Agricultural Water Management最新文献

{"title":"Coupled water–carbon flux processes of date palms under lysimeter-based saline irrigation: CoupModel calibration and evaluation","authors":"Jingbo Zhen ,&nbsp;Per-Erik Jansson ,&nbsp;Effi Tripler ,&nbsp;Xiaotao Hu ,&nbsp;Naftali Lazarovitch","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109387","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109387","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Date palms are a cash crop and commonly irrigated using saline water. A better understanding of the processes involved in water use by date palms and their carbon budget is key to sustainable cultivation and saline irrigation scheduling. In this study, the process-oriented CoupModel was used to investigate the linked water and carbon fluxes in date palms under saline irrigation conditions. We compared experimental data for actual evapotranspiration (ET_{c act}) and yield from trees grown in weighing lysimeters and irrigated at two salinity levels in 2006–2007 with an uncertainty-based calibration approach. The daily ET_{c act} and annual yield of trees with the low-salinity irrigation in 2006 were used to calibrate the selected parameters, investigate model performance, and analyze parameter correlations. Further tests were undertaken, including the application of low-salinity irrigation in 2007 and high-salinity irrigation over two years. Dynamic modeling of the tree canopy and a radiation use efficiency approach, along with incorporating the salinity effects on plant respiration and consideration of internal water storage, accurately simulated the measured data. The model determined the direct responses of the date palms to varying irrigation water amounts and salinity, and atmospheric conditions. It robustly determined the characteristics of daily ET_{c act} and annual yield for both irrigation salinities in each year. Based on the selected parameterization, the daily ET_{c act} was accurately simulated for both irrigation salinities in each year. However, the yield was only accurately simulated for both irrigation salinities in 2006. In addition, the simulated amounts and calculated electrical conductivity of daily drainage water suggested that the model performed well in simulating the soil water and salinity conditions, particularly during the fruit growing season. In general, the lysimeter-based parameterization of the CoupModel applied to inter-yearly growth of palms under saline irrigation conditions helps long-term continuous simulations and agronomic applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109387"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143463695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Water footprint and water productivity analysis of an alternative organic mulching technology for irrigated agriculture","authors":"Tommaso Pacetti ,&nbsp;Niccolò Renzi ,&nbsp;Marco Lompi ,&nbsp;Andrea Setti ,&nbsp;Daniele Spinelli ,&nbsp;Giulio Castelli ,&nbsp;Elena Bresci ,&nbsp;Enrica Caporali","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109380","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109380","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agriculture is causing unprecedented pressure on water resources to meet a growing food demand. This determines the necessity of implementing innovative, sustainable, and measurable systems to decrease water consumption while increasing crop yield. This study analyses the performances of biodegradable mulching (OM) felt for irrigated lettuce, integrating water footprint (WF) and water productivity (WP) assessment. Different types of OM were tested in two farms in the peri-urban area of Florence city (Tuscany, Central Italy) during the cropping seasons 2021 and 2022. Water Productivity has been evaluated using direct measurements, while the WF has been calculated according to ISO 14046. Moreover, the AquaCrop model by FAO has been used to simulate potential optimal irrigation conditions in the two farms. Results show that OM determined smaller water requirements for all the different field configurations and irrigation efficiencies simulated with a reduction ranging between 8 % and 95 %. The results allow to evaluate the relative weight of OM on the overall water consumption of the two farms and provide useful insights on the sustainability of the lettuce production chain helping farmers to identify water-related hotspots.