Water Productivity Improvement Under Salinity Conditions: Case Study of the Saline Areas of Lower Karkheh River Basin, Iran

Abstract. Supplemental irrigation of rainfed winter crops improves and stabilises crop yield and water productivity. Although yield increases by supplemental irrigation are well established at the field level, its potential extent and impact on water resources at the basin level are less researched. This work presents a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based methodology for identifying areas that are potentially suitable for supplemental irrigation and a computer routine for allocating streamflow for supplemental irrigation in different sub-basins. A case study is presented for the 42 908 km2 upper Karkheh River basin (KRB) in Iran, which has 15 840 km2 of rainfed crop areas. Rainfed crop areas within 1 km from the streams, with slope classes 0–5, 0–8, 0–12, and 0–20 %, were assumed to be suitable for supplemental irrigation. Four streamflow conditions (normal, normal with environmental flow requirements, drought and drought with environmental flow) were considered for the allocation of water resources. Thirty-seven percent (5801 km2) of the rainfed croplands had slopes less than 5 %; 61 % (3559 km2) of this land was suitable for supplemental irrigation, but only 22 % (1278 km2) could be served with irrigation in both autumn (75 mm) and spring (100 mm), under normal flow conditions. If irrigation would be allocated to all suitable land with slopes up to 20 %, 2057 km2 could be irrigated. This would reduce the average annual outflow of the upper KRB by 9 %. If environmental flow requirements are considered, a maximum (0–20 % slopes) of 1444 km2 could receive supplemental irrigation. Under drought conditions a maximum of 1013 km2 could be irrigated, while the outflow would again be reduced by 9 %. Thus, the withdrawal of streamflow for supplemental irrigation has relatively little effect on the outflow of the upper KRB. However, if the main policy goal would be to improve rainfed areas throughout the upper KRB, options for storing surface water need to be developed.

Download Full-text

The Effect of water rights reallocation system of Yellow River Basin on water productivity, Regional Development and CO2 emission: a case study of Inner Mongolia, China

Design for Innovative Value Towards a Sustainable Society ◽

10.1007/978-94-007-3010-6_237 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 1123-1128

Author(s):

Feng Shi ◽

Akio Onishi ◽

Masafumi Morisugi ◽

Kokyo Oh

Keyword(s):

Regional Development ◽

River Basin ◽

Inner Mongolia ◽

Co2 Emission ◽

Yellow River ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Water Rights ◽

Yellow River Basin ◽

Effect Of Water

Download Full-text

Bias correction capabilities of quantile mapping methods for rainfall and temperature variables

Journal of Water and Climate Change ◽

10.2166/wcc.2020.261 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maedeh Enayati ◽

Omid Bozorg-Haddad ◽

Javad Bazrafshan ◽

Somayeh Hejabi ◽

Xuefeng Chu

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Bias Correction ◽

Correction Method ◽

Quantile Mapping ◽

Topographic Features ◽

Temperature Variable ◽

Transformation Functions ◽

Karkheh River Basin ◽

The Karkheh River

Abstract This study aims to conduct a thorough investigation to compare the abilities of QM techniques as a bias correction method for the raw outputs from GCM/RCM combinations. The Karkheh River basin in Iran was selected as a case study, due to its diverse topographic features, to test the performances of the bias correction methods under different conditions. The outputs of two GCM/RCM combinations (ICHEC and NOAA-ESM) were acquired from the CORDEX dataset for this study. The results indicated that the performances of the QMs varied, depending on the transformation functions, parameter sets, and topographic conditions. In some cases, the QMs' adjustments even made the GCM/RCM combinations' raw outputs worse. The result of this study suggested that apart from DIST, PTF:scale, and SSPLIN, the rest of the considered QM methods can provide relatively improved results for both rainfall and temperature variables. It should be noted that, according to the results obtained from the diverse topographic conditions of the sub-basins, the empirical quantiles (QUANT) and robust empirical quantiles (RQUANT) methods proved to be excellent options to correct the bias of rainfall data, while all bias correction methods, with the notable exceptions of performed PTF:scale and SSPLIN, performed relatively well for the temperature variable.

