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This document is an editorial from the International Journal of Water Resources Development, discussing the importance of water resource management in agriculture for achieving food and water security in Asia. It highlights the role of agriculture in water usage and the challenges posed by climate change and increased demand. The editorial presents research papers on topics such as the impact of climate change on food security, the effects of weather variables on crop yields, the benefits of irrigation mechanization, and groundwater governance. It concludes by emphasizing the need for integrated measures, technological development, provision of irrigation facilities, and improved water governance for sustainable water management in agriculture. Additionally, the document includes a list of contact information for individuals affiliated with institutions such as the Asian Development Bank Institute and the University of Glasgow's School of Social & Environmental Sustainability. [Extracted from the article]

Surface and ground waters can be considered the main sources of water supply for agricultural, municipal, and industrial consumers. Over the centuries, the combination of both naturally occurring conditions and humanity's actions has placed increasing pressure on these water resources. As an example, climate change and natural variability in the distribution and occurrence of water are among the natural driving forces that complicate the sustainable development of water resources. Recent advances in computer techniques have allowed scientists to develop complex models at different scales to support water-resource planning and management. The Special Issue "Advances in Flow Modeling for Water Resources and Hydrological Engineering" presents a collection of scientific contributions providing a sample of the state-of-the-art research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document titled "Resilient and sustainable water management in agriculture" emphasizes the importance of water resources and agricultural systems for sustainable development. It discusses the use of computer-based technologies like remote sensing, GIS, and machine learning in understanding and managing water resources. The document introduces a special issue on water management in agriculture, which includes research papers covering topics such as optimal reservoir operation, crop water demand assessment, groundwater contamination, rainfall data estimation, agricultural drought vulnerability, irrigation water quality, groundwater potential zones, groundwater quality assessment, and the toxic effects of copper oxide nanoparticles on aquatic organisms. These papers offer valuable insights for decision-making and planning in water resource management and sustainable agriculture. The collection of research papers also covers various topics related to environmental science and geospatial analysis, utilizing remote sensing data, GIS technology, and analytical methods to assess aspects like land use, water quality, and morphometric parameters. The findings highlight the effectiveness of these approaches in decision-making for sustainable development and resource management. Additionally, one paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental pollution and emphasizes the need for short-term and long-term solutions. Overall, these papers provide valuable insights for researchers and policymakers in the field of environmental science. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The water footprint accounting method addresses the quantification of water consumption in agriculture, whereby three types of water to grow crops are considered, namely green water (consumed rainfall), blue water (irrigation from surface or groundwater) and grey water (water needed to dilute pollutants). Most of current water footprint assessments focus on global to continental scale. We therefore developed the spatial decision support system SPARE:WATER that allows to quantify green, blue and grey water footprints on regional scale. SPARE:WATER is programmed in VB.NET, with geographic information system functionality implemented by the MapWinGIS library. Water requirement and water footprints are assessed on a grid-basis and can then be aggregated for spatial entities such as political boundaries, catchments or irrigation districts. We assume in-efficient irrigation methods rather than optimal conditions to account for irrigation methods with efficiencies other than 100 %. Furthermore, grey water can be defined as the water to leach out salt from the rooting zone in order to maintain soil quality, an important management task in irrigation agriculture. Apart from a thorough representation of the modelling concept we provide a proof of concept where we assess the agricultural water footprint of Saudi Arabia. The entire water footprint is 17.0 km3 yr-1 for 2008 with a blue water dominance of 86 %. Using SPARE:WATER we are able to delineate regional hot spots as well as crop types with large water footprints, e.g. sesame or dates. Results differ from previous studies of national-scale resolution, underlining the need for regional water footprint assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial that discusses the importance of water in agriculture, particularly in arid and semiarid regions, and the impact of irrigation on hydrological processes. It covers various research fields within agricultural hydrology, such as water-heat-salt-nutrients transport and evapotranspiration modeling, as well as remote sensing applications. The document provides an overview of published papers on this topic, highlighting research gaps and challenges in integrated agro-hydrological modeling, water resource management, non-point source pollution control, soil salinization, data-driven algorithms, and the use of remote sensing technology. It also lists research topics related to hydrology, including remote sensing, sustainability, ecohydrology, crop water requirement, drought assessment, and groundwater, with studies conducted in different regions such as China, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and the USA. The document includes a list of research articles covering various subjects, such as the impacts of climate change on streamflow, water footprint of the animal breeding industry, reference evapotranspiration estimation methods, and the effects of controlled tile drainage on crop growth. The articles are authored by researchers from different countries, including China, Spain, the USA, and Sri Lanka. The document also provides information on the authors' contributions, data availability, and conflicts of interest. [Extracted from the article]