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109380"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143453080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impacts of rice–crayfish co-culture on ecosystem service trade-offs/synergies in agricultural watersheds: A case exploration in Sihu Lake Basin, China","authors":"Huanyu Zhang ,&nbsp;Ling Wang ,&nbsp;Shuqi Jiang ,&nbsp;Kun Li ,&nbsp;Xiaoping Xin ,&nbsp;Xin Huang ,&nbsp;Junchen Chen ,&nbsp;Luyao Zhou ,&nbsp;Zhaohua Li","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109389","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109389","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurately understanding the interplay among ecosystem services (ESs) during rice to rice–crayfish conversion and analyzing the intricate driving factors are crucial for the synergistic development of agricultural production and ecosystem service protection in watersheds. In this study, we examined the ES trade-offs/synergies and the drivers behind these interactions in rice to rice–crayfish conversion in the Sihu Lake Basin using the InVEST model, geographically weighted regression (GWR), and Geodetector. The results indicated that the rice to rice–crayfish conversion from 2016 to 2020 increased the rice–crayfish fields in the Sihu Lake Basin by 60 %, with the additional rice–crayfish fields coming mainly from paddy fields and aquaculture water. Significant increases were observed in crayfish production (CP, 74.2 %), grain production (GP, 20 %), water yield (WY, 19.6 %), and carbon sequestration (CS, 1 %). In contrast, water purification (WP) and habitat quality (HQ) showed slight decreases of 0.85 % and 1.45 %, respectively. There was an overall synergy between CP, GP, HQ, and CS, with the area exhibiting synergy between CP and GP accounting for approximately 89 % of the watershed area. Natural factors had a greater influence on the interactions between CP and other ecosystem services than socio-economic factors. Additionally, the rice–crayfish field area has gradually become a key driver affecting the interactions between ESs. These findings offer guidance to mitigate the negative ecological impacts of rice to rice–crayfish conversion in the Sihu Lake Basin and support rational agricultural structure transformation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109389"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143463412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Main influence indicators and regulatory pathways of emitter clogging under physical and chemical combination factors","authors":"Hui Wang ,&nbsp;Xiaotao Hu ,&nbsp;Wene Wang ,&nbsp;Xiaopeng Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109383","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109383","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ions, inorganic particles, and contaminants present in irrigation water under fertigation conditions are sources of substances that cause clogging of drip irrigation emitters. To comprehensively measure the degree and development of sensor blockage as a function of water quality and sensor size, and to further clarify the sensitivity of blockage to physical and chemical factors, the blockage performance of each sensor under drip irrigation was tested through drip irrigation tests with common fertilizers (UNF, SOP, MOP, MAP, DAP) and sediment irrigation, and three indices were used to evaluate the performance of blockage under drip irrigation: emitter life based on relative average flow rate, final relative average flow rate, and dry mass of emitter clogging material. The degree of clogging of emitters was evaluated using three indicators: relative average flow rate, final relative average flow rate, and dry mass of clogged material of emitters to comprehensively evaluate the degree of clogging of emitters and to measure the influence of different factors on the development of clogging. The results showed that the clogging of the emitters was mainly caused by two factors, namely the size of the emitters and the water quality. All three emitter clogging indicators (<em>f</em>_<em>Lq</em><em>, f</em>_<em>Dra</em><em>, f</em>_<em>DM</em>) were significantly correlated with sediment concentration at the 0.001 level. As sediment concentration (SC) increased, the degree of emitter clogging increased, and the negative effect of sediment gradation (SG) on the emitters became more significant. Fertilizer concentration, although affecting the clogging life of the emitters, was not significant for <em>f</em>_<em>Dra</em> and <em>f</em>_<em>DM</em>, i.e. the accumulation of clogging material was mainly affected by sediment. While the size and shape of the flow path affects the risk of clogging to a greater degree, water quality affects the scaling or clogging inside the emitter, which can alter the flow characteristics of the emitter.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109383"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143453019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climate change impacts on spatiotemporal variability of soybean water demands in North China Plain","authors":"Huiru Peng ,&nbsp;Yang Zhang ,&nbsp;Tiegui Nan ,&nbsp;Xiaolin Yang ,&nbsp;Steven Pacenka ,&nbsp;Tammo S. Steenhuis ,&nbsp;Jun Niu","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109381","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109381","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change has been acknowledged as one of the greatest challenges for agricultural production and water management globally. This study investigates the trends and spatial distribution of the water demands of soybean (<em>Glycine max</em> (L.) Merrill) from 1961 to 2020 in the Jing-jin-ji region of the North China Plain to reveal the effects of climate change. Climate data were collected from 179 weather stations to calculate soybean evapotranspiration (<em>ET</em>_<em>c</em>) and