IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v260y2022ics0378377421005515.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How changes in cropping intensity affect water usage in an irrigated Mediterranean catchment

Author

Listed:
  • Duarte, A.C.
  • Mateos, L.

Abstract

Agricultural policies and social change influence irrigation management decisions and their associated effects. The changes in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union have deeply affected irrigated agriculture in the Mediterranean region. In this region, hydrology is rather complex and the environment particularly vulnerable. We monitored cropping patterns and the water balance in a sprinkler-irrigated catchment in Central Portugal over thirteen irrigation seasons and twelve rainfall seasons. There was wide variation in annual rainfall (from 283 mm to 667 mm) and in the intensity of rainfall events from year to year. A monitoring station at the catchment outlet was installed to measure runoff which, together with field observations, allowed us to compute a water balance for both the rainfed and the irrigation seasons. Changes in cropping intensity led to changes in the depth of irrigation. Irrigation runoff followed irrigation depth and both followed the trend of cropping intensity. Less intensive cropping also reduced the off-site effects of agricultural activities. The runoff coefficient was 0.28 in the rainfed seasons and 0.02 in the irrigation seasons. The changes in the irrigation hydrology and in the off-site effects of agricultural activities in the catchment were caused by changes in cropping intensity induced by the European Union Common Agricultural Policy reforms, rather than by environmental or technical factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Duarte, A.C. & Mateos, L., 2022. "How changes in cropping intensity affect water usage in an irrigated Mediterranean catchment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:260:y:2022:i:c:s0378377421005515
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107274
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377421005515
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107274?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. Isidoro, D. & Quilez, D. & Aragues, R., 2004. "Water balance and irrigation performance analysis: La Violada irrigation district (Spain) as a case study," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 123-142, January.
    2. Merchán, D. & Casalí, J. & Del Valle de Lersundi, J. & Campo-Bescós, M.A. & Giménez, R. & Preciado, B. & Lafarga, A., 2018. "Runoff, nutrients, sediment and salt yields in an irrigated watershed in southern Navarre (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 120-132.
    3. Tedeschi, A. & Beltran, A. & Aragues, R., 2001. "Irrigation management and hydrosalinity balance in a semi-arid area of the middle Ebro river basin (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 31-50, July.
    4. Barros, R. & Isidoro, D. & Aragüés, R., 2011. "Long-term water balances in La Violada Irrigation District (Spain): II. Analysis of irrigation performance," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(10), pages 1569-1576, August.
    5. Losada, A. & Juana, L. & Roldan, J., 1990. "Operation diagrams for irrigation management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 289-300, November.
    6. Fabrício Gonçalves & Renato Ribeiro & Raimundo Costa & Julien Burte, 2015. "A Management Analysis Tool for Emancipated and Public Irrigation Areas Using Neural Networks," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(7), pages 2393-2406, May.
    7. Casalí, J. & Gastesi, R. & Álvarez-Mozos, J. & De Santisteban, L.M. & Lersundi, J. Del Valle de & Giménez, R. & Larrañaga, A. & Goñi, M. & Agirre, U. & Campo, M.A. & López, J.J. & Donézar, M., 2008. "Runoff, erosion, and water quality of agricultural watersheds in central Navarre (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(10), pages 1111-1128, October.
    8. Benavides, Juan & Hernández-Plaza, Eva & Mateos, Luciano & Fereres, Elías, 2021. "A global analysis of irrigation scheme water supplies in relation to requirements," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    9. Lozano, David & Mateos, Luciano, 2008. "Usefulness and limitations of decision support systems for improving irrigation scheme management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(4), pages 409-418, April.
    10. Wichelns, Dennis & Oster, J.D., 2006. "Sustainable irrigation is necessary and achievable, but direct costs and environmental impacts can be substantial," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(1-2), pages 114-127, November.
    11. Zhou, Qing & Zhang, Yali & Wu, Feng, 2021. "Evaluation of the most proper management scale on water use efficiency and water productivity: A case study of the Heihe River Basin, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    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. Ana Paula Leite & António Canatário Duarte & Leonardo Marchiori & Maria Vitoria Morais & André Studart & Victor Cavaleiro, 2024. "The Application of Soil Erosion Models of an Agroforestry Basin under Mediterranean Conditions from a Geotechnical Point of View," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Itzel Inti Maria Donati & Davide Viaggi & Zorica Srdjevic & Bojan Srdjevic & Antonella Di Fonzo & Teresa Del Giudice & Orlando Cimino & Andrea Martelli & Anna Dalla Marta & Roberto Henke & Filiberto A, 2023. "An Analysis of Preference Weights and Setting Priorities by Irrigation Advisory Services Users Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Geng, Xin & Hu, Shi & Wang, Xunming & Cai, Diwen & Gong, Yuan, 2023. "Adaptive change of land use to nature and society in China’s agro-pastoral ecotone," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(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. Jiménez-Aguirre, M.T. & Isidoro, D., 2018. "Hydrosaline Balance in and Nitrogen Loads from an irrigation district before and after modernization," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 163-175.