The agriculture sector on the whole planet has been subjected to abrupt climate changes, sudden floods and continuous drought. The nutrition of the planet is indangered taking into account the rate of population growth combating with water resources scarcity on some places. There is a need of developing water efficient technologies and improving their management. The MOHID-Land model has been developed in 2018 and simulates the full soil-water-plant-atmosphere transfer system and can help the improvement of agricultural water management. The current paper discussed the simulation of the soil water dynamics of drip-irrigated tomatoes cultivated in the Experimental field of the Agricultural University – Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The data by the simulations has been compared with experimental data obtained at three soil depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper speaks to the uneven scholarly attention gone into tracing dominant forms of water governance as opposed to practices crafting alternative human-water relations on the ground. Through the case of an Indian-based network mobilising to transform how we understand rainfed regions as rain-dependent socio-ecologies, I theorise their action 'with care', a commitment to think-with grassroots movements as actors capable of bringing new worlds into being. Describing their activities as worlding-practices, I explore how the network confronts the invisibilities inscribed by the current paradigm reducing water to irrigation by defining alternative metrological tools that recentre the governance of water from the perspective of the rainfall. Tinkering with the variables of the constituted metrology, the network utilises an atlas, a formula, and an acronym to enact a different rainfed sociality into being, creating visibilities and cares for neglected things. Through the story of a grassroots group and their strategies of mobilisation, this account contributes to debates on how to pluralise water governance, suggesting that reimagining its practices requires taking seriously the performativity of grassroots knowledges. Building alliances between research and activism as e/affective world-building partners becomes key to co-theorise liveable human-water relations and caring socio-ecologies at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning (ML) technologies has triggered smart agricultural systems. In smart agriculture, irrigation management plays a major role to reduce water waste. The monitoring settings, hardware modules, communication technology, and storage systems used in smart irrigation systems were analyzed to determine the optimal nature of water flow. This assessment aims to give an overview of the current state of the irrigation system by taking into account weather and soil moisture. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the utilization of various hardware modules in smart irrigation systems. Moreover, various communication technologies that aid in data transfer for efficient smart irrigation are reviewed. The ML method used for prediction is also evaluated, as well as based storage technologies like the cloud and databases used to store data for predictive irrigation systems. As a result, the paper provides an overview of all the factors that contribute to irrigation systems' smart operation as well as potential future paths for improving agricultural systems through IoT. Core Ideas: Irrigation management is crucial in smart agriculture for minimizing water waste.This apper presents the ideal type of water flow that was determined by smart irrigation systems.Monitoring configurations, hardware modules, communication technology, and storage systems were analyzed in the smart irrigation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, collectively known as BTEX compounds, are significant emerging contaminants in municipal wastewater. Stricter effluent quality regulations necessitate their removal, especially with concerns about organic micropollutant concentrations. Water scarcity further underscores the need for wastewater treatment to ensure safe agricultural or drinking water supplies. Although biological treatment partially reduces BTEX levels through processes like biodegradation and sorption, additional purification using physico-chemical methods is crucial for substantial reduction. This paper aims to outline plant-wide simulation methods for treating BTEX-contaminated sewage and facilitating reuse, adhering to IWA Good Modelling Practice Guidelines. The model, built upon the MiniSumo process model, incorporates equations detailing BTEX metabolism and removal kinetics, informed by an extensive literature review. Using a variant of the Benchmark Simulation Model with granular activated carbon for water reuse, the study examines strategies for improving effluent quality and minimizing operational costs. These strategies include adjusting the sludge retention time and airflow to enhance BTEX degradation and stripping, respectively, and comparing maintenance approaches for the GAC tower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The act of balancing between an intensive agriculture with a high potential for nitrate pollution and a drinking water supply almost entirely based on groundwater is a challenge faced by Denmark and similar regions around the globe. Since the 1980s, regulations implemented by Danish farmers have succeeded in optimizing the (nitrogen) management at farm level. As a result, the upward agricultural surplus trend has been reversed, and the surplus has reduced by 30-55% from 1980 to 2007 depending on region. The reduction in the surplus served to reduce the losses of from agriculture, with documented positive effects on nature and the environment in Denmark. In groundwater, the upward trend in nitrate concentration was reversed around 1980, and a larger number of downward nitrate trends were seen in the youngest groundwater compared with the oldest groundwater. However, on average, approximately 48% of the oxic monitored groundwater has nitrate concentrations above the groundwater and drinking water standards of 50mgl-1. Furthermore, trend analyses show that 33% of all the monitored groundwater has upward nitrate trends, while only 18% of the youngest groundwater has upward nitrate trends according to data sampled from 1988-2009. A regional analysis shows a correlation between a high level of surplus in agriculture, high concentrations of nitrate in groundwater and the largest number of downward nitrate trends in groundwater in the livestock-dense northern and western parts of Denmark compared with the south-eastern regions with lower livestock densities. These results indicate that the livestock farms dominating in northern and western parts of Denmark have achieved the largest reductions in surpluses. Groundwater recharge age determinations allow comparison of long-term changes in surplus in agriculture with changes in oxic groundwater quality. The presented data analysis is based on groundwater recharged from 1952-2003, but sampled from 1988-2009. Repetition of the nitrate trend analyses at five-year intervals using dating of the groundwater recharged in the coming years and a longer time series of the nitrate analyses can reveal the evolution in nitrate leaching from Danish agriculture during the past 10 yr. Similar analyses can be carried out to compare with other regions internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rational management of water, which is determined by the Framework Directive 2000/60/EC of the EU, is a contractual obligation of the Agricultural Sector of Cyprus, both towards the European Union and the next generations of Cypriot citizens. To make decisions about