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Sustainable Water Resource Management and Agriculture Development
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Sustainable Water Resource Management and Agriculture Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 April 2024) | Viewed by 5828

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Man Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Applied Economics, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-4835, USA
Interests: land-based sustainable development; water resource management; climate change; mitigation; adaptation
Dr. Tingju Zhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
ZJU-UIUC Institute, Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China
Interests: hydro-economic modeling; agricultural water management; water policy; food security; international development
Dr. Wenchao Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Economics & Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Interests: agricultural land use; climate change; water resource management; local water governance; water rights; rural–urban sustainability; China

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water is essential for the survival of humankind, animals, and plants, delivering critical ecosystem services. Yet water resources are ineffectively managed in many parts of the world, aggravating the global water crisis. Climate change has also exacerbated this crisis; rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns have intensified water shortages and increased the frequency and magnitudes of floods and droughts. As water becomes scarcer and its quality continues to deteriorate, there is an urgent need to explore new approaches to improve the management of water resources. This is especially important for agricultural development, as affordable and efficient methods in water management are key to sustainable food production and nutrition security.

This Special Issue of Sustainability aims to bridge the knowledge gap in the scientific literature concerning sustainable water resource management and agricultural development. It welcomes high-quality articles that addresses basic research and practical methods with respect to management of surface and groundwater in quantity and quality, socioeconomic and geopolitical issues in water resource management, irrigation practices and agricultural development, the challenges and opportunities of irrigation technology adoption, climate change and water supply sustainability, water conservation, institutional water rights, water market and pricing, virtual water trade, and other policy-relevant water issues.  

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Bridging the gaps in the water–food(–energy) nexus;
  • Agricultural water management;
  • Climate change adaptation in water resource management;
  • Water conservation practices;
  • Irrigation practices;
  • Adoption of water-saving technology;
  • Improved agricultural practices;
  • Policy intervention and integration;
  • Water rights;
  • Water market and water pricing;
  • Virtual water trade.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Man Li
Dr. Tingju Zhu
Dr. Wenchao Xu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water resource management
  • agriculture
  • agricultural development
  • sustainability
  • sustainable development

