IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v96y2009i2p188-194.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agro-environmental evaluation of irrigation land: II. Pollution induced by Bardenas Irrigation District (Spain)

Author

Listed:
  • Causapé Valenzuela, Jesús

Abstract

It is difficult to quantify non-point contamination caused by irrigated agriculture. As continuation to the evaluation of water use on the scale of large irrigation districts, this second part seeks: (i) to quantify the mass of salt and nitrate exported by Bardenas Irrigation District included in the Arba basin (BID-Arba; 54,438 ha); (ii) to analyze the most influential factors; (iii) to propose agro-environmental contamination indices which can be incorporated into legislation. For this, salt and nitrate balances were carried out, assigning concentration values to each of the components of the water balance between 1 April 2004 and 30 September 2006. Saline and Nitrate Contamination Indices were also quantified which correct the mass of pollutants exported from irrigation return flows by geological and agronomic factors of the irrigation area studied. For the whole period of the study the exported mass of salt was 15 kg/(ha day), of which 65% came from geological materials in the area, 34% from irrigation water and only 1% from precipitation. As for exported nitrate, it was 76 g NO3--N/(ha day), only 25% of the quantities measured in other small basins ([approximate]100 ha) of Bardenas district without re-use of drainage water for irrigation, but double the nitrate exported in other modern irrigation districts. Water and saline agro-environmental indices of BID-Arba resemble those of well-managed modern irrigation districts indicating little margin for improvement in water use and saline contamination. But, the nitrate-contamination-index was 1.5 times higher than well-managed modern irrigation districts indicating the necessity to change nitrogenous fertilization practices to minimize nitrate contamination.

Suggested Citation

  • Causapé Valenzuela, Jesús, 2009. "Agro-environmental evaluation of irrigation land: II. Pollution induced by Bardenas Irrigation District (Spain)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 188-194, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:96:y:2009:i:2:p:188-194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-3774(08)00206-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Litskas, V.D. & Aschonitis, V.G. & Lekakis, E.H. & Antonopoulos, V.Z., 2014. "Effects of land use and irrigation practices on Ca, Mg, K, Na loads in rice-based agricultural systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 30-36.
    4. 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.
    5. Playan, Enrique & Mateos, Luciano, 2006. "Modernization and optimization of irrigation systems to increase water productivity," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(1-3), pages 100-116, February.
    6. Thayalakumaran, T. & Bethune, M.G. & McMahon, T.A., 2007. "Achieving a salt balance--Should it be a management objective?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 1-12, August.
    7. Kijne, Jacob W., 2003. "Water productivity under saline conditions," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    8. Jiang, Donglin & Ao, Chang & Bailey, Ryan T. & Zeng, Wenzhi & Huang, Jiesheng, 2022. "Simulation of water and salt transport in the Kaidu River Irrigation District using the modified SWAT-Salt," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    9. Kijne, Jacob W., 2003. "Water productivity under saline conditions," IWMI Research Reports 158360, International Water Management Institute.
    10. 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).
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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).
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Kijne, J. W., 2003. "Water productivity under saline conditions," IWMI Books, Reports H032637, International Water Management Institute.
    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.

    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:96:y:2009:i:2:p:188-194. 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.