sustainable water use and improve water use, it is necessary to understand the water use of crops in different water-use areas. Especially in large water projects in Cyprus, there must be a good way to determine the water use of crops so that the correct use of crops can be ensured, thus eliminating problems such as a lack of new information about the crop area and agricultural evaporation, Demand, and water. In most projects, water is managed and supplied based on historical data, and current information is available to determine water demand and availability for large areas. This paper also adds, apart from the clear positive effect of remote sensing and new technologies in crop irrigation, to the emerging need for advisory services for the diffusion of innovation to Cypriot farmers since the estimation of crop water requirements is part of estimating the carbon footprint under the project CARBONICA (EU Funded) for carbon farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image processing-based water level detectors have promising practical application value in intelligent agriculture and early water logging alerts. However, water level recognition based on image processing faces illumination, shooting angle, and sediment contamination challenges. In addition, due to the influence of water surface reflection, it is not easy to extract the water level ruler (WLR) on the water surface accurately. This paper proposes a novel dual-attention CornerNet for WLR image extraction and CTransformer for WLR sequence recognition. First, a dual-attention mechanism to obtain the global information is introduced to better predict semantic segmentation feature maps and corner information. Then, asymmetric convolution Resnet-50 is used to extract multi-local information to effectively recognize inconsistent character sizes caused by different shooting angles of WLRs. Recently, the design of vision backbone using self-attention becomes an exciting topic. In this work, an improved CTransformer is designed to retain sufficient global context information and extract more differentiated features for sequence recognition via multi-head self-attention. Evaluation using our in-house dataset shows that the proposed framework achieves an F-score of 91.37 in the detection stage and the accuracy of human estimation error within 0.3 cm in the recognition stage is 95.37%, respectively. The proposed method is also evaluated on several benchmarks. Experiment results demonstrate that the method in this paper is superior to the existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pragmatic changes existed within the regulatory structures and institutionsfor water resource management in South Africa since 1994. The paper examined the trajectory of agricultural water demand and supply, governance, conservation, and implication for extension services. Prominent institutional repositories were consulted for this review including scientific materials obtained from the online library of various universities by engaging in Online Public Access CatLog (OPAC), Cat Plus and Digital Collections, and numerous scientific papers and grey literatures. However, the study answered the following questions:(i) Are there water demand and supply issues in South Africa? (ii) What are the water conservation approaches used in South Africa? (iii) What are the implications of water management for agricultural extension service in South Africa? The review nurtures government confidence in ameliorating management issues and recommended changesto address the financial, environmental, and capacity limitations inherent in water sector. Though the sector has witnessed considerable improvement since 1994, the performance of the sector in relation to its objectives have not been encouraging. The distribution of water for agriculture and industrial uses are still highly uneven with vagueness and lack of transparency with respect to institutional roles and responsibilities. The paper, therefore, endorse the up skilling of farmers to minimizing the negative environmental impacts of irrigation, reducing the production cost, and enhance the sustainability of irrigated farming in South Africa. Government and extension should do more to support and conscientize farmers towards appropriate irrigation systems aimed at minimizing water losses. There is a need for sustained efforts to manage existing water infrastructures by all stakeholders for the benefit of the farming communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought in Afghanistan has many impacts from the interaction between environmental and socio-economic factors in the agriculture and water supply sectors. The complex topography and climate change impacts cause high spatial and temporal variation in the precipitation pattern and pose several challenges in managing water resources. Therefore, this paper aimed to quantify the sustainability of water resources against the progression of drought. Observed monthly precipitation data monitored by 23 stations located across five river basins covering the entire country for the period 1970–2016 were used to demonstrate the potential impacts of drought on water resources sustainability. Based on severe drought estimation, the year 2000 and 2001 were identified as change points. Accordingly, datasets pertaining to before and after the change points were partitioned to analyze the long-term temporal shift of drought. The spatiotemporal variability of sustainability indicators was estimated using reliability resiliency and vulnerability concept. The results indicated a positive trend of precipitation in most of the river basins after the change points leading to an increase in sustainability. However, the major portion in the upstream of the Kabul River basin showed a decrease in sustainability of around 15% due to a reduction in precipitation. As the Kabul city has high population density, it needs immediate attention in effectively planning and managing available water resources. Furthermore, the comprehensive analyses reported in this paper discuss the possible implications of drought risk assessment and its impact on largely varying sustainability both spatially and temporally in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground water is the main source of water for domestic and agricultural purposes in rural areas in Malawi. Continued exploitation of the ground water for domestic, agricultural, mining and other industrial purposes results in continued temporal changes in its levels. Understanding changes in the Groundwater Storage Capacity is crucial in development and in improving the livelihoods of people. Attempts to study groundwater storage have been made in Malawi. However, the lack of groundwater data, triggered by scarcity of ground observation facilities, hampers water resource management efforts. In this paper, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE-FO), supported by Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), has been used to determine variations in Terrestrial Water storage capacity levels, which combine the surface moisture, groundwater, snow and canopy water conditions in Balaka district, in Malawi, over a period of ten years (2012-2022). Owing to the fact