Back to Search
Start Over
Optimal irrigation planning for addressing current or future water scarcity in Mediterranean tree crops
- Source :
- Science of The Total Environment. 654:616-632
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Water scarcity in the Mediterranean region is becoming a growing concern, threatening the viability of agriculture, which is one of the main economic sectors in many areas. The design of an optimal irrigation management plan, based on state-of-the-art measuring and modeling tools, can effectively contribute towards water saving efforts and potentially address the water scarcity issue in the region. This paper describes the development and application of an integrated decision-making system for the management of water resources of olive and citrus crops in the North of Chania, Crete, Greece. The system integrates different field measurements, for example 2088 soil moisture measurements taken within the study area, and modeling approaches to simulate flow in the unsaturated zone. After the successful calibration and validation of the model, the spatio-temporal representation of soil moisture and pore water pressure were used as guidance for developing optimal irrigation plans, taking into account the water needs of olive and citrus crops, aiming to maximize crop yield, agricultural income, and promote water saving efforts. According to the results, water use can be reduced by up to 36% during the dry season, compared to conventional irrigation practices for citrus trees. Similarly, for olive trees, the reduction in water use can reach up to 41%. The proposed methodology can also be cost-effective in terms of water value, saving about 40% from the typical water cost for irrigation in the study area. The impact of climate change on water resources availability in the area and water conservation efforts were also investigated for the period of (2019-2030). Results show that, comparing the Baseline, RCP 8.5 and RCP 4.5 climatic scenarios, the highest savings on average are observed for emission scenario RCP 4.5 with 53.3% water savings for olive trees and 46.7% for citrus trees.
- Subjects :
- Crops, Agricultural
Citrus
Irrigation
Agricultural Irrigation
Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Climate Change
Decision Making
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Trees
Water scarcity
Water conservation
Olea
Environmental Chemistry
Irrigation management
Waste Management and Disposal
Water content
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Conservation of Water Resources
Greece
Pollution
Olive trees
Water resources
Water Resources
Environmental science
Water resource management
Water use
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00489697
- Volume :
- 654
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science of The Total Environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1876f0d29a95c3c27c483d84f21e00fd
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.118