The study result indicated that Maize seasonal amounts of irrigation requirements varied from 439.5 to 615.0 mm. Maize actual daily evapotranspiration (ETa) varied from 0.12 to 4.13 mm and from 0.27 to 4.68 mm in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Net irrigation schedule for all growing periods in 2010 was zero for initial and late but for development 138.9 mm and 45.9 mm for mid-stage of the growing period. However, 2011 were zero, 83.7 mm, 178 mm, and 98.2 mm in initial, mid, and development and late stages respectively. Besides in the study area, 2010 was the wettest year but 2011 was determined as the driest year this may cause adverse conditions on maize crop yields quantity and quality. Irrigation requirements for maize should be adjusted to the local meteorological conditions for optimizing maize irrigation requirements and improving maize water productivity under such climatic variable conditions.

scholarly journals Combined simulation and optimization framework for irrigation scheduling in agriculture fields

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireia Fontanet ◽  
Daniel Fernàndez-Garcia ◽  
Gema Rodrigo ◽  
Francesc Ferrer ◽  
Josep Maria Villar
Keyword(s):  
Crop Yields ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Simulation And Optimization ◽  
Optimization Framework ◽  
Net Margin ◽  
Combined Simulation

AbstractIn the context of growing evidence of climate change and the fact that agriculture uses about 70% of all the water available for irrigation in semi-arid areas, there is an increasing probability of water scarcity scenarios. Water irrigation optimization is, therefore, one of the main goals of researchers and stakeholders involved in irrigated agriculture. Irrigation scheduling is often conducted based on simple water requirement calculations without accounting for the strong link between water movement in the root zone, soil–water–crop productivity and irrigation expenses. In this work, we present a combined simulation and optimization framework aimed at estimating irrigation parameters that maximize the crop net margin. The simulation component couples the movement of water in a variably saturated porous media driven by irrigation with crop water uptake and crop yields. The optimization component assures maximum gain with minimum cost of crop production during a growing season. An application of the method demonstrates that an optimal solution exists and substantially differs from traditional methods. In contrast to traditional methods, results show that the optimal irrigation scheduling solution prevents water logging and provides a more constant value of water content during the entire growing season within the root zone. As a result, in this case, the crop net margin cost exhibits a substantial increase with respect to the traditional method. The optimal irrigation scheduling solution is also shown to strongly depend on the particular soil hydraulic properties of the given field site.

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