Journals / Turkish Journal of Water Science and Management / 2020 / Cilt: 4 - Sayı: 1
Effects of Irrigation and Field Management Practices within Water Resources Systems
- Pages
- 77–108
- DOI
- —
Abstract
The world population is foreseen to increase up to 9.8 billion people toward 2050, and global food and water demands can also be predicted to rise accordingly. Regarding these future demands, climate change and depletion in water resources; new approaches, management strategies, and models are needed. In this study, the AquaCrop model was used as an analytical tool to predict the effects of management practices within winter wheat, spring wheat, winter barley, and maize in a specific location, middle Guadiana sub-catchment, Spain. The primary drivers from the model were designated as actual evapotranspiration, crop yield, and water productivity. Model runs were executed within three different management strategies: irrigation technologies, irrigation strategies, and mulching practices. Thereafter, yield gaps and water productivity gaps were analyzed, and water scarcity/ shortage degrees were compared. The results showed that the AquaCrop model is a versatile model to estimate actual evapotranspiration, crop yield, and water productivity parameters. Yield productions in deficit irrigation were found higher than supplementary irrigation. Full irrigation showed the highest crop yield within non-limited water conditions. However, some negative impacts of the full irrigation strategy such as salinity should be considered. Mulching practices positively affected the actual evapotranspiration reduction. Full irrigation and no mulching scenario showed the worst results on the water resources systems. Supplementary irrigation and synthetic mulching practices depicted the least deterioration of surface water resources. Deficit irrigation and synthetic mulching practices resulted in considerable water savings with fewer yield losses compared to the scenario with the highest yield production levels.
Özet
The world population is foreseen to increase up to 9.8 billion people toward 2050, and global food and water demands can also be predicted to rise accordingly. Regarding these future demands, climate change and depletion in water resources; new approaches, management strategies, and models are needed. In this study, the AquaCrop model was used as an analytical tool to predict the effects of management practices within winter wheat, spring wheat, winter barley, and maize in a specific location, middle Guadiana sub-catchment, Spain. The primary drivers from the model were designated as actual evapotranspiration, crop yield, and water productivity. Model runs were executed within three different management strategies: irrigation technologies, irrigation strategies, and mulching practices. Thereafter, yield gaps and water productivity gaps were analyzed, and water scarcity/ shortage degrees were compared. The results showed that the AquaCrop model is a versatile model to estimate actual evapotranspiration, crop yield, and water productivity parameters. Yield productions in deficit irrigation were found higher than supplementary irrigation. Full irrigation showed the highest crop yield within non-limited water conditions. However, some negative impacts of the full irrigation strategy such as salinity should be considered. Mulching practices positively affected the actual evapotranspiration reduction. Full irrigation and no mulching scenario showed the worst results on the water resources systems. Supplementary irrigation and synthetic mulching practices depicted the least deterioration of surface water resources. Deficit irrigation and synthetic mulching practices resulted in considerable water savings with fewer yield losses compared to the scenario with the highest yield production levels.