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 21089 KiB  
Article
A New Land Use Dataset Fusion Algorithm for the Runoff Simulation Accuracy Improvement: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Basin, China
by Siqi Zhang, Xuefeng Sang, Pan Liu, Ziheng Li, Sheng He and Jiaxuan Chang
Sustainability 2024, 16(2), 778; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020778 - 16 Jan 2024
Viewed by 641
Abstract
Monitoring and understanding the development of agricultural management requires fine information on multiple agricultural land use classes. According to the main data bulletin of China’s third national land survey released in 2021, the proportion of arable land in China accounts for 16% of [...] Read more.
Monitoring and understanding the development of agricultural management requires fine information on multiple agricultural land use classes. According to the main data bulletin of China’s third national land survey released in 2021, the proportion of arable land in China accounts for 16% of the total land area. After excluding areas that are not suitable for development (slope greater than 25 degrees), the remaining area represents arable land affected by human activities, constituting 96.69% of the total arable land area in the country. Artificially irrigated areas are products of the intertwined interactions between the natural environment and human society. However, the original remote sensing image (China’s land use/cover datasets, CLUDs), which is designed to depict the land use and cover patterns in mainland China, categorizes arable land into two main types: paddy fields and dryland. It lacks a subdivision of artificially irrigated areas. We also found a data discrepancy of more than 10% between the statistical data of rice and the paddy field data in CLUDs. To refine land use data, and then improve the simulation accuracy of the hydrological model, this article proposes a dual-source datasets fusion algorithm, learning based on big data, namely the LUCC statistical data fusion (LUSF) algorithm for integrating the remote sensing-based cropland area dataset and statistics dataset. The runoff simulation results show that, in the Yangtze River Basin, using LUSF datasets, the mean absolute percentage error value of monthly simulated runoff decreased by 0.74%, and the root mean square error value decreased by 0.22 million m3. At the basin scale, the absolute error of the simulated runoff is reduced by an average of 433 million m3 per year, and 36 million m3 every month. The LUSF datasets corrected the canopy interception coefficient effectively; the runoff simulation error was reduced by 2.96 billion m3/a. In the past 40 years, the runoff variation in Dongting Lake and Hanjiang River has been most strongly impacted by changes in the underlying surface. These results reveal that the new data fusion method has some significant improvement over the original method, applicable to the runoff simulation disturbed by strong human activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resource Management and Agriculture Development)
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27 pages, 3067 KiB  
Article
Can an Incentivized Command-and-Control Approach Improve Groundwater Management? An Analysis of Indian Punjab
by Sahil Bhatia and S. P. Singh
Sustainability 2023, 15(22), 15777; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152215777 - 09 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1132
Abstract
The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act 2009 is a legislative measure introduced to address the critical issue of groundwater depletion in Punjab, India. This research examines the implications of this Act and the rising groundwater scarcity in Punjab. Using qualitative research methods, [...] Read more.
The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act 2009 is a legislative measure introduced to address the critical issue of groundwater depletion in Punjab, India. This research examines the implications of this Act and the rising groundwater scarcity in Punjab. Using qualitative research methods, including GIS mapping, it evaluates the postimplementation impact of the Act on groundwater conservation and water availability and assesses its effectiveness in achieving its objectives. This study reveals that the government’s policies favoring wheat and rice have significantly contributed to the expansion of these crops, resulting in imbalanced agricultural practices. While the overall groundwater development in Punjab decreased from 170% in 2009 to 165% in 2017, a district-wise analysis reveals that the fall in the groundwater exploitation level in seven districts outperforms the rise in the exploitation level in the other thirteen districts of the state, showing overall minor or no improvement. This study proposes a multifaceted approach combining command-and-control measures with self-regulation incentives. It highlights the potential of incentivizing farmers to adopt sustainable practices, diversify crops, and implement water-efficient technologies. This paper also suggests the importance of involving stakeholders and the community in groundwater management, emphasizing the need for participatory approaches to ensure the long-term sustainability of water resources. While this study provides valuable insights, it is essential to acknowledge that its scope is limited to a qualitative assessment, and there may be challenges in generalizing the findings to all regions facing groundwater depletion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resource Management and Agriculture Development)
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17 pages, 5717 KiB  
Article
Potential Effects of Climate Change on Agricultural Water Resources in Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia
by Mustafa El-Rawy, Heba Fathi, Wouter Zijl, Fahad Alshehri, Sattam Almadani, Faisal K. Zaidi, Mofleh Aldawsri and Mohamed Elsayed Gabr
Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9513; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129513 - 13 Jun 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1945
Abstract
The water supply in Saudi Arabia is already depleted. Climate change will exacerbate the demand for these resources. This paper examines how climate change affects the water demands of Saudi Arabia’s most important food crops: wheat, clover, vegetables, and dates. To reduce the [...] Read more.
The water supply in Saudi Arabia is already depleted. Climate change will exacerbate the demand for these resources. This paper examines how climate change affects the water demands of Saudi Arabia’s most important food crops: wheat, clover, vegetables, and dates. To reduce the adverse climate change impacts on these crops’ productivity, as well as their irrigation water requirements (IWR), a number of adaptation techniques were investigated. The study was carried out for the Ar Riyadh region, Saudi Arabia, with a cultivated area of 179,730 ha. In this study, five climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) for two Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5, were used to forecast and investigate the potential impacts of climate change on agricultural water resources in the Al-Riyadh Region of Saudi Arabia. To simulate IWRs under the present and projected climate change scenarios, CROPWAT8.0 was used. The results showed that the maximum increase ratio in 2100 under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5, respectively, will be 4.46% and 12.11% higher than in the current case (2020). The results showed that the projected maximum temperatures in 2100 will be increased by 4.46% and 12.11%, respectively, under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5, compared to the current case (2020), supporting past research on the Arabian Peninsula that revealed that both short- and long-term temperature increases are anticipated to be considerable. Under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5, the projected ETo was found to be increased by 2.18% and 6.35% in 2100, respectively. Given that evapotranspiration closely mirrors the temperature behavior in the study region from June to August, our data suggest that crop and irrigation demand may increase in the mid to long term. The findings indicate that Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital and commercial hub, will require more water to irrigate agricultural land because of the expanding ETo trend. Under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5, the projected growth irrigation water requirement (GIWR) will be increased by 3.1% and 6.7% in 2100, respectively. Under SSP5-8.5, crop areas of wheat, clover, dates, maize, citrus, tomato, potato, and other vegetables in Ar Riyadh will decrease by 6.56%, 7.17%, 5.90%, 6.43%, 5.47%, 6.99%, 5.21%, and 5.5%, respectively, in 2100. Conversely, under SSP2-4.5, the crop areas will decrease by 3.10%, 3.67%, 2.35%, 3.83%, 2.32%, 4.18%, 1.72%, and 2.38% in 2100, respectively. This research could aid in clarifying the adverse climate change impacts on GIWR in Ar Riyad, as well as improving water resource management planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resource Management and Agriculture Development)
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14 pages, 2872 KiB  
Article
Estimating Urban Green Space Irrigation for 286 Cities in China: Implications for Urban Land Use and Water Management
by Lianlian Pan, Yiyang Zhao and Tingju Zhu
Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 8379; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108379 - 22 May 2023
Viewed by 1488
Abstract
Urban green space has increased significantly in many cities in China as a result of rapid urbanization. Despite various environmental and societal benefits of urban green space, its irrigation water use has become an important yet under-researched issue in urban water management. Using [...] Read more.
Urban green space has increased significantly in many cities in China as a result of rapid urbanization. Despite various environmental and societal benefits of urban green space, its irrigation water use has become an important yet under-researched issue in urban water management. Using a newly developed green space evapotranspiration and soil water budgeting model coded in Python, this research estimated the irrigation water requirement of urban green space for 286 cities at the prefecture level and above in China, with daily meteorological data in 1986–2011, the distribution and areas of urban green space from the 30 m resolution “Essential Urban Land-Use Categories in China” database, and green space types from the 10 m resolution “10 m resolution global land cover” database. The estimated annual average irrigation water requirement of urban green space for these 286 cities was 8.7 billion m3, accounting for over 20% of residential water consumption in the cities where data on residential water use were available. We also investigated the spatiotemporal variation of urban green space irrigation water requirement and the factors that influence such variations. To the best of our knowledge, this study develops the first set of results of urban green space irrigation for all major cities in China, thus providing useful insights for green space irrigation and urban water man-agement in the context of rapid urbanization and sustainable water management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Water Resource Management and Agriculture Development)
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