irrigation demand using the SIMETAW (Simulation of EvapoTranspiration of Applied Water) model developed on Penman-Monteith equation with daily meteorology data. Results showed that soybean <em>ET</em>_<em>c</em> during growth season decreased significantly over the last sixty years, from 435 mm yr⁻¹ in 1961–1970–415 mm yr⁻¹ in 2011–2020, around an average of 423 ± 20 mm yr⁻¹. Effective rainfall during the growth period increased by + 0.5 mm yr⁻¹ rate, while irrigation demand declined by −0.9 mm yr⁻¹. Rainfall during growth seasons from May to September supplied about 92 % of the water demand for soybean, higher than winter crops. The spatial distribution of soybean <em>ET</em>_<em>c</em> showed high values in the south and low values in the north during the past six decades. The initial maximum <em>ET</em>_<em>c</em> area (&gt; 480 mm) shrank after 1961–1970, disappearing after 2000. During the last sixty years, solar radiation, wind speed and sunshine hours decreased significantly, leading to a significant decline in soybean <em>ET</em>_<em>c</em> at −0.4 mm yr⁻¹, but average daily precipitation had the most significant negative impact on <em>ET</em>_<em>c</em>. The study provided spatial and temporal information needed to improve water use efficiency and increase the adaptability of soybean production to climate change. This is essential to ensure regional food security and promote sustainable agricultural development for water-stressed agricultural areas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109381"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143453020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advancing irrigation uniformity monitoring through remote sensing: A deep-learning framework for identifying the source of non-uniformity","authors":"Ígor Boninsenha ,&nbsp;Daran R. Rudnick ,&nbsp;Everardo C. Mantovani ,&nbsp;Higor de Q. Ribeiro","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109376","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109376","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Efficient agricultural water management ensures crop productivity and sustainability amidst climate change and water scarcity. This study integrates remote sensing and deep learning to advance irrigation uniformity monitoring by identifying sources of non-uniformity. Sentinel-2 satellite imagery from 2021–2023 was processed to generate 159,088 NDVI images from 1382 center pivot irrigation systems in Mato Grosso, Brazil. These images were classified into nine categories: vegetated, not vegetated, emitters, mechanical problems, low pressure, management zones, operational, partial crop, and clouds. Artificial images mimicking these patterns pre-trained a DenseNet121 convolutional neural network (CNN), addressing the challenge of limited labeled training data. Fine-tuning with six subsets of satellite data (2000–20,000 images) enhanced performance, achieving a Hamming accuracy of 99 % and an Exact Match accuracy of 91 %. Class-specific metrics demonstrated high precision, recall, and F1 scores for most patterns, though underrepresented classes, like mechanical issues, showed lower performance. The methodology was applied to 80 pivots in Mato Grosso (January–October 2024) using 2752 images, integrating classification results with the Satellite-Derived Christiansen Uniformity Coefficient (SDCUC). Among the pivots, 45 showed high uniformity (&gt;90 % SDCUC), with 10 exhibiting irrigation-related issues, and 28 facing non-irrigation challenges. Another 32 pivots had acceptable uniformity (80–90 %), with 9 linked to irrigation problems and 25 to non-irrigation issues. Finally, 3 pivots had low uniformity (&lt;80 %), with all issues related to non-irrigation factors like partial crop coverage. This scalable approach offers actionable insights for addressing non-uniformity, improving irrigation efficiency, and supporting precision agriculture, large-scale water management, and policymaking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109376"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143436710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Farmer driven water conservation policy on the Ogallala aquifer reduces the environmental footprints of crop production","authors":"José P. Castaño-Sánchez ,&nbsp;C. Alan Rotz ,&nbsp;Jean L. Steiner ,&nbsp;Bill Golden ,&nbsp;Sheri A. Spiegal","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109370","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109370","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Ogallala Aquifer underlies 45 million hectares, supporting the robust agricultural economy of the US Great Plains and providing water for about 1.9 million people. The aquifer's long-term viability is threatened though due to severe depletion. Pumping reductions of 25–30 % are required to stabilize water levels on a decadal scale. Legislation has been passed in Kansas to reduce groundwater extraction while supporting productivity and economic viability. One outcome is the Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA) program, where farmers set water-conservation targets in a region. Our objective was to study the