Water Footprint Index Study for dominant crops in Urmia lake basin and its relationship with irrigation management

Authors

1 M. Sc. Student in Irrigation & drainage, Univ. of Urmia, Iran

2 Assoc. Prof., Dept., of Water Engineering, Univ. of Urmia, Iran

Abstract

Detection and evaluation of the actual amount of water used for different agricultural products is of paramount importance that such an assessment can identify and provide appropriate solutions to reduce water consumption in agriculture very effectively. In this research, to evaluate the agricultural products from view point of irrigation and water consumption, the Relative Irrigation Supply (RIS) as an indicator that shows accuracy of excessive irrigation when it value is more than 1, else when it value be less than 1 the consumed water is less than irrigation requirement and water footprint indicators (WF) were used for main crops in Urmia lake basin. The water footprint of products was estimated for two component of blue water (WF blue) and green water (WF green). Then actual water footprint was calculated by applying irrigation efficiency. The results showed that the maximum amount of water footprint was for wheat in Maragheh station, in which the blue, green and actual blue water footprints were 1779.77, 729.96 and 2150.91 m3 ton-1, respectively. Also the lowest water footprint was for corn in Sarab station in which the blue, green and actual blue water footprint were 99.86 m3 ton-1, 19.75 m3 ton-1 and 165.28 m3 ton-1 respectively. The Relative Irrigation Supply index (RIS) values were determined for main crops in seven meteorological stations of Lake Urmia basin and this index showed an excessive irrigation for all crops. While alfalfa and wheat, had less amount of RIS than other products.   

Keywords


 
Maknon R and Sohrabi H, 2011. Introducing the Water Footprint from Concepts to Applications, Pages 1-10. Proceedings of the 4th Iranian Water Resources Management Conference, 14-13 May, Amir Kabir University of Technology, Tehran.
Mashaal M. Varavipour M. Sadat Noori and Zare Zirak A, 2008. Optimization of corn water consumption depth with low irrigation (Case study: Varamin Plain). Agricultural Research Journal (Water, Soil and Plant in Agriculture) 8(6): 123-134.
Mohammadi Y. Shaban ali Fami A and Assadi A, 2009. Evaluation of Farmers' Skills on the Application of Agricultural Water Management Technologies in Zarindesh County, Fars Province. Journal of Agricultural Extension and Education 5(1): 1-10.
Sepaskhah A. Tavakoli A. and Mousavi S, 2006. Principles and Applications of Low Irrigation. Publication of Iran's National Irrigation and Drainage Committee.
Allen RG, Pereira LS, Raes D and Smith M, 1998. Crop Evapotranspiration (Guidelines for Computing Crop Water Requirements).  FAO Irrigation and Drainage, Paper, No. 56. FAO. Rome.
Chapagain AKB and Hoekstra AY, 2012. The blue, green and grey water footprint of rice from production and consumption perspectives. Ecological Economics 70: 749–758.
Chico D, Aldaya M and Garrido A, 2013. A water footprint assessment of a pair of jeans: the influence of agricultural policies on the sustainability of consumer products. Cleaner Production 57: 238–248.
Ene A S, Teodosiu C, Robu B and Volf I, 2013. Water footprint assessment in the winemaking industry: a case study of office paper. Cleaner Production 24: 30–35.
Geng Q, Wu P, Zhao X and Wang Y, 2014. A framework of indicator system for zoning of agricultural water and land resources utilization (A case study of Bayan Nur, Inner Mongolia). Ecological Indicators 40: 43-50.
Herath I, Green S, Horne D, Singh R and Clothier B, 2014. Quantifying and reducing the water footprint of rain-fed potato production, part I: measuring the net use of blue and green water. Cleaner Production 81: 111-119.
Hoekstra AY, 2002. Virtual water trade. Pp. 1-14. Proceedings of the International Expert Meeting on Virtual Water Trade. 12-13 December, Delft, Netherlands.
Hoekstra AY and Chapagain AK, 2007. Water footprints of nations: water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern. Water Resources Management 21: 35–48.
Hoekstra AY and Hung PQ, 2002. Virtual water trade .Pp. 72-86. Proceedings of quantification of virtual water flows between nations in relation to international crop trade. 15 February, Delft, Netherlands.
Hoekstra AY and Hung PQ, 2005. Globalization of water resources: International virtual water flows in relation to crop trade. Global Environmental Change 15:45-56.
Jefferies D, Munoz I, Hoedges J, King VJ, Aldaya MM, Ercin AE, Mila I, Canals LL and Hoekstra AY, 2012. Water footprint and life cycle assessment as approaches to assess potential impacts of products on water consumption. Key learning points from pilot studies on tea and margarine. Cleaner Production 12: 155–166.
Malano H and Burton M, 2001. Guidelines for Benchmarking Performance in the Irrigation and Drainage Sector. International Programmer for Technology and Research in Irrigation and Drainage (IPTRID), Italy.
Morillo JG, Díaz JAR, Camacho E and Montesinos P, 2015. Linking water footprint accounting with irrigation management in high value crops. Cleaner Production 87: 594–602.
Nana E, Corbari C and Bocchiola D, 2014. A model for crop yield and water footprint assessment: Study of maize in the Po valley. Agricultural Systems 127: 139–149.
Rodríguez-Díaz JA, Camacho-Poyato E, Lopez-Luque R and Perez-Urrestarazu L, 2008. Benchmarking and multivariate data analysis techniques for improving the efficiency of irrigation districts (an application in Spain). Agricultural Systems 96: 250-259.
Rodriguez CI, de Galarreta VR and Kruse EE, 2015. Analysis of water footprint of potato production in the Pampean region of Argentina. Cleaner Production 81: 182-190.