that Balaka does not register any snowfall, only the surface moisture anomaly was considered in reducing the terrestrial water storage anomaly to determine the groundwater storage level changes from 2012 to 2022. Since an increasing trend, declining to levels as low as 0.002mm/year, was determined, the GRACE-based groundwater storage anomalies revealed no significant changes in groundwater levels. Influencing factors for the increasing trend were not addressed in this paper. Nonetheless, the results of this paper can contribute positively to the effective management of groundwater resources and promote the use of geodetic gravity data in water resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable projection of evapotranspiration (ET) is important for planning sustainable water management for the agriculture field in the context of climate change. A global dataset of monthly climate variables was generated to estimate potential ET (PET) using 14 General Circulation Models (GCMs) for four main shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). The generated dataset has a spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° and a period ranging from 1950 to 2100 and can estimate historical and future PET using the Penman-Monteith method. Furthermore, this dataset can be applied to various PET estimation methods based on climate variables. This paper presents that the dataset generated to estimate future PET could reflect the greenhouse gas concentration level of the SSP scenarios in latitude bands. Therefore, this dataset can provide vital information for users to select appropriate GCMs for estimating reasonable PETs and help determine bias correction methods to reduce between observation and model based on the scale of climate variables in each GCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a special issue of the journal Irrigation & Drainage, featuring selected papers from the 24th Congress of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) on the theme of "Innovation and research in agriculture water management to achieve sustainable development goals." The issue includes papers from various countries, discussing topics such as international cooperation in irrigation and drainage, integrated approaches to irrigation management, and the role of information and communication technology in the adoption of research outputs. The papers provide insights into different aspects of agriculture water management and highlight the need for innovative approaches to address sustainability challenges. The research presented emphasizes the importance of capacity development, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration in achieving sustainable water management. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Soil moisture plays a crucial role in various hydrological processes and energy partitioning of the global surface. The Soil Moisture Active Passive-Sentinel (SMAP-Sentinel) remote-sensing technology has demonstrated great potential for monitoring soil moisture with a maximum spatial resolution of 1 km. This capability can be applied to improve the weather forecast accuracy, enhance water management for agriculture, and managing climate-related disasters. Despite the techniques being increasingly used worldwide, their accuracy still requires field validation in specific regions like Thailand. In this paper, we report on the extensive in situ monitoring of soil moisture (from surface up to 1 m depth) at 10 stations across Thailand, spanning the years 2021 to 2023. The aim was to validate the SMAP surface-soil moisture (SSM) Level 2 product over a period of two years. Using a one-month averaging approach, the study revealed linear relationships between the two measurement types, with the coefficient of determination (R-squared) varying from 0.13 to 0.58. Notably, areas with more uniform land use and topography such as croplands tended to have a better coefficient of determination. We also conducted detailed soil core characterization, including soil–water retention curves, permeability, porosity, and other physical properties. The basic soil properties were used for estimating the correlation constants between SMAP and in situ soil moistures using multiple linear regression. The results produced R-squared values between 0.933 and 0.847. An upscaling approach to SMAP was proposed that showed promising results when a 3-month average of all measurements in cropland was used together. The finding also suggests that the SMAP-Sentinel remote-sensing technology exhibits significant potential for soil-moisture monitoring in certain applications. Further validation efforts and research, particularly in terms of root-zone depths and area-based assessments, especially in the agricultural sector, can greatly improve the technology's effectiveness and usefulness in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In all the smart applications, evolution of the Internet of Things (IOT) is utilized as a complete matured technology and in the future internet generations, established itself. Block-chain is also the blooming technique like Internet of things in which the distributed ledger which enhances the security contained in the each node of the block-chain. In the block-chain network, any fault transaction is not done by the illegal users. The block-chain is combined with the Internet of Things for the improvement of real time application performance. IOT based smart water management system is designed in this paper for the agriculture which ensures the effectiveness of the agriculture water management. The remote monitoring with the IOT is used for this purpose. By linking with 2D modelling, the control and management of the agriculture water were performed. Finally, a system is implemented for the agriculture water management through the real time data collection. The obtained result shows the data that updates the water monitoring interface with the varying number of hours. The IoT technology and remote monitoring technology is utilized to the existing water management infrastructure. For water resources management and water supply, this is the very efficient technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Journal of Irrigation & Drainage Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, a fuzzy Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model is proposed for considering the uncertainty of expert's opinion in decision making of agricultural water demand management. The performance of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model was evaluated, and the hybrid model of Modified Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (MTOPSIS) and AHP are introduced in non-fuzzy, MTOPSIS-AHP (MTAHP), and Fuzzy MTOPSIS-AHP (FMTAHP) setting, and the result of them were compared. Sensitivity analyses of tested fuzzy MCDM model was carried out in 3 separate steps of aggregation of individual fuzzy judgments, fuzzy distances values for fuzzification and ranking of fuzzy numbers. In this research, Coefficient of Variation (CV) index of final rates was proposed to evaluate the performance of MCDM models. The results of this paper showed that the geometric mean method is better for aggregation of individual