IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v249y2021ics0378377421000585.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Did water-saving irrigation protect water resources over the past 40 years? A global analysis based on water accounting framework

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Xinyao
  • Zhang, Yongqiang
  • Sheng, Zhuping
  • Manevski, Kiril
  • Andersen, Mathias N.
  • Han, Shumin
  • Li, Huilong
  • Yang, Yonghui

Abstract

Water-saving technologies have long been seen as an effective method to reduce irrigation water use and alleviate regional water shortage. However, growing reports of more severe water shortage and increasing application of water-saving technologies across the world have necessitated reassessment of agricultural water-saving. This study develops a simple method based on satellite-based ET partitions to estimate water withdrawal, water consumption and return flow from the 1980s to 2010s, and quantifies water-savings across globe and four hot-spot irrigated areas at both field and regional scales based on water accounting framework. The results show that global irrigation water flows keep increasing from the 1980s to 2010s, with over 50% increase from the expansion in irrigated lands. While water-saving technologies are found mainly applied in originally old irrigated lands, traditional flooding irrigation is still dominant in newly-developed irrigated lands. Non-beneficial water consumption (soil evaporation) is effectively reduced by water-saving technologies, but return flow has increased at the same time. At field scale, water-saving technologies fail to save water because the accumulated increased return flow is more than the accumulated decreased non-beneficial water consumption. At regional scale, however, water is saved because the return flow percolated to fresh aquifers is seen as beneficial rather than loss. At the same time, the accumulated increase of beneficial water consumption (crop transpiration) exceeds regional water savings, which explains the paradox between wide application of water-saving technologies and more severe regional water shortage. This study provides key new evidence for the paradox of irrigation efficiency and helps reconsidering water-saving technologies and their impacts on regional water resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Xinyao & Zhang, Yongqiang & Sheng, Zhuping & Manevski, Kiril & Andersen, Mathias N. & Han, Shumin & Li, Huilong & Yang, Yonghui, 2021. "Did water-saving irrigation protect water resources over the past 40 years? A global analysis based on water accounting framework," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:249:y:2021:i:c:s0378377421000585
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106793
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377421000585
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106793?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. Levidow, Les & Zaccaria, Daniele & Maia, Rodrigo & Vivas, Eduardo & Todorovic, Mladen & Scardigno, Alessandra, 2014. "Improving water-efficient irrigation: Prospects and difficulties of innovative practices," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 84-94.
    2. Vardon, Michael & Lenzen, Manfred & Peevor, Stuart & Creaser, Mette, 2007. "Water accounting in Australia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 650-659, March.
    3. Molle, François & Tanouti, Oumaima, 2017. "Squaring the circle: Agricultural intensification vs. water conservation in Morocco," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 170-179.
    4. Perry, Chris & Steduto, Pasquale & Allen, Richard. G. & Burt, Charles M., 2009. "Increasing productivity in irrigated agriculture: Agronomic constraints and hydrological realities," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1517-1524, November.