environmental benefits of implementing water-conserving cropping systems in the Sheridan-6 LEMA (longest running LEMA). The Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM), verified with region-specific data, was used to compare simulated cropping systems within the LEMA to those in the surrounding region using conventional crop irrigation management. We found that LEMA management, which includes reduced water use and altered cropping, has provided environmental benefits with a slight to moderate reduction in crop yields (1.2–15 %). Totaled over the LEMA, crop life cycle reductions were found for blue water use (28 %), reactive N losses (1.4 %), fossil energy use (22 %) and GHG emissions (20 %). Considering the environmental intensities expressed per unit of grain produced, LEMA policies decreased blue water (24 %), energy (18 %), and C (15 %) footprints. The exception was the N footprint which increased slightly due to reduced crop yields with similar N loss. The main driver of the reduced impact was decreased water use in crop irrigation, followed by changes in cropping strategies where more water-demanding crops (corn and soybean) were replaced by less water-demanding crops (sorghum and wheat). Replicating LEMA-type policies more widely across the region can be a viable solution (environmental and economic) to stabilize the Ogallala Aquifer water levels for the next few decades, as demonstrated by this and previous research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109370"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143436711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A modified model for simulating subsurface drainage with synthetic envelope considering impacts of entrance resistance and its application","authors":"Yingzhi Qian ,&nbsp;Xudong Han ,&nbsp;Yan Zhu ,&nbsp;Wei Yang ,&nbsp;Jiesheng Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109371","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109371","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Subsurface drainage is an important means to prevent and control salinization and waterlogging. Accurate simulation of water and salt discharge is crucial for determining the design parameters of subsurface pipes. Existing models for simulating subsurface drainage discharge neglect the additional entrance resistances of drains induced by the low permeability of synthetic envelopes, which will overestimate the drainage discharge. This study aimed to develop a numerical model considering the entrance resistance of various envelopes and provided guidance for subsurface drainage design. The proposed modified model is based on the previous developed subsurface drainage package (SDR), in which a correction coefficient (<em>C</em>_<em>sdr</em>) reflecting entrance resistance was proposed and used to calculate the drainage discharge. The modified SDR package was verified by a synthetic case and series of practical examples with different entrance resistances caused by envelope materials. The model was then utilized to figure out the impact of pipe depths, spacings and entrance resistances on the water balance items. The influence on the mean and variance of drainage water is quantified by two indicators, AMAE and AMAV, which measure the expected changes in the mean and variance of the output due to parameter variations. Appropriate pipe depth and spacing under different entrance resistances was investigated. The results demonstrated the accuracy of the modified model in simulating the groundwater depth and drainage flux under different entrance resistances. For the scenarios where subsurface pipes were covered with synthetic envelopes, the errors of original SDR were out of range, while for the modified SDR, the normalized root mean square errors (<em>NRMSE</em>s) are less than 3.18 % and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (<em>NSE</em>) and Kling-Gupta Efficiency coefficient (<em>KGE</em>) greater than 0.9, respectively. Analysis of the water balance showed that an increase in subsurface drainage amount is beneficial to reduce the increase amount of the aquifer storage and the control of the groundwater depth. The drainage discharge amount was most sensitive to <em>C</em>_<em>sdr</em>, with AMAE and AMAV being 0.49 and 0.52. The spacing and <em>C</em>_<em>sdr</em> had an interactive effect on the drainage discharge amount, while the buried depth had no interactive effect with other factors. Narrower pipe spacing was recommended for subsurface drain design with relatively high entrance resistance (smaller <em>C</em>_<em>sdr</em> value). For those subsurface pipes covered with non-woven fabric of which the <em>C</em>_<em>sdr</em> is about 0.03, the pipe spacing should be around 10 m. This study provides a new method and insight for suitable design parameter of subsurface drains.