fuzzy judgments. The results showed that non-fuzzy proposed model, MTAHP provided better ranking resolution among tested non-fuzzy MCDM models and only the proposed FMTAHP model significantly increased the CV index of final rates and improve the results resolution. Finally, the proposed MTAHP and FMTAHP models introduced as the best models for ranking alternatives by high resolution in non-fuzzy and fuzzy environment, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water management of the Colorado River is at a tipping point. This paper describes water management strategies in the Mexican portion of the Colorado River Basin considering water scarcity scenarios. A water allocation model was constructed representing current and future water demands and supply. The Colorado River system in Mexican territory is used as a case study, and all its water demands are characterized [Irrigation District Rio Colorado (DR-014), Mexicali, San Luis Rio Colorado, Tecate, Tijuana-Rosarito, and Ensenada]. Individual strategies were run by subsystem and then their impact was analyzed systemwide. Performance criteria and a performance-based sustainability index were evaluated to identify water stressors and management strategies to improve water supply for agricultural, urban, and environmental users. Analysis of results shows that the irrigation district (DR-014) is the most affected user due to water cuts because it has the lowest priority and, thus, any reduction in Colorado River allocations affects them directly. A range of water management strategies was investigated, including a no-action scenario. The current system depends on the long-term aquifer overdraft to supply water demand. The reduction of the cultivated area was the strategy that increased the sustainability index the most for DR-014. Agricultural to urban transfers, water use efficiency, wastewater reuse, and desalination are prime possibilities to improve the current water supply in the coastal zone (Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada). This research shows the spectrum of possible outcomes that could be expected, ranging from systemwide effects of inaction to the implementation of a portfolio of water management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Agricultural Resources & Environment / Nongye Ziyuan yu Huanjing Xuebao is the property of Journal of Agricultural Resources & Environment Editorial Board and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The swelling water demand due to population rise and inefficient water management has caused water scarcity in Pakistan's Sindh Province. The Sindh province almost entirely relies on the Indus River supply to meet its demand to irrigate 6Mha of culturable area. Many studies have predicted a shortfall of water in the coming years. It is also anticipated that Pakistan may become water scarce until 2025, which will cause food security issues. This study, funded by the Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project (WSIP), aimed to understand the current water availability trends to develop sustainable water budgeting for the province. The agricultural activities in Sindh are usually carried out in two seasons—Rabi and Kharif. In this study, agricultural water use was estimated in terms of actual evapotranspiration (ET) for14 canal command areas (CCAs) of Sindh during the Rabi (Oct to Mar) and Kharif (Apr to Sept) seasons during 2017–2019. Landsat satellite data product—Earth Engine Evapotranspiration Flux (EEflux)—is used for analysis. This study assessed agriculture water balance for three scenarios: 1) Rabi and Kharif seasons, 2) a water year, and 3) overall growing seasons. The result shows that when flows are low in the Rabi seasons, the consumptive water use exceeds the combined canal flows and rainwater. The deficits were supposedly met through groundwater abstraction. However, during the Kharif season, water availability was in surplus of the need indicating a possible recharge of aquifers. This study proposes that the disparity of the supplies and demands can be balanced by reallocating the canal water supply based on the actual need. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of consumptive water use through GIS maps is also represented in this study. The water balance of all 14 CCAs in Sindh is illustrated in this paper, discussing possible guidelines on when, where, and how future allocations should be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of conventional supply-based mechanisms, in which the allocation of irrigation water entitlement for individual farmers is determined by their specific water requirements, has resulted in the inefficiency of economic processes and the squandering of water resources. This paper introduces a new dynamic bi-objective equity framework within an irrigation system. The framework aims to minimize the disparity of water supply per net benefit at the upper level and optimize the disparity of water shortage at the lower level. In order to obtain a feasible and satisfactory outcome, the study considers the use of fuzzy goal programming and Improved Particle Swarm Optimization (IBPSO) to analyze the initial data gathered from Sistan Basin, a real arid area in Iran. The uncertainty surrounding inflow, planting area, and irrigation coefficient has presented potential challenges for the irrigation process. As a result, new adaptation measures are being explored to mitigate the effects of these challenges. The following study examines the equity of the irrigation system under various scenarios in light of the anticipated deterioration of climatic patterns in the coming years, and offers constructive insights. The final results indicate that watermelon has the highest water consumption, whereas grapes exhibit lower sensitivity to water availability. The adoption of adaptation strategies, such as transitioning from water-intensive and low-value watermelon cultivation to alternative crops like wheat, could significantly enhance water conservation efforts in arid and semi-arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigation systems to supply water to agricultural land are essential in remote and isolated areas. However, these areas often face challenges and obstacles in obtaining energy for use in irrigation since many depend on diesel generators (DGs) to produce electricity. A farm located in a remote area in Al-Jafr, Jordan, uses a 100 kW DG to supply its need for electric energy for irrigation purposes. Its energy consumption is 500 kWh/day at $0.29/kWh. This paper designs a new hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for this farm by conducting simulations using the HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources) software. This new system consists of solar photovoltaics (PVs), batteries, an inverter, and a 100 kW DG. The results showed a clear difference between the baseline DG-only system and the hybrid system regarding energy cost and carbon emissions. The energy price for the HRES is $0.107/kWh, and carbon dioxide emissions are reduced to 27,378 kg/yr from 184,917 kg/yr for the DG-only system. In addition, simulations and comparisons for an alternative HRES with a 60 kW DG were conducted. Based on the simulation