    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. Pronti, Andrea & Auci, Sabrina & Berbel, Julio, 2024. "Water conservation and saving technologies for irrigation. A structured literature review of econometric studies on the determinants of adoption," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    2. Zhang, Xueliang & Ding, Beibei & Hou, Yonghao & Feng, Puyu & Liu, De Li & Srinivasan, Raghavan & Chen, Yong, 2024. "Assessing the feasibility of sprinkler irrigation schemes and their adaptation to future climate change in groundwater over-exploitation regions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Zarezadeh, Mahboubeh & Delavar, Majid & Morid, Saeed & Abbasi, Hamid, 2023. "Evaluating the effectiveness of macro-level water-saving policies based on water footprint sustainability indicators," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    4. Yiyu Feng & Ming Chang & Erga Luo & Jing Liu, 2023. "Has Property Rights Reform of China’s Farmland Water Facilities Improved Farmers’ Irrigation Efficiency?—Evidence from a Typical Reform Pilot in China’s Yunnan Province," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-27, January.
    5. Mark Schoor & Ana Patricia Arenas-Salazar & Benito Parra-Pacheco & Juan Fernando García-Trejo & Irineo Torres-Pacheco & Ramón Gerardo Guevara-González & Enrique Rico-García, 2024. "Horticultural Irrigation Systems and Aquacultural Water Usage: A Perspective for the Use of Aquaponics to Generate a Sustainable Water Footprint," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Min Cui & Jizhou Zhang & Xianli Xia, 2022. "The Relationship between Child Rearing Burden and Farmers’ Adoption of Climate Adaptive Technology: Taking Water-Saving Irrigation Technology as an Example," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Zhang, Chao & Dong, Jinwei & Zuo, Lijun & Ge, Quansheng, 2022. "Tracking spatiotemporal dynamics of irrigated croplands in China from 2000 to 2019 through the synergy of remote sensing, statistics, and historical irrigation datasets," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    8. Xinyue Ke & Ni Wang & Long Yu & Zihan Guo & Tianming He, 2023. "Spatial Distribution of Water Risk Based on Atlas Compilation in the Shaanxi Section of the Qinling Mountains, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-21, June.
    9. Cai, Wenjuan & Jiang, Xiaohui & Sun, Haotian & He, Jiaying & Deng, Chun & Lei, Yuxin, 2022. "Temporal and spatial variation and driving factors of water consumption in the middle Heihe river basin before and after the implementation of the"97 water diversion scheme"," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    10. Han, Feng & Zheng, Yi & Zhang, Ling & Xiong, Rui & Hu, Zhaoping & Tian, Yong & Li, Xin, 2023. "Simulating drip irrigation in large-scale and high-resolution ecohydrological models: From emitters to the basin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    11. Bai, Tao & Liu, Dong & Deng, Mingjiang, 2022. "Multi-scale ecological operation model of reservoir group coupled with ecological infiltration irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    12. Linjing Ren & Xiaojun Yang, 2023. "Adoption and shift of water-saving strategies to policy shock: based on social-ecological system analysis," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 37(10), pages 4015-4037, August.
    13. Sisi Li & Yanhua Zhuang & Hongbin Liu & Zhen Wang & Fulin Zhang & Mingquan Lv & Limei Zhai & Xianpeng Fan & Shiwei Niu & Jingrui Chen & Changxu Xu & Na Wang & Shuhe Ruan & Wangzheng Shen & Menghan Mi , 2023. "Enhancing rice production sustainability and resilience via reactivating small water bodies for irrigation and drainage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    14. Zheng Li & Disheng Zhang & Xiaohuan Yan, 2024. "How Does Information Acquisition Ability Affect Farmers’ Green Production Behaviors: Evidence from Chinese Apple Growers," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, April.
    15. Wang, Feng & Wang, Yulong & Lyu, Hanqiang & Fan, Zhilong & Hu, Falong & He, Wei & Yin, Wen & Zhao, Cai & Chai, Qiang & Yu, Aizhong, 2023. "No-tillage mulch with leguminous green manure retention reduces soil evaporation and increases yield and water productivity of maize," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    16. Yaxin Shi & Suning Liu & Haiyun Shi, 2022. "Analysis of the Water-Food-Energy Nexus and Water Competition Based on a Bayesian Network," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(9), pages 3349-3366, July.

