Your search found 3 records
1 Xue, J.; Huo, Z.; Huang, Q.; Wang, F.; Boll, J.; Huang, G.; Qu, Z. 2019. Assessing sustainability of agricultural water saving in an arid area with shallow groundwater. Irrigation and Drainage, 68(2):205-217. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ird.2295]
Water conservation ; Agricultural practices ; Sustainability ; Irrigation water ; Evaluation ; Water use efficiency ; Water balance ; Models ; Water productivity ; Soil salinity ; Environmental effects ; Economic aspects ; Social aspects ; Drainage systems ; Arid zones ; Case studies / China / Jiefangzha Irrigation District
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049343)
(2.39 MB)
Agricultural water-saving practices are important in order to cope with the increasing shortage of water resources in arid and semi-arid areas. With water use efficiency and productivity being improved, however, more intense regional agricultural water-saving practices may induce the reduction of vegetation coverage and also groundwater decline. We assess the sustainability of regional agricultural water-saving practices in an arid area based on the analytic hierarchy process (APH). By calculating water use efficiency, economic benefit, social benefit and eco-environmental effect, the sustainability of regional agricultural water savings can be comprehensively evaluated and classified using different sustainability evaluation scoring standards. As a case study, the method was used in the Jiefangzha irrigation district (JFID), and the sustainability of agricultural water saving was assessed from 1990 to 2009. The results indicate that economic benefit and social water-saving awareness have increased dramatically since 1998. Water use efficiency and productivity have increased continuously, while the declining groundwater has had negative effects on vegetation coverage. Since 1998, the sustainability state shows an increasing trend with its all values above the alert line (0.4), and most of the sustainability values above the good line (0.6), which reveals a good condition of the sustainability of agricultural water savings in the JFID
2 Xue, J.; Huo, Z.; Wang, S.; Wang, C.; White, I.; Kisekka, I.; Sheng, Z.; Huang, G.; Xu, X. 2020. A novel regional irrigation water productivity model coupling irrigation- and drainage-driven soil hydrology and salinity dynamics and shallow groundwater movement in arid regions in China. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(5):2399-2418. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2399-2020]
Irrigation water ; Water productivity ; Models ; Irrigation canals ; Drainage systems ; Groundwater table ; Hydrology ; Salinity ; Cropping patterns ; Soil moisture ; Crop water use ; Crop production ; Sunflowers ; Wheat / China / Jiefangzha Irrigation District
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049768)
https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/24/2399/2020/hess-24-2399-2020.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049768.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049768.pdf
(3.87 MB) (3.87 MB)
The temporal and spatial distributions of regional irrigation water productivity (RIWP) are crucial for making decisions related to agriculture, especially in arid irrigated areas with complex cropping patterns. Thus, in this study, we developed a new RIWP model for an irrigated agricultural area with complex cropping patterns. The model couples the irrigation- and drainage-driven soil water and salinity dynamics and shallow groundwater movement in order to quantify the temporal and spatial distributions of the target hydrological and biophysical variables. We divided the study area into 1 km × 1 km hydrological response units (HRUs). In each HRU, we considered four land use types: sunflower fields, wheat fields, maize fields, and uncultivated lands (bare soil). We coupled the regional soil hydrological processes and groundwater flow by taking a weighted average of the water exchange between unsaturated soil and groundwater under different land use types. The RIWP model was calibrated and validated using 8 years of hydrological variables obtained from regional observation sites in a typical arid irrigation area in North China, the Hetao Irrigation District. The model simulated soil moisture and salinity reasonably well as well as groundwater table depths and salinity. However, overestimations of groundwater discharge were detected in both the calibration and validation due to the assumption of well-operated drainage ditch conditions; regional evapotranspiration (ET) was reasonably estimated, whereas ET in the uncultivated area was slightly underestimated in the RIWP model. A sensitivity analysis indicated that the soil evaporation coefficient and the specific yield were the key parameters for the RIWP simulation. The results showed that the RIWP decreased from maize to sunflower to wheat from 2006 to 2013. It was also found that the maximum RIWP was reached when the groundwater table depth was between 2 and 4 m, regardless of the irrigation water depth applied. This implies the importance of groundwater table control on the RIWP. Overall, our distributed RIWP model can effectively simulate the temporal and spatial distribution of the RIWP and provide critical water allocation suggestions for decision-makers.
3 Shi, H.; Luo, G.; Zheng, H.; Chen, C.; Hellwich, O.; Bai, J.; Liu, T.; Liu, S.; Xue, J.; Cai, P.; He, H.; Ochege, F. U.; Van de Voorde, T.; de Maeyer, P. 2021. A novel causal structure-based framework for comparing a basin-wide water-energy-food-ecology nexus applied to the data-limited Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 25(2):901-925. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-901-2021]
Water resources ; Energy ; Food security ; Ecology ; Nexus ; River basins ; Downstream ; Upstream ; Reservoirs ; International waters ; Water use ; Conflicts ; Agricultural production ; Models / Central Asia / Aral Sea Basin / Amu Darya River Basin / Syr Darya River Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050537)
https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/25/901/2021/hess-25-901-2021.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050537.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050537.pdf
(17.90 MB) (17.9 MB)
The previous comparative studies on watersheds were mostly based on the comparison of dispersive characteristics, which lacked systemicity and causality. We proposed a causal structure-based framework for basin comparison based on the Bayesian network (BN) and focus on the basin-scale water–energy–food–ecology (WEFE) nexus. We applied it to the Syr Darya River basin (SDB) and the Amu Darya River basin (ADB), of which poor water management caused the Aral Sea disaster. The causality of the nexus was effectively compared and universality of this framework was discussed. In terms of changes in the nexus, the sensitive factor for the water supplied to the Aral Sea changed from the agricultural development during the Soviet Union period to the disputes in the WEFE nexus after the disintegration. The water–energy contradiction of the SDB is more severe than that of the ADB, partly due to the higher upstream reservoir interception capacity. It further made management of the winter surplus water downstream of the SDB more controversial. Due to this, the water–food–ecology conflict between downstream countries may escalate and turn into a long-term chronic problem. Reducing water inflow to depressions and improving the planting structure prove beneficial to the Aral Sea ecology, and this effect of the SDB is more significant. The construction of reservoirs on the Panj River of the upstream ADB should be cautious to avoid an intense water–energy conflict such as the SDB's. It is also necessary to promote the water-saving drip irrigation and to strengthen the cooperation.
Powered by DB/Text WebPublisher, from