results, the energy price was $0.091 instead of $0.19, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were 15,847 kg/yr instead of 115,090 kg/yr. It was concluded that using hybrid renewable energy systems to power the irrigation of remote areas successfully reduced the energy cost, fuel consumption, emissions, and overall cost. The HOMER program makes an accurate comparison over extended periods between the four strategies (load following, cycle charging, combined dispatch, and predictive dispatch) and selects the optimal system based on the cost, emissions, fuel consumption, and percentage of renewable energy from the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ecological Science is the property of Ecological Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Rural Water & Hydropower is the property of China Rural Water & Hydropower Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The shortage of available water resources and climate change are major factors affecting agricultural irrigation. In order to improve the irrigation water use efficiency, it is necessary to predict the water requirements for crops in advance. Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is a hypothetical standard reference crop evapotranspiration, many types of artificial intelligence models have been applied to predict ETo; However, there are still few in the literature regarding the application of hybrid models for deep learning model parameters optimization. This paper proposes two hybrid models based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and long-short-term memory (LSTM) neural network, used to predict ETo at the four climate stations, Shaanxi province, China. These two hybrid models were trained using 40 years of historical data, and the PSO was used to optimize the hyperparameters in the LSTM network. We applied the optimized model to predict the daily ETo in 2019 under different datasets, the result showed that the optimized model has good prediction accuracy. The optimized hybrid models can help farmers and irrigation planners to make plan earlier and precisely, and can provide valuable information to improve tasks such as irrigation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increased imbalance between water supply and water demand since the 1980s, especially the increase in agricultural water usage, China has undergone four stages in reforming agricultural water price since 2006: initial stage, in-depth pilot stage, comprehensive promotion stage, and policy classification stage. The focus of policy has also shifted from so-called "extensive" to "intensive". From 2016 to 2020, over 28.7 million hectares of farmlands across the country have been reformed in the country. The comprehensive reform of agricultural water price is a systematic project, and this paper aims to explore a comprehensive, practical, and operational initial water rights accounting and distribution scheme for agriculture at county scale. The scheme can provide guidance for smooth implementation of the comprehensive reform of agricultural water price. We first provide a brief introduction to the current situation of the comprehensive reform of agricultural water price in China and then identify the key tasks in its implementation. An accounting method for the initial water rights of county agriculture is proposed based on the existing rigid constraint system of water resources. The initial agricultural water rights at the county level are allocated according to the priority-order of irrigation areas-beneficiary village groups-townships (and water users). Taking Huangchuan County as an example, the agricultural water rights of all irrigation areas in the county are allocated to the beneficiary villages and their subordinate towns. Completion of initial agricultural water right allocation in the county area is a priority as it not only helps to understand the base and reform process of the comprehensive reform of agricultural water price, but also facilitates follow-up reform work, such as the water-saving incentive mechanism. Our results can provide reference for comprehensive reform of agricultural water price in similar counties and regions and offer experience samples for the applied research of agricultural water right systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Rural Water & Hydropower is the property of China Rural Water & Hydropower Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Water rights trading is an effective way to promote the redistribution of agricultural water saving within and among water-shortage regions. Reasonable transfer price can not only improve the income of farmers and irrigation areas, but also improve the efficiency of agricultural water use. However, the trading across industries or regions will diminish the ecosystem service value of arable land, and negatively impacts irrigation areas. This paper investigates the pricing model of agricultural water transaction, which combines water trading with ecological compensation to balance the benefits of both parties. A bi-level programming model of agricultural water trading was established for optimizing the prices and corresponding volumes of transaction across users in water markets. The context of this study is the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which is a typical water-shortage region in China. Results show that adjusting price variables through the model, including transaction price and ecological compensation, led to an optimization of transaction volumes across users. The economic benefits also are optimized between the irrigation districts and industrial water users. Pricing model of water trading is also improved with ecological compensation. This study ultimately provides a useful reference for policy-makers in water-shortage regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the most frequent topics in climatic literature over the last three decades. One of the significant concerns with a potential change in climate is that extreme events will occur with a higher frequency. This paper focuses on spatial distribution and changes that occurred in extreme precipitation indices in Romania over a 53-yr period: 1961–2013. Gridded daily precipitation data have been used at a spatial resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° (about 11 km × 11 km). A set of 14 indices established by the Expert Team for Sector-Specific Indices for agriculture and water resources sectors has been calculated. They are both frequency and intensity indices: four are fixed threshold indices (R10, R20, CDD, and CWD), four are station-related thresholds (R95p, R99p, R95pTOT, R99pTOT), and six indices were detected without using a threshold (Rx1day, Rx3days, PRECPTOT, SDII, SPI, SPEI). The study's main finding is that most of the indices registered increasing trends but not statistically significant at the country level. The only exceptions are the drought-related indices (CDD, SPI, and SPEI), for which we found a dominant decreasing trend. In the northern half of the country, increasing trends were prevailing, and in the southern one, those decreasing registered a broader spatial coverage. SPI and SPEI recorded mainly significant changes: SPI trends