IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v226y2019ics0378377418319449.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intelligent urban irrigation systems: Saving water and maintaining crop yields

Author

Listed:
  • Mason, Brooke
  • Rufí-Salís, Martí
  • Parada, Felipe
  • Gabarrell, Xavier
  • Gruden, Cyndee

Abstract

Intelligent irrigation is one sustainable solution to reduce demands on water resources and adverse environmental impacts from irrigation. Specific case studies have quantified water savings with intelligent irrigation, however, water savings have not yet been quantified for urban agriculture or compared across climates. Before urban agriculture implements intelligent irrigation, requiring an added cost and knowledge requirements of the control system, the effects of the system must first be estimated for a broad range of climatic conditions. We hypothesized that an intelligent irrigation system will decrease water use without reducing crop yield. With CROPWAT, we modeled an urban tomato garden irrigated conventionally to one irrigated intelligently in each of the nine climatic regions of the United States. Tomatoes were selected because they are sensitive to water stress. The intelligent irrigation system included a wireless sensor network and controllable valves. In addition, we created the Conventional-Scenario Intelligent-Scenario Index to compare the overall performance of an intelligent irrigation strategy to a conventional one. Our simulations showed that the intelligent irrigation scenario decreased water use on average by 59% in all sub-humid climates while maintaining yield (0% reduction). All sub-humid climates (7 of 9 total zones) fell within the “fair” to “good” index categories. Based on these results, urban agricultural sites should consider installing intelligent irrigation systems if they are in sub-humid climates. In the two semi-arid climates, our intelligent irrigation scenario eliminated the 6–10% crop yield reductions of the conventional scenario but did not reduce water consumption. Both locations fell within the “fair” index category. The minor improvements in the semi-arid climates may not outweigh the added system costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Mason, Brooke & Rufí-Salís, Martí & Parada, Felipe & Gabarrell, Xavier & Gruden, Cyndee, 2019. "Intelligent urban irrigation systems: Saving water and maintaining crop yields," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:226:y:2019:i:c:s0378377418319449
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105812
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377418319449
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105812?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aldaya, M.M. & Hoekstra, A.Y., 2010. "The water needed for Italians to eat pasta and pizza," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(6), pages 351-360, July.
    2. Laouisset, M. B. & Dellal, A., 2016. "Estimation of Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Crop Water Requirements Using Cropwat Software in Ksar-Chellala Region, Algeria," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 8(3), pages 1-12, September.
    3. Rinaldi, Michele & Ventrella, Domenico & Gagliano, Caterina, 2007. "Comparison of nitrogen and irrigation strategies in tomato using CROPGRO model. A case study from Southern Italy," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 91-105, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tolessa Deksissa & Harris Trobman & Kamran Zendehdel & Hossain Azam, 2021. "Integrating Urban Agriculture and Stormwater Management in a Circular Economy to Enhance Ecosystem Services: Connecting the Dots," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Imran Ali Lakhiar & Haofang Yan & Chuan Zhang & Guoqing Wang & Bin He & Beibei Hao & Yujing Han & Biyu Wang & Rongxuan Bao & Tabinda Naz Syed & Junaid Nawaz Chauhdary & Md. Rakibuzzaman, 2024. "A Review of Precision Irrigation Water-Saving Technology under Changing Climate for Enhancing Water Use Efficiency, Crop Yield, and Environmental Footprints," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-40, July.
    3. Arivintharan Chalvantharan & Chun Hsion Lim & Denny K. S. Ng, 2023. "Economic Feasibility and Water Footprint Analysis for Smart Irrigation Systems in Palm Oil Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-14, May.
    4. Stephanie Panlasigui & Erica Spotswood & Erin Beller & Robin Grossinger, 2021. "Biophilia beyond the Building: Applying the Tools of Urban Biodiversity Planning to Create Biophilic Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, February.
    5. Bao, Lei & Zhang, Saifeng & Liang, Xinyu & Wang, Peizhou & Guo, Yawen & Sun, Qinghao & Zhou, Jianbin & Chen, Zhujun, 2023. "Intelligent drip fertigation increases water and nutrient use efficiency of watermelon in greenhouse without compromising the yield," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ignacio Cazcarro & Rosa Duarte & Miguel Martín-Retortillo & Vicente Pinilla & Ana Serrano, 2015. "How Sustainable is the Increase in the Water Footprint of the Spanish Agricultural Sector? A Provincial Analysis between 1955 and 2005–2010," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-26, April.