Download Full-text

Assessing adaptation measures on agricultural water productivity under climate change: A case study of Huai River Basin, China

The Science of The Total Environment ◽

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137777 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 721 ◽

pp. 137777 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

C. Dai ◽

X.S. Qin ◽

W.T. Lu ◽

Y. Huang

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Agricultural Water ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Huai River Basin ◽

Huai River

Download Full-text

Water productivity of irrigated wheat and maize in the Karkheh River basin of Iran

Irrigation and Drainage ◽

10.1002/ird.481 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 59 (3) ◽

pp. 264-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

A. S. Qureshi ◽

T. Oweis ◽

P. Karimi ◽

J. Porehemmat

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Irrigated Wheat ◽

Karkheh River Basin ◽

The Karkheh River

Download Full-text

WATER ALLOCATION OPTIMIZATION FOR SUPPLEMENTARY IRRIGATION IN RAINFED LANDS TO INCREASE TOTAL INCOME CASE STUDY: UPSTREAM KARKHEH RIVER BASIN

Irrigation and Drainage ◽

10.1002/ird.1700 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 74-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Hadi Ramezani Etedali ◽

Abdolmajid Liaghat ◽

Masoud Parsinejad ◽

Ali Reaz Tavakkoli ◽

Omid Bozorg Haddad ◽

...

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Water Allocation ◽

Total Income ◽

Supplementary Irrigation ◽

Karkheh River Basin

Download Full-text

Supplemental irrigation potential and impact on downstream flow of Karkheh River Basin of Iran

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/hessd-9-13519-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 13519-13536 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

B. Hessari ◽

A. Bruggeman ◽

A. Akhoond-Ali ◽

T. Oweis ◽

F. Abbasi

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

River Basin ◽

Stream Flow ◽

Water Productivity ◽

Environmental Flow ◽

Flow Conditions ◽

Supplemental Irrigation ◽

Irrigation Potential ◽

Downstream Flow ◽

Karkheh River Basin

Abstract. Supplemental irrigation of rainfed winter crops improves and stabilizes crop yield and water productivity. Although yield increases by supplemental irrigation are well established at the field level, its potential extent and impact on water resources at the basin level are less researched. This work presents a GIS-based methodology for identifying areas that are potentially suitable for supplemental irrigation and a computer routine for allocating stream flow for supplemental irrigation in different subbasins. A case study is presented for the 42 908 km2 upper Karkheh River Basin (KRB) in Iran, which has 15 840 km2 of rainfed crop areas. Rainfed crop areas within 1 km from the streams, with slope classes 0–5%, 0–8%, 0–12% and 0–20%, were assumed to be suitable for supplemental irrigation. Four stream flow conditions (normal, normal with environmental flow requirements, drought and drought with environmental flow) were considered for the allocation of water resources. Thirty-seven percent (5801 km2) of the rainfed croplands had slopes less than 5%. Sixty-one percent (3559 km2) of this land was suitable for supplemental irrigation, but only 22% (1278 km2) could be served with irrigation in both fall (75 mm) and spring (100 mm), under normal flow conditions. If irrigation would be allocated to all suitable land with slopes up to 20%, 2057 km2 could be irrigated. This would reduce the average annual outflow of the upper KRB by 9%. If environmental flow requirements are considered, a maximum (0–20% slopes) of 1444 km2 could receive supplemental irrigation. Under drought conditions a maximum of 1013 km2 could be irrigated, while the outflow would again be reduced by 9%. Thus, the withdrawal of steam flow for supplemental irrigation has relatively little effect on the outflow of the upper KRB. However, if the main policy goal would be to improve rainfed areas throughout the upper KRB, options for storing surface water need to be developed.

Download Full-text