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109371"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143436805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantifying the influence of 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate on soil nitrous oxide production in multi-year reclaimed water-irrigated soil","authors":"Yanbing Chi ,&nbsp;Chenchen Wei ,&nbsp;Peiling Yang ,&nbsp;Le Yang ,&nbsp;Linlin Fan ,&nbsp;Miaomiao Shi","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109375","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109375","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>3,4-Dimethyl pyrazole phosphate (DMPP) is commonly used to regulate soil nitrogen transformation and mitigate nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, while reclaimed water (RW) irrigation alleviates freshwater shortages but may alter soil properties, affecting N₂O emissions. However, the interaction between DMPP and RW irrigation on N₂O emission pathways remains underexplored. This study conducted a field experiment with two water quality regimes (RW and groundwater (GW)) and two nitrogen fertilizer conditions (with and without DMPP) to assess soil N₂O, nitric oxide (NO), and ammonia (NH₃) emissions. Using the ¹ ⁵N tracing technique, we investigated microbial mechanisms underlying N₂O and NO production under multi-year RW irrigation. The findings indicate that although DMPP effectively reduced soil N₂O and NO concentrations within the 0–30 cm depth, thereby lowering their emissions under RW irrigation, its application also led to an increase in soil NH₃ volatilization. Consequently, cumulative N₂O emissions shifted from 2020 to 2021, with reductions of 15.11 %–38.46 % under RW irrigation and 36.88 %–48.29 % under GW irrigation. However, the inhibitory effect of DMPP was weaker under RW irrigation compared to GW irrigation. This reduction was influenced by RW irrigation, which enhanced the abundance of nitrifying microbial communities and increased the contribution of heterotrophic nitrification to soil N₂O emissions, thereby mitigating the inhibitory effect of DMPP on autotrophic nitrification. Overall, it emphasized the need for optimized nitrogen management strategies under RW irrigation to maximize emission reductions while minimizing trade-offs in NH₃ volatilization and microbial-driven nitrogen transformations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109375"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143429171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pathways to balancing water and food for agricultural sustainable development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, China","authors":"Jianmei Luo ,&nbsp;Ying Guo ,&nbsp;Yongqing Qi ,&nbsp;Yanjun Shen","doi":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109344","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109344","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Groundwater has significantly supported the increase in agricultural output in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. However, the region has faced severe groundwater depletion for decades. To address this, water conservation in agriculture is considered a key strategy to groundwater decline. However, it is facing with a dilemma to suppress groundwater usage or to pursue agricultural production for food security when considering the criteria for sustainable groundwater use. In this study, we propose a comprehensive water-saving scheme and a planting structure optimisation approach to evaluate the thresholds for the water-food trade-off under various agricultural water conservation scenarios. We investigated, the gains and losses of three main agricultural measures to balancing the groundwater budget: (i) Reducing the planting scale (Sca), (ii) Optimising the planting structure (Str), and (iii) Promoting water-saving technologies (Tec), as well as combined pathways of these water-saving measures. The results showed that: (1) Achieving water conservation goals is challenging when applying a single measure. For example, the effect of water conservation would be 558 million m³ yr⁻¹ by merely optimising the planting structure without reducing the planting scale, whereas the effect would be 527 million m³ yr⁻¹ by solely reducing the planting scale according to farmland conservation plan/goals. (2) Under current water resource conditions in the BTH region, increasing crop water productivity (WP) by 11.5 % could balance the groundwater budget in agriculture, while a 19.2 % increase could achieve balance across all sectors. (3) By employing combined water-saving strategies, including optimising in planting scale/structure and improvements in water-saving technologies, groundwater conservation goals could be met with a 9 % increase in WP, provided that the planting scale and structure are adjusted to meet minimum grain production goals. (4) Two critical thresholds distinguish water-saving pathways, highlighting the marginal effects of investing in technological improvement versus optimising planting scale/structure. These results provide a basis for quantifying critical thresholds in cropping system optimising and provide useful information for similar regions worldwide.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7634,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Water Management","volume":"310 ","pages":"Article 109344"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143436804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}