    2. Lecina, S. & Isidoro, D. & Playán, E. & Aragüés, R., 2010. "Irrigation modernization and water conservation in Spain: The case of Riegos del Alto Aragón," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(10), pages 1663-1675, October.
    3. Andrés, R. & Cuchí, J.A., 2014. "Analysis of sprinkler irrigation management in the LASESA district, Monegros (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 95-107.
    4. Barros, R. & Isidoro, D. & Aragüés, R., 2011. "Long-term water balances in La Violada irrigation district (Spain): I. Sequential assessment and minimization of closing errors," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 35-45.
    5. Causape, J. & Quilez, D. & Aragues, R., 2004. "Assessment of irrigation and environmental quality at the hydrological basin level: I. Irrigation quality," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 195-209, December.
    6. Abrahao, R. & Causapé, J. & García-Garizábal, I. & Merchán, D., 2011. "Implementing irrigation: Salt and nitrate exported from the Lerma basin (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 105-112.
    7. Merchán, D. & Casalí, J. & Del Valle de Lersundi, J. & Campo-Bescós, M.A. & Giménez, R. & Preciado, B. & Lafarga, A., 2018. "Runoff, nutrients, sediment and salt yields in an irrigated watershed in southern Navarre (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 120-132.
    8. Mateos, Luciano & dos Santos Almeida, Alexsandro Claudio & Frizzone, José Antônio & Lima, Sílvio Carlos Ribeiro Vieira, 2018. "Performance assessment of smallholder irrigation based on an energy-water-yield nexus approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 176-186.
    9. Sánchez-Chóliz, J. & Sarasa, C., 2013. "Análisis de los recursos hídricos de Riegos del Alto Aragón (Huesca) en la primera década del siglo XXI," Economia Agraria y Recursos Naturales, Spanish Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 13(01).
    10. Barros, R. & Isidoro, D. & Aragüés, R., 2011. "Long-term water balances in La Violada Irrigation District (Spain): II. Analysis of irrigation performance," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(10), pages 1569-1576, August.
    11. Merchán, D. & Causapé, J. & Abrahão, R. & García-Garizábal, I., 2015. "Assessment of a newly implemented irrigated area (Lerma Basin, Spain) over a 10-year period. I: Water balances and irrigation performance," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 277-287.
    12. Merchán, D. & Causapé, J. & Abrahão, R. & García-Garizábal, I., 2015. "Assessment of a newly implemented irrigated area (Lerma Basin, Spain) over a 10-year period. II: Salts and nitrate exported," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 288-296.
    13. Araujo, Danielle F. & Costa, Raimundo N. & Mateos, Luciano, 2019. "Pros and cons of furrow irrigation on smallholdings in northeast Brazil," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 25-33.
    14. Oduor, Brian Omondi & Campo-Bescós, Miguel Ángel & Lana-Renault, Noemí & Casalí, Javier, 2023. "Effects of climate change on streamflow and nitrate pollution in an agricultural Mediterranean watershed in Northern Spain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    15. Benavides, Juan & Hernández-Plaza, Eva & Mateos, Luciano & Fereres, Elías, 2021. "A global analysis of irrigation scheme water supplies in relation to requirements," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    16. Ibrikci, Hayriye & Cetin, Mahmut & Karnez, Ebru & Flügel, Wolfgang Albert & Tilkici, Burak & Bulbul, Yunus & Ryan, John, 2015. "Irrigation-induced nitrate losses assessed in a Mediterranean irrigation district," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 223-231.
    17. Abrahao, R. & Causapé, J. & García-Garizábal, I. & Merchán, D., 2011. "Implementing irrigation: Water balances and irrigation quality in the Lerma basin (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 97-104.
    18. Malik, Wafa & Isla, Ramon & Dechmi, Farida, 2019. "DSSAT-CERES-maize modelling to improve irrigation and nitrogen management practices under Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 298-308.
    19. Brian Omondi Oduor & Miguel Ángel Campo-Bescós & Noemí Lana-Renault & Alberto Alfaro Echarri & Javier Casalí, 2022. "Evaluation of the Impact of Changing from Rainfed to Irrigated Agriculture in a Mediterranean Watershed in Spain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    20. Alvar-Beltrán, Jorge & Saturnin, Coulibaly & Grégoire, Baki & Camacho, Jose Luís & Dao, Abdalla & Migraine, Jean Baptiste & Marta, Anna Dalla, 2023. "Using AquaCrop as a decision-support tool for improved irrigation management in the Sahel region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).

    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:260:y:2022:i:c:s0378377421005515. 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.