are almost equally divided between increasing and decreasing. For SPEI, more than 70% of the country was characterized by a significant decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is the lifeblood of agriculture. Different from land resources, water resources can flow across regions. Based on the perspective of ‘physical water and virtual water’ flow and using the panel data of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2004 to 2020, this paper used the dynamic spatial Durbin model to estimate the impact of regional grain trade on the pro⁃ portion of grain planting and that of rice, wheat, and corn in the context of inter-basin water transfer. The results showed that: ① For grain output areas, the impact of ‘physical water and virtual water’ flow decreased, the overall proportion of grain planting increased, and the proportion of corn planting among the grains decreased. It showed that the increase of water resource pressure in grain output areas played a greater role in promoting the induced technological change of grain production and strengthening the regional production division than limiting them, and there was a ‘paradox of irrigation efficiency’, that is, the progress of water-saving technology led to the increase of high water consumption crops. ② For grain input areas, the impact of ‘physical water and virtual water’ flow increased, the proportion of grain planting decreased, the proportion of short-term rice and corn planting increased, the proportion of rice (high water consumption crop) planting increased more, the proportion of long-term rice and corn planting decreased, and the proportion of corn (low water consumption crop) planting decreased more. It showed that the regional division of labor and strengthening of grain production reduced the proportion of grain planting in grain input areas, but the internal structure of grain was developing in the direction of more water consumption. ③ Under the current ‘physical water and virtual water’ flow, the grain input areas had a negative spatial spill⁃ over effect on the grain planting proportion in the output areas and the corn planting proportion among the grains, which showed that the reduction of water resource pressure in the grain input areas had a negative impact on the grain production in the grain output areas, and intensified the phenomenon of ‘paradox of irrigation efficiency’ in the internal structure of grain. The grain output areas had no significant impact on the grain planting proportion in the grain input areas. In the short term, the planting proportion of rice and corn was reduced, and the planting proportion of rice, a high water consuming crop, was reduced more, the planting proportion of rice and corn increased in the long term, and the planting proportion of corn, a low water consuming crop, increased more, indicating that the grain out⁃ put areas promoted the development of the internal structure of grain in the grain input areas in the direction of water saving. Finally, this paper puts forward the policy implications of implementing the overall management of ‘physical water and virtual water’, vigorously promoting the development of water-saving agriculture in grain output areas, and establishing regional grain virtual water compensation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein-based biostimulants (PBBs) are derived from the hydrolysis of protein-rich raw materials of plant and/or animal origins, usually by-products or wastes from agro-industries. The active ingredients (AIs) produced by hydrolysis have the capacity to influence physiological and metabolic processes in plants, leading to enhanced growth, nutrient and water-use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses, and improved crop yield and quality. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art and future opportunities for use of PBBs, based on potential effects on the soil, crops, and sustainability (social, economic, environmental). In this case, two examples of PBBs (hydrolyzed wheat gluten and potato protein) and their effects on the early growth of three sugar beet varieties are described and discussed. Both PBBs have a significant stimulating effect on early sugar beet growth and development. The opportunity to develop PBBs into superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) is discussed. To conclude, PBBs/SAPs developed from agro-industrial wastes have the potential for sustainably supplying water and nutrients in agricultural systems and for enhancing plant growth and development over a substantial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water quality and quantity are critical issues as the Florida's population grows. This paper analyzed water use regionally (central, north, and south Florida) as well as in rural and urban areas in Florida from 2005 to 2015 using three indicators (total water use, agriculture water use, and per capita water use). Eight (8) water-consuming categories, such as aquaculture, livestock, irrigation, public supply, thermoelectric power, mining, industrial self-supply, and domestic self-supply, were considered for total water use. Per capita water use used public supply category and agricultural water use used aquaculture, livestock, and irrigation categories. Linear regression analysis was used to observe the relationship between population and water use. The highest water use was recorded in south Florida, while the lowest was in north Florida. Water use per capita was higher in urban areas. Irrigation water use was higher among the eight water use categories. Many drivers influencing Florida water use were identified through literature review and causal loop diagram was developed. Some (e.g., household size, land use/land cover change, urbanization, agriculture, population, income, climate change, tourism, and industry) may cause an increase in water use, while others (e.g., pricing systems, conservation methods, education, and technology) may cause a decrease in water use. Overall, this research addresses the need of understanding water use trends and the drivers affecting those trends, which are important to determine whether a water conservation plan is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Journal of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Journal of Irrigation & Drainage Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Proper agricultural water management in arid regions is the key to tackling climatic risks. However, an effective assessment of the current response to climate change in agricultural water use is the precondition for a group adaptation strategy. The paper, taking the Tarim River basin (TRB) as an example, aims to examine the agricultural water use sustainability of water resource increase caused by climatic variability. In order to describe the response result, groundwater change has been estimated based on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS)-Noah land surface model (NOAH) data. In order to better understand the relationship between water resource increase and agricultural water consumption, an agricultural water stress index has been established. Agricultural water stress has been in a severe state during the whole period, although