    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. Kaur, Lovepreet & Kaur, Anureet & Brar, A.S., 2021. "Water use efficiency of green gram (Vigna radiata L.) impacted by paddy straw mulch and irrigation regimes in north-western India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    2. Fernández, J.E. & Alcon, F. & Diaz-Espejo, A. & Hernandez-Santana, V. & Cuevas, M.V., 2020. "Water use indicators and economic analysis for on-farm irrigation decision: A case study of a super high density olive tree orchard," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    3. Berbel, Julio & Gutierrez-Marín, Carlos & Expósito, Alfonso, 2018. "Microeconomic analysis of irrigation efficiency improvement in water use and water consumption," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 423-429.
    4. Molle, François & Tanouti, Oumaima, 2017. "Squaring the circle: Agricultural intensification vs. water conservation in Morocco," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 170-179.
    5. Teshome, Fitsum T. & Bayabil, Haimanote K. & Schaffer, Bruce & Ampatzidis, Yiannis & Hoogenboom, Gerrit & Singh, Aditya, 2023. "Exploring deficit irrigation as a water conservation strategy: Insights from field experiments and model simulation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    6. Jordán, Cristian & Speelman, Stijn, 2020. "On-farm adoption of irrigation technologies in two irrigated valleys in Central Chile: The effect of relative abundance of water resources," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    7. Mondaca-Duarte, F.D. & Reyes-Lastiri, D. & Heinen, M. & van Henten, E.J. & van Mourik, S., 2023. "Visualization of uncertain leaching fraction and drought exposure as a function of irrigation dosage and frequency," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    8. Ricart Casadevall, Sandra, 2016. "Improving the management of water multi-functionality through stakeholder involvement in decision-making processes," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(PA), pages 71-81.
    9. Gao, Yang & Yang, Linlin & Shen, Xiaojun & Li, Xinqiang & Sun, Jingsheng & Duan, Aiwang & Wu, Laosheng, 2014. "Winter wheat with subsurface drip irrigation (SDI): Crop coefficients, water-use estimates, and effects of SDI on grain yield and water use efficiency," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-10.
    10. Buchholz, Matthias & Musshoff, Oliver, 2014. "The role of weather derivatives and portfolio effects in agricultural water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 34-44.
    11. Marjan Aziz & Madeeha Khan & Naveeda Anjum & Muhammad Sultan & Redmond R. Shamshiri & Sobhy M. Ibrahim & Siva K. Balasundram & Muhammad Aleem, 2022. "Scientific Irrigation Scheduling for Sustainable Production in Olive Groves," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-14, April.
    12. Ghahroodi, E. Mokari & Noory, H. & Liaghat, A.M., 2015. "Performance evaluation study and hydrologic and productive analysis of irrigation systems at the Qazvin irrigation network (Iran)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 189-195.
    13. Peragón, Juan M. & Pérez-Latorre, Francisco J. & Delgado, Antonio & Tóth, Tibor, 2018. "Best management irrigation practices assessed by a GIS-based decision tool for reducing salinization risks in olive orchards," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 33-41.
    14. Liu, Haijun & Yin, Congyan & Gao, Zhuangzhuang & Hou, Lizhu, 2021. "Evaluation of cucumber yield, economic benefit and water productivity under different soil matric potentials in solar greenhouses in North China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    15. Ireneusz Cymes & Ewa Dragańska & Zbigniew Brodziński, 2022. "Potential Possibilities of Using Groundwater for Crop Irrigation in the Context of Climate Change," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, May.
    16. Tomaz, Alexandra & Palma, José Ferro & Ramos, Tiago & Costa, Maria Natividade & Rosa, Elizabete & Santos, Marta & Boteta, Luís & Dôres, José & Patanita, Manuel, 2021. "Yield, technological quality and water footprints of wheat under Mediterranean climate conditions: A field experiment to evaluate the effects of irrigation and nitrogen fertilization strategies," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    17. Luxon Nhamo & James Magidi & Adolph Nyamugama & Alistair D. Clulow & Mbulisi Sibanda & Vimbayi G. P. Chimonyo & Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, 2020. "Prospects of Improving Agricultural and Water Productivity through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    18. Soto-García, M. & Martínez-Alvarez, V. & García-Bastida, P.A. & Alcon, F. & Martin-Gorriz, B., 2013. "Effect of water scarcity and modernisation on the performance of irrigation districts in south-eastern Spain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 11-19.
    19. Benabderrazik, K. & Kopainsky, B. & Tazi, L. & Joerin, J. & Six, J., 2021. "Agricultural intensification can no longer ignore water conservation – A systemic modelling approach to the case of tomato producers in Morocco," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    20. Ierna, Anita & Pandino, Gaetano & Lombardo, Sara & Mauromicale, Giovanni, 2011. "Tuber yield, water and fertilizer productivity in early potato as affected by a combination of irrigation and fertilization," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 35-41.

    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:249:y:2021:i:c:s0378377421000585. 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.