    2. Wang, Haidong & Cheng, Minghui & Liao, Zhenqi & Guo, Jinjin & Zhang, Fucang & Fan, Junliang & Feng, Hao & Yang, Qiliang & Wu, Lifeng & Wang, Xiukang, 2023. "Performance evaluation of AquaCrop and DSSAT-SUBSTOR-Potato models in simulating potato growth, yield and water productivity under various drip fertigation regimes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    3. Cammarano, D. & Ronga, D. & Di Mola, I. & Mori, M. & Parisi, M., 2020. "Impact of climate change on water and nitrogen use efficiencies of processing tomato cultivated in Italy," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    4. Lowe, Benjamin H. & Oglethorpe, David R. & Choudhary, Sonal, 2020. "Comparing the economic value of virtual water with volumetric and stress-weighted approaches: A case for the tea supply chain," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    5. Anshuman Gunawat & Devesh Sharma & Aditya Sharma & Swatantra Kumar Dubey, 2022. "Assessment of climate change impact and potential adaptation measures on wheat yield using the DSSAT model in the semi-arid environment," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 111(2), pages 2077-2096, March.
    6. María Jesús Beltrán & Esther Velázquez, 2011. "Del metabolismo social al metabolismo hídrico," Documentos de Trabajo de la Asociación de Economía Ecológica en España 01_2011, Asociación de Economía Ecológica en España.
    7. Nana, E. & Corbari, C. & Bocchiola, D., 2014. "A model for crop yield and water footprint assessment: Study of maize in the Po valley," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 139-149.
    8. Dourte, Daniel R. & Fraisse, Clyde W. & Uryasev, Oxana, 2014. "WaterFootprint on AgroClimate: A dynamic, web-based tool for comparing agricultural systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 33-41.
    9. Kadiyala, M.D.M. & Jones, J.W. & Mylavarapu, R.S. & Li, Y.C. & Reddy, M.D., 2015. "Identifying irrigation and nitrogen best management practices for aerobic rice–maize cropping system for semi-arid tropics using CERES-rice and maize models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 23-32.
    10. Kaisheng Luo & Fulu Tao & Juana P. Moiwo, 2018. "Transfer of Virtual Water of Woody Forest Products from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, February.
    11. Yang, J.M. & Yang, J.Y. & Liu, S. & Hoogenboom, G., 2014. "An evaluation of the statistical methods for testing the performance of crop models with observed data," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 81-89.
    12. Marta Antonelli & Luca Fernando Ruini, 2015. "Business Engagement with Sustainable Water Resource Management through Water Footprint Accounting: The Case of the Barilla Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-17, May.
    13. Zonderland-Thomassen, M.A. & Ledgard, S.F., 2012. "Water footprinting – A comparison of methods using New Zealand dairy farming as a case study," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 30-40.
    14. Lucia Irene Flores Lopez & Carlos Bautista-Capetillo, 2015. "Green and Blue Water Footprint Accounting for Dry Beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris ) in Primary Region of Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-16, March.
    15. Ababaei, Behnam & Ramezani Etedali, Hadi, 2017. "Water footprint assessment of main cereals in Iran," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 401-411.
    16. Francesco Mantino & Barbara Forcina, 2018. "Market, Policies and Local Governance as Drivers of Environmental Public Benefits: The Case of the Localised Processed Tomato in Northern Italy," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-17, February.
    17. R. R. Weerasooriya & L. P. K. Liyanage & R. H. K. Rathnappriya & W. B. M. A. C. Bandara & T. A. N. T. Perera & M. H. J. P. Gunarathna & G. Y. Jayasinghe, 2021. "Industrial water conservation by water footprint and sustainable development goals: a review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 12661-12709, September.
    18. Joana Almeida & Wouter M.J. Achten & Bruno Verbist & Reindert F. Heuts & Eddie Schrevens & Bart Muys, 2014. "Carbon and Water Footprints and Energy Use of Greenhouse Tomato Production in Northern Italy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 18(6), pages 898-908, December.
    19. Maria J. Beltrán & Esther Velázquez, 2015. "The Political Ecology of Virtual Water in Southern Spain," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 1020-1036, September.
    20. Rana, G. & Katerji, N. & Lazzara, P. & Ferrara, R.M., 2012. "Operational determination of daily actual evapotranspiration of irrigated tomato crops under Mediterranean conditions by one-step and two-step models: Multiannual and local evaluations," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 285-296.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:226:y:2019:i:c:s0378377418319449. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.