it alleviated somewhat in the mid-late period. This paper illustrates that an increase in water supply could not satisfy agricultural production expansion. Thus, seasonal groundwater loss and a regional water shortage occurred. Particularly in 2008 and 2009, the sharp shortage of water supply in the Tarim River basin directly led to a serious groundwater drop by nearly 20 mm from the end of 2009 to early 2010. At the same time, a regional water shortage led to water scarcity for the whole basin, because the water consumption, which was mainly distributed around Source Rivers, resulted in break-off discharge in the mainstream. Therefore, current agricultural development in the Tarim River basin is unsustainable in the context of water supply under climatic risks. Under the control of irrigation, spatial and temporal water allocation optimization is the key to the sustainable management of the basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salt accumulations in aquifers significantly affect and transform the conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater supporting irrigated agriculture. Salt accumulates in aquifers under many semi‐arid irrigated lands where pumping has lowered water levels enough to prevent drainage of saline groundwater from the basin. This paper provides new insights into optimal conjunctive management of groundwater pumping, recharge, surface water, and cropping patterns with groundwater salinity and hydrologic variability in an irrigated semi‐arid region, such as California's western San Joaquin Valley, reducing agricultural crop yields and revenues. A two‐stage stochastic quadratic model explores this problem to prescribe economically optimal crop mix and conjunctive water operation policies over a 10‐year period with probabilistic annual surface water availability, considering groundwater salinity's harm to crop yields. At low groundwater salinity, agricultural conjunctive use usually pumps most groundwater in drier years, supplied by additional recharge in wetter years. In contrast, at higher groundwater salinity, optimal conjunctive use pumps less in drier years while pumping more in wetter years, when more surface water allows more dilution of saltier groundwater. Reduced pumping in drier years substantially reduces a region's ability to support higher‐value perennial crops and reduces or eliminates lower‐value annual crops in dry years. Artificial recharge with fresh surface water in wetter years can have economic value from slowing groundwater salination which allows more groundwater use in drier years. Key Points: A two‐stage stochastic quadratic model estimates the economic impact of groundwater salinity on agriculture, especially with perennial cropsEconomically optimized groundwater management fundamentally changes with groundwater salinationArtificial recharge for aquifers with severe salt accumulation can reduce both loss of agricultural production and groundwater salinity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Journal of Irrigation & Drainage Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Wind energy has been used by humans for thousands of years. Yet, the relatively low economic cost and availability of fossil fuels upstaged the use of wind power. Fossil fuel resources are not renewable and will decline until exhaustion in the future. At the same time, humans have become aware of the adverse effects on the environment caused by reliance on fossil fuel energy. Wind, on the other hand, is a renewable energy source with minimal adverse environmental impacts that does not involve greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural irrigation systems use fossil fuel energy resources in various forms. Groundwater withdrawal is central to supplying agricultural water demand in arid and semi-arid regions. Such withdrawal is mostly based on water extraction with pumps powered by diesel, gasoline, or electricity (which is commonly produced by fossil fuels). This paper coupled the non-sorted genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) as the optimization tool to the mathematical formulation of the wind-powered groundwater production problem to determine the potential of wind energy for groundwater withdrawal in an arid area. The optimal safe yield and the optimal size of regulation reservoir are determined considering two objectives: (1) maximizing total extraction of groundwater and (2) minimizing the cost of reservoir construction. The safe yield and the two objectives are optimized for periods lasting 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 months over a 1-year planning horizon. This paper's methodology is evaluated with groundwater and wind-power data pertinent to Eghlid, Iran. The optimal safe yield increases by increasing the period length. Specifically, increasing the period length from 1 to 6 months increases the safe yield from 12 to 29 m3. Application of the proposed NSGA-II-based optimization of groundwater production identifies the best design and operational variables with computational efficiency and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Integrated water planning and management face multiple challenges, among which are the competing interests of several water-using sectors and changing climatic trends. This paper presents integrated and non-integrated climate-environment-water approaches for reservoir operation, illustrated with Karkhe reservoir, Iran. Reservoir operation objectives are meeting municipal, environmental, and agricultural water demands. Results show the integrated approach, which relies on multi-objective optimization of municipal, environmental, and agricultural water supply, improves the municipal, environmental, and agricultural objectives by 70, 32, and 65% compared with the objectives' values achieved with the non-integrated approach, which implements a standard operating policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jingdian Irrigation Area is a high-lift cross-basin irrigation area with agricultural economy as the main, drought and water shortage have become the main factors restricting the high and stable yield of crops, water-saving irrigation technology has been popularized in Jingdian Irrigation Area reasonable water-saving irrigation can save water improve unilateral water efficiency it is beneficial to promote the intensive and economical utilization of water resources and the construction of water-saving irrigation area. This paper is based on the entropy method, the evaluation system of water-saving irrigation benefit is constructed from the aspects of social economic benefit and ecological environmental benefit, the benefits of different water-saving irrigation modes for the main crops in irrigated areas are analyzed. The results show that the efficiency of efficient water-saving irrigation is generally higher than other irrigation methods drip irrigation is the best water-saving irrigation mode in this area. The evaluation results are basically consistent with the reality, it shows that this method is feasible to evaluate the benefit in irrigated areas, so it has a guiding significance to the comprehensive evaluation of irrigated areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]